parsia

Update-

I have finally done my surgery with Dr.Shapiro and also DR.Joe about a week ago since I was on waiting list for 11 months  , We have done the FUE for 3500 grafts and totals of 7151 hairs , I was amazed by their team and how professional they were to treat me as a patient  , Overall I was very satisfied with how the surgery went , Even though we did kind of a large surgery  but the staff was very friendly and It went very smoothly , Also my many thanks to my friend Ryan on forum who helped me a lot for my surgery , If you have any question about procedure feel free to ask and I will be happy to answer .

On 5/5/2023 at 6:54 AM, Melvin- Moderator said:

Is it legit though? I was considering having some friends in the UK buy it then ship it to me. 

Hi Melvin , Yes it is legit , Thats the official website they announce to sell the product , Joe went to details of the website on his talk show other day.   

I've tried my address ( Same as you I'm in CA ) and its about $25 shipping and they will ship directly to US.

I haven't buy it yet though , But I think it would be easier if you buy that directly from their store. 

Best

9 minutes ago, Hairtoday54 said:

Thanks for the advice. But I actually never wear my hair short enough that they're noticeable. However, how do beard grafts grow in? I always imagine them being stiffer and less easy to groom  than regular hair

You're very welcome. I was thinking the same about the beard grafts , But I figured these days many doctors including Dr.Shapiro using that with great result , I haven't deeply research about beard graft . Melvin who posted on your thread did that on his last transplant , You can ask him as well.

Thank you for your pics , I have never seen any case of flap before this , Just as a friendly note , Nowadays , DR.Shapiro is fully booked for one year which wasn't the case before Covid , I know you like to have it on 2025 but you may want to consider the waiting time in order to schedule your consultation.

Best of Luck. 

5 hours ago, Hairtoday54 said:

You will love him - and his entire staff! He is one of the most congenial, patient, down to earth doctors I have met. And very skilled.

I had in person consultation with him , I totally agree with you , He is very humble and easy to talk which even made me surprise , I wrote a write up on forum in a case if you like to look :

7 hours ago, Hairtoday54 said:

Thank you! I love Dr. Shapiro - he did a great job, as I said. I only considered Dr. K because of many comments regarding his excellent crown work (all I need now to complete my journey). 
I plan to continue with Ron - thanks to input from you, and others. 
Thanks again!

You are very welcome.

I do also have my surgery scheduled with DR.Ron in September and it will be my first hair transplant. 

Best

Thats great you had good experience with DR.Shapiro and if I was you I would stick with him. 

In my opinion Dr.Konior design more aggressive hairline compare to Dr.Shapiro , While both doctors are top notch in U.S but Konior charges almost double compare to  DR.Shapiro.

I personally saw more natural hairline design from DR.Shapiro compare to Konior and I haven't convince yet why I should pay double of the price to DR.konior when I can chose DR.Shapiro which is the most reputable surgeon in U.S .  I prefer to do not go to pricing in this post but if you get quote from both doctors you will see huge difference. 

57 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

im just being sarcastic lol

Ok Fair enough , Thank you for clarification , I didn't get your sarcasm since you suggested Dr.Diep to Mike 🤭

10 minutes ago, Pbaird98 said:

I don't think im wrong in reading @HappyMan2021 post with the heavy note of sarcasm he was intending…. 😉

I maybe not good at reading sarcasm but from what I see he is the first member who suggested Dr.Diep to the poster of this thread. 

58 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

How can people possibly think Dr. Diep is not one of the greats? Have you seen his cool Youtube channel? Over 15k subscribers!

If number of youtube subscribers is one main factor to analyze surgeon work , With all due respect I believe we totally have different logic , By the way I'm one of his subscriber as well which I criticized his work !!! 

Every surgeon has poor result no question , But the number of those poor result ( Percentage wise ) and reason of those poor result are more important. 

I don't think I'm biased by any mean , But I had seen his poor result more than any other surgeon in U.S on this forum which was enough to convince me to avoid him.

7 hours ago, Z-- said:

I agree with this. Too many bad results from him. Many patients of his on this forum need repair. Avoid him.

I don't know how the regulation or standard of the forum is working but I'm surprised his name is still on recommendation list of surgeon on this site.

I used to be  fan of his hairline and his name was on my list 5 years ago But as you mentioned nobody wants to have poor result and then do repair afterwards. 

On 10/13/2022 at 5:56 PM, HappyMan2021 said:

Dr. Diep is really close to you. 

I wouldn't consider Dr.Diep after all of his recent negative reviews on the forum , Obviously his work is not consistent and nowadays his ethic is under a big question mark, Yes he performed great results in past and even now but to me choosing him is like gambling . 

Like a case study , We can look at the factors who makes his result to be inconsistent , but in the end it really doesn't matter much .

For having hair transplant location should be the last factor. 

2 hours ago, sunsurfhair said:

Bloxham also gives monster scars that he hides well in his videos. He’s a family medicine physician doing surgeries. Would you let your family doctor do a surgery on you? F$ck no. I also think a lot of his videos are enhanced and photoshopped to be perfectly honest. 

Not trying to defend Bloxham here  by any mean  but to be fair many well-known  hair transplant doctors are MD and they do have the board of certificate for hair transplant , I agree though  his post op doesn't looks that much clean as other top notch doctors are.

9 minutes ago, HairRun said:

@parsia totally forgot about this. 

If you want, you can draw the hairline you wanted, vs what Dr Shapiro wanted. 

We did this with someone else and were able to point why the surgeon hairline looked better than the aggressive one they picked 

No Problem my friend , Thank you for your offer and also posting this thread , I know DR.Shapiro has his own standard to design the hairline so I decided to go with his recommendation and then after first surgery we will discuss about options . 

6 hours ago, HairRun said:

Amazing, what was discussed? 

I wrote a detail about my consultation on my thread  and you also commented about that write up , So I had nothing more to add , In a case if you like to read that again here is the link : 

On 3/4/2021 at 8:28 AM, Melvin- Moderator said:

Absolutely, Dr. Shapiro is a legend, and truly, truly a kind soul. 

Totally agree after meeting with him in person , He has a super kind soul and also he is one of the kind. 

On 9/9/2022 at 9:23 PM, Tiger2050 said:

Yes, Feller was a dinosaur who trained Bloxham and promoted a lot of anti-FUE propaganda because his clinic is not good at it. Most of the top doctors who are excellent at both FUE and FUT (H&W, Bisanga, Konior, Shapiro, etc) agree you get a few more lifetime grafts doing FUT first. However, Feller and Bloxham have a bunch of YouTube videos saying you get poor growth from FUE grafts which is not true when FUE is done properly, the growth is equally good compared to FUT.

True , Just want to add that According to my consultation with DR.Shapiro you can also do FUE first and for second or even third Surgery you can also consider FUT ( depends on your donor) 

Melvin had a interview with DR.Ron Shapiro he also mentioned this point as well that you can do FUE first and then combined it with FUT later on to maximize your donor , It may varies between 1500-3000 according to study ( So its more than few grafts ). 

UPDATE: 

I finally had in person consultation with Dr.Shapiro and I made another thread on the forum , I post the link below for those who help me on this matter and also like to follow the result : 

Hello . Everyone 

I finally was able to fly to Minnesota and have my consultation with DR.Ron Shapiro , I just thought I should provide an update for those who were following my other thread and also to provide my feedback to other member on the forum , It will be a long post and some data you may already know or not , But what I'm trying to do is ,  to make it clear for everyone who read this post now or in future  : 

The Shapiro medical team staff was very friendly and my consultation was with Matt and he gave me some general and also detail informations about the philosophy of the clinic and their repetition and also estimation of grafts I need for the surgery , Matt also measured the area of my baldness and then I met with DR.Ron Shapiro Since I was flying from California to Minneapolis I was specifically asked before to see DR.Ron in Person , I can only say good things about how he treated me and spent time with me and answering all of my questions , Considering he is an Elite surgeon in US and the World , I was very impressed how Humble he was , We had some great educational conversations and I was feeling very comfortable with him , He is very ethical and really have a good manner and also care about patients needs , at the same time  when it comes to make decision about designing the hairline and also density  he follows his standards and his rules which has been works for many years , Which is very understandable because thats his signature on his high quality work. 

Donor Area : DR.Ron Examined my Donor area and he seemed very happy with my Donor , He estimated I should have 7000-8000 in my donor , Maybe even more ( the average person have about 6000 grafts available )  Also based on His study and Dr.David  If I combine FUE and FUT , I can have at least 2000 more grafts on the top of that ( The study was showing patient can get 1500-3000 grafts more ) , which can make my  total number  near to 10000 and when I mentioned that he confirmed that.

FUT VS FUE : One of the reason I wanted to have consultation with DR.RON was because he is one of the fewest surgeon who do BOTH FUT and FUE , So he doesn't have any emotional attach to either method , Also if a surgeon can do both method then it would make more graft available to transplant , However DR.Ron mentioned if I feel more comfortable with FUE because of not having linear scar and less pain , I can chose FUE for the first surgery , And for 2nd Surgery he will examine my donor and then decide  if I need to do FUT or not. So basically most patients can do FUE first and they can do the FUT down the road in order to maximize the donor area .

Hairline Design : This subject was one of the main subject in our conversation , I had different hairline design in my mind for years which I kind of knew it wouldn't match the DR.RON standard but I wanted to hear his philosophy in person , He professionally explained to me that the design I have in my mind can look unnatural in his eyes and doesn't match his practice over the years , Because what I wanted was more aggressive and could be have some similarities to female hairlines however DR.Shapiro wants patient have some recession which is very normal in every men with no or minimal hairloss , He also mentioned he needs to do temple work on me to build up what I have lost  which made me glad because I know the degree of my hairloss and I was always thinking without temple work I probably wouldn't have natural outcome. I also have to mention that for the previous consultation I had with some other clinics one of them didn't want to do temple work at all  because of the risk of outcome  and the other one accepted that after I requested that to the surgeon , So I do believe here is where you see the difference between very high skill professional surgeon compare to the average clinic , With that being said  some or many surgeon avoid to do temple work since it is not very easy to achieve the desire result. 

Density :Here is one of my other favorite subject which we spent enough time to discuss , I personally did study around 300-400 patients from different doctors ( Including DR.Ron ) and figured the average number of hair each graft is 2.0 ( And yes this information can be  easily access online with a simple google search but I wanted to have that number from different races as they can have different density ) , Dr.Ron mentioned the variation of the average is 1.8 to 2.3 hairs per grafts and 2.1 can be a good number for  average ( Very close to the number I had) Also he mentioned that he always like to be on the safe side and put the other grafts for second sessions , He doesn't feel comfortable to do mega session and for instance if 6600 grafts need to be harvested , doing  4400 grafts in one session and 2000 graft on second one is not what he feel comfortable to do, He feels more comfortable to divide it moderately to two sessions ( Like 3200 each ) , The reason is he likes to see how the first surgery goes and see if the patient is happy with result or not and then adding or filling some area will be much easier than giving  the patient look they are not happy with the overall work , Because the repair of that would be much harder . What I figured is even if Mega session or either aggressive hairline   can make 1  patient  unhappy out of 20 , Dr.Ron wants to avoid that to be happen , Which  just shows how he highly cares about his work and patient satisfactions and of course this way he can manage the donor area for future loss as well and not putting most of eggs in one basket. I have to mention this doesn't mean surgeon shouldn't do Mega Session , These are just preferences  and can varies between surgeons. 

In the end he plans to have 3000-3500 grafts FUE for me in two days and the exact number of harvested grafts  depends on the caliber of my hairs on the day of surgery.

I hope this post be helpful and if there is any question you have ,Feel free to post it here , I will be happy to answer. 

Cheers. 

26 minutes ago, HairRun said:

That's funny because in my initial review I thought that Dr Shapiro has more youthful looking hairlines from the initial reviews I looked at. I thought I had to convince him to go more conservative but when I got to him in person and told him that I am off finasteride so there's a possibility that I'll lose my whole top, he came up with a hairline that was even more conservative than I was thinking of, but I went for it because I could always build it up later. 

If Dr Shapiro comes up with a hairline, I would go for it because he's taking into account the long term. 

Dr Josephitis did the extractions for my punchouts, I got the best result possible , no noticeable difference. 

I ranked Shapiro #1 for my case because he came across as a person who has spent a ton of time researching, pioneering, and learning from others. I was a complicated case due to several questionable techniques used in my first hair transplant surgery. I needed a doctor who was the most 'seen it all' person, and I ranked Dr Shapiro #1 in that category. 

My impression was confirmed at the surgery since I could tell he was considering a lot and the wheels were always turning. His curiosity and learning was also confirmed, as he was curious about many aspects of my first surgery, including how the FUT scar was closed and how they did the numbing. 

They also did stuff that I don't think they charged me for like the graft relocation and scar revision. They just seemed to focus on fixing everything done wrong in my first procedure. 

Now that I have learned that grafts can be extracted without visible scaring, I plan to go more youthful since I have a ton of beard grafts in the bank. Also, my crown doesn't seem to be losing even though I've been off Fin for nearly 4 months, which is also encouraging but too soon. 

I'm not a complicated case anymore but I hope to pick Dr Shapiro again for my buildup procedure because of the great experience the first time, but I don't see Beard grafts transplant listed on his website, but I hope he's open to it. 

 

 

26 minutes ago, HairRun said:

That's funny because in my initial review I thought that Dr Shapiro has more youthful looking hairlines from the initial reviews I looked at. I thought I had to convince him to go more conservative but when I got to him in person and told him that I am off finasteride so there's a possibility that I'll lose my whole top, he came up with a hairline that was even more conservative than I was thinking of, but I went for it because I could always build it up later. 

If Dr Shapiro comes up with a hairline, I would go for it because he's taking into account the long term. 

Dr Josephitis did the extractions for my punchouts, I got the best result possible , no noticeable difference. 

I ranked Shapiro #1 for my case because he came across as a person who has spent a ton of time researching, pioneering, and learning from others. I was a complicated case due to several questionable techniques used in my first hair transplant surgery. I needed a doctor who was the most 'seen it all' person, and I ranked Dr Shapiro #1 in that category. 

My impression was confirmed at the surgery since I could tell he was considering a lot and the wheels were always turning. His curiosity and learning was also confirmed, as he was curious about many aspects of my first surgery, including how the FUT scar was closed and how they did the numbing. 

They also did stuff that I don't think they charged me for like the graft relocation and scar revision. They just seemed to focus on fixing everything done wrong in my first procedure. 

Now that I have learned that grafts can be extracted without visible scaring, I plan to go more youthful since I have a ton of beard grafts in the bank. Also, my crown doesn't seem to be losing even though I've been off Fin for nearly 4 months, which is also encouraging but too soon. 

I'm not a complicated case anymore but I hope to pick Dr Shapiro again for my buildup procedure because of the great experience the first time, but I don't see Beard grafts transplant listed on his website, but I hope he's open to it. 

 

 

Thank you for sharing your experience and also posting on my thread , I have actually saw your thread before and as you mentioned since your case was a repair case it can be categorize differently than mine , No question about DR.Shapiro expertise in designing hairline and having long term plan and his ethics , Thats why I am flying from California to go and visit him . 

His hairline design is very natural and in most cases you can't even say they have done surgery but  as you know people have different taste when it comes to hairline and also definition of Youthful hairline can be different between two individual  , If I want to just give you  an example of youthful hairline I am considering  , If you have seen DR.Rahal hairline before , Those are the hairlines I'm considering as youthful hairlines , You can add DR.Armani and Hayatdavoudi to that list  because the foundation of their works is pretty much similar to DR.Rahal .  

7 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

In short IMHO a lot of hair transplant surgery is really about supply and demand (aside from the art of surgery). You appear to have a great donor so let yourself be guided by your doctor and remember there is no such thing as a silly question so ask him/her as much as you need to. When it comes down to hairlines no two people have the exact same hairline. If you are a candidate in your surgeon's opinion (and from their wealth of experience) for a lower hairline that will work well over your life span then go for it. It's mainly young guys in their late teens/early twenties who want a hairline that will waste not only precious grafts but will also look unnatural in the years to come. All the best!

Thank you for your advice , Yes I totally agree with you it is all about supply and demand + Art of Surgery , I do have a little bit thinning in some area of my Donor area as well but overall I do believe my donor is more than average  , Plus my hairs are thick and curly when it grows so it can cover more area , At this point I also  like to see if FUT would be the best choice for me or not in a case if I want to follow that by FUE to harvest more grafts  ( Which based on DR.Shapiro research it can give you  1500-3000 more grafts compare to only doing FUE ) and thats the main reason I like to have consult with DR.Shapiro since he is doing both FUE and FUT to find the best option for my situation and also my goals. 

5 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

You have a lot of hair to keep @parsia. Are you taking minoxidil or finasteride? You can certainly go lower with your hairline but it would be a good idea to keep it to your original one. I assume those thin hairs at the mid point was where your original hair line was? The number one goal you really want to be aiming for is to look as though you never had a hair transplant in the first place. Let that dictate where the hairline should be and also the fact that you want a hairline for life as you age. All the best!

Thank You Gatsby for your response, Yes I am using both Lipogaine ( Compound Minoxidil )which gave me some thickening and Finasteride also and yes those thin hair in midpoint is what was my original hairline was , I'm not looking to lower my hairline at all , Picture can be a little bit misleading since I'm at Narwood 4 and keeping this hairline is the best option as you mentioned , But I do like more dense hairline than the average of what I saw in DR.Shapiro work , No question he is the best surgeon in US but I just like youthful hairline more ( My taste preference ) 

 I do understand " Aging hairline  " concept  , But if we assume the person has a really good donor , Even with some future loss and doing second surgery , What is the cons of having youthful hairline ? I've heard this a lot and I do like to know the answer since I see people at age of 60's and still have youthfull hairline ( Even though between men they are in  minority ) 

I appreciate if you can address this for me .

On 6/11/2022 at 5:31 AM, Gatsby said:

Are you able to post some pics so we are able to give you better advice based on your situation? All the best!

I have uploaded some photo of my hairs , I hope it can help to get better advice.

Hello Guys , 

Quick Update that I will go to DR.Ron Shapiro office this week and my appointment is on Thursday.

Please share with me your opinion about hairline since I'm looking for more aggressive hairline than what DR.Shapiro normally do , So I can address that during consulation.

Any Opinion or comment will be appreciated.

8 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Yes good call, he does FUT still as well

Thank You Melvin ,Also  according to DR.Shapiro Study and also his interview with you , I do believe  FUT can be great option for someone  like me who is Narwood 4 and up and probably have high expectation from hair transplant , Since they can get FUE later on and have higher yield of 1500-3000 grafts more in total , Lets call it 2000 grafts like DR.Konior mentioned , It can be significant in long-term journey of hair transplant and hairloss process.