Foundation

I figured I'd share my story now that I have just completed my second hair transplant... that I chose NOT to do at Bosley. Well, I was 23 years old at the time I went to Bosley. I was young, desperate and willing to pay anything and listen to anyone, and it didn't hurt that the guy I met with could have sold the Kabbahla to Bin Laden. They were willing to perform a surgery on me at such a young age and suggested I get 400-500 grafts. At that point my hairline had receded, and they were going to fix that in one shot. Well, what did I know? Not much apparently, it sounded good to me. So the day came and there I was, 7:30 in the morning in NYC. Well, at about 8 am I entered the chair and was out of there by 5 pm. What, you're going back to read that sentence again? It took my almost 9 hours to get 500 grafts. Actually it ended up being closer to 800, b/c my donor hair is so strong. So about an hour per 100 grafts. Once again, what did I know. They had told me that I had really thin blood, so I was bleeding a lot and it was hard for them to work with that (aren't they supposed to be professionals?). As I looked in the mirror I realized that they hadn't put nearly enough grafts by my left temple. I would tell you the doctors name, but honestly, I have forgotten it as he has since retired and I only saw him for about 15 minutes anyway. I filed it as a complaint and was on my way home, hysterically crying (9 hours of your scalp being crunched only to end up disappointed is somewhat traumatic). About three months later things started to come together and by 6 months I was spiking my hair again! Well, that lasted for about 6 months until I lost a few hairs and realized that they had spaced my grafts about an inch apart from each other. I was able to deal with it pretty well, as my mom is a hair stylist and I had become pretty skilled at hiding my baldness (in fact, people would tell me how cool my hair was). Little did they know that I would sometimes spend up to 2 hours in front of the mirror, washing and re washing, and pushing and looking in every mirror at every angle in every room. God, that was horrible. Well, as my 25th year came around I discovered that apparently Propecia stops working. Wish someone had told me that before I bothered to spend that much money just to screw up my sex life. Anyway, I stopped taking it and for about a year thinned. I had gotten to the point of my hair loss where I was going to be at that age regardless of whether I ever took Propecia or not. Not exactly worth it for a few years of keeping my hair. So I headed back to Bosley. They told me I wasn't ready for an HT and sent me packing. I waited 3 months, and went back. They did the same thing again (Dr. Dibiase... what a dick). So I said to him, "how come you were willing to do one 3 years ago but you wouldn't now. What sense does that make? He basically told me he never would have done it to begin with and walked out on me. Thanks dick. No, honestly. So I set up another appointment, this time with Dr. Alpeter. He thought an HT was the best thing for me at this time, go figure. He drew his plan on my head which pretty much had him transplanting hair into areas that were somewhat thinning. "But what about shock loss I said"? "Don't worry about that" He said. Wow! Well, I have to say, he is one of the nicer guys I've met in this crazy bald world, and for all I know he does a fantastic job, but I left that building (after talking to another used car salesman) reluctantly having made an appointment. I spent the next few days with an ominous feeling. I began to do my research. I ended up here, and found that a guy by the name of Dr. Feller was one of the best surgeons in the world and basically worked around the block from me. Today I got 1300 hair grafts for about half the price of the 700 I got at Bosley, and was literally done in half the time. Oh yea, as for my scar, Feller told me they had done a good job, but I was a small case so you'd have to be a real schmuck to have messed me up bad. Anyway, my experience with Dr. Feller was made me feel like I was in the Wizard of Oz. I left the black and white Bosley and entered a world of color at Fellers. In conclusion, do I think that Bosley is the devil like some people will have you believe on here? No, I do not. Do I think they will ruin your life? Probably not, I haven't met any of those people, have you? Do I think they're are better options out there? F*ck yea! Feller is one of them. To the 3 of you who finished reading this novel, I say thank you. I hoped my story isn't just a waste of bandwith. Jeez, I'll shut up now

I guess I'll be far more blunt than I was in my initial post. Dude, why do you seem hell bent on going to Bosley? Most Bosley patients (like myself) are people who do not know about forums like this and the absolutely wonderful doctors who are out there that are far more skilled and HANDS ON than the docs at Bosley? So once again, I have to ask... why Bosley?

Real quick, here's my story. I was 23 years old when I decided I couldn't stand my hairline anymore. I have always been one of those guys who expressed himself through his hair. Growing up there were mohawks, spikes, shaves, bleaches, coloring, long hair, short hair etc. So at 23 years old, I made a decision to get a hair transplant. Because I was 23 years old, and I didn't know any better, I headed over to good ol' Bosley NY. It was there that I was told 500 grafts was all I needed. Sounded good to me! (Please remember throughout all of this I was quite uneducated in terms of HT's, young, and desperate too look my age). Now I would get into my Bosley surgery in great detail here, but I am going to make an entire new post dedicated to that, as this is already running long. They gave me about 700 + b/c I had so much donor hair, and I was on my way. Well, almost four years later I am 27. I also have hair grafts that you can drive a truck through, in the front of my head (once again, I'm going to make an entire post about the experience). Well, with age comes experience. Today I received my surgery with Dr. Allen Feller, which we planned for 1200. He summed up my situation pretty well, "They didn't do a bad job, they just didn't finish it". His goal was to finish their mess, and catch me up for a while. I am fortunate enough to live about 15 minutes away from his office, so I left work with a "stomach ache", and headed over at 11:45. At 12:00 I went in to speak with Dr. Feller. I told him that my biggest fears were shock loss, and my students finding out about what I did when I return to work in 5 days. He eased my worries, and we were on our way. Dr. Feller is completely hands on, quite different from my Bosley surgery (who was my doctor again?). The whole thing took about 3 hours, which is ridiculous considering for half the grafts, Bosley took twice as long (LITERALLY!). My experience was great, but man are those nurses rough with that tape! I think I may have lost more hairs from the removal of tape than I got put in (kidding obviously, but ouch!). I don't know how to feel right now, as those of you who have had these things done know that the hours, days and weeks following an HT are rough. I will say this though, Dr. Feller is one of the realest doctors out there, in any field. He told me it looked great, and guess what? He even threw me an extra 100 + grafts with no extra charge. Anyway, I'm pretty much high from the vicodin right now (I haven't taken so much as an Advil in 5 years), so I figure this post is all over the place. Anyway, I'll post pictures when I get around to feeling better. For now, I figured I'd put this out here and see if anyone has any comments or questions. Ok my brothers in bald, talk to you soon.

Real quick, here's my story. I was 23 years old when I decided I couldn't stand my hairline anymore. I have always been one of those guys who expressed himself through his hair. Growing up there were mohawks, spikes, shaves, bleaches, coloring, long hair, short hair etc. So at 23 years old, I made a decision to get a hair transplant. Because I was 23 years old, and I didn't know any better, I headed over to good ol' Bosley NY. It was there that I was told 500 grafts was all I needed. Sounded good to me! (Please remember throughout all of this I was quite uneducated in terms of HT's, young, and desperate too look my age). Now I would get into my Bosley surgery in great detail here, but I am going to make an entire new post dedicated to that, as this is already running long. They gave me about 700 + b/c I had so much donor hair, and I was on my way. Well, almost four years later I am 27. I also have hair grafts that you can drive a truck through, in the front of my head (once again, I'm going to make an entire post about the experience). Well, with age comes experience. Today I received my surgery with Dr. Allen Feller, which we planned for 1200. He summed up my situation pretty well, "They didn't do a bad job, they just didn't finish it". His goal was to finish their mess, and catch me up for a while. I am fortunate enough to live about 15 minutes away from his office, so I left work with a "stomach ache", and headed over at 11:45. At 12:00 I went in to speak with Dr. Feller. I told him that my biggest fears were shock loss, and my students finding out about what I did when I return to work in 5 days. He eased my worries, and we were on our way. Dr. Feller is completely hands on, quite different from my Bosley surgery (who was my doctor again?). The whole thing took about 3 hours, which is ridiculous considering for half the grafts, Bosley took twice as long (LITERALLY!). My experience was great, but man are those nurses rough with that tape! I think I may have lost more hairs from the removal of tape than I got put in (kidding obviously, but ouch!). I don't know how to feel right now, as those of you who have had these things done know that the hours, days and weeks following an HT are rough. I will say this though, Dr. Feller is one of the realest doctors out there, in any field. He told me it looked great, and guess what? He even threw me an extra 100 + grafts with no extra charge. Anyway, I'm pretty much high from the vicodin right now (I haven't taken so much as an Advil in 5 years), so I figure this post is all over the place. Anyway, I'll post pictures when I get around to feeling better. For now, I figured I'd put this out here and see if anyone has any comments or questions. Ok my brothers in bald, talk to you soon.

Look, don't be too nervous man. I can promise you that the majority of the people on here have not had a surgery performed there nor have they seen anyone personally who has. They have mostly read horror stories on the internet... which if you haven't noticed is filled with them (in all walks of life)! Most people who are very satisfied (with anything) will not be as likely to post something on a forum as someone who is upset/bitter/angry etc. Now that being said, I had a Bosley surgery. I did it when I was young, and didn't realize that just because they were the best advertised, didn't mean they were the best. I had a minor surgery of 800 grafts and to be perfectly honest am not very happy with it. This does not mean I've been butchered. In fact, my scar healed great. The work that was done on me was recently critiqued by one of the most respected HT doctors in the country. He said something like, "They didn't do a bad job... they just didn't finish it". He could not have been more right. And this is why you may want to go somewhere else for your next HT. I now have to get my old work filled in, instead of concentrating on new areas, which I would be doing had I gotten the best job to begin with. So all that said, don't let these posts scare you too much. You may have had a surgery that you will be very happy with. Keep a positive attitude, as I truly believe that is half the battle. Good luck man, keep us updated.