shadowcast

Interesting thread. Not sure how any decent doctor can underestimate by 1,500 grafts. That is insane. Also not sure how they could've just thrown some of the excess grafts on the tip of your temple points, as I believe hair in that area is naturally very fine and nothing like "regular" donor hair.

On 6/17/2022 at 6:14 AM, Alex94gasp said:

Soo, do you advice doing an HR with Dr. Pinto? The hair after the transplant stays natural?

Yes and yes, but I don't think he's taking new patients at the moment.

23 hours ago, Nccan said:

Check the Spanish forums, he probably has the most patient posted results out of them all, and they are pretty much all knockouts, his temple points are some of the best I've seen in terms of softness other than Konior

He did some temple work on me, he uses very fine hairs and a small implanter that feels more like a toothpick.

44 minutes ago, AlexMeister21 said:

Was the procedure painful? I'd rather be sedated, but I wouldn't mind being awake the entire procedure if it was worth it in the end. 

I have also had surgery with a different doctor who gave me valium - it makes no difference for pain, it's just to calm your nerves. Either way, the surgery is easy. I have had worse times at the dentist office.

16 hours ago, AlexMeister21 said:

Supposedly, he only does one patient a day and likes to be in control of the entire procedure.

This is true, I had surgery with him almost 4 weeks ago. Not only is he the only one who touches your head, but he will explain each step of the surgery beforehand, and will also narrate what he's doing while he's performing the surgery itself. He does not give any sedatives on the day of surgery because he specifically wants you to be awake and lucid so that you can communicate with him the entire time. Too early to tell if my result will be good, but great doctor and clinic experience overall.

On 6/2/2022 at 9:12 AM, therambler said:

 

I recognize that shower - that's the one with the weird handle that makes it very difficult to get the water to the right temperature! I was there just a few weeks ago getting surgery with Dr. Pinto and as you mentioned the experience with him and his staff is perfect. Looking forward to seeing your result.

@Jesuslopez How's everything going? Any update?

@Falconary Looks good, you should be due for an update in a few weeks or so!

Looks absolutely correct for 4 months...maybe even a bit ahead of schedule.

Regarding scars, I think it's pretty well-established that whether or not you'll have any visible will also partly depend on your skin. So I don't know that going to Couto guarantees visible donor scars/going to Mwamba guarantees no visible donor scars.

I went to Lorenzo, I believe his techs use at least an 0.8mm punch, sometimes up to 0.9mm. I believe I have 0 visible scarring. I'm looking at photos of my donor now from 10 days post-op and the work is almost undetectable.

Also, Lorenzo told me the thing about Spanish people having great donors is bullshit.

1 hour ago, JDEE0 said:

I don’t know what your situation is exactly, but my area to fill was relatively small in the grand scheme of baldness at I believe 38cm2, so I suppose even with fine hair it’s not too tall of an order to provide adequate density. Maybe if your case is a bit more area to cover (again i don’t know, I’m asking really) then it makes sense to temper expectations?

Yeah, weird, I don't know. I've already had a pretty large transplant, and it turned out pretty good, so I'm not really worried about it.

1 hour ago, JDEE0 said:

Also, it is coming along nicely and it’s only 5 months so still pretty early, but as I said in my update there are conditions where it doesn’t look so great and lacks density, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I require a touch up of 4/500 grafts to be completely happy, but who knows at this point.

You're only at 5 months! That's still very early. I wouldn't even think about touch ups until you're at 10 months. It will definitely get thicker.

14 minutes ago, JDEE0 said:

Yeah, Dr. Pinto said it was around an average of 50 microns or so overall, I assume a little less in the sides/above the ears/nape areas and maybe a little more in the occipital etc, but around about that, so quite fine really. 

That's interesting - my hair is a bit thicker than 50 microns, and still Dr. Pinto classified it as "very thin" and as a result told me to manage my expectations about achievable density. Yet your result is looking nice and dense so far.

Looks great! 5 months is still super early, it'll get a lot thicker. I'm headed to Pinto in a few weeks myself, can't wait!

58 minutes ago, Falconary said:

What can my expectations be at this moment?

I looked about the same at 3 months, so I think you're right on track. First milestone will be at 5 months where you should see some cosmetic improvement. Give it time.

I experienced very odd tinnitus a few days after my FUE. Can't say for sure it was due to the surgery. It was pretty minor (only audible at bed time with my head on the pillow) and only lasted a few days and then went away.

2 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

assuming the 1st HT was successful, the existing grafts should hide/blend/conceal some of the ugly ducklingness of this 2nd HT. 

Got it...thought you were implying that the scalp would heal better or something. For me, the ugly duckling thing is about more than just having a bare scalp on top. It's also donor shock, pimples, redness, etc.

Sounds like he's saying that good motorized punches are enabling them to do good FUEs, because manual punches are just too time consuming...but European doctors have been doing large FUEs with manual punches for many years. FUE has been the standard for good European doctors for, what, over a decade now? I just don't understand why the "best" American clinic is so far behind.

4 hours ago, HappyMan2021 said:

There will still be an ugly duckling phase, but not as bad as the 1st one.

Why would this be the case?

48 minutes ago, therambler said:

Emilio is top class! I'm booked in with Dr. Pinto for my upcoming surgery in May and very happy with my choice.

Second this, Emilio is great. I believe he underwent some very early FUEs with Dr. Lorenzo ~10 years ago.

I don't think there's a ton of difference, except Pinto has a lot more patient-posted cases on Spanish-speaking forums (they're like 95% homeruns). Pinto and Ferreira are both great surgeons.

5 hours ago, Gramatik said:

I have also heard that Lorenzo is not doing all the implantation alone.

Yes, I just said this. He does about 90%. Rest is done by a young tech. Although I don't believe this is true for all cases he does, probably complex repairs and whatnot he does all implantation.

This is an interesting thread. Would love to know more about the genesis of FUE. Young Lorenzo's own hair loss on full display in that pic!

On 3/14/2022 at 5:40 PM, nks123 said:

Unfortunately it seems neither Dr. Pinto nor Dr. Ferreira are taking consultations right now... what a shame. 

I'm unsure what to do.

How hard did you pursue Pinto's patient coordinator? I got a consultation/appointment with him fairly easily a few months ago.

On 3/12/2022 at 8:00 AM, TheGreatPretender said:

The thing that seems consensual among most people around is that even though both Ferreira and Pinto are great at their craft they still fall short in comparison with De Freitas though but I am not sure if this is just because of personal preference or if his technical skills are better for most patients.

I chose Pinto over Freitas, based on his cases posted by patients on various forums.

On 3/17/2022 at 9:59 AM, Gramatik said:

For example in Asmed Dr erdogan does only the incisions as well, Freitas and Lorenzo do the implantation where the extraction is done by technicians.

Lorenzo does not do all of the implantation anymore.

On 3/9/2022 at 1:19 AM, Jerome said:

Has anyone had good results with crown work i heard its the hardest area to do and how do you sleep at night if you got it transplanted.

I had just about the biggest slickest crown you could imagine. Did one FUE, results were good but not amazing. I do think that a 2nd pass will take my crown from good to great. So basically, if you go to a good doctor, and are prepared for more than one surgery, then the crown is totally fixable. Regarding sleeping on a fresh transplant, I was actually surprised at how easy it was. I just slept carefully on my side with only the donor area in contact with the pillow.