jimcraig152

50 minutes ago, WS2020 said:

I don't understand why there is so much hatred toward Dr. Diep here. I really think Jim's result looks really good. I am getting my HT with Diep this week. Will report back with my experience. Diving in!

Please take meticulous hi-res photos of your donor the minute the bandage comes off. Should be on the Day 1 (surgery day is Day 0). Page me when you create your thread. This is harder to do than you think. Here is some instruction on how it is done. Thanks and good luck!

Nader. <$2.50 USD/FUE graft. I am a B.I.G. fan.

Surgical Hair Restoration Goals > Cost in a landslide. But you don't need me telling you that.

Add Bicer to your list of options in Turkey and do some research on her on this forum. Lots of very positive testimony about her as of late. Seems her pricing is good too.

Ok, cool. In a real world scenario, transection rate has to be added in. Plus some punches are further dissected into smaller FUE units. But the number of punches should be roughly equal to the number of FUE's, unless the rate of transection is really high. So the formula for a X-amount FUE procedure would be:

[(Number of Punches) * (Rate of Transection Loss)] - (Follicular Units Lossed to Transection) + (Punches further dissected into lower hair units) = X-amount FUE Procedure

So at what rate of transection loss would you say a patient is due a refund + restitution?

Say if you have a guy that has a 1000 FUE procedure, and there are:

1. 1030 punches in his donor area, he went to a Super Elite surgeon (3% transection loss), no refund due
2. 1050 punches in his donor area, he went to an Elite surgeon (5% transection loss), no refund due
3. 1100 punches in his donor area, he went to an Excellent surgeon (10% transection loss), no refund due
4. 1150 punches in his donor area, he wen to a Good surgeon (15% transection loss), no refund due
5. 1151-1250 punches in his donor area, he went to Turkish-mill (16%-25% transection loss), questionable if refund is due

Safe bet that if the patient went to a reputable clinic in the US and had greater than 25% transection loss, the patient is due a refund at a minimum? And if let's say the rate of the rate of transection is between 40%-50%, the patient is automatically due a refund + restitution, would anyone agree?

So after the punches are taken, they are separated out as 1's, 2's, 3's, & 4's. But is there any additional dissection of the units at all? Like, if you have too many 4's and not enough 1's, do they dissect the mult-hair units to get the 1's that are needed?

Cool. So using 2500 as the number and factoring back in transection loss, these rates would correspond to the descriptions I've provided, right?

• Super Elite 3% or less:  2575 punches for a 2500 FUE procedure
• Elite 3%-5%:  2625 punches for a 2500 FUE procedure
• Excellent 5%-10%:  2750 punches for a 2500 FUE procedure
• Good 10%-15%: 2875 punches for a 2500 FUE procedure
• 15%-25% is Turkish-level:  2876-3125
• Above 25% is a botch:  >3126

Assume there is no transection loss. All excisions survive 100%.

The question is, on average, for every one punch, how many grafts should there be? Another way to ask the question is, let' say someone says, they had a 2500 FUE procedure. How many punches should there be?

Should the punch to graft ratio be 1:1?

If not 1:1, then what should the ratio be? 1:1.05, 1:1.10, 1:15, 1:20, 1:25?

I will buzz my hair down to the length of the recipient area Friday before Thanksgiving. Giving it time to grow out to maximum length before I do. Leave a few days before the holidays to bounce back a bit so it doesn't have the freshly mowed look.

Regarding the rows, the paradox is that I have to deal with surgeon-induced techniques that diminish the aesthetic results that I am seeking. Whereas with you, you are dealing with the ugly duckling stage which is part of the process. See the difference?

402 by my count.

On 11/2/2020 at 7:25 AM, jake on linear said:

This is NOT a surgery you want to botch, and you want someone who will care about you and pay attention to you before, during, and after the procedure.

You don't know how true these words are.

Bicer testimonies as of late have been overwhelming positive. Need pics of your donor and your temples myself before I make further comment. Looks very good so far though.

54 minutes ago, thefivehead said:

 

Thank you both for pointing me in the right direction. Just filed a dispute with my credit card company and will keep those interested updated about whether I receive a refund. 

Also would like to hear about the choice you eventually make. We are brothers in the struggle. Page me with the @<username> command when you create your own thread. Thanks!

The forum software has been buggy in the last day or so. Has anyone else noticed this?

End of Week 15 Update

Neighbors, some acquaintances, the lucky ladies that call me not their one and only, but call me that they are lonely, have been pretty much the only people I have been around in these 3 months into the recovery. I've been able to keep the procedure under wraps with the social distancing and dimming of the lights. But the Holidays are around the corner. I had hoped that I would get enough growth by then to just show up and no one would be none the wiser. I had very long hair before the surgery, so now that it is cut short, it would have been dramatic change anyway. But looks like I will either wear a hat or a beanie around the Holidays. But you know what? I was shampooing my hair today and was thinking, why don't I go with the overly gelled spiked hairstyle? You know the "Clearly-I-am-a-douche-Guy-Fieri-Spiked-Hair" look?

This might work!

Took extra snaps of the right side at different angles and positions under the lights so you have better picture of what is going on.

The excisions near the vertex on the right side that I feel just isn't a good spot to have more scalp showing than hair. The scarring is still visible if you look closely in the thin area.

And here is a wider shot. Angle shot of what it looks like.

@thefivehead, according to @Legend007, if no services were delivered, you are entitled to your money back. He was able to get his deposit back. Call your CC company. Read this post for more details.

My assessments on a surgeon are more towards the fundamentals though:

• Naturalness is the fundamental and primary goal of surgical hair restoration
• If paying the premium for FUE, less visible scarring is the primary goal allowing for more flexibility with shorter hairstyles

The methods applied must support these fundamental principles. As for hairline designs, Dr Diep does this well. But also realize, this is the least demanding of tools required in a surgeon's arsenal. If you work with a highly qualified surgeon and express what you want, he should be able to deliver it along with methods that support the fundamental principles. We were able to help this member get going right with gaining that expression. Check it out here.

Thanks for the update @FoxtrotChi. I just mentioned in my thread that I feel that Dr. Nadimi's hairlines appear as if she apprenticed under Mother Nature. She is definitely an unheralded elite!

@Tentpole91,

I am in contact with a member via PM in pretty much the same predicament and in a lot of despair. He asked me who I would consider for repair. Honestly, I haven't explored the topic yet (too early). Do you have a shortlist or have identified who you will go to for the repair? I'd like to pass the info to that member.

@Sam818, same question to you sir. Who did you go to?

No worries @Rossybop. We are brothers in the struggle. Glad to be of help. When you do get your procedure, page me. Very keen on seeing your eventual road to success.

I'd be weary of the clinic you spoke of in this thread however. Highly ethical, yes. Highly technical, perhaps. Highly artistic though? As you can see the proposed hairline they designed for you was unanimously jeered. I believe you are in good hands now (your own).

-Best

I got some Dermamatch coming in a few days. Will test it before I attempt to go live with it for Thanksgiving. If I don't end up using it for the Holidays, I am sure I'll have use for it later. Thanks all for the help, thoughts, and advice!

Deleted. Forum is acting weird.

1 hour ago, anotherhairlosssufferer said:

Urgh this thread is a handful. I am VERY afraid of the baby-doll hairs and scarred donor, but also Dr. Diep had pretty good results in the past and looks like he produces a huge yield consistently so it's very hard to say, clearly there were some bad results recently. I am following very closely.

Who else should I look at? I am ok with losing the $1000. Hasson&Wong? Who has consistent results/good donor and natural hairline?

Konoir and his disciples all win the FUE Donor "Like a Virgin" Award:  Gabel & Nadimi. Nadimi's hair lines appear as if she apprenticed with Mother Nature instead of Konoir. She is one of the few surgeons that does both the excisions and grafting. Although, she might be on the conservative side and I am thinking that is because she does 100% of the work and might not take big jobs? I am a big fan of Dr. Hasson's work, and I am going to stoned as i say this, not so much of Dr. Wong's work. But it is too much of a hassle to go to Canada now anyway. Read @hybonix's thread. He was in your same position. He went to Dr. Shapiro who I am a big fan of too. I am a big fan of Dr Louis Nader's work out of Mexico. The price is outstanding. Nader does both the excisions and implantation using DHI. My initial thought after seeing the left to right inconsistencies with my procedure repeated with other Dr. Diep patients, is that I don't want a tech anywhere near me. I've softened that stance provided the techs are highly competent like H&W's. So I've thought earlier on, if had a do over and I had to keep it to North America, Nadimi or Nader.

Anyways, make your own decisions. But make no mistake about it, what you are seeing are realities.

9 minutes ago, ShadowMoon said:

Well said. What irks me is that you can eloquently describe the problem with supportive evidence, yet it is not addressed by the moderator. Instead, it is only repeated that Diep has more than a dozen happy results. It is not the successful cases that define a surgeon, it is the bad ones. Where did the surgeon go wrong? Was it his fault, or the patients pathophysiology? Top surgeons have perfected their craft to the point where, when patients have a poor result, it is most often a problem with the patient, not the technique. Even so, the very elite can predict these shortcomings and minimize them by modifying certain aspects of the surgery, as is described in most of Dr. Konior's posts.

I have seen no indication that Diep does anything to accommodate these shortcomings from patient to patient, and that is why he gets more negative results than other surgeons affiliated with this site. Yes, he gets good results, but he also gets a lot of bad ones. Those need to be analyzed.

We've kind of been adversarial, but Melvin is a good dude and has a tough job. He is due for a break. Because just like my journey, it isn't no where near done.

But you know, it is interesting.......I read @Tentpole91's last update and he clearly states that he will wait out the recovery period and seek repair with a different surgeon. That was followed by Melvin inquiring about gaining help from Dr. Diep. When I read that, i am thinking to myself "No way would Tentpole91 go to Dr. Diep for repair!". Because the first thought that comes to my mind is this......

So the mention that Dr. Diep offered a FREE repair probably doesn't even qualify as a token to Tentpole91? I dunno. I can't speak for him. Maybe he can chime in here or on his thread regarding the free repair.

Alright, I'll just keep to answering questions here and via PM and post progress updates until at least 2020 is over with.

Duplicate.

Animated based upon the good doctor @DrTBarghouthi's feedback. Looks like he is spot on with lowering the hairline a bit plus the flaring and temple work (if I am interpreting things correctly). Didn't do any freehand drawing this time around. Doesn't look it is an exponential increase in grafts either.

(Hair line at the end. Wait for it.)

Animated my interpretation of your hairline based off the clinic's design for ya. Hope that helps..

Could be. Or they may be approaching your case with more aggressive hairline-only work like this:

If so, that would account for the 300-500 extra grafts. And here is the same hairline with some theoretical temple work:

Anyhow, the mid-forehead height of the hairline placement by this clinic is good and close to where Mother Nature would have placed it on your face (applying fibonacci sequence principles, rule of thirds, being age appropriate, etc.), while still being conservative. But yeah, I think one of these two photos is what you should be looking for while preserving donor supply to treat future progression.

Recipient looks as expected at this stage:  miserable. But the donor on the other hand............wins the "Like a Virgin" Grand Prize. As funny as that sounds, it is the highest order of praise one can receive for FUE donor work.

2 hours ago, Rossybop said:

Wow! Now that would be totally amazing. Totally awesome. That would really delight me but I must wonder is a hairline like that really achievable?

It would definitely make a huge difference to my aesthethics. You should be a professional hairline designer. That's a pretty impressive design

Hahaha, well no. Having spent about 2 hours a day on this site since my HT in July has accelerated my knowledge on the subject. I am now a Harvard Oxford-educated hair loss sufferer.

All kidding aside, the clinic made it easy. The 7th dot that they drew on from the corner in their hairline design is where I set the basis for my revised interpretation for your hairline design. I simply connected the intersection of that dot to the hairline they drew, to where the temple restoration should be. It keeps the height of placement of the hairline they drew for you, but frames your face better without giving you the low-hanging neanderthal brow. But your looking at probably a bit more than double the amount of grafts. Still though, I think is remains on the conservative side to account for further progression.

Here is what I mean about that 7th dot from the overhead shot: