bloodhound

2 minutes ago, SadMan2021 said:

for my 1st hair transplant, the doc really undercounted the # of grafts needed, and there was significant part of my scalp left unfilled. I was quoted 1200 grafts and really needed 2000 or so. 

The grafts that were planted grew in fine but still a failure bc I was sentenced to needing a 2nd surgery. Super frustrating bc the doc knew 100% during surgery it wouldn't look good. But instead of adding more grafts then and there she decided to leave me hanging. 

Did she make you pay for the 2nd procedure assuming you went to the same doctor? 

12 minutes ago, EvansLawrence said:

I have no idea. Maybe some doctor is worse than others. Maybe when they have a bad day they operate worse. Who knows. But if you did all the things they told you to do after, as I did in my case, then its their fault. And they should compensate you.

I agree that’s how it should work. I’m just devastated, probably like how you are. We literally have the same problem it’s bizarre 

1 minute ago, SadMan2021 said:

OP I for one totally understand what you're going through. 

Perhaps the person nitpicking on your "life or death" quote has never has a bad HT, or perhaps they've never even had any HT. Or they cant understand that it is not 100% literally life or death...

A HT is so much $, you have to schedule your life around the surgery, extreme stres and anxiety of the waiting period, just to get a bad result. And then needing a repair surgery that is no guarantee. 

And its not like you did anything wrong. There are exceptions of course but HCI does in general seem to be a good clinic. 

Its a massively stressful experience and you have every right to be upset. 

Thank you friend. I started balding at 17 and it caused me to be a shut-in. Anytime I would go out I needed a hat or beanie and I’d be in fear of it flying off, It stole my life from me. I thought the nightmare would finally end with this transplant. Now I have to spend more money and more grafts that I can’t use in the future.

You hit the nail in the head calling it a stressful process. I’m glad there is someone that understands. Did you say you had a transplant fail as well?

11 minutes ago, EvansLawrence said:

I didnt. They are such a joke of clinic they didnt even reply my email although they replied inmediately to a video I did with a friend who is a youtuber and speaks about clinics all around the world, cause we said on the video that we wouldnt recommend it anymore although we never said it was a bad clinic.

Have you found a clinic that you think will give you a repair job? If you feel like it’s the clinic’s fault then I don’t think you’d want to go back there even if the repair is free (monetarily speaking, since you’re still spending your donor hairs).

10 minutes ago, SadMan2021 said:

you honestly may never know exactly what wrong. Regardless of clinic or doctor, even if the doc is ethical, the operating surgeon is never going to admit if they f*cked up or not. They are running a for-profit business at the end of the day. 

Regardless of who you go to for your follow-up touch up, there is an element of faith you will have to put into the next surgery. 

This is absolutely true, all you have to go off of Is other people’s experiences and make your judgement based on that along with a few other factors

9 minutes ago, EvansLawrence said:

You need to ask yourself if you did all the things they told you for the post operator. If you did then its their fault.

I did, but so did others. Why did it work for them and not us?

9 minutes ago, Berba11 said:

I’m not “deciding” anything. It’s a couple of hundred grafts that haven’t taken. You’re not going to die as a result & although you’re disappointed, this is nothing to agonise over to point of invoking “death”. That’s the objective reality.

You’re already in a far superior position than you were before the surgery. You haven’t been butchered, over harvested, developed an infection, had a bad HT design, wrong grafts used or developed necrosis or all of the genuinely nightmarish outcomes that can happen as a result of a HT gone bad. It’s only going to be a very small touch up required to bring this result up to a very excellent one. 
 

I fully appreciate the frustration, but being overly dramatic (“life or death”) is neither helpful nor healthy. If you’d have come to this forum prior to getting a HT and said that you considered a HT to be a matter of life or death, most people would rightly see that as a massive red flag. 
 

Your next steps should be to maintain a dialogue with HLC with a view to a small touch up to the area of concern. Everything will almost certainly resolve just fine, albeit things may take a bit longer than you hoped. Please don’t panic or get in a funk about it. 
 

It’s your opinion that it doesn’t warrant death, that’s not objective. If I can’t get my hair to look normal by the time I need to be normal I can’t go on. I’m not hyperbolizing, so believe it instead of making claims about how I feel or what the circumstances are, it feels condescending.

I haven’t determined if it’s the clinics fault or not yet, until then I don’t know If I’ll go there for a touch up 

13 minutes ago, SadMan2021 said:

yea good call. just sucks but no one can 100% predict how a hair transplant will go. HCI does seem well rated, and every clinic is going to have bad cases no matter where you go. 

I would be nervous about going there again. Say HCI and the whole staff there did their "best" work and truly did put an A+ effort into your HT, and this happened. Whose to say the 2nd attempt is going to be better?

At the same time though, maybe this was just a one-off freak fluke. 

Yea I was thinking the same thing, why go there again if it’s there fault. But I don’t know how to determine if it’s their fault or if I’m just an unlucky case—If I am then how could anyone help me. 

12 minutes ago, EvansLawrence said:

I have seen your case. Who were your doctors?? 

Umut and Cenginz. I haven’t read through your whole post yet but I’m sure I’ll have questions in a moment 

10 minutes ago, Egy said:

I don't think a top-tier clinic like HLC could have gone wrong and trasected the grafts, as I'm sure they will meet the patient with a free touch-up, but I would recommend @bloodhound to visit a dermatologist before undergoing the touch-up.

Thanks for the suggestion, I’m going to do that. Should I ask if they can see if there’s grafts underneath? 

10 minutes ago, asterix0 said:

It is not your fault so don't feel bad, many clinics have unfortunately deceptive marketing that mask how things truly are. 

Just understand that if something is very cheap, there is usually a catch. What if you were buying a car but was offered one at 10% of the going market price. Would you be skeptical about what you are getting?

 

Thank you. I wasn’t deceived into going there my decision was based on the reviews and the fact surgeons did the work. The price is fair compared to USA/Canada, but for Turkey it’s considered high, definitely more than the hair mills people go to.

I had a budget and did what I thought would yield the best results given the price. Some people have amazing results from them, I’m just unlucky it looks like 

9 minutes ago, SadMan2021 said:

very interesting....was there 1 tech who worked on the right side and a different tech who worked on the left side?

Maybe the left side tech was much more inexperienced and for whatever reason screwed up. I'm really not sure, if all else is equal, why the left side would have more growth than the left. 

One did the extraction, and the other did the implementation. I don’t know either, someone had the exact same thing happen to them i’m seeing. I’m going to take someone’s advice here and see a dermatologist for an answer 

8 minutes ago, asterix0 said:

Where did you check the reviews? I just did a quick search on this forum and found unsatisfied patients who didn't have expected growth just like yourself:

 

Just saw this post today, we literally have the same problem. 

I checked all over online, and with cost in mind I weighed the pros & cons, chances of success and failure and made my decision based on that

1 hour ago, asterix0 said:

The post op pictures look very clean.

I can only think that the grafts were transected and thus didn't grow. That is really unfortunate, I hope things turn around for you man. What made you pick your particular doctor/clinic?

I’m not sure what the cause was to be honest, but yea, unfortunate is accurate. I went with HLC because they had great reviews and results for a fair price, even if you check now lots of people get amazing results from them, seems like i’m just unlucky. 

4 hours ago, Berba11 said:

No it absolutely isn't. Why would you say this?

For whatever reason some grafts haven't taken. It's no big deal and will probably just require a small touch up. Frustrating? Sure. But not the end of the world, about as far removed from "life or death" as you can imagine and is surely a potential outcome you knew could happen from your pre-op research...?

HLC should, if they're an ethical clinic, have you back in for a slight touch up to improve the lagging area.

Hey, appreciate the reply but you can’t decide what is or isn’t life or death for me. I was counting on this to work out the first time heavily, I knew it wasn’t impossible for it to fail.. but I hadn’t seen a fail from them up to the point I got the procedure done. 

I don’t know how many grafts it’ll take to fill in, it might be a big chuck of my donor, but if it didn’t work the first time why would it work now. Beyond frustrating this is a nightmare

4 hours ago, Fue3361 said:

All of this is even more a shame since your post OP pics look very clean.

Shouldn’t that mean the grafts took?

4 hours ago, Fue3361 said:

Like I said on reddit, things aren’t looking great.  But yeah, at 9months contact HLC again and tell them you deserve a repair job since they didn’t deliver.  Id be very surprised if they refused to repair it for free.

 

That said, maybe you get lucky and minoxidil helps it to start growing?

This is a nightmare 

4 hours ago, Calvin said:

I agree with sadman... Maybe you should negociate a repairwork with the clinic ASAP

Strength my friend 

What should I say? I was told to keep waiting

6 hours ago, Fabulous said:

Do you know the name of the doctor who worked on you ?

It was split between 2, Umut and Cenginz 

8 hours ago, SadMan2021 said:

has the left side temple grown in fine, its only the right side that has this emptiness? interesting.

I don't see any last-minute miracle growth happening here. This is not good for 8 months. 

Left side isn’t super dense, but much more viable than the right side 

wow we have the same hair issue 

Hello,

I had 2,700 grafts transplanted via FUE on my temples by HLC Clinic in Ankara, Turkey in April (8 months ago). I had been on Finasteride-only for a year prior to the transplant, and I have not used another medication up to this point.

The results in the beginning were great, but I noticed early that there was a patch on the right temple and it hasn’t filled in completely after this time.

I have considered the fact I could be a late bloomer, but when I check closely I don’t see any sign of new hair follicles, just emptiness in the space I hoped to be filled with hair. Others have had better results in lesser amount of time and it’s disheartening.

I contacted HLC 6 months in and was told to wait until month 9 to reassess. This is in no way a slight to HLC, they are a great clinic that produces great results, It just seems like i’m unlucky and it’s causing me to lose hope. I really need this to work out—It’s life or death. 

What should I do? Apply Minoxidil and see if the grafts will come alive, get another procedure, wait it out? Please help,

Thank you.