Oxiborick

I actually think I do see some growth of the transplanted follicles, and not just an optical illusion caused by scabs falling off. A Reddit guy who seems to know his stuff I kept in touch with agrees:

They won't be getting any more money out of me. Very sad to hear this. Thought they were my friends practically. I have autism, too, so I am easier to fool in terms of social stuff than most people. 😐 Thanks, might get in touch very soon. Yeah the Reddit people were like "name and shame these scumbags" etc. etc., though they certainly meant well and evidently weren't wrong. The one doctor I talked to after (the one who would only cryptically say that not all 3800 were successfully delivered) was emphatic that this was very fixable. Also for whatever it's worth every doctor I talked to before the procedure, when my balding reached the point where I hated how I looked, say that I was a Norwood 5 developing into a 6, and one of them jokingly called it a "Norwood 5.5." That is my impression just eyeballing it. That many extracted, but only about half implanted. It was over two days, about 8 hours each day. Two things I can't figure out here: 1) If they were going to scam me, why would they allow me to pay for half and finance the rest? You'd think scammers would just demand everything up front. 2) What the hell happened to half the grafts? Someone accidentally spill them down the sink or something? Another weird thing is that the surgeon recommended Toppik after the procedure and I joked "I got this surgery so I wouldn't have to dump powder on my head for the rest of my life." I figured she was just offering a friendly suggestion, but now it seems a lot more sinister in retrospect. So... assuming these ~1750 grafts actually yield (I think they might as they are still growing, so they ain't dead yet at least), will I actually look WORSE because of this procedure? That would be a little hard to take.

Any guesses as to how many were taken from the donor area? What's really weird is that I only had to pay for half, with the other half to be paid in monthly installments (which it looks like I won't be doing, haha). If they were going to rip me off, why not get all the money up front?

Quite a bit. Or so I thought. They had really good reviews on Google reviews, and I even spent a lot of time at their clinic going over everything. They didn't seem suspect at all. Now I'm thinking that I was super naive in this approach. You'll probably think I'm an idiot after reading that, lol.

Independent. Not comfortable naming them until I know more for sure.

The clinic does nothing but hair stuff. I don't know if the surgeon does it full time. The others who have commented on this say that it looks like about half the extracted grafts from the donor are "missing" from the implanted area. I'm just really sad about this as I was super excited to be getting my hair back, and because my working relationship with the clinic was so good. I'm not even angry, just... sad.

How much does Thanks. How much does it look like was taken from the donor?

Hello everyone, About three weeks ago I got a hair transplant (FUE) for 3800 grafts. A day or so after the procedure, I made a post showing it off to Reddit and got some extremely negative feedback. "Worst work I've ever seen" etc. The consensus was that I only actually received 2000 grafts, or at most 2500. I figured everyone was just being dramatic and I kind of dismissed it, as I was really impressed with the clinic's professionalism and general approach. I've also dealt with some real bozos on there so it was easy enough to dismiss these guys. I returned to my home city after staying in the clinic's city for a couple weeks. When I got home, I showed my "after" pictures to a friend who has undergone three procedures and he also said it only looks like about 2000 grafts, or 2500 at most. So I had a consultation with another hair transplant surgeon (a very highly respected one with a great reputation) and he said the same thing, though instead of giving an estimate he just said that 3800 were clearly not transplanted successfully. Now I'm really starting to worry. I hope to god this isn't true as I liked this clinic a lot. (It's in the USA.) They were extremely helpful in getting me set up and were very friendly and professional to deal with. They also paid for two days at a very nice hotel and for my transportation from the airport. Didn't seem sleazy or incompetent at all. Very clean and tidy clinic with a nice setup, not some crappy "back alley" type deal. Total procedure took like 16 hours, so it's not like they rushed through it. Surgeon was extremely attentive to my well-being and needs, and was very kind and considerate. Great "bedside manner". What's going on here? Are all these people wrong? Just eyeballing everything it does look to me like there are more donor extractions than grafts onto the bald areas. The grafts that I do have (regardless of whether they number 2500 or 3800) do seem to be growing (shock loss hasn't happened yet) so I guess they survived the procedure. Also everything is healing just fine, just tiny bits of residual soreness here and there occasionally but nothing that would even require Tylenol. Here are my before, after (grafts) and after (donor) pics. What do you think? Please refrain from making angry, hysterical comments; I want to be as rational about this as possible and hate drama. I really, really, really don't want this to be true as like I said I had a great working relationship with the clinic leading up to the procedure... and I especially hope it's not true because I won't be able to get another procedure until the beginning of 2024 (too much else going on until then). Would be especially interested in hearing from any actual surgeons who might be reading this. Thanks!