IanFromOz

FWIW, Junior is posting his results in another thread http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/187742-dr-kongkiat-laorwong-bangkok-2500-grafts-%5Baugust-11-2017%5D-2.html#post2518871 His results are enviable.

Creating a stellated hairline, instead of straight edge one, seems to be Dr Diep's "signature" hairline. (I could've picked him as being your surgeon just from your photos.) I'm not sure if this is genuinely more realistic, but he seems to think that it is. The size of the punch-holes in the back of your head soon after surgery looked ominous, and seem to have lead to you having FUE scars, and a "ratty" look to your grown-back hair in the donor area. This may've been avoided with a smaller punch. My own FUE donor area (back of the head) has no scarring, and is so even that it shows no visible evidence of ever having been the donor area.

FUE. I didn't get any scarring at all, not even the tiny pockmark FUE scars that I've seen on other people's photos. That's probably due to Dr Laorwong's advanced FUE techniques (small single hair grafts) as described here: https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/Consult-a-Physician/doctors.asp?DrID=686 FUT belongs in the last century, IMO. I don't understand why anyone would still consider it.

At just 5.5 months / 24 weeks post-op I'm now ready to "call it" as being a success, with hopefully even more hair thickening to come. I can't fault anything about the way the transplant was done, or Dr L's professionalism. See the photos for yourself. I'm very happy with the results.

That last photo was so bad, I thought I'd try again. (Same shitty camera though, sorry.) Also my calculations were a bit out. It is now 5 months, 2 weeks since 2nd May.

I have not been able to provide useful progress photos because my hair is blonde (in fact it's more like "skin coloured"). It's hard enough to see the fine hairs growing back with the naked eye, let alone with a camera. As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, the scabs were all gone by end of Day 16, but the grafts virtually all moulted out in just a few days after reaching week 3, which was the beginning of my ugly duckling phase. During the ugly duckling phase I kept my hair really short (No#1 crewcut) all over ie 1/8" (3mm) long since that looked better than having a few sad hairs sticking out of the recipient area, while also allowing me to monitor how well new hairs were growing back. After 3 months & 1 week I could see that there was enough regrowth to stop shearing my head and to let the hair grow out. That was 2 months ago. I'm now 5 months, 1 week post-op. I couldn't be happier with the results so far though. My hair already looks normal enough to not look like I've had a HT, but I can still see even more new fine hairs coming through. As I understand it, it will continue to thicken for a few months yet. From my experience the plusses for Dr L are: 1) The graft density and natural look in the recipient area 2) Zero FUE scarring. I've asked family to check for the infamous white pockmarks, but they couldn't find any at all, and 3) Graft survivability. The hair coming back now matches what was there before the moulting took place. The thumbnail is a photo that I just took a few minutes ago with my phone. (Sorry about the poor quality.) What it's showing is 2 months growth since I stopped shearing my head. All that's available is to compare it with at the moment is my forum thumbnail. But when it's grown back to full length (say 2 inches) I'll do some proper photos as a comparison to photos that were taken a year ago.

Hi RobHealthMan, Probably not. Only because I had FUE myself (so I don't know about FUT) and most of the references I've seen to Dr Path seem to involve "large FUT" so maybe that's his speciality. Oops. (This is an edit.) I just noticed heaps of thumbnail links provided by Dr Laorwong in the first post in this thread showing large FUT work. Maybe some of those photos match your own situation.

I think Dr Kongkiat Laorwong of Absolute Hair Clinic definitely deserves recognition on this forum for his consistent technical excellence, and the positive feedback from his patients. In fact, I feel this recognition is long overdue. As you correctly mentioned in your original post Dr Laorwong performs grafts at a high density. I posted about this same thing back on 22 May when I found, after the scabs had come off, that the hair in the recipient area was absolutely indistinguishable from my natural hair, even though my hair was only 1/8in (3mm) long all over at the time, due to the density and natural placement of the grafts in the recipient area matching that of my natural hair. A thumbnail was attached. I am now 7 weeks post-op and those grafts have now moulted and started regrowing. But since Dr Laorwong told me at our initial consultation that his graft survival rate is over 95% I am confident the regrowth will ultimately result in completely natural-looking hair that is undetectable as a hair transplant.

I don't think any clinic in Thailand offers that, do they? At $3000 return to Turkey vs $700 return (Jetstar) to Bangkok, and 17 hours extra flying time each way(!), the added convenience of an airport shuttle versus a 300 baht ($12) taxi ride is small potatoes.

Hi Oliverqueen01, I first came across Absolute Hair Clinic at www.whatclinic.com via Google even though they are buried amongst dozens of other similar clinics in Bangkok on that website. It was only after visiting the Clinic's own webpage that I really liked the amount of technical detail & videos they provided, and the large number of impressive before & after photos that could be found on their website. The key to getting around Bangkok is to first ensure you choose a hotel no more than 10 minutes walk from the BTS Skytrain. (Notice that hotels in Bangkok close to the BTS never fail to mention that fact.) The BTS is a cheap and efficient way to get around Bangkok. Unfortunately Dr Laorwong's clinic is not near the BTS. It's a 200 baht/$8 taxi ride from either, say, the Sukhumvit or the Silom areas (where tourists mostly stay). In regard to the excellent and exhaustive review of Dr Laorwong provided by 3FN a year ago, it seems to me that his new hairline was deficient in some "temple work" that I feel was also needed in his case. Contrast this to Dr Diep's videos here: (Chrome may be needed) http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/185859-blonde-fue-dr-diep.html That's not to say that Dr Laorwong doesn't do temple work. Some of the photos on his site show that he does. Or, for that matter, that Dr Diep always includes temple work where it's needed. Sometimes he doesn't. Sorry for repeating myself on my earlier post, but I was surprised before my surgery to see the extent that they rely on the customer's guidance about where the customer wants their new hairline to be. I somehow thought they could look at you and "just know" where your ideal (ie original) hairline should be. This might be true for some surgeons (particularly westerners) that may develop an intuitive knack of knowing precisely what hairline would look best on you without you having to say a word. But possibly this is not as true for Asian surgeons. In my case there was only a little bit of suggestion and modification before agreement was reached. But it was at Dr Laorwong's request that I got to draw the lines I wanted first! So please give some thought about (eg.) whether or not you want the top of your temples filled out, and if so mark it in! Otherwise it may not (probably won't) happen. The same goes for your entire desired hairline. And try to avoid getting a quirky little V-shape at the front of the forehead. (Don't know why, but I keep seeing those from a range of surgeons,) I know the above may sound unexpectedly negative. But it's not about the quality of the work. In my case the quality and excellent "craftsmanship" of the surgery is identical to 3FN's photos. I'm just trying to say you need to be able to clearly convey what your expectations are before surgery begins. And to do that you need to form a clear (mental) picture of where you want your hairlines to be, that you can then convey with a marking pencil. With that part of it properly resolved before surgery begins, your satisfaction with the final result will be assured.

Hi Oliverqueen1, I just had FUE 2500 grafts with Dr Laorwong in Bangkok just over 2 weeks ago (2 May). The thing I'm most impressed about was the graft density. Now that the scabs have all come off (after day 16) it looks just like natural hair! I can now get around without a wearing a cap, confident that no one would guess that I've had a HT at all let alone so recently. It just looks like a short crewcut, natural looking all over. I'm rapt. Something I would recommend though is to be 100% sure where you would like your hairline to be. It will be drawn in with erasable marker before they start, so you get a chance to modify where you want it to be. It'd be good to practice this at home before you go. I paid 100 baht ($4) per graft. You must be some kind of haggler to get Dr Laorwong down to less than that. Anyhow I can't see any reason you'd go anywhere else.

It looks like the number of new hairs that have sprouted at 4 months are just a fraction of what was implanted, and would be hoping many more spring to life in the next couple of months. Good luck, and please keep us updated with any progress. I'm 11 days post-op myself. Something I've learnt from this forum is that I'll have to reserve judgement about the success of my transplant for six months or so minimum, with a lot of disheartening moments up until then. :-(

If you look for posts by members that have actually been to Dr Laorwong you will find his results are consistently excellent. I had 2500 grafts FUE at Absolute Hair Clinic last Tuesday (5 days ago) and I'm really pleased with the experience and the work done. The graft density in the recipient area is the same as natural hair and looks great, How can you say he's a risk if you don't know anything about his work? And don't ask me "where's you photos?". I'm not going to post a photo every damn day just to placate the nay-sayers. When I've got together 6 or so weekly photos, I'll post them all up at once.