Ikemen724

1 minute ago, Gasthoerer said:

Mmh, maybe you visited the wrong clinics. My F2F consultations took up to 1 h and included measurement of the donor density at several positions, review of old pictures of myself +the family and drawing different hairlines as well as discussing medication and surgical plans. 

When I saw Dr. Diep he inspected my hairline visually for a few seconds and then quoted me the # of grafts I'd need. I asked a few more questions and then he moved on to pricing. There wasn't any measurements of donor density taken or review of old pictures. But I have no hair-loss on the back or sides of my head, so maybe he thought it was obviously dense enough? 

21 minutes ago, Dr. Suhail Khokhar said:

Have you had an in-person consultation?

I had in-person consultations with Diep and Canales and online consultation with Umar, with extensive back-and-forth conversation with both Dr. Umar directly and his staff. 

I know many think an in-person is preferable, but the in-person consultations I've had so far were both very quick, with the doctors taking a 2-second look at my head and then coming to a conclusion for what I need, and I don't think there is any new information that I could gain that I haven't already talked to Dr. Umar and his staff about, which makes an extra trip to LA seem unnecessary to me.

Thank you all for your replies, it is much appreciated.

@hairdisaster21 I decided not to go through with Dr. Canales because I got the sense that his staff was trying to rush me into getting a procedure done which didn't set well with me, and on top of that there is very limited information regarding his results online. I wanted to explore other doctors who have a lot more results to thumb through.

So I've had consultations with 3 different surgeons (Diep, Umar and Canales) and they've all said similar things about what I'd need for surgery (all 3 recommended roughly 2500 grafts FUE) so I don't think anyone is lying to me in terms of treatment.

I've been going through a lot of Dr. Umar's past results, on this forum, yelp and his site/youtube channel and they all seem positive. I've looked up his license records to see if he has any malpractice claims or any other red-flags on his record and I don't see any there. I have gotten written confirmation from his staff that Dr. Umar himself extracts the grafts and makes the slits in the recipient sites himself.

Dr. Umar is also listed as one of the main recommended surgeons on this forum for the state of California, and various users have posted their result pictures and have been pretty pleased with the results. So everything seems to be above board to me, which is why the quick availability seems odd.

For anyone else here who has had work with Dr. Umar, how long did you have to wait? 


 

So in November I had a consultation with Dr. Diep and his staff told me that they were booking over 13 months out, so the earliest I could get an appointment for was January 2021. I followed up with them recently asking if there was any way to squeeze me in anywhere, and they said they are still fully booked, and now their earliest availability is February 2021.

While I was going back and forth with Dr. Diep's staff, I've also been in contact with Dr. Sanusi Umar in Los Angeles, and it turns out Dr. Umar has availability for February 2020, so in the next month and a half.

I am very tempted to book with Dr. Umar, as I've seen nothing but good reviews on this forum, and he specializes in men with afro-textured hair like myself.

I am just wondering if the fact that he is available so soon a red flag? I figured the top surgeons had a wait time of at least 6-7 months so am I just getting extremely lucky and am I overthinking this?

I have an upcoming consultation with Dr. Parsa Mohebi. I've been looking on his website but there are no pictures in the gallery section that showcase the back of the head post surgery. This seemed kind of suspicious to me - other surgeons like Dr. Diep showcase their results from all sides, so I'm wondering if there's anyone here who has any links showing these results or if they have results themselves they can share.

Thank you!

New poster here, sorry if this is the wrong subforum.

I recently had a consultation with Dr. Miguel Canales of the Silicon Valley Hair Institute: 

It seems that he is well respected in the field, was very involved in the development of the ARTAS robot and has years of experience and pretty good online reviews. His staff was friendly and knowledgable, and the pricing seemed reasonable (2500 FUE grafts for $5 per graft for $12500 total potential surgery cost). 

On the other hand, I only got to speak with Dr. Canales himself briefly, and spent most of the time speaking with the head RN. The head RN also mentioned that the above FUE pricing was a special offer that they could guarantee if I decided to get the procedure end of this month (October) but that the price may go up if I decide to wait. This seemed *slightly* suspicious to me, but maybe I'm reading into it. 

So I'm wondering if anyone here has been to see him or gone through with having him perform a transplant and I wanted to hear about your experience? Would you recommend him? Did the results turn out like you'd hope? Is the "special offer pricing" a gimmick he uses to pressure people into making a decision or are price fluctuations a normal thing for HT doctors?

Thank you all in advance for your help.