Severn

I'd say Ron and Paul are pretty much tied at this point for skill. Excellent.

I've been negligent in keeping up my photo logs but will start soon. I will say at 7 months after my procedure I was getting concerned that the growth was less than expected. But at the one year mark I had seen a significant improvement. I've seen some results where they have appeared to reach full growth at 6 months but everyone is different. I wouldn't think anything at all at the 3 or 4 month mark.

This sounds like you are suggesting that most HT surgeries even with the top docks yield substandard or completely unacceptable results. I don't agree with that.

I straight up told my barber after the HT what I'd done and was very open with it. He was mildly interested and I answered a few questions. After that he went back to talking about football. We will be obsessed with it but your barber and other people generally don't give a s***.

That looks really good man. However, I'm sure that you are in the earliest stages. I personally could feel great about those results even if it didn't get any better, which of course it will.

I think the only thing different Rahal does is the post op where he suggests using Vitaman E to keep the grafts moisterized. I wonder if this accounts for the early growth of his patients?

Well I had a small procedure done in in the 90's with them. About 8 months later I was contacting a lawyer. How's that for a review?

Not willing to drive 2 hours? Hell, I flew across the country for my consult. Then flew back 3 months later for the procedure.

Matt can kinda talk your ear off on the first orientation call, but I guess that's part of the education process. If you feel more comfortable with Rahal, definitely go with him.

Matt was one of the deciding factors for me chosing SMG actually. I had 4 scalp reductions perfomed on me 13 years prior to my HT. At least one of the other consults I had done seemed to gloss over this like it was no problem at all. In fact, they glowingly praised me saying "I was a HT surgeon's dream patient". I felt this was a line of bull because my laxity wasn't really there. After consulting with Matt, he showed concern that my laxity wasn't good enough to get 2500 on one pass. Instead of hard selling me, he told it to me straight. Luckily I was able to do enough scalp exersizes prior to the surgery to more than accomodate the numbers I needed. In summary, Matt was the only consultant that didn't make me feel like I was at a used car dealership.

Strictly my opinion, but this is the difference between the docs you listed. I believe Shapiro is best known for his consistent results on age appropriate, natural hairlines. Great staff and follow up. The mindset seems to be more on the conservative side for planning. Rahal seems to be best known for giving really dense "movie star" hairlines. Some amazing results if that's what you are after. Hasson and Wong are more aggressive side for planning. They have more experience with mega sessions. Good consistant results. Wong is known as the "crown master". He recreates the natural whorl pattern the best. It probably really comes down to what direction you want your HT to take and what area's you are wanting to concentrate on the most.

Right. I wasn't interested in FUE. I believe it has a lower graft survival rate even under the best of surgeons. I don't remember SMG's price for FUE but 2 years ago at my first procedure, I remember the techs complaining that the fees were too low for the amount of work that was done for FUE.

I had a small amount of work done by Bosely long ago. They royally screwed it up and I even looked into sueing them. It was after that I discovered they are a very shady operation that have been sued many many times. The lead DA in Los Angeles had gone after them years ago to shut them down. They do very poor substandard work and rely on mass media infomercial blitz to get their customers. But now the internet forums and testimonials have started to sink their little scam. Last I heard a couple of years ago they were in danger of going under. The price I paid at SMG was $5/graft up to 2000 grafts then $3 for every graft after that IIRC.

I developed a system that made it relatively easy. The biggest problem I had at first was my arms getting tired and being bored. So I would lay on the couch while watching a movie and have my arms supported to my head. I would then casually conduct the exercises in 2-5 minute intervals and rest as needed. By the end of the movie, I would have gotten about 45 minutes in and barely noticed I was doing the exercises because I was involved in what I was watching. Then later on that night I would do it again sometimes and get almost 2 hours in. It wasn't bad at all doing it that way.

I probably went way overboard. I did between 1-2 hours per day. I would do them in 5 minute intervals though and the time was cumulitive. But it made a huge, huge difference. Because of the extreme laxity I attained, they only had to cut half the distance around my head. If they would have gone ear to ear it would have been 6000. But I'm probably a rare case because not many people can devote 1-2 hours a day to them. But it was a very small price to pay in the end. btw aaron, i was up there about 2 weeks ago so barely missed you. Your results make you look like a teenager bud. Great job they did for ya.

I had a similiar experience during my consultation but not to that degree. I was speaking with Dr. Arocha instead though. After I mentioned that I was also considering Dr. Shapiro, he seemed to be dissuading me by saying it was awfully far to go when I could get the same thing there. The big red flag that made me not go with him is when he examined my scalp and said "I was a hair transplant surgeon's dream patient". I knew this wasn't true because I previously had 4 scalp reductions in the 90's that left my laxity somewhat tight. He kept insisting it was no problem. That's when I flew to Minnesota for a consult with Matt. He immediately expressed concern that my laxity would allow me to only get 1200. Because of Matt's and Ron's expertise, I then began an intense program of scalp exercises for the next 3 months before the surgery to compensate for the tightness of my scalp. As a result, my laxity returned and he was able to get 3000 FU's with ease and could have gotten more.

If choosing strip surgery, you won't be able to shave or buzz it without at least a faint scar showing. No matter how good the surgeon is, if a scalpel cuts into the flesh it's goint to leave some type of scar. Even FUE will leave small white dots. However I am not sure FUE is even an option for you since it sounds like you would be having a sizeable procedure. But since you said you have your hair buzzed really short and you like it that way, maybe you should just go with the shaved look. Once you start down the hair transplant path, there is no returning to a shaved or short buzzed haircut.

I'm obviously biased towards Ron Shapiro since I did my procedure there. However I considered all three of those when deciding. Matt and Dr. Shapiro were very patient with all my questions in the months leading up to the surgery and I'm very satisfied with the results after my second touch up. I consulted with Dr. Keene, and out of all the docs she was by far the most conservative on recommended grafts. She was only wanting to put 1200 so I didn't think that was enough. Dr. Shapiro suggested 2500 to 3000 which was the amount needed IMO. I tried several times to set something up with Dr. Feller but I could not even get a consultation with them. They never got back with me even after mutliple emails and calls. But you might also want to consider Hasson and Wong since you have considerable loss and they specialize in the larger mega sessions.

Yea, Shapiro is in a class of his own. Goes above and beyond what 99% of any other surgeon would do, including those outside of the HT industry.

I know several guys who's luck with the women went up exponentially after they shaved it. Shaving works for some guys and not others. But there is a difference in perception from chicks upon seeing a guy with a clean shaven head and seeing him partially bald, or with a combover. I also know one guy who has absolutely zero male pattern baldness but shaves it all off because he prefers the look.

Ron is a master at scar minimalization. Two years post op I can't even find mine when I seperate the hair.

I could have driven an hour to Houston to have a HT. I flew up north to Minnesota instead and am going back in 3 weeks for a slight touch up. Go the the best and it will cover the things that could go wrong that you haven't thought of.

I'm sure there are a lot of great doctors in the coalition. I had mine with Dr. Ron Shapiro. I flew across the country to have my procedure with him and am very glad I did. If another recommended HT surgeon opened up an office a block away from me and charged half price, I would still fly across the country to Dr. Ron.

After I had my original work 14 years ago with them in Houston, I had contacted a lawyer to sue their asses. Luckily it was only scalp reductions and I didn't let them work on my hairline. Could have been much worse. I should have went threw with the lawsuit but just didn't have the energy to pursue it.

That's a Picasso right there. Results like this that show black hair against white skin are the most impressive to me. The contrast really accentuates any imperfections in a hair transplant and that's pretty close to perfection.