Jamie_Finndust

True; but I think you’ve missed the point. Being, that after going through this process I still have no idea what type of outcome I would have seen from Laorwong; and I dont feel confident he knew what I would have been satisfied with. Again, my feeling is he thought my requirements were higher than what they actually were. So who (least of all you) can say that I should be glad the procedure didn’t go ahead when in fact; there’s a pretty good chance I would have been satisfied with the outcome? This is probably the most frustrating part of the whole experience.

Why exactly should I be glad the Dr didn’t proceed with surgery? Also, the point of this thread is to stress the importance of communication; not one about ethics. If you want to discuss ethics; feel feee to start another thread and I’ll happily contribute to that. Although one thing I will say on that is, its clearly unethical to flat out lie about the requirement for a liability waiver, which Dr Laorwong did, in writing.

As most people have guessed. My planned surgery was with Dr Kongkiat Laorwong. Probably best using him for low Norwoods. For high NW or complicated procedures; if you use him; do so only if you are confident you can brake through the communication barrier.

I’m also left not knowing what to believe. Would I have been happy with the surgery; or as the surgeon said; would I be dissatisfied? I did my best to research HT and communicate with the surgeon. I dont think I could put myself through that process again.

During the video call consultation/ review of photos I was told NW6. Another clinic also gave me the same advice. The day of the surgery at the clinic, was told NW7. Im not quite at NW7 but you can clearly tell that I am heading that way due to my thinning patterns.

I think it’s worth remembering that between the first face to face meeting; and the time of surgery; which was the very next day; the advice changed from; you need 7k of grafts to achieve your goals, to; you need 10-12k, but thats not available to you due to insufficient donor

I did have an in person consultation the day before surgery. Unfortunately there was inadequate communication during that session. Otherwise we wouldn’t have had changing advice the day of surgery, with regards to how many grafts I would need. I tried. They tried as well Im sure; but ultimately, it missed the mark. My point really is, do you want to choose a surgeon who can’t effectively communicate with their patients? For straight forward cases, it may (arguably) be less important. For high Norwood/ complicated cases, it is very important.

This is not so much about ethics. They acted ethically by providing advice which aligned with their understanding of the situation. In saying that, I did ask in advance for a copy of any contracts/ liability release forms to review; and was told there weren’t any. Then, the day before surgery I was asked to sign something… Anyway, this topic is more about the surgeon’s abilities to communicate with their patient whats possible and have the tools and competencies to extract the patient requirements and understand what they’d be happy with.

Went in for surgery recently (it was aborted on the day - see my other post Turned out that yes indeed; despite asking for these in advance and being told in writing that there would not be any; I was in fact asked to sign a liablilty release the day before my planned procedure.

Im not totally comfortable posting his name publicly right now. If people on the forum think it’s important that I share; I’ll reconsider.

I flew half way around the world only to have my surgery aborted at the 11th hour. Understandably, Im very disappointed right now. I’m writing this as a lesson to others of the importance of choosing a surgeon who can clearly communicate to their patient, what the likely outcome of surgery will be; and have the tools and capabilities to accurately determine patient requirements. My story: Ive been following this forum and others for years. This year I had the funds to go ahead with surgery. I had online consultations with two respected clinics and decided to go with the second; as the surgeon there does most of the work. This story only relates to the second clinic. After sending an email with my current photos, I had an initial video call consultation with the surgeon regarding having a hair transplant procedure undertaken with them. We discussed my expectations and what would be possible. I was told I was a Norwood 6 and that we could have a good outcome with 6000-6500 grafts over two procedures. I was happy and excited with the way things were sounding, so booked the appointment. Over the next couple of months, I emailed the surgeon a few times with other questions that had come up with me. I received slow; short responses, or none at all. It was apparent that as people on the hair transplant forums had said previously; this was ‘a person of few words’. The time came for my surgery so I took two weeks off work and spent 17 hours in transit to fly to the surgeons country/city. I had my pre-surgery appointment which I thought went ok. We determined that I was still receding and that I would need medication to save the remaining DHT receptive hair. It was decided that we’d achieve an even density of 40-45/cm across my whole head (slightly higher across the hairline), now using 7000 grafts over 2 procedures spaced 12 months apart; the first 4000 grafts being performed the following day. Up until this point, I thought we were both on the same page regarding the expected outcome. That night a couple of questions came up for me concerning possible hair styles and density/ ‘illusion of density’. I was able to talk with the surgeon about these topics the next morning while being prepared for surgery. This ultimately turned into a one hour (approx) conversation (with both of us dressed in surgical scrubs), where we seemed to go in circles trying to respectfully understand each other’s expectations. I trust and respect that this surgeon aimed to achieve the best possible outcome and that their expectations are the closest (but still only an estimation) one could get to understanding the reality of the final outcome. Therefore the way I see it, the challenge to the surgeon is to ascertain patient requirements; communicate what outcomes are possible; and understand / communicate if patient requirements can be met. Once the patient understands what is possible with that surgeon and knows if this meets their personal requirements, surgery can commence. Simple right? My main requirement was that I was able to grow my hair out and style it in a way that created an illusion of density without looking like an obvious 70’s comb over. I didn’t want to go through this entire process only to still end up looking bald/ very badly thining and then having to just continue to shave my head (albeit with scars). There needed to be at least an illusion of density. From what I had read online and heard from the surgeon previously, 40-45 /cm seemed to achieve this. Throughout the course of our conversation during surgery preparation I was now told that I was a Norwood 7; and based on the surgeon’s understanding of my requirements; that I would now need 3000 - 6000 additional grafts (10-12k in total) to achieve my desired look; but, that unfortunately I did not have that amount of donor hair available. I was quickly shown examples of very dense results that I said I would be very happy with; to only then be told that these weren’t available to me. I was not shown examples of results that looked similar to what the surgeon was suggesting. It was actually very unclear what visual outcome the surgeon was proposing. Again; actual surgery and logistics aside, I see the hardest challenge as communicating surgeon and patient’s expectations to one another. I feel this is where my HT experience flopped. The surgeon was unable to communicate what outcome I might expect; I do not feel confident that the surgeon understood the outcome that I would have been satisfied with; and I believe they more than likely assumed my expectations were higher than what they actually were. Furthermore; it took until the actual time of surgery for the surgeon to make a decision for themselves regarding their patient’s expectations; only to then state that a significant amount of unavailable grafts would be required to achieve this. The surgeons advice now was that they felt I would be unsatisfied with the outcome and as such, they were uncomfortable performing the surgery. After hearing this, I felt that my power to make my own decision had been taken away from me and that I had no choice but to respect their advice. At this point, the surgery was canceled, along with my hopes and dreams of hair restoration. Although the surgeon in question appears to be highly regarded for their technical abilities, I do not believe they have the skills to accurately understand and relay back patient expectations, be able to communicate to the patient what possible outcomes can be achieved, or do this within a time appropriate manner. While the responsibility of this is shared between both parties, I believe that the surgeon, given that this is their trade; should have available to them tools and capabilities to aid this process to a satisfactory end. The importance of a surgeon to be able to do these things is the lesson I want to pass on today. I’m happy to answer any questions or reply to comments.

Thanks, I appreciate everyone's comments. I shave my head currently. In my mind, HT is a risk with unknown outcomes. As impossible as this is, Im here to try and get a better understanding of likely outcomes and possible mitigation measures, in the advent that Im not not satisfied with the outcome. Thanks again everyone for your opinions, keep it coming

@BaldV and others, these were the best photos I could find on those two people, and honestly, I cant see any scaring (Im assuming these were taken post surgery?). They look fine to me I have similar skin and hair colour to these people Volken Menaja - Not really a good enough photo to tell if scaring is visible, and again, dont know if this was taken post surgery

@BaldV Thanks for posting. I don't have insta - if its not too much to ask, could you please post screenshots of the photos?

i just read @hairman22’s post. I guess this is what I could expect. Turkhair, I agree with you in that it is visible. If it looks bad… well that’s subjective. Interested to hear if others shave/ buzz their hair after FUE or if the community generally thinks its a bad idea or not. @hairman22 Would you feel comfortable shaving your head now? Is this something you’ve ever done?