Alpine1

^^^ Trying but it's getting very tough. Think I need to take a break.

Wow. Can't get anything pass you. You are a sharp one. I suppose you did ample research on Honduras' space program as well uh?

When did i ever say he does nose jobs? I don't know of any HT surgeon, good or bad, that moonlights as a nose surgeon. I think you need to read and not skim.

^^^ Yes I'm just a troll making this stuff up. Ugh. You guys are hopeless.

It would be if I got it all at once. There was 18 months in between surgeries. There I fixed it for you. Pushing the envelope and HT do not go together. Let me know how your "pushed the envelope" HT looks in 5 years. Doctors like Hasson are why doctors like McAndrews and Bernstein do mostly repair work. You want to be super happy for the next 3 years and then depressed for the next 50, or do you want to just be satisfied for the rest of your life?

1. Mega-sessions Grafts above 2,500 have about a %70 survival rate whereas grafts below 2,500 have about %100 survival rate. These doctors are effectively throwing at least %30 of your very limited donor hair in the trash. But mega-sessions make them more money so no concern there for them. 2. Pack grafts too close You guys see these pictures of densely packed grafts and fly off the handle about how great a surgeon they are but they are wasted grafts since the human eye can not tell the difference between much further spaced grafts. Again completely wasting your very limited donor hair. 3. Promoting FUE over FUT, sometimes passionately Again these guys don't seem to care about destroying your very limited donor hair. Nothing will decimate your donor supply like FUE which destroys sometimes %50 or more. (Don't think you need that now? Just wait 5 years.) 4. Bad incisions and sutures I have seen some crazy wide scars from some of these surgeons. Mine is like a pencil and has hair growing through it due to advance technique used. I'd pay more just for that. 5. HT Mill These guys have multiple patients being seen not just on the same day but all at the same time! Are you kidding me???? 6. Technicians doing majority of work Seriously? So you are giving thousands of your dollars to have some poorly trained low paid technician carve your head up? If I give thousands of dollars to a doctor to carve my head up then damn it the trained experienced doctor is the one doing it 7. Poor results that you guys think is GREAT! I have seen picture testimonials by patients of doctors in this thread who were in there 20's, had almost a full head of hair, and had 4,000 grafts placed on a thin hairline at the front. You guys commend it and think it's great because the guy now looks great with a full head of thick hair. I don't even know where to start on why that is actually absolutely horrible 8. Experience, technique, reputation, integrity, patient care, status, ect. ect. I don't want to go on forever. You guys do your own research.

Yes I know. And I personally consider Honduras to be the space flight capital of the world. Libya and Turkey are the same thing. Libya just might be a bit more moderate though :-)

In all honesty this is why I say there is such huge ignorance on this site. The reasons you listed are why he is a GREAT surgeon and the reasons why you decided for the other surgeons are why they are bad. You think there might be a reason why the expensive docs with the best reps who are teachers at USC and Colombia are conservative, don't do mega-sessions, and propose a high hairline for you? I would tell you why but some how I don't think you'd believe me. It's a shame you don't already know despite your claim of having done tons of research.... Some hints are in my thread on Dr McAndrews.

^^^ One reason I didn't go to Dr. Bernstein, but I still consider him one of the best due to his reputation and being on the forefront of new techniques/procedures.

Wow. I'm outta here. I see these forums (promoted and sometimes run by family and friends of surgeons) are geared just for the budget conscious willing to fly to far off places due to their small bank accounts. These forums are definitely not for me. ... KO you're suggesting that the Dr. was wanting a presence on some internet forum of budget-minded misinformed patients? No I think he's good with that.... Although I think it's funny you made that suggestion when several doctors (some of the same ones mentioned in this forum) have found to be operating shill sites and profiles to lure patients to their practices in Canada, India, Turkey, and others :-) I have seen the personal experiences on this site of all those doctors you mentioned and the things I see those doctors do is absolutely horrible and I would never have a HT from them even if done for free (I'd pay lots of money to keep them away from my head). The amount of misinformation and ignorance displayed on this site is staggering. Go ahead and keep thinking these charlatans are great surgeons, you'll find out in 5 years or so after your HT (if not sooner) how good they really are.

^^^ Of course not. You've only heard of doctors that spend most of their time on hair restoration network forums. After all i hear internet forums are where the real doctors are at ;-).... My nose surgeon who also is one of the best in the world has heard of Dr McAndrews, he was quite impressed and in awe that I was going to him, but maybe the Newport Beach and Los Angeles plastic surgery crowd just isn't as sophisticated as the ones in India and Turkey :-) .... Btw, I find it funny that while we are arguing a thread popped up about a guy's horrible ht in India and how in India counting grafts is "not allowed" lol.

They don't allow counting of the grafts??? What kind of bs is that? Counting of the grafts is one of the thing a surgeon needs to do to know where he's at. It's too much for this surgeon to simply count? Thin hair sucks dude. 1,000 grafts from somebody with thick dark hair can look better then 2,000 grafts from somebody with thin light hair. I'm in the same boat as you and there's not much you can do about it other than sprays and the such. BUT this is something he should have told you BEFORE the surgery not after.

Wow. I can't believe you think that. Guess I should trade in my BMW for a Ford since money means nothing. You're just wishing for a hair transplant disaster aren't you. No I couldn't have. I know, I researched. So tell me one doctor at a fraction of the cost that does the whole procedure himself instead of some medical assistant with hardly any training? I have read the experiences of every doctor that has been listed in this thread and every patient said how the doctor was just advising most the time while some assistant did the work. Tell me one doctor at a fraction of the cost that is going to reserve the whole day for you and only you and not try and oversee 10 other operations at the same time while booking more before and after you? These procedures are extremely physically and mentally demanding of the surgeon, I'll be damned if I'm going to be patient number 3 for the day. Not only is there not a budget surgeon that will reserve the whole day for you and only you, I can't even think of other big name surgeons that do this. Tell me one other surgeon at a fraction of the cost that is going through the extra time and effort to make an incision and stitch that is virtually invisible and has hair growing through it? There's a special name for the stitch that I forget but even top doctors don't bother with it let alone budget ones. Tell me one budget doctor who has such skill, technique, and knowledge that not only is he demanded to be the lead instructor at one of the most prestigious medical schools in the world but he is also the main consultant for the two biggest multi-billion pharmaceutical companies that are in the hair medicine business? You think that these cheap guys you mention are good but they are horrible based on the experiences and documentation by members of this very forum I have seen. Every doctor you mention in this thread I have seen do surgeries for 5,000, 6,000, even 7,000 or more grafts at once! My doctor won't do more then 2,500 because you are losing tons of donor hair when you do that. You seem to think killing off your donor hair unnecessarily means nothing. You think it doesnt matter when surgeons mentioned in this thread put 4,000 grafts on a tiny thin hairline of a 25yo with almost a full head of hair. My surgeon would tell you that's about the worst thing a surgeon could ever do. Your surgeons listed passionately promote FUE despite the procedure completely destroying your very limited donor hair which is why mine won't do it. I have seen the after photos of all the surgeons you listed in this very forum and you misinformed people say "My god look at how closely those grafts are packed together this guy is the best surgeon!", I look at the same pictures and say "My god look at how closely those grafts are packed together this guy is a horrible surgeon why would he ever waste the hair packing them so close!". So yeah money does mean a little bit whether you like it or not. Sorry if that disappoints those who were hoping to rub two quarters together in Tijuana to get the same results as in NYC or LA but its the truth. If you can't handle the truth that is your problem. I'm just trying to help people out.

^^^ Look I will just concede that the word "best" is a vague term that needs to be defined by the op before we can argue any answers. To someone like me "best" means who will do the absolutely best job no matter what, to someone else "best" might mean someone who does a good job but not leave them bankrupt.

^^^ I said nothing of Canada. I pointed out India and Turkey, both of which are most definitely not 1st world countries. Then again when I lived in Italy for 2 years I felt like it was a third world nation so maybe I'm just spoiled (it was even the richest part of Italy too). Despite you wanting to break this down into some argument on class warfare you have still failed to argue why the surgeons you or others in this thread mentioned deserved to be classified as the best.

And that's why you pay $38k instead of $10k, so you can be assured of a good result instead of one that sucked. Which is why the surgeon can command those fees (and easily get them) in the first place. You don't see Bosely charging $9 a graft for FUT do you? That's for a reason, no one would pay it for what they are getting in return. No he wasn't. He was given advice on who is the best hair transplant surgeon (as the title of the thread states). And the advice was wrong. If the question was "Who is the best budget surgeon in the third world?" then your answer might be correct but being that his question was "Who is the best hair transplant surgeon?" then your answer was incorrect. He's not the best because he is paid a lot, he is the best because he is the best. Just like Lebron James isn't the best because he makes the most money, he's simply the best because he's the best (for the record I hate Lebron).

In this thread alone I see Turkey and India, both of whom are hardly cradles of cutting-edge medicine. And searching the forums I see other budget surgeons from other questionable locales being touted as the best in the world. And yes Bernstein is $9 a graft for simple FUT. That is McAndrews price as well. I paid $38,000 for 4,200 FUT grafts with McAndrews and you pay that because you are getting the best.

It's funny seeing all these members claiming some guy in Libya or Kazakhstan is the best hair transplant surgeon in the world lol. The two best surgeons in the world are Dr. Paul McAndrews in Pasadena, CA and Dr. Robert Bernstein in NYC. Of course no one on this forum likes that because they cost 3 times more then everyone else.

My doctor doesn't recommend or do FUE because you lose too many hairs in your limited donor supply. You might be a NW2 now but you might be a NW6 10 years from now and you can't afford to be throwing away tons of your hair like is done in FUE. My doctor was/is Dr. Paul McAndrews.

I will tell you of my experience with Dr. Paul McAndrews of Pasadena, CA. I came to Dr. McAndrews as a 33yo NW6 with fine light blond hair on fair skin. I settled on Dr. McAndrews because after extensive research I concluded he was the best and I would only except the best for something that would affect my head for the rest of my life. When I first came to him telling him I wanted a procedure he said to first get on Propecia and come back in a year. So that's what I did and I came back in a year telling him I wanted the procedure. He then explained to me what all I could and couldn't do telling me that most surgeons could make me look good 1 year from now but that I would look horrible in 10 and 20 years. He showed me the hairline I should be shooting for instead of the one I wanted, and he also explained to me that I would have to put off fixing the vertex for now since the top of the head is the priority. None of this was what I wanted to hear but he knew that and also knew that most other surgeons would have just told me what I wanted to hear. He also explained to me that despite needing significant grafts that he would only do 2,000 grafts the first time because the survival rate for grafts above 2,500 is only %73 but the survival rates for grafts below 2,500 is %98 (too many grafts competing for the same blood supply). He also explained to me that this was why FUT is superior to FUE because with FUE you lose a lot of those precious hairs you have a limited supply of. His priority was preserving the limited donor supply over doing too much at once. He also explained how other surgeons waste hair by placing hairs too closely together since he told me the human eye can not tell the difference between 20cm2 density and 60cm2 density. Despite all this not being what I hoped to hear I knew he was the expert so I scheduled a FUT surgery the next week for 2,000 grafts at $9 at a graft. I came in early in the morning for a 5am surgery at his Pasadena office. As with all of Dr. McAndrews surgeries I am the only patient the entire day so that I get his full attention. He did the entire procedure himself from incision, to stitching me up, to placing the grafts. He only stepped out after everything was done to let his assistant (who was also a Dr.) clean me. We stopped once to eat breakfast (they ran out to IHOP to get me breakfast). After the surgery they coated my head in vaseline and placed pads on top of it. He then asked if I had any questions and I was out of there by 11am (he then closed the office and was done for the day since he only does 1 patient a day). I took a 5 hour drive home and felt no pain or discomfort (obviously driving I was not on any pain meds). Being the first ht surgery I didn't know what to expect but recovery went fine. I just kept my head covered in vaseline for a week while spraying it with saline solution twice a day. I never took any pain meds of any kind and never felt any pain or discomfort. There was never any blood or bleeding. After 7 days the vaseline came off and my single stitch was removed. There was never any blood or any scabs that I could tell unless they were small (I think being covered in vaseline keeps the body from needing to form scabs). I have fair skin though so my head was red and stayed red for a few months. Even though things were constantly healing and getting better, I would say after 6 months I was pretty good. 2,000 grafts of light blond hair on a NW6 is not a lot but I know his skills made it go further then anyone else would had and everything looked good (sorry no pics). My scar was non-existent and he makes some special stitching that allows the hair to grow through the scar so not only was the scar thin but hair was growing through it (with my light fine blond hair on my fair skin I was able to get away with a 3 razor on my scar area). Dr. McAndrews told me he would not do a second surgery for at least a year to give the new grafts time to establish a new good solid blood supply and let all the nerves fully heal. So about 18 months later I just had another FUT 2,200 grafts done at $9 a graft and this time he was able to put a little coverage on the vertex along with filling out the first transplant. The surgery day went exactly like the first one. In at 5am, everything done by him, IHOP breakfast, out by 11am, then close up the office. Everything is going as smooth as the first time. The single stitch was removed on day 6 and he said everything looks great and the grafts have healed in there (he said short of knocking my head on a door that the grafts weren't going anywhere). He told me to start using Rogaine in 3 more days. No bleeding, no scabs really and 8 days later I can't even feel the scar/incision (but I know where it's at because that area is shaved). Looking at things I think I will be happy with these 4,200 grafts so even though it is premature I would say that I am satisfy and glad I went with Dr. McAndrews. Considering I have such fine light blond hair on fair skin and a NW6 I don't think it would have been worth going with anyone else since my situation is one I think most people should just choose not to opt for a ht surgery (not everyone is a good candidate and someone like me is borderline at best). So anyways Dr. McAndrews is well worth the money and although I don't have the perfect head of hair I have what is the best I can hope for right now given my genes and I'm glad at 35yo I can finally be done having to worry about it knowing that I have the best I can do with todays procedures and technology.