Al - Moderator

Wow! Where were you when I had my lawsuit going? You should see what they had me sign as a consent form. It doesn't even mention anything about a scar. We couldn't get a single Dr to go on record saying anything negative about the consent form or the work done. http://members.aol.com/longscars/htconsentform.jpg LOL. Not in the state of NJ!!!!! A medical malpractice lawyer I went to called the NJ State Attorney General on the phone while I was in his office. The State Attorney General said that since the person performing the consultations and surgeries was not a licensed Dr (his title was Medical Director)it was not legally medical malpractice and we couldn't sue for that. They also were not interested in stopping him from practicing because he was only performing elective procedures which meant what he was doing was something not necessary, yet I had agreed to allow him to do. No kidding! That was the answer from the NJ State Attorney General. I was in the office during the phone call. That lawyer hung up and said he was sorry, but he couldn't take my case if the state was going to be against him on the major issues regarding the case. I eventually found a lawyer to base a case mostly on consumer fraud with medical malpractice as a secondary issue, but that didn't get very far either. EDIT: Sorry I'm off topic, so just to answer the question, of the 3 mentioned (Feller, Cole, Rose) I would put them in this order: 1. Rose - don't remember hearing any bad things about him 2. Feller - I personally probably wouldn't go to Feller because of other non HT issues. I think he does great hair transplants, but I don't agree with him on other things. 3. Cole - I would stay away from him. Anyone who threatens to sue for libel if you say anything about your own experience, threatens forums of lawsuits if they don't delete posts, etc is someone who is obviously afraid that people might find out how bad his work actually is.

Dewayne, Why are you looking at FUE? You say you had 300 minis done years ago, so you already have a strip scar. Why not just get 2000 grafts with strip. It won't be overly expensive and you'll get some decent improvement. If you didn't already have a HT scar I can see wanting to try FUE, but with a scar already there I think you're better off piggybacking onto that scar for another strip session.

Unfortunately in the USA it's extremely hard to successfully sue a Dr for a HT because it's considered "elective" surgery, so it's automatically assumed to be your fault for having gone through with a procedure that wasn't needed. I completely disagree with the laws regarding that because it allows Drs to lie and say anything at all to get you into surgery. Just look at what some places are calling it now... "No Touch method", "non surgical hair transplants". They can say anything at all and not be held responsible because they are allowed to hide behind the "elective" status of the surgery. I truly believe something is wrong with that. If you do want to sue, you will probably be stopped right off the bat by the statute of limitations. In the state I live in it's 2 years, so if it's morte than 2 years after your HT, then your lawsuit won't even get started... and when you consider it takes 1 year to wait to see if it worked, a lot of that 2 year time is gone before you even thought about suing. Then the Dr will try to hold you off by telling you to wait a few more months to get you past that 2 year mark and he is totally in the clear. If you do manage to sue within the time limit, there's a whole list of things they can do to stop you. They'll probably counter sue you for libel just to try to cost you money and scare you so you drop your suit. You can read about my 5 year attempt to sue on my site: http://members.aol.com/longscars/mycomments.html and another class action against the same Drs that was eventually dropped after nearly I think about 8 years because of the same things they were doing to me (read it in my link above). http://www.injuryassist.com/LIMA_Litigation/LIMA_Litigation.htm

I can understand how Brian feels. I don't know the details of his experience, but I can tell you that if you had a really bad experience you would be lashing out as well. It's not a sign of immaturity. I went through that period when I was posting to the newsgroups years ago before Pat started this forum. I was in shock, depression, and didn't know how I was going to live with the result. I would get extremely bitter anytime I even thought about what they did to me. I went for several years wanting to kill myself until I was finally able to get past it. I used to wear hats all day long to cover it and missed going to several weddings, funerals, and other events because i was so afraid to be seen without my hat. Believe me having a bad HT is much worse than not having one at all. I never wore a hat before my HT even though I had significant hairloss at a very young age. I finally got past it all and I don't ever wear hats anymore, but I still hate the people who did this to me. I will forever hope they rot in hell for eternity when they die. If I ever heard of a former patient killing one of them for what they did to him I would be so thrilled. I'd be at the trial with a shaved head showing everyone just how brutal they were in an attempt to help the guy. So while I don't agree with his generalities as fact in all cases. I do agree that the things he mentions does happen. My story is here. http://members.aol.com/LongScars/index.html

This is not anything against KulMD. Just a general comment. Armani will also give you an "honest" opinion on how much donor hair is left and it will be about 3 times as much as Dr Feller's opinion. See the problem? You can't blame the patient for believing what a Dr says. Once we start blaming the patient we make it OK for bad Drs to continue their deceptive practices. It is always the Drs fault if they are promising things that they cannot deliver. Nobody will ever give you their opinion and then say they are lying. It's whether YOU feel that he's being honest or not that matters. Some people are great at lying to your face while making you believe everything they are saying.

Here's a recent news story about an alzheimer laser helmet to treat alzheimer's disease http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7208768.stm Here's a few parts of the article. Notice it says they found that it stimulates the growth of cells. ----- It delivers low levels of infra-red light, which researchers at the University of Sunderland, believe may stimulate the growth of brain cells. Tests in mice showed it improved learning ability and a study in humans is due to begin in the summer. The infra-red therapy was first developed to treat cold sores. But when researchers studied how it worked, they found it stimulated growth of cells and may have applications in other conditions. In tests in people with dementia using infra-red lasers, eight out of nine people showed some improvement, said Dr Gordon Dougal, a GP and director of Virulite, a medical research company based in County Durham. However, in order to safely deliver the treatment through the scalp, he developed a helmet which bathes the brain in low levels of infra-red light and would only need to be worn for 10 minutes a day.

Well to that I'd have to say I WISH I could have 500 grafts placed in strategic areas of my head. After having 25 HT surgeries with a total of 1392 grafts, 5 scalp reductions, 182 cored out areas between the grafts.... well... 500 grafts in one session sounds like a miracle.

richie, I wasn't trying to get on you. I feel bad for you because you sort of got dragged into this. I wasn't really blaming anyone in particular, just pointing out how out of proportion the whole thing was getting. I guess it's really notgoing's fault for starting the whole thread about US vs UK price differences. Surely he must have known this would happen. LOL. kidding, of course.

I dated a woman at work a few years ago who told me that when she first saw me, she looked at my hair and thought I was so ugly she couldn't possibly imagine anyone ever wanting to date me. She said she thought if I was already married my wife must be so ugly and probably only married me because she couldn't get anyone else. I knew her at work for a year, but hardly ever spoke to her until she had some personal problems that were affecting her job performance. I took her aside one day and just starting talking to her and telling her what she needed to do and how I understood what she was going through because I went through a lot of physical and mental problems myself. We talked many times and she eventually fell in love with me because she learned who I really was. The whole point is that while I agree that women like sincerity and confidence, they don't see those things unless you have the look that they are interested in first. If they are not interested in looking AT you, they won't see who you are. Over the years I've found that most women are just like most men in that area. They are looking for hot guys just as men are looking for hot women.

What I do when I have definite plans like that is not take any the day before and for at least the first day I'm with the girl. If the trip is longer than that then take half doses every other day. Doing that doesn't effect my hair (propecia stays in your system for 2 to 3 days) and I don't worry about erection problems. I have to say that's been one good thing about having a girlfriend who lives 500 miles away. I always know when I'll be with her, so I can plan my dosage easily. It's a lot tougher while seeing girls in between

This is an unfair question because if I was in category of A I could simply work out and by my choice with no help from anyone else, I could make myself have both a full head of hair and big muscles. However if I am in category B with NW 7 hair loss then there is no way I can ever get myself to where I want to be. So I would choose catagory A since I wouldn't be there long. That's 1000 times better than being stuck in category B for a lifetime.

Oh My God!! I just read this entire thread for the first time. I can't believe all the arguing over a non issue!! The procedure was never done. Both parties felt it was better to try something else (Richie felt a larger session was best. Farjo felt he should try meds for a while) What is so unethical? mick/Farjo said they felt he would eventually lose the entire front area and want to keep as much donor available as possible to cover that in the future, but if Richie really wants something done now they'll do 500 in strategic areas of the crown. Why do you find that unethical? Also the procedure was never done, so you can't make statements as if they already did it. How do you know they wouldn't have actually done closer to 1000 or more? That happens alot at other clinics. How many times do you hear patients say they went for 2500 but the Dr got 3200? How can you make judgements on procedures that were never performed because both parties feel that something else would be better? On the issue of FUE or strip. Mick says they used to do FUE and thought that's what the quote was for but when he looked it up he realized he was mistaken. They no longer do FUE. Frog wants to know why not. Mick gave an answer that sounded logical to me. What's the problem????

I only spend about 10 minutes a day and I cover my entire head. If you have good hair on your sides and back then I wouldn't worry so much about those areas. Maybe just do a few quick passes. You had a HT a while back though, so I'll tell you it does work on getting hair to grow back around the donor scar, so you should use it all along the scar.

Great news for me, thanks! Now I don't have to feel bad about eating all those Big Macs and fries. LOL. I'll just tell myself it's OK since I don't go to Starbucks like everyone else. I feel great now. Think I'll go get a few burgers for lunch. Wait, it's morning. Those Mcdonalds steak, egg, and cheese bagels are delicious.

Am I the only one who doesn't drink coffee?

petesman, I posted a link to that 6 month news study back when Dr Feller specifically asked for testimonials, pictures, and published studies. After I posted several links he said none of them counted because they were ONLY testimonials, pictures, and published studies. Go figure.

Unfortunately I got stuck in an endless loop from 1 to 5 for the past 18 years. You guys who get good results don't know how lucky you are that the procedures done these days can actually live up to what they tell you will be the result. It's interesting that today you are told to expect much less than what was being said years ago, yet the end results are much better than they were back then. And now all the Drs make you sign these huge consent forms that list all kinds of things that might go wrong and yet so many people get a HT done. If I had to agree to even 10% of todays consent forms I probably wouldn't have done it because I would have known everything was lies. I had a half page form that never even mentioned a scar... and that's because they insisted that there's no such thing, so why would it be there. Ugh! Even with todays best docs, it's still impossible to get what I was promised.

Janna, Have you ever had to turn away a prospective repair patient because there was nothing you could do for them? What can you do if the person has no donor hair remaining?

Ha ha. I had to laugh when I read that part. I can just picture the job interview. BOSELY: We want experience. We are looking for an experienced butcher. DR ANDREWS: Well I've been hacking patients apart for over 10 years now. Take a look at this picture of patient # 13. See that wide, uneven donor scar that goes out of the safe area. That is typical of my work. BOSELY: Good, good. What about the recipient areas though? DR ANDREWS: Here's a picture of patient #34. Look at that pluggy hairline I gave him. BOSELY: Very nice. DR ANDREWS: Yes. And I even had him convinced it was state of the art. I told him all this bull about how double and triple follicular units are the new way to go. BOTH: (laughing) BOSELY: But what about pitting? I want to see some pitting. DR ANDREWS: Ah. Then take a look at these pictures of patients #18 and 24. These guys can't hide those pit scars even in the dark. BOSELY: Excellent! You're hired. When can you start?

Individual hairs growing thinner is a sign of hair loss. Normally hair grows for a period of time, then falls out, and a new hair starts to grow in it's place. With Male Pattern Baldness what generally happens is the hair falls out and grows back in a bit thinner. This usually happens for a few growth cycles. Some hairs may also not grow as long, but sometimes this isn't noticed if you don't grow your hair very long. Eventually after a few cycles of repeated thin growing, the thin hairs don't grow back after they fall out. It sounds like you caught your hairloss early and have already started propecia. Using propecia and minoxidil can reverse the trend and start making those thin hairs grow a bit thicker and stronger on future growth cycles. A few follicles that have already stopped growing hairs may start growing new ones again, but they will start out as very thin, short hairs. Hopefully over time they will thicken up as well. Sometimes use of the meds just stops further progression, but since you caught it early that may be enough for you. You have to keep using propecia and minoxidil to continue benefiting from them. Once you stop using them the hair will go back to getting thinner and not growing again. Good luck.

hairscout, Sorry for the late response. Fair enough. At least you actually tried it, so I'll value your opinion on it more than some others. I do have a few questions though. Do you think it's possible that you could have simply been experiencing an initial shed? That didn't happen to me, but I had been on proscar and nizoral before starting the laser comb. I don't know if anyone experiences an initial shed with a laser comb. I also don't know how long you used it. You say your hair was getting more gray. I'm wondering if the hair that was falling out was the darker ones leaving the gray hairs still growing, thus leaving you with a higher percentage of gray hairs AS OPPOSED to making more of your hair go gray. I know I've been having a small amount of the opposite effect. Most of the new hair growing in is dark, so it's covering the gray hairs a bit better than before. Lastly, I find it works best in combination with proscar for me. Were you using anything else at the time?

jwaves, Unfortunately most of this forum is against laser combs. It seems to me that a few people a while back stated their opinions of it without ever trying it and others simply joined in referencing those baseless opinions to make their own and they now think their opinions have somehow become fact because they all share that opinion. Search the forum and ONLY look at the statements from members who have actually tried using a laser comb. Some say it works and some say it doesn't, but that's no different than if you do a search for minoxidil or propecia responses. The point is that it does work for some people. I wish I had better data such as an idea of what percentage of people it works on, what's the best possible amount of growth, what's the normal range of growth, etc. However not many in this forum take it seriously enough to care which is a real shame because I know for a fact that it does work for some people. I am getting decent growth from it after just less than 6 months of use. In another 6 months I may even have enough hair to have Janna dancing a jig and notgoing2gobald praising God about how miracles can happen. LOL As for the laser comb you mentioned, I don't particularly like that one. The web site seems to push the LED lights way too much rather than laser lights. Also it uses 2 AA batteries which I don't like because batteries lose power as you use them and you want to be getting the full power of the lasers. If you want a battery operated unit I would go with a rechargeable one because at least that way you can recharge it after each use so you're always using "new" batteries. There are a few other laser combs that are a bit cheaper than the one you mentioned that I would prefer.

I had a talk with the guy who cloned the sheep. He was showing me how we would all look great with sheep hair, but I think he was just pulling the wool over my eyes.

hairscout, You said that you felt that I was the only one saying laser combs have worked for them. I simply pointed out how that was not the case because to me it felt like you were attacking my credibility. I'm not here to have a war about how many people think it works and how many think it doesn't. However I will point out that most of your quotes are from members who NEVER used a laser comb and are simply posting their opinions based on other opinions of people who never used it and so on. That can never compare to someone who actually used a product. Also one of your quotes: OK. Let's read that again. He used it for a couple of months. He says the hair feels nicer and fuller. Sounds like it's working to me. That's not bad for only a couple of months. Then he stopped using it and says the effects wore off. Hmm... effects wore off... meaning there was something positive happening while he was using it. But they wore off afterwards... Well... yes, of course. That would be the same as minoxidil, propecia, or anything else that might grow hair. Once you stop using it you will lose the effects. That doesn't have anything to do with what was happening when he WAS using it. You can't expect something to work while you aren't using it. So, thanks. I'll add that to my list of people who say they got positive results.

That's not true. Here are some posts from this forum. Artman502 Two good friends have used it for a litle under 2 months and are already seeing results ---------- YODA Posted September 06, 2007 09:42 PM All the proof I need is growing out of the top of my head. You can read post after post after post from guys like me saying it Works, or guys like Dr. Feller saying it's Hogwash. You won't really know until you try it yourself. YODA After being on laser therapy, the quality of my hair improved greatly, more vibrant, thicker, even more less fall out than when i was on the other parts of my treatment alone and it even allowed me to cut back from 1.0mg of Dutas a day to only 0.5 and twice daily application of minoxidil to only once I tried that before and got a massive shed. Not only haven't I shed this time, my hair is actually becoming thicker and fuller..... before laser therapy i was only maintaining what i had...now, I've cut my drug intake in half, added LLLT and i'm gaining hair! It's LLLT therapy...it works for me at least... ------------ rodfl Posted May 24, 2006 10:13 PM The Hairmax laser comb does work and I have used it for four years now----While it may not regrow you a full head of hair---while using it with propecia it has prvented me from losing my hair ---------------- toofunnyman It is too early to report much about the laser comb at this point but it is making my hair more manageable and healthier. I have been using it for one month ---------- Harve Posted May 19, 2007 09:57 AM Hey guys, I purchased a laser comb a few months ago.(I can't remember how many) But I have been using it regularly, every other day for 10 minutes at a time. I can honestly say that I see improvement in my hair. I've had transplants in the front so that hair is healthy, but the hair behind it was getting very thin and wispy, increasingly revealing my scalp. I was even considering a possible 5th!! procedure to put some more hair in this area. However, I have noticed THAT hair is covering my scalp better after using the laser comb. It is thicker and stronger. I should include also that I believe at least a few dormant follicles have been jump-started too. Those who've had transplants know that when your transplants start sprouting hair, you can often feel the little prickly hair, sort of like a whisker. I believe I've had a few of these "jump-started" follicles in the area where I use the laser. It's not like there everywhere, but I have noticed a few. I've used topik to fill in this area and I've noticed that I'm using less now. So I just wanted to offer my experience using the comb. I also use propecia. I think the two work great together. ---------- nickcpa88 Posted February 14, 2006 06:48 PM I have been using the laser comb for approximately 5 months and have seen improvement in the density & thickness of existing hairs on my head. Now I wasn't expecting this to be a miracle cure for baldness, but I figured every little bit helps - and this has to some extent. ---------- buddyebsen Posted February 14, 2006 06:57 PM I have used a homemade lasercomb since Nov 1 and I can attest to Dr. Bauman's obervations that it has improved the quality of my hair and so far has reduced any shedding almost entirely. ----- finnari Posted May 22, 2007 06:48 PM I to noticed an "improvement" in the way my hair looked after laser for six months.