jimcraig152

Bookmarked it for myself. Here ya go.

Ahh, found it! Here was the other explanation for the asymmetrical donor extraction from this procedure. And here is the other explanation once again that was given in discussion around this procedure.

Why would you recommend anyone other than Dr. Vories when you got these fantastic result? Hairline Donor Bruh, that is some celebrity client-level results that would make Matthew McConaughey and Tom Brady upset at their hair restoration results. And both have hot Brazilian model wives.

It is the scabbing crackling. Although, the gap is very wide in your instance. But I think the wide gap is due to the low density of the graft placement. I am a recent Dr. Diep patient as well. Instructions he left were to begin to remove the scabs early in the 2nd week. That you still have scabs means you need to take action now as you are overdue at 2 weeks. Here is what I did: Wet my head in the shower thoroughly (did not get body wet, just my head) Applied shampoo out of the shower and worked a thick coat of lather to the recipient site in front of the mirror Covered up the recipient area with a flayed grocery bag, the kind you get from the produce aisle, to slow evaporation (food safe plastic, so should be fine for this purpose) Set timer on my phone to 20 minutes Sat and watched TV for that time till the timer went off Removed plastic covering and over the sink began to gently tease the scabs out with the pads of my fingertips When you do this, the scabs will look like snot on your head. That is good and they are ripe for removal Always remembered to keep my fingers thoroughly wet when I did this using the sink in front of the mirror Then when done, I hopped into the shower and took a regular shower cleaning the rest of my body and just rinsing my head Took two showers over two days for me to achieve removing all the scabs. My scabs were removed by day 10. I hesitated a few days as I was awaiting a showerhead filter. But you should definitely remove your scabs now. The grafts are typically rooted by day 7.

Same for me with MHTA, and I am an actual patient of theirs. Started with phone calls. Then phone calls were punted to call backs. Call backs then punted to email. Emails punted to the Onpatient.com portal. From the Onpatient.com portal, I got a message stating I didn't register my invite as a cop out for why they didn't deliver any of the things I asked for. I did register my invite with messages sent through the portal. But they dropped the ball on even that, so I sent them screen grabs from Onpatient.com as proof. They must have found out they made a snafu. Then finally responded via the Onpatient.com portal without the 3 simple things I asked for. Along with a response via email with a notification for a potential follow-up appointment. Yeap, no witch hunt. It is the honest truth about the current state of things with Dr. Diep/MHTA. Excited for you buddy! Can't wait to see your thread! Can't wait to see OP's (@Buffaloboy) thread too.

@hybonix, with your procedure just days away now, make sure to practice taking photos of your hair now. It's harder than it looks. Also, having lots of before pics is a great reference and testament for others in their decision making. And you'll never get the chance again. Good luck man. Look forward to hearing about your results.

@ShadowMoon, the way you've just written about your experience sounds like a passage out of a traveler's guide about a whimsical recollection of a far and away --I got to go there before I die-- destination. Night and day compared to mine. I am not being unfair at all with articulation of the events either. @kdlmaj confirmed in my thread what I stated was pretty much what he experienced with MHTA that followed mine by 4 days. He stated, he was glad he was knocked out for 100% of it. I can add more color to this too. As I arrived there on time, a good 10 to 15 minutes passed before someone attended to me. Then I was greeted with, "Hi, you are..........?" as she searched for my name in the stack of paper appointments for that day, "Mr <last name with held>." She then gave me the final docs to fill out and the menu for which I was to order lunch. Then walked back into the procedure room from which she came. As I was seated in the lobby filling out the papers, I could hear Dr. Diep's voice from the back room saying, "You mean he is here already?!" Remember, the door was left open to the other patient's procedure room as I mentioned earlier so I could hear Dr. Diep loud and clear when he said that. Also, regarding the anesthesia. Dr. Diep shot my both my arms up with GA within 10 seconds. Then as he was applying the LA to my forehead and scalp, it was only then when he said this is the worst part of the whole process. "Everything else would be painless." he said. Well, the extraction was the most painful part; as mentioned earlier, I woke up through GA and LA from that pain. Dr. Diep was definitely in a rush with me so he could finish up to get to his consultations. I wonder who the other patient was that day ahead of me on 7/24/2020. Because Dr. Diep was in a bigger rush with him to get to me. Maybe we can get him to chime in here if he is out there. I think the mods here get upset when patients single out any one surgeon. I've asked Melvin if the mods can recuse themselves from moderating discussions about surgeons that performed work on them individually. Let one of the other mods do it. I think that is necessary for impartiality because this site is about patients getting the best for themselves. And the mods are human like the rest of us and can be unconsciously partial. That is the optics anyway. In any case, even if we aren't singling out any one surgeon. I think we can all agree that any surgeon performing more than one restoration procedure a day can be dropped off any recommended list. Too many compromises are made in all such historical instances. It is not just an MHTA/Dr. Diep problem.

So, after letting MHTA know that I did register the Onpatient.com invite and sending them a screenshot of the messages I sent through that portal, MHTA magically figured out that they made a snafu and quickly followed through the portal to address my requests: I want a breakdown of the singles, doubles, triples that were implanted I want a copy of the final agreement and terms I signed the day of the procedure I want a follow-up consultations scheduled What I got was: A copy of the invoice which I already have. No breakdown of the grafts like I had asked The last page of some agreement with Dr. Diep's signature, my signature was not on it. As far as I can tell, it could be some random document I did get an offer to meet virtually with Dr. Diep on 10/13. I think I'll take that. Also, got this offer of an appointment via email. Not through the Onpatient.com portal which is kind of odd. Been asking for a follow-up for some time now. If it could have been done through email, why wasn't it done earlier? But hey. They actually followed up after I had nearly resigned that post-op and post pocketing my money, that I'd be on my own. I didn't have to shake them down with another email. They actually reached out me on their own (unsolicited) and in an Olympic/World Record time of only 2-months after my surgery date! What do you know, they might be able to add back in the "M" for "Medical" in MHTA afterall. Keep you guys posted in this regard.

"The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it." In another thread, the answer the patient got directly from MHTA was "We start from the middle, then move left. Then go from there." Something to that extent. I'll post it here when I find it again. But in other words, Dr. Diep can't even get his stories/responses consistent. What is a tell tale sign someone isn't telling you the truth? The stories are never the same. As for me, I told Dr. Diep in my consultation that I've never taken any meds to treat hairloss. I asked him to prescribe to me propecia. He then told me the cheapest places to find it (Costco, then Walmart). He also told me to use Rogaine foam. I trouble getting the prescription fulfilled from Dr. Diep that I didn't bother and asked my Kaiser Dr. to write a prescription for me. So I've been using the Dr. Reddy Finasteride I get from Kaiser since May and it has totally worked. I can't tell if Rogaine has worked yet. But the point is, meds haven't kicked in yet. So why perform extractions in anticipation of follow-up work being needed? It's just another one of the compromises he makes at the expense of the patient in the procedure chair. And the lie to go along with it hasn't yet been perfected. If you are trying to say that I sound like a stressed worry-wort, you'd be mistaken. As I write these things, I am as calm and optimistic as can be. Actually talking about my HT has been very therapeutic. Having the ability to articulate my experience, critically analyze the work, and think may come off as being a stressed individual, but then again you'd be mistaken.

I had long hair prior to surgery. When it was shaved on the day of the procedure, I kicked myself for not doing it myself and donating it to Locks of Love. Given that, you and I have similar hairloss pattern. I am older than you by 4 years. I had been on the fence about HT for years. But after hitting age 43, the hairloss was accelerating (not saying this will happen to you). That was what turned the tide for me in getting an HT. But I am on propecia now and it is working out for me with no side effects. Unfortunately, my surgeon can't produce irregular randomness if you gave him a full box of crayons and tell him to scribble. Everything is done in straight lines. At the end of my recovery, I may have to explore repair. Very impressed by Dr. Nadimi's work. Will follow your progress closely.

I was surprised too. I got a shot to each upper arm followed by this comment from Dr. Diep: " I gave you that to relax you." I was relaxed alright. So relaxed, I was under for most of the 12-hour procedure. The anesthesia regiment was not discussed at all. I know some of his other patients didn't get GA. But I know he was delayed for my procedure. So his need to rush through me to get to his consultations required that he give me GA perhaps? That is another thing about my experience with his MO. Dr. Diep doesn't volunteer any information. If you don't ask, he won't tell you. And depending on what you ask, you might not get a straight answer. For instance, patients asked why he doesn't map out the donor site for symmetrical extraction. This was the answer Melvin got from him. No one has gotten an answer from him yet as to why he places graft incisions in row/grid patterns. I wasn't restrained in anyway. But when I finally saw Dr. Diep again at the end of the surgery he mentioned that I moved around a lot. He also told me he was able to pull off the procedure with only pulling 87 more grafts (original estimate was 2250), that I have a big head, and he expressed in a surprised tone that the recession went pretty far back. As if he didn't examine me well enough beforehand. But yeah, if you are considering an HT, now you know a bit better what to expect and what questions to ask. As for me, I do expect good results. But I still question a lot of Dr. Diep's tactics and now that I have first hand experience, I can spell out the flaws of his underlying techniques. He isn't any where near the top of the food chain his videos paint him to be. Even his most ardent supporter can't say he is in the same class as less-talked-abouts like Nadimi. What he is near is a highly dense population of affluent HT candidates/patients that he can leverage to pump out video after video. Take those videos away and what is left is: Linear constructed hairlines. Linearity of which is broken up by adding zig zags below the hairline Asymmetical donor extraction A large punch used in donor extraction Overharvesting of donors in patches/small areas as no attempts are made to diffuse/spread out extraction Very likely a high rate of transection loss Unnatural placement of grafts in rows/grid

Well, I think I have a pretty baseline understanding of Dr. Diep's MO. He spends an hour per 1000 FUE grafts session with the patient. That is administering the anesthesia, performing extractions, and performing the graft incisions. The rest is left to the techs. He also spends 15 minutes going over the paperwork before you are given the pill cocktail. My FUE procedure was 2337 grafts. I was the second patient that day in for a 7:30am call time. After waiting a good 15-20 minutes in the lobby, I walked into Dr. Diep's office at about 8:00am. I was given the pill cocktail, signed away my patient rights by agreeing to arbitration, and lead into the procedure room sometime ~8:30am. As I was lead to the procedure room, the door for the first patient was open and I got a glimpse of the first patient. I saw no blood. Then the door was closed as I walked by. I didn't see Dr. Diep again for another hour as we didn't get started until between 9:30am-10:00am. During that time, he undoubtedly was performing surgery in the other procedure room with the first patient for that hour. I can remember one of his techs walking into my room to grab a microscope. We didn't get going until after 9:30am. I was there until 10pm, knocked out 90% of the time. 14 total hours, give or take. The only time I was awake during the procedure after the administration of the anesthesia was: When I was woken from the pain during donor extraction. FUE is supposed to be a pain-free procedure, yeah? Mind you, I was under general anesthesia AND local anesthesia and still woke from pain. How much thrashing was going on during my donor extraction to wake me from those meds do you think? Lunchtime. As I climbed back into the chair after lunch, they didn't care to change the beddings. It looked like someone was executed on that chair. Sometime in the early evening late afternoon as the anesthesia was wearing thin. These bullets above, I've detailed in my thread. So given Dr. Diep spends 1 hour/1000 FUE grafts (obviously less if FUT). My procedure had 2337 grafts. We didn't get started until 10:30am. That puts the time Dr. Diep spent with me finishing up right at around noon/lunchtime. The only times I was aware Dr. Diep was in the procedure room with me after the anesthesia was when I woke from the pain during extraction and at the end of the procedure. I think Dr. Diep's "I'm in a hurry" techniques are done so he can finish the work with his two surgical patients per day before lunch time. He undoubtedly has consultations at lunchtime as that is when patients are able to leave work for an appointment. I bet he takes lunch around 2:30pm. My consultation with him was at 4:15pm on 12/26/2019. When I arrived on time, there were two consultation patients ahead of me. One was waiting with me in the lobby and one that was exiting after paying his deposit. Another was a follow-up patient (he had on a head covering). There was one more consultation patient that I could see in the lobby after me at close to 5pm. Dr. Diep likely spends the remaining hours after lunch attending to patients' awaiting consultation. He has yet to make money from those patients. And make no mistake about it, those free consultations aren't free. Before you walk out of the clinic, you are told you have a few days to pay the $1000 deposit, or lose your scheduled surgery date. Then you have a week after the deposit to get a refund if you change your mind. He is making money from those consultations. Now I am acutely aware of these times during my procedure because in the procedure room directly in front of the patient chair is a TV. Under that is a clock situated slightly to the right. And anyone who has seen Dr. Diep's work knows there is a marked difference between the work he does on the left vs. the work he does to the right. Always always, the shortcomings to his work are more pronounced on the right side. Coincidence? @Dadda confirmed that Dr. Diep starts on the left, then moves right. I originally thought if he underestimated his graft count, he just parks himself on the right and pulls more extractions. Hence the asymmetry. But I don't think that is the case any longer. I think if he is delayed, which was the case with me (I am thinking patient #1 ahead of me came late that day), he starts making compromises so that he can finish in time to make his appointment with his patients awaiting consultation. No efforts are made to graph the donor site; this industry standard practice is NA at MHTA. The thrashing of the donor supply. What can't possibly be anywhere near 5%-15% transection loss. Recall Specific_Violinist's donor. Compare my 2337 graft donor site to the 500 graft count higher 2800 FUE donor site of this patient (and yeah, I know there is a difference in density). The unnatural rapid-fire linear grid placement pattern of grafts. They aren't for efficiency or are his style. They are compromises made so he can meet his consultation appointments. Meaning his work is compromised. Just to give you an idea how packed his consultation schedule is, my consultation appointment was initiated on 11/4/19. The actual consultation appointment was 12/26/19. The procedure date was 7/24/2020. So that what I am stating doesn't sound like rampant speculation, any other recent MHTA patients want to chime in if Dr. Diep was hands on or even present in the procedure room with them after the AM hours? I am willing to bet the farm the answer is 100% NO. Can any other Dr. Diep patients weigh in on the placement of the clock during your procedure? I was in the procedure room at the end of the hall. Was the clock easily viewable from your procedural position and thus easily viewable from Dr Diep's surgical position behind you and to the right? @Tentpole91, @Dadda, @kdlmajothers?

Only applicable within a certain window. I believe it is 30 days. If beyond 30 days, even the CC companies can't do anything about it. So how long before you made the call to the bank after you made the deposit?

I graduated from a high school that is 4 miles from MHTA. The average per capita income in the area is near ~$100k. That's the average. Now just average out jobs in the tech industry and that average skyrockets. That means many MHTA patients actually reside in that very area and can comfortably afford the cost of hair restoration. Now that is key to the vast amounts of those Youtube videos we see that Dr. Diep produces. Simply, patients of MHTA are are just a few minutes drive away from the clinic. It is not much effort or expense for them come to the clinic and sit down for the video session 1 year post-op. Dr. Diep then leverages the close proximity of his patient base and pumps out video after video. It is proving a massive success for him. From a business stand point, kudos to him for that. As for the other clinics, many of them rely upon extended travel or medical tourism. Once the procedure is done, they travel back home. So a sitdown follow-up consultation a year later is not easily arranged. Otherwise, they'd produce the same volumes of videos. Because we all know those other reputable clinics produce results that surpass that of MHTA patients. They are just at a disadvantage in that their patients are dispersed widely across a large geographical area. But your right, if a prospective patient comes here, they are able to peer behind the curtains at Dr. Diep's techniques and can make a more informed decision. But then again, this forum is hidden away in a small corner of the interwebs and doesn't have nearly the same reach of Youtube.

End of Week 9 Update: I received an unsolicited email today from MHTA stating that I did not register the Onpatient.com invite they resent ~4 weeks ago. That isn't correct, because I did register the Onpatient.com invite and after doing so sent two messages asking for follow-up consultations, the agreement I signed on the day of the procedure, and the breakdown of the singles, doubles, triples grafts that were implanted. I sent them a screenshot from Onpatient.com with those messages and now will await their response. Probably another snafu and should be solved. Glad they didn't forget about me and that I am a patient of their medical clinic. Better late than never I suppose. Speaking of which, my procedure date was 7/24/2020. That means I am now officially 2 full months into the recovery process. Whoohoo!! That is an important milestone because we know that marks early "Spring" for HT patients and it is during the 3rd-4th month that the transplanted growth should really start sprouting. And it also means that hopefully I am at bottom depths of the ugly duckly phase. Which considering much of the center frontal area above the hairline didn't fall out and that we are in quarantine hasn't been all too bad. Despite the shortcomings of Dr. Diep's surgical techniques, he has proven time and again that his patients can rest assured of one thing: high graft survival. Just about every graft that doesn't dislodge early in the process does take root. Thought it would be good to illustrate where I was and where I am now with this pic. The upper corners of the transplanted area is filling in faster than towards the hairline and is mixing in well with what natural hair was once there. Hairline shots. Grafts nearer to the hairline corners are really taking their time coming in. Don't know if I can ever get used to looking at the left side of my hairline. The donor area shots: And the cumulative photos:

So the "mafia" statement was cheeky, but out of line. Apologies for that. I did not ask you to refrain on commenting in my thread. I did suggest that moderators recuse themselves from moderating threads discussing the work of surgeons who've performed work on them. The suggestion is to ensure impartiality which is the hallmark of what this forum is supposed to be about. This should be simple to implement. I ask again that be seriously considered. I've never said my hair transplant is a failure, nor have I given up. Where does that come from? As you can see I've been documenting my journey quite thoroughly. That is not the hallmark of someone that has packed up and moved on, is it? What my thread does illustrate is my journey. The techniques used in extraction, donor supply management, and graft placement within my procedure are a part of that. The quality therein are clear for anyone to see. Additionally, I've elaborated on the operation of MHTA has a clinic. These things should be made known to any prospective patient considering to have work done at MHTA. I am well aware that I may look great once this journey is done. But despite what the results may be, sometimes "It's about the journey not the destination." Also, "the devil is in the details." And I don't feel my thread isn't negative. It's helped a number of people so far. Haven't you seen their responses? I just don't think you see that. As for my post that spurred your PM, here it is. Also, it was followed up with this statement. I am pretty sure that the OP in that thread, @Buffaloboy, is thankful that MHTA patients gave him feedback and he was able to make a choice he was comfortable with despite the loss of his deposit. But ok, point taken. You've given me carte blanche to criticize Dr. Diep's work, particularly the work performed on me. I will exercise that, particular as I near the end of the journey. But, I am not allowed to make cheeky statements concerning the forum integrity. Point taken.

It is a good plan. Plan on not having a botch with the hairline procedure at all. So picking the right doc that can manage donors well is paramount for the first procedure. Get it right the first time. Get a doc that is known to have transection loss down to 5% or less that is known to produce great results. Both have to be in place before the doc can be considered worthy of master/top tier status (trust me on that). People do generally go to the same doc, provided the doc does a good job the first time around with both the donor site and the graft site. If not, people run. Don't let the convenience of geography be a factor at all in your decision making. If willing to travel, the extra cost of lodging and travel is less than the cost of a doctor that is more conveniently located near you. Once that discipline is adhered to, then don't let a few thousand dollars between this doc and that doc be the deciding factor. Go to your choice for the best doctor.

I know. But don't get me started. Dr. Diep has mafia protection on this forum. I really feel I am helping people lurking on these forums. Many have reached out to me on this site and Real Self, so I don't want to get another DM from a mod and banned until I do have the chance to get let it all out. But check out a quote from my OP down below to get a better idea how my donor was handled: I was woken from general anesthesia from the pain during extraction!

End of Week 8 Update: Note to self: For better quality pictures, take them with the camera on the back of the iPhone and not the one facing the screen (AKA, the selfie camera). With that said, I do see some new growth as very thin wisps. No avalanche of sprouts or anything. I am full-on in the ugly duckling stage has some of the left over transplanted hair in the front middle above the hairline is starting to thin out. No response at all from MHTA. Now that they have money, looks like I am on my own. MHTA certainly hasn't lifted a finger to schedule any follow-ups; Might as well remove the "M-for medical" out of MHTA. Other than that, nothing else to say that hasn't already been said. Here are the latest pics:

Ask if there are any additional papers and agreements that must be signed before you make full payment and before the procedure!!!!!! (At least one recommended surgeon here makes you sign away your rights as a patient just before the procedure).

Post an update on your thread.

You're welcome. I had shoulder length hair until the procedure when it was shaved to a ridiculous looking do. I am hoping I don't have to wear a beanie to the Thanksgiving dinner table :). So I found this photo on my phone. Closest to an overhead shot I took during those early days. Composited it to a shot of where I am currently at. Dr. Diep did feather grafts into my natural hairline. I don't think my natural hairline went as far as the grafts do. Also, much of the hair in the upper regions of the hairline are growing out in random patterns instead of rows as I would expect from how they were planted.

These photos are the same as the previous ones but are in gray scale mode to eliminate the redness. The redness darkens the skin at a glance and gives a false illusion of density. In gray scale the redness is reduced/eliminated so you can see the hair against the scalp. I'll post these photos from time to time until the redness is gone. I noticed before the last buzz cut that to the right of the vertex, the hair was really thin from the extraction which was done very high. I mentioned this previously but did not post photos. I'll document these shots from time to time as well. Here is the right side that shows how far up and near the vertex that the extractions were performed by Dr. Diep. And the left side. Extractions are not quite as high, but are still pretty darn high.

Some folks have been asking me about how I edit my photos. I use GIMP (GNU Image Manipulating Program). It is an opensource photo editor that has nearly all the professional functionality of Adobe's Photoshop with a price tag of $0 dollars. Basic functionality is easy to learn (crop, resize, deleting out facial features, compositing layers--as in my cumulative pics--) in 1-2 minute Youtube videos or Google searches. I keep all my posted pics resized to 800 horizontal pixels so that the page loads fast but still allows the image to remain clear. I still have the hi-rez photos kept locally. So for those folks out there lurking and want to be discreet, hope this compels you to share. It helps others tremendously.

End of Week 7 Update: Not a whole lot of progress. Sprouted grafts are growing but no new sprouts as far as I can tell. I did manage to take the best pic yet of the donor area. Hope I can reproduce this going forward. Too bad I wasn't able to take it last week when the hair was taken down to the lowest since the procedure. I also finally got some better aloe vera. Took Amazon a month to get it here. It's not magic pixie dust or anything, but it works a lot better than the stuff I got at Target. Alright, here are the pics: Let's start with the donor stuff this time. The over-harvesting is still quite visible at the lower area of the donor site. Right side. And the left side. Overhead shot: Right front side. You can see the linearity o the hairline is on the right side in this shot. And of course, the signature Dr. Diep corn rows. Some pimples that have since popped and scabbed over. Also, I have my back towards the light source which is how I will take this photo going forward as it seems to produce a better view of the status of things. In previous photos, the linearity of the hairline is sort of washed out from the lighting. All I can hope for is here are these grafts to come out: Nice 'n thick with rows to sprout between the rows that are visible now. What are the chances? Those zig zag/stair steps that Dr. Diep puts in front of the hairline to diffuse the linearity of his incision/grafting technique. But as you can see from my Day 4 photo, there aren't many zig zags/stair steps that he put in on the right side. Left side. Hairline is less linear and cornrows are packed closer to each other. But it may be less linear in that grafts in the front have fallen out but have not sprouted yet. There are more sprouts than on the right side. Also, my back is facing the light source in this photo as well. And the cumulative pic. The right side (photo's left) has hardly any zig zags/stair steps as mentioned earlier in the Day 4 pic. Front middle grafts have largely not fallen out yet thankfully. Those grafts in the middle front are making the ugly duckling stage that much easier.