hairthere

Bill, how many grafts went into your crown? do you plan to have any more work done there?

What's so odd about this guy's case is that he then went to H&W and had tremendous results. He also claims to be on very good terms with Armani clinic and says he would even go back to them in the future. It's a very odd post/situation....

Bill, i just asked the patient exactly what happened. Have not received an answer yet. he did say that Armani clinic "had taken care" of him, whatever that means....

Post some pics!

I wouldn't equate an HT to either open heart or root canal...it's somewhere inbetween. Lenny, without seeing your pics we can't really tell if 400 grafts would make a difference in your appearance. as you've already been told it's not worth cutting a strip in the back of your head just to "test" and see if a HT is for you. FUE is your only real option. Dr.Feller does small procedures called postage stamp or lunchtime fue. they are intended for doing small sessions (200-400 grafts) where patients can get the work done over time. i believe he is charging $10/graft.

regarding choosing a doc, yes experience should equate to excellent work, but that's not always the case. there are a select few docs who are masters at making an ht look natural and dense packing an area. there are even less docs doing FUE successfully, so choose wisely. best of luck....

Here's a link to my pics. I had 3200k--1100 went into the crown. will be a while before i have results to show...

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/showthread.php?t=148798

oh, and you'll also get to see what poor crown work looks like from my previous HT.

Forget getting an HT in Vegas....it's a crap shoot! I'd look at Dr.Alexander in Arizona.

Without knowing the extent of your hairloss or your family's hairloss history it is pretty much impossible for us to give you a solid opinion. One thing I can tell you for sure is that 400 grafts via strip is a mistake. FUE maybe--again, you need to supply us with this pertinent info and then we can comment and tell you exactly why it does or does not make sense.

You CANNOT compare how you grow at five months to anyone else. And from what I've seen after looking at countless B&As, and from my own experience, your growth looks perfectly normal.

What are the details of your case?

There's a patient on HLH named tonsofhair that had an Armani megasession (3k grafts) and although he is only 5 months he is not satisfied right now. 5 months is way too early to judge an HT, but i would definitely find him and watch his case as well as others....the bottom line is, do you really want to be a guinea pig for $20k and upwards?

This topic was discussed thoroughly not too long ago. I believe a poster named notgoing2gobald brought it up (although i could be mistaken). perhaps do a search for his name and you'll find it....

snakeoil,

I'd definitely keep Feller at the top of the list. I would consult with Alexander too as his work just looks incredibly natural. Gabel studied with Feller and though I have'nt seen much of his work, what I have seen looked just as clean and impressive immediate post-op as Feller...

Dr.Reese also provides no pictures to comment on....

the spacing where he had no hair vs. native hair looks exactly the same. and look at the grafts in the temples. they look huge and are spaced very far apart.

Not sure if I'd qualify that as "ultra-refined" work. Those incisions/grafts look kind of large. Also, the grafts do look like they are spaced very far apart, even in the areas where it's suppossed to be dense packed. For that area of balding plus your donor type, i think you should have shot for at least twice the number of grafts. did you consult with other docs and was their estimate roughly the same? i don't mean to bring you down, and of course in 12 months we might all be blown away by results, but i'm a bit skepitcal right now....

Rick, whatever doc you decide upon, make sure he can do megasessions/dense packing in one procedure (that's 2k grafts and upwards), especially with your NW level. IMO, while the coalition docs are all good and do ultra-refined work, not all of them are showing megasession numbers. Perhaps their sites are outdated, and I could be wrong. Here's who I considered for an HT:

Feller (who I went with--all around great doc)

H&W (show very large numbers for megasessions)

Rahal (all around great doc)

Alexander (most natural hairlines I've seen, not sure on how many grafts he can get)

Shapiro (all around good doc)

Rick, Please don't make travel a factor in picking your doc. Most Top docs will reimburse part of your travel expense plus hotel stay if necessary. it's worth the few hundred extra dollars it might cost to go with the doc you feel 100% comfortable with.

Post some pics please....

While Dr. Rose's B&As look pretty good, what concerns me are the graft counts. It looks like anything over 2k takes the doc multiple sessions to get. even one of his sessions under 2k took 2 surgeries. i still think there are very few docs doing megasessions, and that's why i contend there are only a handful of top docs worth going to. perhaps the hairlosscure can correct me if i'm wrong about dr. rose's ability to perform megasessions.

glad to hear it all worked out. now remember the one most important factor in your recovery is to have the utmost PATIENCE...in a year you'll be able to fully judge the results. good growing to you!

If you were going to travel to upstate ny, why not travel to nyc? dr. feller is in great neck and he is one of the top 5 ht docs in the world.

I viewed the pics before reading the write-up and was going to comment that the incisions looked as tiny as mine courtesy of dr. feller....then i read the write-up and it all makes sense...excellent looking work!

Any of the TOP docs can do crowns. I too had my surgery with Dr.Feller and while I can't speak for the results yet, the entire experience was an A+. Dr.Wong is suppossed to be noted particularly for his crown work as he works very closely to mimic your natural swirl pattern, so you might want to check him out as well....

Here is a link to my pics...he placed 1200 grafts in my crown.

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/showthread.php?t=148798

My top three choices were: Feller, Alexander, Rahal. Next were H&W. I went with Dr.Feller. After researching all of these docs over the past year I felt comfortable that any of them could successfully plant grafts at a high density with natural results.