NervousNelly

PB, Truly amazing work by Dr. Feller. It is quite the transformation and I'm sure that you are extremely happy with the results. As I always harp about it--If you are capable of such excellent photos and a detailed progress, why can't the docs do it. Their office managers need to wise up. Thanks a tonne for the great post. Have a great holiday.

S-N-P, Things look great and will only continue to get better. Glad to hear that you are happy with the results and it has had a positive influence on your confidence. Keep us posted.

Dr. Feller, This has been an interesting thread. Ofcourse as we all know in any forum like this we type what we want and wait for a response. Quite often what we say is misinterpreted or we don't get that immediate opportunity to elaborate or qualify our statements. It is very clear that none of us questioned your skills or ethics as a doctor and you have acknowledged that as I am glad to see. We do appreciate you engaging in a little banter with us about several different topics--just this time it pertained to your office policies. I'm pretty sure that you understood that I was in your corner backing your policy because it makes sound business sense. I guess I just thought that it might have been best to be a tad bit more toned done when discussing your desire for profits. This is not a bad thing though as you are displaying your honest thoughts and I shouldn't fault you for that. You asked me about my aspirations in my professional life for wanting to achieve as much as I deserve and you are right. The difference is that I try to not display that in front of potential clients. Just a difference between us and neither are right or wrong. I appreciate your response, your honesty and your skills as a physician. You have provided a lot for this forum and this field in general. I respect you and your philosophies and I hope that you continue to be a strong supporter of this site.

Bill, Ya I guess I don't know what I was thinking you are still very early in the growth cycle--any signs at all of the new stuff?? Damn, once that new stuff begins to grow and fill in we'll have to add one more name for you--Bushero!

B Spot, Thanks for the suggestion. After a little thought I am going to scrap the idea of 2nd HT and shoot for the eyelash transplant. I figure that with those babies it will draw peoples attention away from ever noticing I had plugs. In all seriousness though, I'm no expert on eyelashes but those suckers are pretty freaky aren't they?

Hey Fullhead, Is that really a photo of you or is that Quincy Jones? You look great and it seems very early in the process. Good for you. Make sure you continue to post as we are all looking forward to seeing your progress. I have a sense that there may be more coverage than I had originally thought for you. Unless it is my imagination, it seems like when you let your donor hair longer it made the coverage area appear smaller?? It seems usually the opposite for us caucasions. Does anyone else see that or is it just me over analyzing? I think that the hairline chosen is perfect. Given time you are going to be very satisfied with things.

Bill, To lighten things up--I do like how your name gets altered from time to time---"Billros". Its kind of like Velcro, you know how it sticks to you and you just can't shake it. I'm sure this is how some of the docs feel when you step outside the box and bring up some great discussions and very valid points. "Damn that Velcro/Billro guy." Keep bringing on these topics as we all benefit immensely from your "unabashed" drive for educating and creating change and looking out for us little guys. Its very much appreciated. Can you tell I just figured out how to use the graemlins? If a computer idiot like myself can figure this out I'm sure that these docs can figure out how to post the type of photos and info we are demanding, especially when it potentially may increase their $$$.

Bill, I'm really impressed with how things look. You're right, there appears to be very little in terms of shock loss. I think that the hairline is near flawless and it looks like there is going to be a good deal of coverage at the crown. Can't wait to see the next post. Best of luck.

Bill, In a perfect world I totally agree with you that you hate to see the little guy lose and you make a good arguement for it. Possibly this is something that Dr. Feller could evaluate as I'm sure he knows the costs of a day without a surgery. There is the chance that when he evaluates the numbers he might be able to restructure his policy as it might not be as big of a financial hit as he thinks. As you alluded to, there is the other side of things as well, such as the future referrals from the happy client that got his money back. If indeed it is true that he has only had a couple of instances of having to alter the surgery it might not be a big deal. I think that we are all in agreement that Dr. Feller does great work but I will agree with Bill that some of his statements referring to money are a little strong. I'm in the healthcare business and I think it is very important to be a little more tactful when talking to potential patients about your desires for profits. I thought my previous post went before his (not sure what happened), and I thought I gave a pretty good arguement as to why these doctors needed to be concerned about the financial side of things. It obviously benefits them and in the long run will benefit us. I tried to spell things out diplomatically and was in full support of Dr. Feller and other physicians, but was a little saddened to see his kind of blunt, brazen response. Again, I reiterate that it is us, the consumer who is putting the pressure on the doctors to provide alternate forms of HT and do it with highly trained techs, in a sterile environment, with advanced techniques and at a competitive price. This costs a lot of money for the physicians and they have no choice to pass it on to us. I have no problems with them making lots of money and if fact I want them to so that they can continue to offer the services that they perform. I hope that they will all be ethical in the way they go about soliciting business, but usually the free market and forums such as this will help to limit those unethical physcians. Referring back to Bills comments though, I too hate to see the little guy lose. History has shown however that it usually is the little guy who doesn't come out on top. That is why such forums like this exist so that the little guy can now educate himself and enter into a possible HT fully knowledgeable and informed. This does level the playing field somewhat. Hopefully those that are not providing the latest technology and that do not have good contract policies will be slowly weeded out. Life isn't perfect and it is up to the little guy to do all he can to not be someone that enters a scenario clueless.

Bill, I do understand where you are coming from with your statement. Surely no one should be paying for a service not performed; however, it does seem to me unless I misunderstood things, that Dr. Feller is very upfront about the associated risks with this procedure and does give the office policy interms of fees. If the individual proceeds and agrees to the terms I think that it is their choice. There is definitely an inherent risk of paying $4000 for nothing, but they are aware of this and it ultimately becomes their choice. It is my bet that most HT docs would rather do strip methods because they have perfected the procedure(not all ofcourse) and the results are much more predictable. It is the consumer who is putting the demand on the doctors to find "better" or "other" ways to get desired results. The fear of having a scar, recovery time, having someone notice, is what is pushing the drive for other techniques. (not the only reasons ofcourse) Unfortunately the cosmetic industry is a Business and they have a great deal of overhead to contend with. Yes they can do very well financially but they do have the same concerns that every other business owner has. It is us that are demanding that they use the greatest technology and have several fully trained technicians and only perform 1 surgery per day. This is challenging for these physicians, Ill guarentee it! If it wasn't there would be a whole hell of a lot more coalition physicians. For Dr. Feller to "lose a day" is a justifiable statement as sad as it is. I own several businesses and I know where he is coming from. It is a sad truth but he needs to focus on his talent/technical and artistic skills but can never lose sight of the business side of it. We need these guys to continue to have high revenues so that they can continue to advance their skills to meet our demands. Does this make sense? I'm sure that this will be debated somewhat and I know that there are several sides to it, but I wanted to give the side from strictly a business point of view.

You've done your research this time and things will be fine.

Yes you should be able to do it all in one procedure with HW or Rahal. I would avoid Armani since he is not a recommended doc on this site primarily for doing very dense packing of the hairline area on young men with what seems like no regard for possible future hairloss. Remember, there is always the chance for future hairloss so plan for this with the next HT. We all want to limit the number of proecedures that we have to have but unfortunately sometimes mother natures alters these plans. Good luck.

From all of the research that I have done, I would agree that Dr. Rahal is an excellent physician and I always think that the younger docs may have a better sense for the young guys hairline. I do agree with cousin it that you have to at least do a consult with a couple of other docs.

Looks like more great work performed by doctor Feller. Can't wait to see more photos in a few months to see if things do get thicker.

Userdefined, If you look at most of our posts, you'll see that we all state that you can't predict the future. That works both ways. We can't predict what the future holds for your hair situation. Dr.Deyarman is a highly trained specialists that is recommended on this site. He examined you and used his several years of insight and knowledge to make a determination of what he believes is best for you. I'm quite certain that there is good reason for his decisions. We are HT amateurs that are giving you our feedback based on very little in terms of your history and without a physical evaluation of your hair and scalp. Possibly some of our thought of just strenthening your hairline might be doing you an injustice if infact you can pull off the lower hairline. Right now you need to put faith in his expertise. Although my opinion was exactly my honest initial thoughts, I'm sorry that we have now got you concerned. Hopefully Dr. Deyarman will post his thoughts.

While surfing this site late last night, I did notice that Dr. DeYarman was online here but still no post. Hopefully he'll share his insight on the surgery as it is always nice to get their input.

Thanks Pat, This site truly is a gem and I think that it is that way do to the integrity and honesty of the many dedicated individuals involved. I'm certain that the number of people that you all have helped is immeasurable.

Anything is possible and it would never surprise me to learn that there is a concerted effort to self promote, but I question that somewhat in this particular case. My reasoning is that if I were to try and self promote my skills as a surgeon, I don't think that I would have displayed such early photos post surgery. Lets face it, several of us asked about the bleeding and I would think the doc would have waited until the scabs had shed before sharing these pics. Even the most educated looked at these photos and immediately thought "is it a good job or not, I can't tell because of the excess bleeding." My immediate thought was that things looked technically sound, but the bleeding gave me doubts. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks for the extra pics. Ofcourse we all have different expectations when we elect to have cosmetic surgery but from viewing your photos I wouldn't consider this to be a bad result. I understand that photos won't show everything and from what you say there is cobblestoning so I would agree that is not acceptable. Either way, I will stand by my previous post that you will be a good candidate for a future HT to help out the hairline. You may however not get a strong hairline and need to elect to have a soft and subtle hairline which might look more natural for you in the future. I say this because I question how much donor hair you will have to work with and I think that it would blend better with the sides. Ofcourse looking at photos is not the best source to make this determination (do you have gel in hair-giving thin appearance?) so it is best to consult with a coalition doc.

I know that this is a difficult time for you. Many of us on this forum have been thru it and it does suck. I think that the above guys have given you some good advise but I would like to go a little further and be more straight to the point. Even though right now you probably want to do just about anything under the sun to have hair and stop the hairloss, please DO NOT consider getting a hair transplant now even if money is not a factor. There is nothing wrong with educating yourself right now about HT's so you can plan things for the future but at your age you should not go thru with the procedure. I rather doubt that you'd find an ethical doctor that would work on you at your age anyways. In case you are not educated now on HT's my main reasoning is that no one can predict your future hairloss and therefore it is difficult for the surgeon to know where to place the hairline and how much hair they will have to work with (donor hair). You don't want to do something now that you will regret 10 years from now. Once you go thru with the procedure there is no turning back. It is a lifelong decision. I hope that this helps you.

Mabuhay, I too had made a similar mistake like yourself albeit 16 yrs ago when technology wasn't quite what it is now. It is surprising that you had a recent HT with such results, but unfortunately there are still doctors using outdated technology. If you feel inclined maybe you could give a little more detail about previous HT such as where it was done, how many follicular units, etc, so as to help shed light on a few things. Also, if you could possibly attach a few more photos from other angles and include the back of your head (donor area) so that we can assess things more thoroughly. Judging from the current photos I also would agree with Bill that the number of FU that Dr. Rahal is proposing should be adequate to give you a very natural look and help to camouflage a previously bad hairline. You are fortunate that it doesn't look like the previous doc screwed up and went too low with the hairline so this will make it easier for next surgeon. You need to figure out what your long term goals are for your hair (as you will tend to lose a little more) and then I would also suggest having a couple of other consults with coalition doctors. Don't worry about things as in the right hands this should work out fine for you. Hope this helps.

Badhair, Almost time to change the name! Things are looking great and looks like the healing process is already pretty advanced. Glad to see it mate. Keep us posted.

When the hair all grows in I think you need a night on the town!! We all do appreciate your input and knowledge so it is good you have no life. Take care and we look forward to another 1000.

DC, You say that my request is reasonable then please comply with AFTER pics and we'll all use our imaginations as to what the before pics look like. What a crazy litigious society we live in!! Are you a lawyer looking for business because this ain't the ambulance? You are right people should be prepared for any possible consequences as a result of their statements and actions. I won't argue with that point. If you continue to avoid the topic of you providing AFTER pics I will have to assume that you are not sincere and move on to those on this sight that are looking for help or advise. Bill--I agree with you and by no means do I want this site to be like the othersm but I think that I am being respectful of DC and trying to just reason with him.

Dc, Please post current photos with your face blocked out. Maybe it is unfortunate, but this is not your standard court of law, there is a tendency for the doc to be guilty of poor work until proven otherwise. We need to do so to protect the uneducated from a life of misery if they get poor results. I do agree with you that individuals should not make slanderous statements about doctors without proof. Lets see photos--its simple.