FailedFUE

3 hours ago, Honest Hairline said:

Sounds exactly like my experience with him. I did a repair surgery with him 2 months ago and I am quite confident. He seems like a great guy. 

Maybe you could provide some images?

Best of luck to you and happy growing!

Sure thing I just requested some of the ones he took in the clinic and Ill post them here after I crop (for privacy). I am not surprised you had the same experience with him. Honestly hes a true gem who's name does not seem to be brought up enough. Just my two cents though.

Hello all, many of you have shared your experiences and it has helped me immensely in my search for a Doctor. Warning in advance this review may be very long and detailed and I hope not to bore you. I just want to give my honest assessment and experience with Dr. Marwan Saifi. Please keep in mind I JUST got my surgery done on 05/31/24 and will be providing bi monthly updates.

Background about me:

I am a 29 yr. old African American male from the U.S. who has undergone 2 FUE transplants. Both transplants were “1,000 grafts each.” The main goal was to fill in the hairline area but the doctor originally targeted the temple areas in the first transplant then the front hairline in the second transplant. With the second hair transplant I had a lot of scarring and some keloid formation to the donor area. Looking back now I should have been slightly suspicious due to the fact that between the first and second transplant (only one year apart) I could not recognize a single nurse or tech inside the place besides the Doctor. My assumption is that these were all new hires. Whether they have an experienced background or not isn't something I am aware of. Ultimately, the results were not achieved and  in the process my donor area seemed to be quite depleted after the second transplant. At this point I thought it was over. I got SMP (also was not great) to the back of my head and began shaving my head down but the scarring was still noticeable and I never felt comfortable. I will be making another post explaining the overall negative experience with this doctor and some unethical practices. However, I would like to keep this post as a review of Dr. Marwan Saifi.

Research:

When I finally worked up the courage to give it one more shot I told myself I would do the most extensive research possible. I mean I read through reviews of every single doctor mentioned on this subreddit. Mainly using this link (reddit link removed) while also using HRN at times. I came up with a list of potential doctors and began the process of narrowing things down. Considering things such as experience with AA hair, Independent patient results, experience with a depleted donor area, etc. Although on this subreddit I only see about 5 reviews for Doctor Saifi I decided to go with him. The first video I watched of him is on his website here (https://transplantacja-wlosow.pl/video/). It's the second video. He seemed truly genuine in this video in which he goes over how it angers him when he sees young patients with bad results + a bad donor area. At this point I am still skeptical because I mean all these HT surgeons have nice high quality videos where they talk a big game. I continued to watch more and more of his videos and his passion for his work continued to display itself. In addition to this I began to look into the doctors certifications. On his website he states he is a Certified member of ABHRS (American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery) and a Fellow International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery FISHRS. In addition to this I continued to research and found that he's actually a director of the international training program. So, doctors come to him to receive training as part of their goal to join the group. Most of the time when I see things like this I figure “Oh this doctor just paid a bunch of money then got to add these titles to their names. But no, I actually looked into the requirements to be a part of both of these groups. Now I really do not want to go into too many specifics and make this post too long but for the ABHRS requirements include tracking surgical logs of more than 150 patients which includes before, during, and after photos. In addition to this there is a certifying exam you must take to be accepted. The requirements for the FISHRS group are quite similar however, my research did not show any need for a certifying exam. You did, however, need extensive training hours.  Hopefully I have not bored you too much with that. I hope you will do the rest of the research regarding this. Ultimately,, I decided to message the clinic via the WhatsApp number provided on their website. 

Online Consultation:

Upon reaching out I received a reply the next day. I assume the doctor replied the moment he saw the message but we are on different time zones. The initial green flag for me was that I was talking DIRECTLY to the doctor from the initial message I sent until the day I decided to take the trip to Poland. I sent the doctor numerous pictures and he went over different recommendations with me. I wanted and in the end received a FUE transplantation but he did warn me of the possibility of having to do a FUT transplant due to my AA hair and the difficulty in extracting hairs. He also originally recommended we move the hairline up by removing some grafts which I was okay with. But after showing him more photos of how I usually style my hair he determined this would likely not be necessary. In the end based on the images that the doctor received from me he estimated I would need about 800~100 grafts. I was able to text/talk to the doctor back and forth as if he was a friend of mine. He constantly replied to all the questions I had and continuously gave me his opinions and suggestions. Due to our time difference we would schedule phone calls where either I or the doctor had to be up VERY late or wake up VERY early. Thankfully the doctor is an early bird so this was not a problem. 

Pricing/Transportation/Accommodation:

Firstly, I was picked up by a taxi free of charge and driven to my hotel. The hotel is covered FREE of charge for TWO NIGHTS. Ultimately, I have decided to stay an extra night so I am covering the difference. In the morning the hotel provides free breakfast which to my surprise had quite a variety of options. The area outside the hotel is like a town square (for lack of a better term). There are so many shops, restaurants, and bars all within walking distance (I’m talking less than a hundred feet). The next morning after breakfast at around 8:45 I was picked up by the same Taxi driver and driven to Dr. Saifi’s office. In terms of pricing it is EXACTLY as listed on his website with no surprise cost. 
In Person consultation:
Upon arriving at the clinic on a Friday (this will come into play later)  I was greeted kindly by his staff and began to fill out some paperwork. As I was filling out the paperwork Dr. Saifi came out of his office and we got to finally meet in person. I continued to fill out the paperwork then when everything was signed I went to his office for the in person evaluation. The consultation lasted about 30 minutes, much of which involved Dr. Saifi confirmed what he had already seen with the photos. (I sent him numerous photos, even going to the barbershop and getting my haircut in the usual low style that I use so he could see what my daily look was like). Overall he examined my hair and donor area and confirmed my previous suspicion that there was depletion of the donor area on the back of my scalp. However, he stated that there was a lot of good donor area to work with on the sides of my head. The plan was to go for 1,000 grafts while also attempting to balance the depleted donor area.

Surgery

The nurse led me into a room where I could put all my belongings. This room was connected to the surgery room by a glass sliding door. Upon entering the room I was introduced to a few more nurses who work with Dr. Saifi and they began to take my vitals. Dr. Saifi then positioned me on a stool to do the pre-op photos. He took many photos from different angles and then shaved my head for the procedure, paying special attention to the direction my hair grew.

Finally it was time to lay on the table which was more like a chair. It was extremely comfortable and unimaginably adjustable. I mean every single part of the chair could be moved up or down and angle forward or backwards  to achieve perfect comfort. I will not lie the numbing is painful but I have a pretty high tolerance for pain so it didn't bother me too much but I can see it being difficult for someone who may have low tolerance. The doctor communicated with me throughout the procedure and kept me updated on what exact part of the process we were on. The doctor was present for 100% of the extraction process. The cool part is the doctor actually let me go and take a look at the 1’s, 2’s, and 3’s under the microscope. I am currently entering the medical field so this was an interesting thing to see close up. Ultimately the doctor was able to extract 890 grafts total which is almost dead center of the original estimate. I respect him for not being too aggressive and risking further depletion of the area. He extracted what he could safely and was very honest about it when I asked. I sat back down and then the doctor began to make the incision sites using a sapphire blade. I was numb at the time but he seemed to be very careful and he took his time. 

After that we took a break for lunch where I had some pizza and salad which were great. We then moved onto the implantation process. The nurses (two  at a time)  did most of the implantation but the doctor was present for about 90% of it. He was constantly popping into the room and checking in on things. When it was all set and done the doctor got his final look and took some more pictures and then he gave me some medication to take for the next few days as well as detailed post care instructions. I was also given a hat that was optional to wear but I personally did not wear it as I did not want to risk any damage to the grafts.

One of those nurses was particularly nice and we spoke a little. She is the newest addition to the team and arrived 8 years ago. Which honestly speaks volumes about the Doctor's practice. Your newest member having 8 years of service is crazy. 

Side note: During the surgery I had to pee numerous times and I appreciate the entire staff for being so kind about it. I am sure this prolonged the operation but they were very accommodating of me constantly asking to get up to use the restroom. You are given some fluid injections so I suspect this may have been the cause BUT also I did drink some coffee that morning since I was still tired and adjusting to the time difference. My suggestion: Don’t drink coffee if you can avoid it.

The Next Day:
Now remember when I said keep the Friday surgery date in mind because it will come into play later? This is when it came into play. I originally wanted to schedule my surgery for a Saturday but Dr. Saifi informed me that they are not open on the weekends so that is why I went with friday. However, even though they are not open, the nice nurse who I mentioned previously (8 yrs of service) was kind enough to exchange Whatsapp numbers with me and offer to come in on a Saturday during her weekend to give me one wash and clean before my departure on Sunday. This is the exact point where I knew that not writing an interview about this experience would be unfair and a disservice to others.
This review is already extremely long but I may come back and add some things that I feel like I have forgotten. If you have made it this far and read through everything I HIGHLY recommend you consider Dr. Saifi for your transplant. Especially if you have had previous transplants and lack density. 

Oh I forgot to mention the Doctor only does ONE (1) surgery a day. Which was evident because I arrived at 8:45 am and was the only patient there until we finished around 4pm. 

5 hours ago, ArochaAngel4247 said:

@FailedFUE I sent you a message! Let me know if I can be of any further assistance. 

I am sure hoping you can! I just replied and attached some photos as well. Thank you.

Thank you for the update Melvin

On 11/19/2021 at 2:30 PM, ArochaAngel4247 said:

This patient came to see Dr. Arocha with a history of two previous keloid formations after some scalp procedures done by another physician. Dr. Arocha recommended that he consider doing an FUE to minimize the risk of developing a keloid with an FUT procedure. However, the patient insisted that Dr. Arocha perform an FUT procedure. Dr. Arocha complied with the patient's request and performed an FUT to restore his hair loss. Even though this patient had the tendency to keloid, he followed Dr. Arocha's post-operative instructions thoroughly and avoided a keloid this time around. This resulted in a fine, barely visible FUT scar.

There are factors that increase the risk of scars widening or thickening. These factors include 1) increased scalp laxity 2) the risk of keloid in people with pigmented skin (asian, indian, middle eastern, etc...) 3) failure to follow guidelines to limit tension on the wound margins post surgery. The wound requires 6 to 12 months to mature. During this time, there is an increased risk of the scar widening if tension vectors are applied to the wound margins. This can be from progressive resistance exercises like squats and shoulder shrugs, or even using a pillow that predisposes to create tension on the neck. These tension vector forces are amplified in someone with very loose scalp. Therefore, it's vital to follow all post-operative instructions and precautions. 

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Hello Dr. Arocha, these results are wonderful. How can I get in contact with you about a consultation? I am unable to send you a direct message.

On 4/9/2024 at 8:45 PM, Melvin- Admin said:

Glad to see you back brother. Can’t wait for your update.

Dont mean to hijack your reply.. However, I am going through something very similar as the OP. I am unable to message him. What are the requirements to send DM's?

No problem. I am also in a similar situation as you. I was hoping maybe we would be able to connect and just chat? Your story really helped me man. So similar to my own.

Hi @track_rat along with others I would also like some updates on how you are doing?