SySperling10

58 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Astute observations, but see had you not gone on this forum, maybe you would have chosen that surgeon based off of location, many do. I do think we are a mixture of "google" and "yelp" because you can pretty much find any hair transplant answer here, as it has likely been asked before, and tons of reviews.

With that said, I never would have had a procedure or found doctor Vories without this forum. 

This forum IMO is a litmus test. Just like amazon and yelp, you have to sort through the good and the bad reviews. At the end of the day, the only result that matters is the final one, your hair. I could care less if the doc is a dick or they don't have a pre-surgery liaison, everything you need can be found online.

Back a few years ago when I was more frequent on the forum, there was a prominent doc in NY, who was a complete ass about FUE. So, my point is the forum goes two ways. Based on what I observed, I would never go to that doc, even though he was geographically the closets, but way too biased.

This is such a great thread! Thanks for keeping the conversations informative!

I have long wondered if I was the only one whose transplanted hair didn't have full coverage when unstyled, but more so strategically placed grafts to give the illusion of coverage. I'd say my surgeon did a great job filling the frontal and much of the mid-scalp, sparse on the crown, which is completely understandable.

Early in the thread someone mentioned the use of concealer to finish the job, I couldn't be in any more agreement. I don't know exactly what Norwood classification I was, if I were to be completely honest I'd say V A diffuse with higher sides. After 6500 grafts over two FUE procedures, I could still optically, without styling, have another 2500 graft procedure, which I consider from time to time. In current state, with styled hair and heavy crown/moderate mid-scalp Caboki use, one would never suspect I was ever bald-ish, in fact, I have gotten many compliments on my hair for a guy in his early 40s.

This now begs the question, we talk a lot here about density of graft placement, and total grafts in each procedure. What I think we fail to also take into consideration is the size of ones head. I have a pretty big head, hat size is 7 1/2, which is about as large as they come. So, my 6500 grafts may seem like a ton, given my estimated Norwood classification, but with a head that size, the grafts just didn't go as far as they would on a recipient with a smaller head.

Not sure how any of this add to the conversation but I found this thread to be awesome.

Hello All! Could not be happier with my decision to get FUE. Pics attached. Still on biotin. Have noticed some hair that appears to be breaking off, bout 2in long. Nothing drastic, but worth noting. Also using a texture or fibrous hair gel does the trick to tame it nicely.

HawkDriver, do you find the biotin does anything?

Showing great growth for 3 months.

If you care, throwing some Caboki or Nanogen would make it look real nice at this stage, there's definitely enough for the fibers to cling to.

ummmm. 99% of this board wishes this was their problem.

Almost everyone here shares the sentiment above. Unless your procedure was completely botched, you'll probably be wishing you had done it sooner after about 6 months.

Non shaven FUE technique is very intriguing. I'd love to find a Dr. that can do non shave in a larger session. I've had 3500 over 2 day, thought the results were great. Unforgettably, I probably need another 2000 through the midscalp and some on the vertex. My biggest, and only, issue with the first procedure was the shaved head afterwards. I would be extremely open having a 2 or 3 guard as a shave setting vs the 1 guard.

Dr. Vories,

Are you now performing no shave procedures? It would definitely bring me back in your chair sooner than later.

Wear it short. Who cares? Seriously, call it a refresher, then when it grows back people will notice it less.

From my experience, it was a day or two of questions at work, then no more. In my personal life, I avoided social situations for the first two weeks, then wore a hat for a few weeks there after, it grows back in due time, kind of. In hindsight, you notice is more than anyone else, people aren't keeping tabs on your hair growth, unless the change is big. No one knew outside of my wife and I have not been questioned yet, and I had 3500 FUs.

 

He is exactly the reason why other doctors will not post on these chat forums. Him specifically, among others. This is not my opinion, this is absolute fact. And he knows it. He believes himself to be a consumer advocate and expert. He is none of these things.

 

 

I would say Mickey personifies the role of a consumer advocate in this forum. Like it or not, it's better than the fox in the hen house approach. I'm not siding that anyone is in the wrong, it should be a fair and balanced debate. Unfortunately using the terms "absolute fact" can be perceived as misleading, it is a far cry from the open mindedness many crave for hair loss solutions.

I think the spray is great is you have longer hair, but for shorter hair, you really do have to consider a compound that binds to the hair prior to adding fibers.

In my experience, fibers are better, except when your hair is too short to use the fibers or you're just lazy and would rather spray in the color. I used Batiste Coloured Dry Shampoo exclusively after my transplant until my hair was long enough to use fibers....it was an adequate stop gap, not great, but considering the alternative of nothing, fantastic.

I would presume if your hair were longer it would work great to fill in the gaps.

So minoxidil losses its effectiveness after two years, but do the hair start falling after two years? I did not understand what do you mean by the effectivness SySperling10? Do you mean that it does not causes new hair growth or that the remaining hair start falling down? Also, what about the topical finasteride, is it as effective as the pills?

The effectiveness began to soften around the 2 or 2.5 year mark. Everyone is different and my case may have been more progressive, but Minox wasnt what it was when I started. I should also note, when I ceased usage, my hair took a drastic turn for the worse, drastic. Would I say it losses it's effectiveness after two years, for me it did, but it did drastically improve my hair during that time.

No idea about topical propecia.

So minoxidil losses its effectiveness after two years, but do the hair start falling after two years? I did not understand what do you mean by the effectivness SySperling10? Do you mean that it does not causes new hair growth or that the remaining hair start falling down? Also, what about the topical finasteride, is it as effective as the pills?

The effectiveness began to soften around the 2 or 2.5 year mark. Everyone is different and my case may have been more progressive, but Minox wasnt what it was when I started. I should also note, when I ceased usage, my hair took a drastic turn for the worse, drastic. Would I say it losses it's effectiveness after two years, for me it did, but it did drastically improve my hair during that time.

No idea about topical propecia.

I found Monixodil worked super fast, probably in 4-5 months, after an initial shed. Unfortunately it can only fight so much, after 2.5 years, it stopped being as effective. Concealers on the other hand are great depending on how much hair coverage (aka real estate) you have on your head. Concealers make areas with hair appear thicker. I have used almost all the powder concealers, Caboki and Nanogen were the best from my experience, Toppik is just ok, the other two mentioned are WAY better looking and to deal with.

As one if not the only adopter of Lorenzo's method for FUE in NA, I would have expected a more impassioned response from Dr. Vories.

You're asking him to reveal the economics of his practice, I could see it not being an aspect many would be willing to divulge. If you ever chat with him, it's clear he does FUE because he's trying to do what he thinks is right by his patient, not to stand out, or make money other docs are passing on. His philosophy on HT is progressive for NA but common practice in the rest of the world, due to the economics, expect a slow paradigm shift in the states.

How would you place aquamatch among other concealers? It seems different than dermmatch and it can be used with fibers. Seems intruiging but unsure what it is.

Not the one in the YouTube video..........seemed much smaller, maybe 1/4 of the size, fit on a small surgical table.

Dr. Vories does not do manual FUE, but uses Neograft to punch grafts.

I believe you are mistaken. I watched a YouTube Neograft extraction video, I don't recall that machine during my procedure a month and half back.

I recall there was one negative posting from an Afro-American pt. but the same pt. commented positively on another AA case of Dr. Vories posted later on. No baseball star hits a home run every at bat and a good cosmetic surgeons rate of success while never perfect is considerably better. The recent case postings from Dr. Vories are quite impressive. His current fees and operative technique I believe warrant placing him on the A list when considering FUE in NA.

I think we can all agree the AA cases can be tricky. I do recall the patient was voicing dissatisfaction about the overall graft survival, which many doctors struggle with in AA cases, although the patient didn't contact the doctor prior to posting, but after some dialogue, seemed to change his perception a bit. The reason I recall this is it also deterred me, until I read the entire forum post, and as mentioned above, noted the member in a different forum address the challenges of AA cases being a general frustration.

From my standpoint, I would have tried to dig up every piece of baggage, and really couldn't find any on dr Vories. Sorry to sound like a fanboy, but I had a great experience with him.

As I continually mention, he has been performing FUE like the top docs in Europe (Lorenzo), for some time now, and beginning to show impressive results.

I feel a lot more are turning to FUE, with that, I could envision many would migrate to a FUE only doctor like Vories. I chose him for that reason. Given my locale, close to NYC, I still would have chosen among Vories, Cooley and Lindsey. For the simple fact I was dead set on FUE, liked his punch technique, one also employed by Lorenzo, Vories was a no brainer.

Solid work Dr. Vories. Always a fan of the mature hairlines!

Looks good. Congrats on the new lease on hair!

Overhead and malpractice have nothing to do with it. HT docs in NA are not bound by Medicare rules or private insurance contracts that force deep discounts. OTOH they can charge whatever they please or more precisely what the market will bear. Ask me how I know.

Insurance and overhead/malpractice are unrelated. Insurance refers to a patients coverage for health insurance, where as malpractice is required for all practicing medical doctors, assuming they don't want to cover issues out of there own pocket.

Medicine as a whole is expensive in the US. The technicians in the US likely cost more than other countries, along with the medical facility. Marketing should not be a huge expense in this space, I good doctor just needs positive word of mouth. This is not to say the are the primary drivers, a doctors time is the most expensive, which IMO cause FUE to be more expensive. Georgraphically speaking, I can see prices being different depending on the practices location in The US.