jcs87

Frankly, I just think you're wrong on a number of these points and I am happy to explain why.

I understand, but your process strikes me as very vulnerable to groupthink.

Well obviously group-think is a term that carries a negative connotation. We could just as easily choose a phrase that carries a positive connotation such as "jcs's approach is leveraging the collective wisdom of the group." Both of those terms are addressing the fact that I'm looking to gather info from a group of individuals...you just choose to frame it as a negative thing whereas I think it's positive.

That's one of the major advantages of these forums in the first place - it allows a prospective surgery client to be put into contact/interact with people that have relevant knowledge/past experiences. I find it rather bizarre that you think it's such a crazy idea for me to use the forums in such a manner.

Additionally, it is incorrect to assume that others know far more than you do. A good example is that you were surprised that many good surgeons didn't come out of mikeyhwk asking surgeons who they would operate with. This was entirely predictable - because doctors have the same biases as posters.

You're making a pretty big assumption here. The assumption is that all of these posters and doctors are all so biased that it is heavily skewing their perspectives. Perhaps the reality of the matter is all of these people on the forums and all these doctors arrive at the same "elite" list for one incredibly simple reason: because those doctors really are the best.

It's like when everyone says Kobe, and Michael Jordan, and Lebron are the best basketball players in the world. And you say "well everyone just thinks that because they are biased." Well maybe...OR it's just that those three guys are so clearly elite that everyone who knows anything about basketball can agree they are the best.

And just for the record I think it's probably somewhere in the middle - the guys that get passed around as "recommendations" probably are some of the best but as you have pointed out there are probably other doctors that are in the same league but just don't get as much attention for whatever reason.

There is no other way to doing research besides personally looking at doctors' results and trying to determine yourself. But since you mentioned that you wouldn't know enough to determine this, the real question you should be asking is, what makes a doctor good?

I think it's a bit arrogant to keep on promulgating the idea that your approach is the only way to conduct research. There are multiple ways to conduct research - a prudent individual would utilize all of the resources they have at their disposal.

Based on your proposed strategy I'd be interested to hear your answer to these questions:

1. If I shouldn't be talking to other people on the forums about who they think is elite (or asking hair surgeons who they recommend) then how should I narrow down my list? For that matter if we follow your logic then I can't trust the list of recommended doctors on this forum since it has its own biases and requires payment of a fee to participate. So if "There is no other way to doing research besides personally looking at doctors' results" then the logical outcome to that argument is that I need to go create a list of every hair surgeon in the world and go through multiple sets of before and after pics for hundreds of surgeons?

2. Additionally, just looking at before/after pictures doesn't effectively address a number of the specific examples I laid out in my previous post:

 

Negative examples:

2. Doctor XYZ used to perform all the surgeries himself but in recent years he has switched to a model of having techs do most of the work and he oversees things

3. Doctor XYZ produces amazing results but he seems to have a higher number of patients that suffer from infections or post-op complications

4. Doctor XYZ produces amazing results but there are concerns in the community about his ethics due to over-use of grafts on young unmedicated patients, low hairlines on advances NW's, etc.

 

3. I would also argue that there is something to be said for going with a doc that is highly regarded by other doctors in his field, highly regarded by real patients (that I can communicate with on this forum), and has been vetted for inclusion on the various lists (even though I understand that 'vetting' process can be somewhat questionable at times).

If you go with some random doctor that has great results but nobody has ever heard of him then what if he is digitally altering his before/after photos? What if he is just stealing before/after photos from other reputable clinics and claiming them as his own? What if he is only showing his best results and neglecting to post his mediocre/crappy results (which any doctor with half a brain is gonna do since it's in his best interests)?

You're taking quite a pessimistic view point of my approach. I've laid out a very lengthy and cogent argument for my strategy and why I think it is best, but you didn't really acknowledge any of the strengths of my approach. I also made a point of acknowledging that there are inherent weaknesses to my approach - just like there are with any strategy (including yours). I'm happy to keep an open mind and acknowledge the strengths of your approach and the weaknesses of my own and I would urge you to do the same.

Cheers

jcs87, I understand what you're doing in terms of asking other posters. But what do you like? Which doctors impress you? You have to remember, there are many doctors doing good work, but only a small number of names get passed around as "recommendations". Only 3 years ago did Bisanga get on this forum, and few english speaking posters had heard of Dr Lorenzo. I don't know how many of those realize that Dr. Vila's results also are part of Injerto Capilar's results library. Most posters hadn't heard of Couto, but in a few months you see posters touting him. Relying on poster recs will lead you to a limited set of names. Just FYI.

Hi KO, here is my thought process:

1. I'm quite new to the forums and pretty new to the world of hair surgery in general. One of the things that has made me successful in my career up to this point is that I'm smart enough to admit when other people know more about a topic than I do and I am more than willing to engage with them and leverage the knowledge that they have accumulated over years in their particular field of expertise.

I also work in big data analytics so I've become quite good at synthesizing very large amounts of information. So as you have already pointed out, I am trying to stimulate conversation, gather a wide range of opinions, and potentially hear some debate amongst all the people on these forums that have accumulated years of valuable knowledge.

2. To stick with the business analogy one of the things that employees that have been with a company bring to the table is legacy knowledge. Lets say you have two employees with the exact same skills - one of them joined 6 months ago and one of them has been with the company for 6 years. One of the big things that the tenured employee can provide is context and legacy knowledge to things that have happened in the past. What was the thought process behind the company choosing Strategy X over Strategy Y, which high ranking executives at the company like each other versus can't stand each other, etc.

To bring this back to the world of hair transplants, by gathering a wide range of opinions on a variety of the top doctors I'm hoping to discover things that would have otherwise remained hidden to me or would require reading thousands of threads going back years and years (I'm happy to put in the time but time is a finite resource and it's just not realistic to read every single thread on every single recommended doctor - and if you broaden the scope to all hair surgeons in the world it becomes literally impossible to achieve). So what are some of the things I'm looking for? Here are some random examples off the top of my head:

Negative examples:

1. Doctor XYZ used to be top notch and have amazing results but in the past couple years results have gone downhill

2. Doctor XYZ used to perform all the surgeries himself but in recent years he has switched to a model of having techs do most of the work and he oversees things

3. Doctor XYZ produces amazing results but he seems to have a higher number of patients that suffer from infections or post-op complications

4. Doctor XYZ produces amazing results but there are concerns in the community about his ethics due to over-use of grafts on young unmedicated patients, low hairlines on advances NW's, etc.

Positive examples:

1. Doctor ABC is a top-notch surgeon with amazing results but he just isn't very well known because he doesn't do a lot of online marketing and his clinic is targeted to non-english speaking men (Cuoto would appear to be a perfect example of this)

2. Doctor ABC is relatively new on the scene but his training was with a world renowned surgeon, his skills are top notch and he also has reasonable prices relative to some of his peers (Lupanzula would potentially fall into this bucket)

I could go on forever but this post is already getting too long so I'll cut it off there.

As you correctly pointed out the downside to relying on any group of people, or any certain list is that you potentially overlook very talented surgeons that haven't been "discovered" by this community. By engaging with a variety of individuals on the forum I hope to broaden the scope of my search and maybe capture some of those proverbial diamonds in the rough and look into them further. That being said, it's impossible to look into every surgeon and at some point you need to utilize recommended lists and experienced members recommendations to refine the list down to a manageable number.

To give another analogy, when I need a new jacket there are millions of different jackets available for sale from thousands of different stores. I can't try on every single jacket, so I go with brands I recognize or I ask a few fashionable friends which jackets they've been wearing recently. (and no I'm not saying that choosing a $10,000 hair surgeon is the same as buying a $150 jacket - my point is just that no one has unlimited time so at some point we need to find strategies to make our search process more efficient).

Similar to how a CEO solicits opinions from the knowledgeable people that report to him, Once I feel like I have gathered a reasonable amount of info and have gotten opinions from smart and knowledgeable ppl that have been doing this longer than I have THEN i can make my decision - and of course I know that at the end of the day that responsibility lies with me. No one else can tell me who is gonna be right for me.

Hope that sheds some light on how I am approaching this.

Hey JohnnyDrama, any chance of an update with some pics? Been quite a while since your operation so would be nice to see the final product.

I'm evaluating FUE surgeons and Bisanga is on my short list

Most were fine to speak about who they respected as it wasn't about being disrepectful to anybody else. I can only speculate as to reasonings as I said I didn't push for explanations. If you see a lot of the transplant conference speakers lists, the overwhelming majority of the speakers for fue are euro guys so I think they just become the respected names while their US counterparts are newer to the fue game as fut has ruled NA. That's what I am assuming is the reason that the US guys didn't make the radar for the Euro guys while the Euros did for the Americans. I am sure there is respect for some American docs as there are clearly some great ones. No idea why the Turks weren't mentioned as Erdogan does make the conference rounds and has worked with quite a few fue docs. Nobody brought up Cuoto and again I'm just speculating but he seems a newer doc so he may not have the longevity of some of the other docs which is why I speculate Lupanzula wasn't on many lists either. I had asked Dr Bisanga about Dr Lupanzula and he spoke highly of him.

Yep - that all makes sense to me. When did you pose this question to the various docs (was it late 2016)?

Martin any follow up here? Been years since the operation so I'm hopeful your skin problems have been fixed

Keep in mind my question was only about fue docs. Bisanga and Feriduni were mentioned almost in the same breath. From my limited ( I only asked a dozen, a couple didn't answer) research those were the top 2 most respected among their peers. Only other docs to get more than 1 mention were Mwamba, and Lorenzo. I was surprised to hear very few american docs mentioned and none got a 2nd mention even when I asked the american docs that question they mentioned the Euro guys which led me to believe they are the standard to which they measure themselves against. I was also surprised I didn't hear Erdogan as he's so well thought of on the forums but then no Turkish docs were mentioned, I didn't press them and say what about so and so, I just said if you had to have your surgery and you could choose from any fue doc worlwide who would you trust, give me your top 3 if you trust that many. Some couldn't name 3, and a few came back with the same response, Bisanga, Feriduni, myself lol I didn't include the vote for themselves as an official vote

That's a great idea and pretty valuable insight from people that see behind the scenes. Pretty impressed that you were able to get 10 out of 12 to respond to a question like that.

Interesting that Lupanzala, Erdogan, Keser, Shapiro, and Konior didn't get any mentions. I'd also be fascinated to know what the docs think of Juan Cuoto.

Juan couto is a new surgeon that you have brought to my attention , after a quick look at his YouTube videos he looks excellent ! Do you know his prices ? His website seems to be only in Spanish ? Cheers

There was a separate thread that I don't have handy at the moment but here was the pricing from that thread (I believe the prices listed were current as of late 2016):

"First 1500 grafts = 4.5EUR

From 1500 to 3000 = 4EUR

Everything above that = 2.50EUR"

Two great FUE masters but Lorenzo is a bit on expensive side which goes against the theme of Zim's thread (though price shouldn't be the ultimate factor of course) and also quite difficult to get a booking with.

 

Lupanzula is the more affordable of that group outside of Turkey, 4.50 euros for the first 1,000 grafts and 4 euros for any after the first 1,000 (according to Wibbles etc.). Cheaper than both Bisanga and Feriduni.

Bisanga is actually cheaper than Lupanzala for any procedure above 1,500 grafts. I was operating under the impression that Lupanzala was gonna be cheaper but when I actually looked at the price structure this is how the math worked out.

Didn't Lupanzala train w/ Bisanga? I'm surprised he's charging higher rates.

Bisanga did my temple corners which came out great, and does great hairlines too.

I recommend him for everything except for temple points (due to recent case posted).

I am looking at FUE docs for hairline and temple work and Bisanga is on my short list - would you mind linking me to the thread you're referring to.

He is underrated, I think it has to do with him not being flashy. His style is conservative and he has a very long term approach to transplanting. He uses enough grafts to get the job done and looking good but he won't throw extra grafts at a hairline to wildly dense pack it just because you want that if that isn't in your best interest and he won't do huge numbers of as you said the mega sessions so he isn't going to have the same number of results that just blow you away. He just does consistently excellent work and stands behind it. Even in the case of the temple which was brought up on this forum, he was willing to fix it . That was really one of the only examples of a screw up I've seen from their clinic and all docs got them. I went with him as my doc and I asked every doc I consulted with who they would go to for fue if they had to get it for themselves, his name came up the most. That was a good sign to me. I'm only 3 months post op but do feel like I was in great hands, time will tell.

Who were the other docs that were frequently mentioned?

Thanks for the input guys. I think we are mostly in agreement. I obviously won't be able to get the full picture until I have my donor area assessed and get some graft counts from clinics. Graft quotes will decide whether it is Erdogan, Keser, Lupanzula or Bisanga. (shortlist for now, subject to change ofc!). Obviously I can't be sure but having researched hundreds of results, I am quite confident I can get the results I desire for 2.5k-3k grafts in the hands of a great surgeon. I am 27, NW3 with dense hair and temporal recession. Erdogan is my first choice but I am sure he will quote me 3.5k minimum.

Any particular reason you decided to omit Ozgur Oztan from the short list at this point in time?

I am in the process of researching the same thing. You need to look into Bisanga, Lorenzo, Shapiro, Konior, Erdogan, Keser, Feriduni, and Juan Cuoto

Wow, pretty incredible results from Dr Cuoto. Anyone with additional info to share?

Maras is one doc with decent results who is often overlooked for some reason, I researched him a lot late last year and couldn't find a bad result or bad reviews. Price is decent at 3.5 euros and Cyprus seems more stable than Turkey.

Also like his hairlines and his work looks very clean.

 

The first Turkish doc was previously recommended here and in high demand but things have changed and no longer true so may be one to skip now, second Turkish doc I'm not a huge fan, some like him cause his prices are cheap but results may be hit or miss.

Don't think he's in the "elite" class.

 

For FUE, Rahal has a dedicated tech who does all the extractions while Rahal does the graft site incisions, and then I believe the techs do the graft implanting.

Rahal is great for FUT but I'm not so convinced regarding FUE. Anyway, PM a few people who have undergone FUE with Rahal's clinic for more information.

Good info regarding Maras, I'm gonna look into him. Do you know whether he tends to favor FUE vs FUT?

My Rahal question was actually referring to FUT. I'm not even considering him for FUE b/c his prices are way too high (especially since it seems most people would rank him below the elite European/Turkish docs that also happen to charge half the price).

Any thoughts on Lorenzo's colleague Chueco down in Buenos Aires. I'm trying to find his rates, I have a feeling he could be quite affordable given the weakness of the Argentine peso.

You could add these to the list, all produce great (tier 1) or very decent (tier 2) results

 

elite tier 1: Dr. Erdogan and Dr. Keser in Turkey

elite tier 2: Dr. Maras in Cyrpus and Dr. Lupanzula in Belgium

 

*If you're looking to carefully manage your donor I would choose Belgium over Turkey, as the Turkish clinics seem more YOLO while Belgian docs practice FUE extraction techniques which will not deplete your donor.

What's Maras reputation? I haven't come across his name as frequently as the other ones on this list.

Also, while we're on the topics of Turkish Docs, what about Dogany & Karadeniz?

Also Dr. Couto in Spain is elite tier 1, but he's like Konior where he's booked for ages, someone said 3 years on a previous post.

 

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/182397-dr-couto-fuexpert-spain.html

Cuoto has some of the craziest results I've ever seen...Just go look up some of those youtube videos and your jaw will be on the floor

Keser's communication time is long and sometimes unreliable, often you won't get a reply for weeks on end, but his reps are basically well meaning anyway.

Seems the clinic itself is at fault for this.

ASMED reps on the other hand are quick to respond with detailed answers.

 

In Turkey and on some European forums Keser is ranked ahead of Erdogan, likely because he does all of the surgery.

You will have to shave your entire head at both of these clinics btw, some are ok with that while some prefer partial shaving so it's something to keep in mind.

*ASMED will do long hair FUE but only if you're a HT virgin.

Excellent info

I was considering Rahal a while ago, but interactions with him seem pretty limited outside of the surgery itself, and having 1 mediocre transplant and another complete failure, I want a surgeon that is more involved and performs more of the work compared to techs.

With Hasson and Wong, I was automatically funneled to Wong, while Hasson seems to be the hairline surgeon and wasn't a fan of the lack of choice.

For Rahal, which steps are handled by the techs versus the doc himself?

Transhair, go to Konior. Yeah he has a yearlong waitlist, yeah he's expensive, but I can't think of anybody better for FUT.

I've recommended Konior to Transhair several times, and only added the new ones on this recent thread because I have researched a shit load of surgeon details last year, and I know other people besides Transhair are reading these posts.

 

However, Konior is a no-brainer in your case Transhair he's a master at transplanting into exsiting hair with stick and place (this is not your first HT and you have exisiting hair already), he does female hairlines very natural and dense, he's a master at FUT scars and I also believe FUT scar revisions, plus his website even advertises towards transgender patients.

Transgender Hair Restoration Surgery - Chicago Hair Institute

 

As we all know you'll be hard pressed to find a subpar result or failed case from Konior as well.

I'm pretty new to the forums myself so I don't feel qualified to cast a vote, but I've already corresponded with KO and hsrp on multiple threads and they both seem quite knowledgeable so I think it says a lot that they are both so definitive in saying Konior is the right doc for you.

Dr K removed himself from Joes list as he felt the costs to remain recommend by Joe and other forums was not cost effective for him compared to how many patients it was bringing him.

Makes sense. Thanks for the info!

Looking good! - I noticed that Dr Karadeniz is no longer listed on Joe's website. Any idea why?

It was a hard decision. I equally considered both Mr Ball and Dr Bisanga and both are excellent in my opinion. The only reason I did not return to Mr Ball was due to the cost. I had already spent a large amount for my first surgery and at that time I was hoping to just have one surgery but then decided to go for a second. Having looked at the different options I chose Dr Karadeniz due to his results and cost and also his recommendation from Joe T. I would have no problems recommending Mr Ball, he is honest and does solid work.

 

And in case any one wonders why I didn't go with Dr Feriduni - his waiting time just for a consultation was 9 months! And then I would have to wait another 9-12 months for the surgery. For this reason I ruled him out.

Wow those are some crazy waiting times for Feriduni - so you'd be looking at having surgery 15-18 months from today!

Cork - any updates here. Who did you go with?

Wow so you'd place Cooley ahead of Konior, Shapiro, and Gabel?

Also, Transhair I'm surprised that you aren't considering Rahal or H&W for North American doctors.

hsrp10 said:

You could add these to the list, all produce great (tier 1) or very decent (tier 2) results

 

elite tier 1: Dr. Erdogan and Dr. Keser in Turkey

elite tier 2: Dr. Maras in Cyrpus and Dr. Lupanzula in Belgium

 

*If you're looking to carefully manage your donor I would choose Belgium over Turkey, as the Turkish clinics seem more YOLO while Belgian docs practice FUE extraction techniques which will not deplete your donor.

So what are the pros and cons of Erdogan versus Keser at this point in time. I'm still in the process of researching both docs but this is what I've got so far:

-Erdogan is cheaper (2.5EURO per graft versus 3.5 for Keser I believe)

-Erdogan runs a bit of a factory with multiple surgeries per day (I'm trying to figure out what Erdogan does himself versus what the techs/assistants handle)

-Keser is more involved in the various steps of the surgery

-Seems like both docs have some lingering concerns about their ethics: Keser was rejected from membership in this forums 'Recommended Docs' list due to concerns of about aggressive hairlines and aggressive # of grafts in low NW scale patients. Erdogan seems to be very widely respected but also seems to have quite a reputation for over-the-top graft count recommendations.

KO said:

Mwamba, DeVroye. In South America, I'd add Chueco too.

Interested to see someone throw Chueco into the mix. Chueco is apparently business partners with Lorenzo so that instantly lends him some credibility. That being said, I haven't been able to find a ton of info on him - very interested to know what are your thoughts KO / why do you think he is in the same tier as some of these other better known guys?

Thank you for posting this honest review. I was very close to having surgery with Dr Path so it's good to see both positive and negative results.

That being said, I'm sorry things didn't work out for you. Hope your 3rd surgery (should you decide to pursue that path) works out better

If you want to wear your hair very short than go with FUE.

FUE techniques including yield rates have really improved over the years.

 

The cost for FUE in N. America is exorbitantly high, so Europe and Turkey are the wiser choice unless it's only a smaller procedure.

 

My recommended doctors for FUT and FUE are in my signature.

Here is a link to a good forum post on affordable FUE docs in Europe.

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/185092-best-affordable-place-surgery-europe.html

The link isn't working for me but I believe you're probably referring to a thread on best value FUE docs in Europe - I came across that during my research and you're right it is quite a helpful thread.

Two excellent must-reads on the ins and outs of FUE:

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/169499-pros-cons-fue-myths-dispelled.html#post2337385

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/169281-ultimate-manual-versus-motorized-fue-thread.html

These threads are incredible - I'm currently only on page 7 or so but I'm planning to read all ~40 pages. Thank you for bringing them to my attention!

Also what I really recommend is to have as many in person consultations with your top 3 pics.

There's only so much we can help you with over the internet (though we try our best). An in person examination of your donor hair is important, and will give you a better evaluation if FUE or FUT is best or if you're an ideal candidate overall for a HT.

 

good luck

Yeah I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to accomplish this. My top choices for FUT are scattered all over N America and my top choices for FUE are all in Europe so it's rather difficult. Might try and fly over to Brussels and schedule 3 consultations with 3 dif docs since there seems to be a cluster of highly talented guys in that area.

Dr.r.shapiro, Dr. konior, Dr cooley ,all highly respected HT docs. I don't think theres 1 top surgen and everyone else is ranked lower, theres a few top ht doc that produce quality results on a regular and these 3 docs are on that list.

So at this point my list that I want to research further for FUT is:

R Shapiro

H&W

Rahal

Cooley

Gabel

Konior - probably out due to cost and long wait list

Feller- Out due to cost

Any noticeable omissions?

Does HDC and doctor Maras do fut? Their hairlines is epic also

I believe he did at one point but seems to specialize in FUE now.

Some of the older FUT results I found by Maras when researching him are quite impressive.

 

Reasonable prices too.

Maras still lists FUT on his website. This is the first I'm hearing of this Doc.

I should also probably take this opportunity to say that I think I was premature in confining my search to FUT doctors, I am going to seriously look into FUE as well since this may actually be a better fit for me due to short hair styling that I usually go with.

Based on very preliminary research the names that I have in my head are: Bisanga, Lorenzo, Feriduni, and maybe Lupanzula and maybe Mwamba. Seems like for North American doctors Shapiro or maybe Konior are the names I see coming up most often for FUE.

I'm also trying to gather more info on what seem to be the 2 top Turkish docs: Doganay and Erdogan (Erdogan sounds great and the price is right, but it also sounds like they run a bit of a factory operation over there and it's unclear to me how involved the doc is with my actual surgery).

Lastly, there are the three Indian docs recommended on this site: Tejinder Bhatti, Kapil Dua, and Pos wal. I never see anyone mentioning the Indian docs as being in the top tier elite conversation though...Anyone with thoughts on these guys (for either FUE or FUT).

I don't think there is any "back story" at all.

Dr Konior is well renowned and respected among the hair restoration community as being one of the best and currently is booked extremely long periods out and probably doesn't need or want any more extra promotion than he already has.

I think actually he's going to be even more choosey on the patient's he performs on now that he's also in high demand for FUE.

 

He's recommended here on HRN which is the premiere hair restoration forum out there and not being recommended on Bald Truth etc. doesn't really mean that much.

That's a perfectly fine explanation and as I acknowledged in my previous post "You mentioned that he has a 1-year wait list so is he simply so successful that he doesn't feel the need to 'play the game'?" But I think it's a fair question to ask given that the majority of other "elite" surgeons are members of all of these orgs.

Is it a widely accepted conclusion that being recommended on HRN is more prestigious than being an IAHRS member. I was sort of under the impression that IAHRS is considered the most elite?

As to your comment on the IAHRS etc., did you really do your research?

From Dr. Konior's website:

Ten Reason to Choose Dr. Konior - Chicago Hair Institute

Exclusive Membership - The two organizations considered by many to be the most exclusive in the field of hair restoration, the International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons (IAHRS) and the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians, have each accepted Dr. Konior as a full member. He is one of a small number of surgeons in the world to have been awarded membership in both organizations

I know that tone can be lost via written communication but I can't help being rubbed the wrong way by the implied tone of this post. Yes, I did do my research: If you go to the IAHRS's own website here: IAHRS Members | Hair Transplant Doctors you will notice that Dr Konior is NOT listed.

If you had to choose between a doctor's website that makes a claim of being a member in something versus that org's own public membership list, which would you go with? I think any reasonable person would say to trust the org's membership list first. (and keep in mind I'm new here - I don't have years of experience like you do to know that Dr Konior is considered a world class surgeon in this community)

Sure, it's possible that this is just a mistaken omission on the IAHRS website but I think it's being pretty over-critical of me to say that I'm slacking on my research for concluding he's not a member if he's not on that website's very own membership list.

And did you know that Dr. Gabel was actually trained under Dr. Konior?

Having Gabel and not Konior on your list is quite odd and makes me wonder how you came up with your list. Btw I'm not pushing you to definitely go with Konior, just that I think you need to do more research overall.

I did not know that. There wasn't any scientific methodology to my list. Just from reading the forums and having conversations with some folks in the community. As I've already acknowledged I have come to the realization that I jumped the gun and I am not yet ready to make a decision. Need to continue researching.

As for Path, he's maybe Ok but I just don't include him being among the best of the best after researching HT's for more than 25 years and being an active member here for more than six years. Transhair's case for example.

 

Hasson is my preference over Wong from the same research and from looking at many results on this forum.

Your research may differ for your individual case so research it deeply.

Yeah I've heard the same feedback from many folks on Path. No one thinks he's terrible but no one thinks he's elite either.

I believe I saw somewhere that Dr Cooley trained under Dr Vogel in Baltimore but I never see Vogel's name mentioned anywhere. Any idea why?

I understand that every person is unique and I am more than willing to put in the hours and time necessary to do the research. I am new here but I am a long-standing and well respected member of other internet forums (that deal with completely different topics) so I "get it" that it annoys the old-timers when newbies come in wanting everything handed to them on a silver platter.

That being said, ideally, I was hoping people that have been on these forums for years and have tons of knowledge to share could say something like: "Given your hair loss situation and pictures from the original post if you're looking to do FUT the most widely respected surgeons are Doc 1,2,3,4,5. If you're looking to do FUE the most widely respected surgeons are Doc 6,7,8,9,10."

And if possible, any additional details such as "Doc 1 is known for amazing hairline work, Doc 2 is known for amazing work with NW4-6 cases, Doc 7 is known for incredibly low transection rates w/ FUE technique, etc. etc." Those are the sort of succinct lists and commentary that can really accelerate the learning curve for a newbie like me.

And then I'd be more than happy to really drill down and read thread after thread on those 10 doctors that the community has pointed me towards.

For hairline work such as yours, you have to at least talk to Ron Shapiro even if you eventually end up going with someone else. His expertise in this area is unique.

That's an interesting comment, could you elaborate further? Is Shapiro known for being really good with temple recession, diffuse thinning, and loss of density along the hairline (these are the three big issues that I'm dealing with at the moment).

I definitely do intend to speak w/ him based on feedback/research.

It is my opinion that Dr. Path does not belong in your list of doctors. Konior ought to be in there

Is there any back story to why Dr Konior isn't recommended on the other sites (pretty much all of the other elite docs I'm considering are recommended on IAHRS, Bald Truth Talk, and American Hair Loss Association). You mentioned that he has a 1-year wait list so is he simply so successful that he doesn't feel the need to 'play the game'?

Also, any particular reasons/details that you feel like Dr Path doesn't belong on the list?

Those are all top surgeons.

Konior, Hasson, Rahal, Shapiro, Gabel, Cooley

 

I would try to have a face to face consultation where possible with as many of these docs as you can, and at least online consults.

My personal top two are Konior and Hasson based on experiences with them, but Konior is booked until next year.

 

Also agree with Ernie's statement.

Any particular reasons/details that you feel like Dr Path doesn't belong on the list?

If I were to go with H&W what are the pros and cons in your opinion of Hasson vs Wong?

You'll not likely be able to get a procedure with him less than one year ahead of time, but why isn't Dr. Konior on your list for FUT?

My initial starting point for getting this short list was to cross-reference the recommended surgeon lists from IAHRS, American Hair Loss Association, Hair Transplant Network, and Bald Truth Talk. I figured that doctors that kept showing up on all of those lists were worth looking into.

As far as I can tell Dr Konior is only recommended on this site, none of the others - so that's why I was not aware of him when putting together my list.

Based on further research and time spent on the forums it seems like I made another noticeable omission: Dr Shapiro of Minneapolis.

Another doc whose name has come up a couple times but I hven't had a chance to really look into is Dr Cooley of North Carolina.

How would you say these three docs stack up against the Rahal, H&W, Gabel caliber docs?

Any updates to this thread? Did you end up having surgery with Dr. Chueco?

Very interested in Dr Lupanzula's work. Looking forward to more updates. Good luck KO!

Really looking forward to watching this result develop !! I think this is the first patient review for dr lupanzula on this site ?? Please keep us regularly updated as I am seriously considering dr lupanzula for my first surgery ! His work looks outstanding , so glad he's started posting on this site

+1 Also very interested in Dr. Lupanzula's work. Can't wait to see the full results