Z--

Agreed. This is unfortunately a botch job. The sign of a good transplant is naturalness. How is anyone seriously in their right mind defending this work?

• The temples look very strange; like genuinely a different texture than the surrounding hair. It may need to stay shaved down.
• It also looks like you may be limited to a slicked back style. If that's your preference, that's completely fine, but if you want to comb it forward, I'm concerned that won't be possible.

FUT is only really worth it if the scar doesn't stretch and/or is minimized. If one is a Norwood 6/7, the extra 2 - 3k grafts can go a long way. It's the difference between a barren crown and one with some coverage. Majority of people aren't at those Norwoods, so FUE is probably the way to go.

Lol @ the body hair suggestion though. They tend to look awful, pube-like even, except in rare exceptions (like Gatsby).

25 is really young man. I'd wait to see your final pattern given that you have aggressive hairloss.

Otherwise, consult with Zarev - if there's any doctor who can fix this, it's him.

Pitella and Eugenix are fine with these types of cases as well.

8 hours ago, BackFromTheBrink said:

What gives you reason to doubt? Every result I've seen (posted by clinic or patient) has been a home run.

Could you share one that wasn't?

There's some cases where he takes 12k grafts from a NW7. I'm not entirely sure how it's possible. All his patient posted results are insane though

48 minutes ago, Turkhair said:

It’s all supply and demand. Konior is highly in demand and charges what he wants. 

Turkey doctors do the same. They feel cheap to you because you’re enjoying the currency exploitation but they charge Konior prices according to their country standards. 

Just imagine yourself earning the currency of the country you consider cheap to put things in perspective.

Like Gatsby I don’t recommend going to Turkey when you live in the best country in the world. Maybe you can save money but being alone in a foreign country dealing with foreigners who don’t even speak your language, it’s not really nice. 

This is accurate. £3 a graft for someone who is paying in lira isn't all that different than, say, $15 a graft for an American.

I do disagree that the US is the best for transplants though. So many mediocre doctors there -- don't think there are more than 5 worth visiting. It's not like it's easy to recover from American doctors either, and the medical system is madly overpriced. The only place that's even worse money for value is the UK because they're also overpriced, but somehow even worse. Turkey, like anywhere else in the world, only works if you do proper research and select a good doctor.

11 minutes ago, davidn said:

Where is your list mate

See below

Favorite Five HT Doctors (not ordered except by last name)

Couto

Hattingen

Konior

Pinto

Zarev

Worst

1) Dr. D (from Bay Area)...$20k+ for imo a terrible scar, poor growth and hideous row implanting, which some patients claim is done by techs. No thanks. Lots of folks from other forums to this day call out HRN for keeping him on the recommended list for too long...

Most Overrated

1) HLC. I don't really get why people like them so much when there are doctors at the same price point who are better and won't decimate your donor.

Most Underrated

1) Pinto (deserves Couto status)

Best Value

1) Laorwong, Nader and Pekiner. All are a $teal price-wise and their results are awesome.

Following up from 2022s edition found here:

Added a few new lists. This year, instead of focusing on a bottom five, I figure I'd ask who -- in addition to your favorites -- you see as most overrated here, most underrated (slept on HRN - and perhaps deserves to be a member), and who provides best value for $$.

Favorite Five HT Doctors*

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

Worst

1)

Most Overrated

1)

Most Underrated

1)

Best Value

1)

If you ever see a "hair transplant guarantee" RUN far away. It's all marketing bs.

Zarev is a cut above the rest. He's very hard to get hold of, but his work is exceptional.

Pitella is also producing great results. His prices are also the most reasonable of this group.

H&W are a classic choice (and gives you the option to do both FUT and FUE) and have been around longest. Few weird outliers lately where they may not have been present for the entire surgery according to some patient testimonial...

Hattingen is one of Europe's best (also offer FUT and FUE).

My personal order for the above and Eugenix (at the present time) goes Zarev (top 3 worldwide) > Hattingen > H&W > Pitella > Eugenix.

8 hours ago, Turkhair said:

What about HLC? Just because there’s one bad case of theirs (patient had problem with his skin so he’s not blame free) doesn’t mean they don’t pump out stellar results. 

there were many problems in that thread beyond poor growth lmao. they completely botched his donor - that isn't a skin issue, but a doctor's mistake.

1 hour ago, HappyMan2021 said:

darn, yet another poor density result from him. 

@knivesout09 I haven't had time to read your entire post history - can you please clarify, is the cobblestoning from Mwamba as well?

IMO there is absolutely no legitimate reason or excuse for cobblestoning. Even the most mediocre of doctors should easily be able to prevent cobblestoning. Cobblestoning should only be a legitimate risk if you go to a truly bottom-of-the-barrel doctor. 

Say what you will about the density issues; I am genuinely surprised and a bit taken aback if this cobblestoning is from your Mwamba surgery. 

Agreed. It's really weird -- Mwamba is one of the few elite doctors who seemingly has this issue recur again and again. Does it have something to do with the way he places the grafts?

It's really unacceptable.

Pinto imo. Bisanga is really solid, but Pinto is exceptional right now. I love that he's so involved in every step of the procedure -- haven't seen a bad result from him yet.

39 minutes ago, Pelange said:

@Rahal Hair Transplant@A_4_Archan@mr_peanutbutter

Thanks everyone for your expert opinions. I already have an FUE and now I want to do a 2nd HT. Some surgeons told me to do a FUT and I was debating if I should go with Eugenix for FUE. Their results looks good too. At the same time, I am worried if I use most of the grafts in the 2nd HT, I might not be able to do FUT later or sth else. I am trying to meet with Dr. Sethi from Eugenix in July to see what he thinks. 

Thanks again.

What are you trying to fix and what is your norwood?

Sethi is a solid doctor, but his decision-making strikes me as questionable. For example, he tends to be willing to sacrifice hump and crown coverage, and opts to use more grafts for temple points. It's fairly aggressive and seems more short-sighted when grafts may be needed for dipping humps.

5 hours ago, ScottishGuy21 said:

Followed this thread prior to my HT and again after. It really is essential reading for anybody planning a procedure.

There’s far too many social media outlets pushing results that are quite frankly impossible to achieve. How many people post surgery are left disappointed and psychologically damaged because of these unrealistic expectations? If only they’d stumbled upon this forum and thread first they would have saved themselves a lot of angst.

Here we have pages upon pages from real patients operated on by some of the best Dr’s in the world. Blunt honesty about the pro’s and con’s. It’s funny re reading post transplant how much more you can relate to things!

I’m very happy with my own transplant but it does still have the usual weak spots under severe UV light or when parted in a certain way. As a NW5 however given my starting point is absolutely delighted with how it looks. That being said if I was coming in blind and duped Into expecting coverage and density like It was in my teens I’d feel a little disappointed. This is why education  is essential for patient well being.

 

Agreed. Most people who post results tend to post them in favorable lighting and its important to remember that hair tends to look worse in direct overhead lights or at night when it gets oily.

Also, there's this weird trend here lately where folks post photos of their hair with fibers in...not sure how that's going to help anyone, but w/e.

you're in the early stages of diffuse thinning. See if you can take meds - it might get you solid regrowth.

18 minutes ago, GeneralNorwood said:

Yes, but the question is what is your plan for styling the sides. 

I am asking because for example Captain Haddock tried the skin fade after his HT and it didn't turned good for him. Personally i think that barber could handle this better, because left temple was cutted to short in his situation. For some reason left temple is often weaker in Eugenix cases. Anyway, i think that after HT on temporal peaks, skin fade can work, providing that temple peaks won't be cutted too short. 

 

Captain Haddock's example : 

https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/58556-frontal-nw2-restoration-eugenix-m-26-december-10th/?do=findComment&comment=634369

 

Haddock's case is different though. His issue looked to me like egregious misangling and poor growth. (Ignoring the doctor's gaslighting as well)

Etwan's growth looked very good from his first procedure. I think many in here just voiced concern around planning given his age. However, I don't think you can necessarily fault Eugenix for that, especially if the patient is aware of the risks and is willing to take more risk around future thinning to enjoy his hair in his 20s. In the end, he seems happy and we can support that -- even if the choices he's made aren't necessarily those we'd make for ourselves.

50 minutes ago, general-etwan said:

As for the temples, which is a very valid and important part to think and talk about, the aggressiveness of that plan was fully communicated to me. Obviously, the conservative strategy was to do nothing at all to the hairline and temples and leave them all receded. I agreed to do it, after a night of thinking, knowing the hair behind the implanted temples could continue to thin somewhat over decades. However, it's not a severe risk like someone early on in hair loss would have with implanting a heavy hairline and risk losing all the hair behind it. In my evaluation it's a much smaller risk, due to my hair loss being so advanced already. I also plan to ramp up my medication and topical treatments in the future (I've done as little as possible so far, really). I made sure that they did the fronts of the temples with single grafts, light hair and light density, and we looked at pictures of when I was younger showing my temples always having been pretty light, trying to replicate that as closely as possible. My entire hair situation will never look 100% flawless or 100% natural but I am long past accepting that. I am satisfied with all the areas covered and work done so far and just can't wait for it all to grow out.

First congrats on hopefully a successful second procedure! Think if you were fine with the outcome before, this should be more than enough tide you over for the foreseeable future, assuming the same level of growth as the first operation (and there's no reason to think that it wont'). That said, I've got two questions.

Do you have a sense of how many grafts you've got left for future use in the event that the crown expands? The reason I ask is that it looks like they've left a gap between the donor area and the transplanted hairs in the crown (similar to  @Niko1s procedure, and I recall you mentioning that you wanted to avoid that). Think 900 grafts or so going to the front and temple points was, imo, a bit too aggressive for my personal taste, but tbf, I didn't think they'd be able to pull an additional 3,000 scalp hairs either. I wonder if they could have placed the 900 grafts there. My only worry in this case is that if there is a lack of donor hair for future expansion, beard grafts don't look good, especially when placed next to each other. Second, did the doctor promote or try and dissuade you from seeking to lower the hairline and add the temple points? I'm curious what their position was there for posterity sake.

In any case, as you said, you felt like it was more important to aim for focusing on a better appearance for the now, and if you're on medication, you'll hopefully be able to retain what you've got to avoid future risks above.

pekiner >> bicer >> turan

Like most, I'm curious how you feel at the 1 year mark...

13 minutes ago, GoliGoliGoli said:

Did you document your transplants on here? Always curious to see others crown work. 

Hey - not yet. Waiting for this transplant to grow in before contemplating posting the results. 

8 hours ago, Rogith said:

@Z-- you have done second transplant on the same area

No different area. First transplant was front and midscalp. Second was crown exclusively. 

There isn’t a single doctor doing high Norwoods as good as this guy. That said a top-down view of the crown would be helpful to assess “true” density. 

I did a second transplant 9 months after my first. Assuming it isn’t transplanting the same area, if your doctor is comfortable with it, why not?

Not too late to take meds - it may prevent donor from thinning. Speak to your doctors and make an informed decision for you on whether stabilization and some possible regrowth outweigh being on those medications for life and the small likelihood, albeit possible, side-effects (fogginess, sexual, gyno). Diff doctors have diff preferences, some want you to be on Minoxidil (oral esp) and others Finnasterode and some on both. 

Doctors for this case are 100% Zarev or Pitella. Don’t bother with Darling Buds — he doesn’t compare to them. Bicer isn’t known/great for higher Norwoods either, even if I think she’s generally a very decent option in Turkey. 

Eugenix is okay, but it depends on budget. If you can afford $4+ dollars per graft (keeping in mind you’ll need a minimum of 6k grafts, probably more) stick to Zarev/Pitella. If you can’t pay that amount, I’d do a lower Eugenix package, but be careful with planning, especially for the crown area. 

You can also look into H&W, if you are fine going the FUT route for a mega-session. It may yield you additional lifetime grafts (2k average if you do FUT first and then FUE), but you’ll have to deal with an FUT scar. 

Best of luck! 

Where are the people who said that it was rude of Bisanga to speak of another doctors work (in reference to Bansal)? Are they going to hold Eugenix to the same standard?

That said, I partially agree with Eugenix’s assessment here. While the post transplant of Soni looks like it got good growth, it should look much dense for 4,000 grafts…I don’t see too many multiples in the hairline though. 

Also, it’s highly concerning that the doctor allegedly reneged on the repair price and wouldn’t stand by the work when the patient returned.