Dhcyoo

yeah to cover up their behinds.

I really appreciate your empathy and just sitting in with my deep dissapointment and the heartbreak after spending so much of my resources... the comments about "just wait 12 months!" may be true logically, it doesn't really help much emotionally. and my hope is that in community like this, where i'd like to think that we're reading this because we ALL know what it feels like to be emotionally hurt/sad/dissapointed, we would be able to support one another more emotionally.

I appreciate you naming that. I totally agree. I have never seen growth that was weak around 7-8 months becoming "WOAH that's a big improvement" at 12 or 16 months. If anyone seen it please do share.

the last 2 photos in my original message is actually 8th day. And you can see significantly less number of plants/hair there...

the replied messages are not organized via stack up / indent like reddit - so there's lot of scrolling up and down to see who had said what, etc.

Seems like you and I might be in the similar boat - needing some sort of repair. I totally agree with you the stress of going through the surgery and post work... is insanely painful and stressful. I basically invested one year of my life here...

Nah, whatever planted, did NOT grow. That's the problem.

I appreciate you sharing your similar sentiment of concern, given that patients do look into this network as a source of referral - I went with Mwamba because of the video chat that @Melvin- Moderatordid with Mwamba and the positive reviews; and the result is not so great so I'm quite dissapointed. To be fair, as I mentioned in other reply, Justine, the administrator said she'll get back to me next month - but the track record of their communciation has not been reliable. So I'm really hoping that they would give me update - if not, I'd be one sour and dismissed patient. If anyone knows what's going on with their US operation, please do share.

I appreciate that. I totally agree. This was over $10,000 surgery. There needs to be an accountability.

Please expand. What's going on with them? And why aren't they in Atlanta anymore? What happened to them? Did something bad happen?

The communication interface for this forum is really confusing and unintutive - @Ajamilo, would you write down the screenname/ID of the Joshua guy who works for Dr. Mwamba? I'd love to have a chat with him.

Yeah, their service is horrifying. I'm surprised how that is not mentioned in communities like this. I think more people should share experiences like these - we've invested so much of our resources and that cost deserves much better aftercare. The only way to get in touch with them is via call because they RARELY respond to your emails. I mean, at this point, I've known than almost over a year (from pre-op conversation till now) and that's been my consistent experience. And I had to do so much work trying to get their attention. I called Justine (the admin lady) to ask about my future checkup plans since they closed down NJ office (which I have no idea why) and all she said was "they're trying to revamp the American operation." And they said they'll get back to me next month about my followup/checkup visits. Given the track record, I feel like I'll have to call them again to see if they will give me a spot IN A MONTH. I told them I don't live in Atlanta, so I'll need to know well in advance so I can plan my trip (not to mention it'd be during winter/break time - horrifying time to travel just to get my hair seen by the doctor). Taken all together, doctor is a sweet/gentle/thoughtful guy. The team is lovely. However, the after service, including the communication has been unorganized and non-reassuring. Yes, the doctor had met up with me via whatsapp but that took a long time and I had to jump through hoops to make that happen. I'm surprised how Dr. Mwamba's team has been known to be elite here. Also, I'd like to mention the surgery takes VERY LONG TIME compared to other places. It took almost 24 hours (2 FULL days until midnight) to do 2200 grafts on me. I was very confused and exhausted... He said he likes to take time to make sure it gets done well - great! I really appreciated that. Given the result i'm experiencing now (of course, we'll have to see the final result at 12 months) and the time/resources I'm experiencing... this has been pretty challenging experience.

I appreciate your explanation. It makes sense that minimaturzied hairs might be more visible if I do let them grow out -- he might have seen the weaklings trying to survive under the microscope, but it might not have been visible with naked eyes since I've always kept it short. So giving more time, the minituarized guys can thicken up, and hopefully fill in the patch. Then his reasoning makes sense for not planting as much in that spot. I mean, just thinking through, as a transplant surgeron who wants to give the result patients want, it wouldn't make sense to "not plant" just for the heck of it. I'm sure his reasoning was true that he did see potential hair growth there. I think what I'm faced with is the miniatruzed hair struggling to grow - and that's not visible because i'm keeping it short. So, thank you

So you're saying, he saw some native hair hanging out, even though they were miniaturized, and decided to not plant there to give the weak native hair chance? While I can appreciate his conservative approach, I wish that he had shared that approach with me and see if I want to be more aggressive with planting hair. Also, can you clarify what you mean by "i had further loss?" I don't think I had further loss in any of my areas - the areas that didn't grow, simply had no hair planted. And as you can see pre-post, there were no visible hair in circled areas that he didn't plant. As mentioned in the original post, I have been on fin for awhile and it's been working. So I don't think I'm losing hair.

It seems like plastic surgery advanced cultures like Korea have really strong thick density results in the first surgery. Is this 1+followup surgery a common thing in the states?

Please say more? Shock loss from existing weak minituarized hair? Or shock loss of the transplanted hair?

I appreciate you naming that "grow your hair" is not the solution. That's how I have felt every time I hear someone respond me with that comment. I didn't spend 10K to "seem like" I have hair. My hope is to get the density that I'd like to have at that price point. So, thank you for naming that.

I appreciate your encouraging response. That's my plan - to give at least 12 months to see what happens. I'd really love to hear stories of individuals who might be in the similar situation who saw patches around 7-9 month mark and saw growth hmm... ANYONE OUT THERE WHO CAN EMPATHIZE WITH ME?

It's so challenging to figure out who "elite" doctors are. In Reddit community, HMR is super highly regarded - but it seems like folks here don't really like HMR. And after experiencing Mwamba who's supposed to be the elite doctor here, I don't really have a good tool to gauge who the elite doctor is anymore. Does anyone have advice on this?

Thanks, Melvin. I appreciate your thoughts given that you'd gone through an extensive surgery. If I were to pursue the second surgery, after how many months should I receive the second hair transplant, would you say? Also, in your experience, is "fixing"/"touch-up" different skill than the whole surgery itself? I'm wondering if I should be looking for a specialist who can do "fix-up" surgery or a reputable surgeon (i'm considering HMR in Mexico) would be able to do the fixup.

Thanks for your response! As mentioned in my post, Dr. Mwamba was certain that he put less graft there because there were already hair in those areas, which I doubt because my pre-surgery photo does not show any hair in that region... So I'm having difficulty understanding what he means by that. I mean, I don't think he would lie to me and I do believe he provided the best work he can. Do others think that it might be true that there were more hair in that spot? Does his explanation of "shock loss" make sense (even though I don't see hair in that region in the pre-surgery photo?)

I had the FUE surgery done on early February 2022. It's been 7 months and my result does not seem to be getting better. Particularly my temple is not growing and I wonder if this is normal and if I should be concerned about this. Dr. Mwamba is a good guy but I must say I'm a bit concerned about my growth compared to others' photos at this point. I am particularly concerned because it seems like there were less grafts planted on the temple areas (as you can see in my post op photos), which he responded with "there were other grafts already there" When I spoke to him about 6 months mark, he said that there might be shock losses and it's normal for front hair to grow first and temple to catchup later cycle. But I have never seen photos on reddits (hairtransplant) not on this network. Could someone share with me if you know of any similar cases and the temple filled up later around 12 months mark? I'm already looking into different clinics for a fixup. $5 per graft, New Jersey, Dr. Mwamba, roughly 2200 grafts. 1 PRP session, i have been on fin for 1.5 years and min for last 5 years

Hey Melvin - how do we access the live Q&A?? Will this be via youtube? would you please let me know how to have access to the live discussion? Thanks!

@JDEE0 Thanks!

@Snowboard Thanks for your response. Would you share an article that you mentioned about Distefano screwing you up and Dr. K fixing you up, with me? That'd be very helpful