Danielkiwi

Do you live in america sparky...if yes, did he perform your surgery in Washington DC

Hi Control I get your point. I was more concerned if we would not be able to throw in the towel due to scarring or unnatural looking hairline once we loose more native hair...but you seem to suggest that there is no significant scarring which is good.. I personally feel that this is a cosmetic surgery and you should have a little leeway in deciding about the placement of grafts..it looks like you have a sound strategy and are working on a plan...I also feel that people waste too many grafts covering the temple, hairline etc and hence end up with a see through scalp from the top and crown..they look good in pictures with their hairline but i would be concerned about this in my day to day life... My strategy is to have an overall coverage and not waste too many grafts in the temple region..i can live with a receeding hairline as long as i am able to buzz my hair to No.2...do you think this is realistic with FUE if i proceed to a NW 6...i am trading in the NW 3 or 4 category currently..thanks

Hi Sparky Since you have been to Dr. Bisanga, can you share your thoughts and experience. How was your scarring and how is the growth yield..Do you know why is he not recommended on this forum?

Hi Control My thinking matches with yours regarding the Plan of action. You have undergone FUE 4 times and hence proobably know better than me....Can you please explain why would it be difficult to throw in the towel after doing a FUE esp when i turn 40+ (i am 32 currently) i know FUT is another story and i have decided not to go for it..

Yes. Bill..that is exactly the point i was trying to make and you have just explained it in detail. thanks for that!! i have a lot of respect for this forum and the doctors on this forum for if it was not for this forum, i would have been butchered by MHR 3 years back..so please keep the good work going...BTW, is there a reason Dr. Bisanaga is not recommended on this forum? Control - How old are you? I dont exactly but i think Dr. Shapiro ventured into FUE around 2006 or 2007 (Maybe BSpot and Janna can confirm)...I think they use their own tools and Dr. Shapiro would not get into something he does not beleive in..he has a stellar reputation and would not do anythiing to spoil it.. If i were to see a significant number of patient results, i would choose him without any doubts esp for the price he offers!!! Beleive me, i have tried to PM atleast 4-5 of his patients who started documenting their progress but did not go through by providing the final result..but they have not responded to my emails...they might very well be happy in life and have moved on..or the other way around....who knows? Try emailing Bspot or Janna and they might be able to answer your more specific questions..as far as my goals are concerned, i want an option to throw in the towel anytime after undergoing a HT..that is why i am considering FUE..if i get fed up with it, i will just buzz my hair to No.1. or No.2 and move on in life....some patients have gotten really good scars with FUT and can buzz it to No.3 or No.4 but i am just not comfortable with an ear to ear scar on the back of my head..please keep me updated about your progress..and i highly recommend consulting Dr. Shapiro as well....i will also keep you updated on my consultaion with Dr. Bisanga...his prices are similiar to Dr. Shapiro

Hi Control Dr. Ron Shapiro is an excellent surgeon and i would select him without battling an eyelid if i had to do a FUT procedure....He is the only doctor on whom i have not seen any negative reviews..i am sure he also has some sub-par results but the fact that patients dont create any negative posts speaks a lot IMO... He will be my choice if i decide to do a FUT...i am still deciding between a FUT and FUE and unfortunately, i havent seen enough FUE results from him to be comfortable about going to him for FUE...Are you planning a FUT or a FUE...i have been researching Dr. Bisanga from belgium recently and he seems to be top notch for FUE...I also know that he does consultations in washington DC few times in a year..he would def. be worth a consulation for a FUE procedure if you live in america or europe... He is not recommended on this forum either and i would not worry too much about recommendations...although the surgeons recommended on this forum are ethical and stand behind their work, there is no reason to beleive that other doctors are not good.End of the day, doctors have to pay for membership in this forum and some of them might not be interested in doing the same..do your research and keep us posted...I am also interested in FUE and have been researching diligently for the same.. Is price the only reason you want to choose Shapiro over cole? How was the FUE yield and scarring with cole..?

Thanks for your response Garageland...a Again, i would like to reiterate that i used H&W only as an example to emphasise the disproportionate ratio between surgeries conducted and patient results....I must also give credit to H&W coz they have maximum examples of photos under all conditions.... I however find it hard to beleive that patients dont send their pictures to the clinic for evaluation..they dont have to come all the way to your office...But any rational person would atleast take their own pictures and send to the clinic for evaluation....Correct me if am wrong...on the other hand when you talk about patient consent, that might be true but again 5% to 10% seems pretty low IMO...The problem i see is that clinics post their best pictures and when a result like this comes across, it opens everyones eyes to realistic possibilities..no body knows what is happening to the remaining 90% of patients...K was kind enough to share his experience but who knows how many people get frustrated and pale in to the shadows..to me, this is the grey area of HT's...that is why we must give a great amount of credit to patients who display pictures... Coming back to this case, i agree that 4600 was a small number to cover that degree of baldness..Maybe K requested for this and maybe he can shed some light on this...But the more important question imo is whether K was warned by Dr. Wong of the consequences..to me, if K was told this by Dr. Wong, then i have no problem with this result..but, if he was not, then i see some red flags...I guess only K or Dr. Wong can answer this question....I would also be interested in seeing how high the scar is on the back of the head...because if the patient continues to loose hair in the crown area, he could continue to loose transplanted hair in the future as well!!!!

yes topcat..you are def right i am thinking from this patients perspective..he had to go through an ordeal of 4600 grafts that prob cost him over $20,000 and still has a diffused thinner look...It is easy for us to say that he is better off than before as he has more hair...but imo, he is worst off then before as it appears that he was not made aware of this and cannot even keep his hair really short due to the scar!! Honestly, what purpose would a diffuses look solve..people will still think about you as a bald/balding individual

I was not pointing fingers at any clinic directly..and just wanted to illustrate an example. IHence, i request no one to take it personally.. I agree with you when you say that H&W is top notch and especially after you selected them after doing 5 years of research..and yes they still have the most patient results on these forums..but that still is not proportiante to the number of surgeries they do..To better illustrate When you call these clinics for appointments, they give you an average of 2-3 months waiitng period..Which means that they are pretty much busy all around the year..My question is why dont we see a proportionate amount of results from these so called top notch clinics... Is it because majority of the results are not worth posting on the forums? you are right when you say that clinics are not obligated to post sub-par results and why should do? but we as patient need to understand and read between the lines..

Your point is well taken ES...However, i need to address another point in this case...We all talk about deceptive advertising from hairmills and other companies..To me those two results posted above are no less than deceptive advertising!! To make it more clear, let me explain Why do clinics only post above average results that draws people into HT's...I am sure that this patient would have sent his photographs to H&W prior to posting on the forum. If the clinic in question is a truly ethical and realistic clinic, why didnt they post these pictures on the forum before the patient did? Now, i totally understand that this is a business and clinics will not post sub-par results..IMO, this is deceptive advertising as well..Here is another example to put things into perspective A clinic like Hasson and Wong or Shapiro Medical group with two doctors operating would be performing atleast 4 surgeries in a week...that makes is approx. 240 surgeries a year..(this would be bare minimum) take an average of 5 years and it gives 1200 surgeries...Now, if we run a search on any of the forums, would you even see 10% of those surgeries..i know clinics have the excuse that patient do not send regular updates etc, but you guys tell me...what patient will not send their final pictures to the clinic to get an asessment even more when the procedure does not give the optimum result? I find it hard to buy into these clinics excuse... Hence, to me posting these home run results that may be aided by meds, patient characteristics etc is no less than deceptive advertising!!! If anybody else has any comment, please feel free to add

Hi Pablo After having researched Dr. cole isolation technique, i noticed that he mentions on the webisite that there will be some scarring....But it appears that you have no visible scarring..are you saying that the doctor exceeded his expecations in your case...or you are trying to say that with hair grown out there appears to be no scarring... BTW, i am glad that you are happy with your experience

Hi Lurkey What then is the difference between Propecia and provillus. Propecia also blocks only the DHT..then why does one experience sides with propecia!!

Hair Transplant Videos hair transplant Video Page 1 - Hasson & Wong Hair Transplant Videos hair transplant Video Page 1 - Hasson & Wong Guys, please check out these two results from the same clinic...IMO, they have a similiar level of hair loss and no. of grafts....so what was the difference? Irrespective of that, even if the patient request for the entire head to be covered as ES seems to ask, i think it is the docs responsibility to give proper guidance and not heed in to the patients request!!! The least this patient should have gotten was a full looking hairline and he did not get that..the doctor could have then gone back with whatever grafts were remaining!! I think that is the basis of any HT operation!!

who was your doctor? did you talk to him about the possible solutions? Doctors on this forum stand behind their work..i would first talk to the doctor and see what he has to say

yes..2600 results should atleast give you an optimum hair line..but where were the 2600 grafts placed..were they placed only on the hairline or some were also placed in the back..also, what is ur age and are you on any meds? maybe you have receeded agressively after your procedures..maybe you had some shock loss..who knows? at this time, what is the solution that you are trying to achieve..are you looking for some kind of compensation or just advice from the forum members?

ytoday no one will be able to give any advice without seeing pictures..have you checked with your clinic..every reputable clinic takes before and after pictures...maybe you can ask for them and they can pass along the pictures..who was your doctor? If you dont want to answer on this thread, you can also send a PM to Bill...i know he is very accomodating and will take up your case with the concerned physician!!!

Agreed, he had a huge area to cover but my understanding is that Ht surgeons start from the front and work backwards..but in this case please look at the hairline...you can easily look at the skin on the hairline...IMO, i would not call it a failed procedure if atleast the hairline was good but unfortunately it is not..it is easy for people to say to use concealers and all that but was this patient informed about this before the procedure..was he told that the best he would achieve is a diffused thinner look with a ear to ear scar in the back of the head!!

I agree with pompado to a little extent. it would be interesting to see this result in person...the hair line does give kind of a field effect and i would also be interested in understanding if this patient is satisifed with the result...please remember pompado. ht's create an illusion of hair and the result will never be natural especially if you loose some more native hair..it is for this reason, i strongly believe that a shorter haircut will be more pleasing looking as compared to a longer haircut but the scar becomes an issue in that case...can we have some scar pictures for this patient?

Hi K_2009 Thank for sharing your results with the forum. You have the right to feel disheartened after visiting one of the best HT surgeons on this planet and spending that kind of money. Your result at 7 mos and 16 mos looks similiar to me. Do you have any pictures at the 12 month mark as you seem to suggest that you had good growth during the time... I dont think the number of grafts is an issue here as i have seen some amazing results from H&W with that kind of number on your level of hairloss....do you have any pictures of your scar? I have seen in the past that this clinic tends to take donor hair via higher scars which in my opinion are prone to get lost as a person looses more hair in the crown area...i have noticed many times that this clinic does not post any scar results as well in their patient results even though people have requested for the same..It is possible that proscar did not work for you and you lost some donor hair coz of the above reason..it is also possible that you lost some native hair as well....having said that, you definitely deserve a better head of hair after so many grafts..you are def better off than before but i dont think that solves the purpose and i dont agree with house of cards when he asks you to be satisfied with using concealers..that is not a solution in my opinion..i think this is a failed transplant and i would be interested in seeing if this clinic stands by its work and offers you a free transplant or some kind of refund..i would also consult some other physicians and see if they can throw some light on this transplant...Please be patient and know that all of us are here for you!!

Hi Swimmy Are you using crescena and dermaheal? I have never heard about them before but would be interested in listening to your feedback.

Well said Bill...if it was not for this forum i would have had multiple hair transplants by now and my guess is that i would be miserable by now...I agree with John Malloy and Kaounis to an extent and hence i am delaying my HT as much as possible..I have a gut feeling that no matter what we do, we will be not be happy with something or the other..Think about taking propecia all your life and all the anxiety associated with it as well....after going thru all this, we might still have a bald or a thinning patch somewhere in the head..and that would have a devastating effect....i think this forum does an awesome job in being transparent...i only wish that the clinics could add more pictures that are not cherry picked...IMO they should because apparently, most of the clinics seem really busy, yet the results they post do not seem to indicate the same

Great point megatron..In the end, it is the results that matter more than anything else..This rule should also apply to clinics....A lot of the clinics i call say that there is a waitlist of 2-3 months which means they are pretty busy..However, we dont see so many results from these clinics..this makes me wonder if they are only posting cherry picked results..I hope that is not that the case as the forum members also need to see results that are not 100% perfect....

yes..dr. dorin is a partner of Dr. true and they work together...Dr. true is more experienced and i had met him personally at the Manhattan office.....Do a consultation and ask the doctor for his recommendation of how many grafts etc.. FUE is also not suitable for everyone and is little more expensive as well..after you meet a bunch of doctors, most of your questions will be answered..

Hi TOMA Good luck on your proecedure with Dr. Madhu....i would be interested in following your progress coz i havent seen a lot of results from him yet!!!I hope you will keep us posted.. and when in hyderabad, try to see if you can eat some Biryani if you like Indian food...Biryanis over there are the best in the world

Hi reywd80 I did not have to pay anything for consultation but i had seen him over an year ago..maybe they changed the policy..either way, i was under the impression that all coalition docs give free consultation..maybe you can request him that you are an international patient or something or maybe speak to Bill if he can help you with this.. I think i had a question on why Dr. Feller declined to perform surgery on you and spex sent me the link of your pictures... I am not sure if you know the difference between FUE and FUT..In FUT, the doctor removes the strip from the back of the head and that leaves a ear to ear scar...in fue, they remove the grafts directly from the donor area and place them on your reciptient area which eliminates the need for a linear scar..it is still not scarless but gives you an option to buzz the hair really short..after FUT, you will not be able to buzz it how you have on your pictures..hope that helps