win200

I think California's answer is the right one; if the patient is fully informed of all the possibilities--future loss, etc. and has come to a rational decision that the benefits to their life outweigh those risks, then I think there's nothing wrong with the surgeon granting them their wish. I think, generally speaking, that people should have free agency to make medical/surgical decisions for themselves, even if they're risky. But FWIW, I don't think this is an unreasonable procedure for a surgeon to assent to. 1,500 is not blowing his lifetime reservoir of grafts or anything.

That does look very, very sparse. It can be deceptive to try to eyeball graft counts, but that does look too thin to be 3,000 to my eyes. Do you have any immediately post-op pics that show the transplanted grafts and scabs?

Back at work today about 2.5 weeks after surgery. The recipient area is pink and patchy now that the transplanted hairs are shedding. One side has shed much more than the other and is fairly bare. Because my entire head was buzzed to almost nothing, my scar--which is still red--shows through. It's actually pretty liberating when you decide to just go outside and say "screw it." No one has blinked or mentioned anything--life goes on, and most people notice far less than you imagine they will. I'll update with pics soon.

Some of these are incredibly impressive. I'm amazed at that Dr. Erdogan was able to do with the blonde gentleman with a very thin-looking donor area and fine hair.

I think the moderators have to do something. I know they accepted the clinic's explanation at face value before, but with these facts I think that the burden is on the clinic to produce hard proof that they aren't engaging in this kind of prohibited behavior. Absent that, I think there would be a meaningful erosion of trust on the forum.

1,500 grafts isn't too bad for 24.

This is pretty damning. I remember the original incident from last year and, honestly, found the explanation totally unconvincing. Now that it's been shown that these accounts were created almost simultaneously, posted nearly exclusively in praise of Dr. Doganay, and then simultaneously stopped accessing the forum after the issue arose, I really don't think there's any reason to lend this farfetched explanation credibility.

Yeah, this work looks good... very clean and nicely-designed. Grow well!

Glad Dr. Arocha chimed in. I think one of the most difficult aspects of practicing in this area has to be keeping patient expectations under control. People get strangely emotional about their hair, and I know that sometimes try as doctors might, they can't simply tell patients that they're not going to have thick, luxurious hair even after a transplant.

Very nice result. It also looks like he was a GREAT responder to the meds. It's tough to tell with the hair longer, but it looks like he regained substantial density all throughout the scalp. Would that everyone could be so lucky.

I've never chimed in on a single thread to criticize a doctor's work, but I really have to say that I find this extraction pattern alarming. I've seen FUE extractions go a tad outside the traditional safe zone, but the doctor has extracted all the way down to the very bottom of the nape hair. This area is NOT DHT-resistant. Look at NW5-7 men; very few will have this area of the nape hair intact, and in many it will have vanished entirely. This patient has a NW5-6 family history; the odds that he will lose this hair are extremely high. I understand that this site's users don't have medical degrees and weren't present in the operating room, but this looks irresponsible to me.

Honestly, I have a hard time remembering what my hairline looked like before my corners receded. But my new hairline is flatter and lower than I've had in a long time. I found a high school pic the other day, and there was somewhat of a V shape, and the overall hairline was reasonably high. So yes, this is an improvement on what I originally had.

Haha, thanks! I'm definitely feeling lucky for what my native hair allows me to do. I'm 33, so having a pretty full head of native hair at this age lets me get a little more aggressive. I definitely dig the buzz cut. I've never had it that short, but the way it frames my face with the new hairline looks really good, I think. I'd definitely like to FUE some grafts in to the scar down the road so I can conceal the scar at a 1 or 2 grade cut.

Thanks! I kind of stare in disbelief at the new hairline; it's *exactly* what I wanted. We actually didn't talk about further elasticity, to be honest. I don't anticipate needing another procedure for a LONG time. But there's plenty of untouched scalp on the left side; you could probably snag ~1,500 to 2,000 grafts from that side alone.

It's no disrespect to Dr. Konior, who's an amazing surgeon and would also have done a great job. I've just consistently seen Dr. Rahal knock procedures like mine out of the park with that added bit of artistic finesse that he's so well known for. It's a completely subjective judgment, but I'm sure Dr. Konior would have done an excellent job as well.

Updating with the pics taken pre-op and post-op by the clinic, including with the new hairline drawn on. Rahal reinforced the entire right temple point, which was a bit sparse compared to the left. My left temple has always been sharp and dense, but the right has been rounded and a little see-through since high school, and the asymmetry has always bothered me. He brought both temples in quite a bit at the top. My forehead is pretty swollen in the post ops, which makes the hairline look uneven. After the procedure I actually thought that Dr. Rahal had accidentally made the right side of the hairline visibly higher than the left, but it was just lopsided swelling. That'll teach me to doubt.

BTW, Blake, is my understanding correct that grafts are pretty much stable and secure after a week or so? I remember on my first procedure, my surgeon removed my sutures at 10 days and took a comb and flicked off the scabs. I think I looked pretty horrified, because he chuckled and told me not to worry, that after ten days there wasn't much you could do to hurt them. Is that accurate? I know that doctors like to err on the side of caution in terms of graft treatment, but I'm just curious.

The new photos help. I think the patient's issue is that while he had receded, he had a pretty good wall of hair behind the recession and was expecting the transplant to get in that ballpark, which of course no transplant will. The hairline is a BIT seethrough and could be a little denser, but I think this is in line with reasonable expectations. I had to adjust to lower density in my hairline after my first transplant, too. If the patient's loss is stabilized, he can always charge up the density a little bit without burning too many grafts.

Dr. Cooley's been posting some really nice work lately, this result included.

Such a cool result, and super age appropriate. Is there an error in the graft count, though? I added together singles, doubles and multiples and got 3835, but the count says 4725.

Yeah, this turned out really well. He's totally forgiven for keeping it such a mop.

Thanks, Blake. You're exactly right--I've been a little overzealous about cleaning, if anything. But there's much less redness under the scabs than my first procedure, so I think it'll be less conspicuous than last time, which is nice.

When do scabs usually start coming off post-op? I'm exactly a week after my transplant and the scabs are starting to lift up and fall off. Probably a third are gone at this point. That's pretty normal timing, right? I"m spraying the recipient area every two hours with saline.

Such an impressive transformation--looks like a different guy altogether. Can't wait until I'm a year postop so I can cover up my scar and be done with it for good.

Thanks! Just playing the waiting game now. The scabs are starting to fall off, including some of the transplanted shafts. I'm not nearly as red as I was last time around, which is interesting.