Dr. Alan Feller

Nah, you don't even know what my business practices are. We've never met nor ever done business together. And after 24 years of full time successful national and international practice, multiple clinics, thousands of patients and not a single lawsuit or litigation of any kind I think my business ethics and practices are pretty solid. You are just angry because you don't want to accept the truth about FUE. Hey, if you are so convinced of it's merits why bother to attack me? Just go ahead and get it done. You certainly don't need my approval.

I can't speak to what that particular doctor does and does not do. You would have to ask him, I don't assume to know anything about him as I've never heard of him or met him. I will make my general premise clear because I know what you are getting at in the bigger picture: I believe most FUT doctors are not performing FUE. They may claim it, but the lack of FUE results on their website and on the forums is a pretty strong indicator that they really aren't doing as much FUE as they claim, OR, their FUE results are not worth posting-which is worse in my opinion. The same can be said of FUE doctors. I suppose some could claim they do both FUE and FUT, however, if their gallery includes few to no FUT results it would be fair to question whether that doctor is actually performing FUT in the numbers he is implying, OR, that he is doing some FUT but producing results he may not want posted online. Being able to perform both procedures gives a much greater air of credibility to prospective patients. All doctors know this, and this is why I believe so many FUT doctors falsely claim they SUBSTANTIVELY perform FUE when they really don't. The same, I guess, can be said for FUE doctors. Rather than being viewed as a one trick pony they too understand the importance of being perceived as being able to offer both procedures substantively even though in actuality they don't really perform much FUT. If you want to know if a doctor actually performs FUT regularly it's pretty simple: 1. Look online and his website in the photo gallery. If you don't see FUT cases then something is probably up. Ask him to show the photos to you if he has them. Make sure of the dates. 2. Ask him how many FUT procedures he has performed in the last week, month, year. How many grafts were the cases ?Have him commit it to writing. 3. Ask how many full time in-house technicians he has to dissect the grafts from the strip and reimplant them. Should be a minimum of five in my book. In my clinic I keep a minimum of 8 full time and in-house (never shared). 4. How many technician workstations does his clinic have WITH microscopes ? 5. Ask for a photo of the clinic that includes the staff and the workstations. If the office is very small, you are probably not dealing with a serious FUT doctor. That's why so many doctors are attracted to FUE. Low overhead, few staff, and small physical plant.

Mav, 1. You have made uncalled for and inappropriate personal attacks on me in threads. 2. You have inferred and outright told people to visit your doctor instead of seeing doctors in NY-especially me. 3. You are an aggressive and relentless cheerleader for your own doctor. The evidence is attached. Why don't you stay off my threads and just keep your mouth shut when my name comes up. You've made your attacks, points, and subtle digs. You should have your fill by now. It's demonstrable that you stalk me in an effort to harass and injure my reputation. Your second to last post attacking me and calling on the moderators to somehow censure me was particularly disgusting and libelous. You are not a patient of mine. I have never met you. You have never met a patient of mine. We have no business together nor relationship of any kind. Stop trolling me and the threads that refer to me. 1. Your personal insults: 2) Don't go to NY doctors, go to Rahal in Canada instead: This is in response to someone else who was saying to go to Rahal: 3) Cheerleader:

You didn't do your research before you made your post. Dr. Bhatti called me out, not the other way around. He started it, I finished it.

Magnum, Thank you sincerely for the kind words. That was very nice of you to write what you did and I truly appreciate it. It's hard to interpret intent in an online forum post because it's just text without body language and tone of voice. Trix is right and he gets it. I'm trying to be direct and frank. There is way too much incorrect information floating around the internet about FUE based on wishful thinking, incorrect information, and deliberate mis-information. I'm trying to deliver facts, but facts don't care about feelings so the person stating them may come across as aggressive and uncaring in an online post.

I don't call out doctors, Trix. I call out anonymous posters who make claims or quotes in the name of doctors without their consent or knowledge. I believe Gasthrower spoke out of turn by claiming that two doctors -who perform FUE and FUT regularly- offered him FUE to the exclusion of FUT. I believe in actuality there is more to his story that he has been omitting. I asked for his real name but he would not give it. As for the doctors, they all know what I'm writing about FUE. Where do you think the thousands of views come from when I make posts or videos about FUE ? They all know what I'm writing and saying but choose not to chime in. That is their choice and I am not interested in compelling or baiting any particular doctor into joining a debate they are not interested in joining. However, the public should note that after years of my making claims about FUE in posts and videos not a single FUT/FUE doctor has come onto this site to refute a word of it. And THAT should be what you and every patient should be paying attention to.

Sure, if they want to. The debate wouldn't take long or include anything I haven't discussed online for years. I very simply start the debate with the following question: "Yes or No, does the FUE procedure cause more harm to the graft during the extraction process than FUT ?" It is, of course, a set up question. I already know the answer, and so does any and every other sincere and sane surgeon of any type. One only needs to view a skeletonized graft to instantly know the only answer to the question. And if that's not enough, simply view that horrid video Dr. Bhatti posted of himself performing an FUE extraction on one of his own patients. Then compare it to the serene and controlled manner that FUT grafts are dissected from the strip. No contest. Any doctor who competently and regularly performs both FUT and FUE knows this. The only people who honestly think it is an open question or debatable question are anonymous online lay posters who know nothing about surgery and can't be held accountable for what they write. That's why you ONLY hear from them over and over again but NEVER the actual FUE doctors they quote out of turn. Doctors who perform both FUT and FUE competently and regularly by definition know that FUT is the safer option or else they would only be offering FUE. Doesn't that make sense ? The claim that there is only a small difference in the yield between the two is also false because, again, if this were true doctors would not be offering both procedures. Instead they would only offer FUE. But as I've noted in countless postings and videos there is not a single notable clinic with a distinguished history of providing top notch FUT results who has abandoned it for FUE. Now why do you think that is ?! Truth is it seems to me that even good doctors no longer care what is best for the patient. Not in these economic times. They simply say they are giving the patient "what he wants" and that's all the justification they need. They claim they are offering the patient an honest choice, but I claim it is a false choice that preys on the patients emotion and ignorance to book the case. I COULD make money practicing this way, but I won't. I am astounded by those colleagues of mine who do.

And Gasthrower, PM me your name and phone number and I won't post it online.

Mav, I think it has become ridiculously obvious that the only reason you come onto this site is to attack me or to promote your own doctor. So I am disappointed that the moderators would allow that agenda driven behavior to continue. I do not attack doctors like you do. I criticize procedures by offering facts. You are a layman and don't understand the facts. But the FUE practitioners do. So it is up to them to come onto this forum, which they all read, and refute the facts I have offered. To date only one has ever tried and I wiped the floor up with him by posting his OWN video of him performing FUE extractions. I asked Gasthrower to give me his personal information in a PM and instead he sent me a list of conditions. So his answer was no. One of his conditions was that his name could not be used online. Why not ? If he is going to make declarative statements, as he has, then he should stand by it in full view of the public just as I and my colleagues do. What's the point if he doesn't have any skin in the game ? He indicated that when he met with two doctors who perform both FUT and FUE that they both offered him FUE as the PRIMARY procedure without him leading them at all as to his own preference for FUE. I found that almost impossible to believe. When a doctor can perform both procedures they almost always offer FUT first for the simple reason it is less traumatic and grows better. So for him to come onto this forum and claim they said the opposite without any input from him is a fantastic claim that needs verification. So I wanted to get on the phone with him and those doctors to see if that's what they really said and did. The internet is full of anonymous "experts" who make claims for which they know they will not be held accountable because they hide behind aliases. My standard for dealing with ANY poster is that they reveal themselves and stand by their statements publicly as I do. I believed Gasthrower would do this, but now I see he won't. Despite this I will contact both doctors anyway to find out if they do in fact offer FUE over FUT without solicitation from their patients.

Matt, Why do you bother to participate when all you offer is vitriol and negativity ? Your comments only confuse and mislead people. If they outlawed FUT today I could switch to a pure FUE practice and still do very well. I don't reject FUE for megasessions out of a need to preserve my business. I reject it because it is not what it's proponents and practitioners claim it to be. The facts: FUE does not allow you to shave your hair. FUE is not less invasive. FUE causes more trauma to grafts and donor area. FUE does not grow as well as FUT. Notice how no FUE practitioners have come online to refute any of those statements and the only one who tried got his butt whooped and disappeared ? (By the way, the way I beat that doctor was to post his own video of him removing (ripping) the FUE grafts from the donor area. You could hear the gasps from the viewers. ) FUE most certainly does NOT "sell itself". By far the most egregious, aggressive, and outright illegal marketing tactics are utilized by FUE salesman around the world to this very day. So now that we've talked about my business, let's talk about yours, Matt. What do you do for a living ?

Yaz, You may refer to an FUT scar as a "smiley face" to denigrate it, but it's just as fair to describe your scarring from your FUE procedures as a massive amount of shotgun holes, the damage of which to your donor area is multiples greater than an FUT scar. Please see your own photo of your donor area that we re-posted here. The bottom line is that you have to leave your hair long to conceal all the FUE donor damage. This is the antithesis of what FUE supporters constantly claim. Had you had an FUT you could have kept the same fade cut with no evidence of any surgery in the buzzed portions AND no concern about grafts that will die because they were taken from the unsafe areas. I'm glad your grafts grew, but all the faith you put into your doctor is not going to change the fate of those grafts that have been taken from BELOW the safe donor zone. You are a young man, very young, the chances of the back hairline creeping up are very very high. I have read all your comments and honestly see no logical reason why you opted for FUE except that you simply do not like the thought of having a strip harvested from your head. If that is your reason, even though you have never admitted to it, then that is absolutely fine and valid. But admit to it rather than making up all these other nonsensical and conflicting reasons.

Yaz, Your donor area is not shaved, most of your donor area still has hair covering it, you just shaved a small portion of it and it is obvious that the skin has been disfigured there. You have seen plenty of FUT patients with fade cuts like yours but you never knew it because the entire scar was easily concealed in the remaining donor area you chose not to buzz. Your scars are plain to see to the naked eye- educated or uneducated. They are not subtle nor are they hard to pick up. If you shaved your entire donor area, which unethical FUE proponents claim patients can do, it would be even easier to see the scars and associated skin damage. Which, obviously, is why you chose to leave a large amount of uncut hair in your donor area. These visible scars that show in your buzzed area (which are outside the safe donor zone by the way) would not even be there if you had had a strip procedure. All the evidence would have been concealed in the very fade cut you chose to show in your photos. If the fade cut is how you like to wear your hair, and the very fade cut you are showing in these photos leaves more than enough hair to conceal a strip scar, why did you bother with FUE ??? Especially since the FUE option left you with MORE visible scar than an FUT would have ? And remember, now that we know your grafts were taken from outside the safe region at some point those hairs, if they grew in the recipient area at all, are at a high risk of falling out. Doesn't this bother you?

With all due respect I must disagree with you. 1. You have a fade cut in the back, your hair is not that short. FUT scars have been hidden successfully using this method for over 20 years. Plenty of my military patients wear their hair this way and nobody has any idea there is a linear scar concealed above the buzzed portion. 2. I can plainly see your FUE scars, patches of FUE scars, and confluence of scars in the buzzed part of your donor area. What's worse is how many were taken from OUTSIDE the safe zone and how all these scars are indicative of the amount of unnecessary damage inflicted on your donor area. 3. All your fade cut pictures that are supposed to demonstrate how unscarred you are were taken at unusually high angles. Why not just a straight shot ? 4. In fact the only straight shot you provided of the donor was before you cut the hair. I hope and am glad you are happy with your transplant. But to say the result you are enjoying is the the exclusion the FUT method is just not true. In fact, you paid a higher price for the same thing even if you are unaware of it.

Actually our practice is FUT and FUE based. So no sample bias. When a lay member of the public says they are only interested in FUE it just demonstrates an overall lack of knowledge regarding hair transplantation in general- and that patient is usually setting himself up for disappointment. Patients shouldn't try to pick the procedure they want performed. Patients simply don't understand what is involved. I know they think they do because of lay forums like this one, but discussions on this board do not include the subtle details of either surgery. The bottom line is that FUE procedures injure the grafts far more than FUT and also injure the donor area more as well. The result is a consistently poor result by comparison. With all due respect to education and intelligence, if a person hasn't actually performed these procedures then they have no idea which is the right procedure to have. You should not be saying you are "only interested in FUE". You should be saying you are only interested in choosing the physician/clinic who can give you the best final result possible. How they do it should be left to the doctor. This is what you pay him for. Hair Transplant procedures are not options like engines and radios in cars.. Unfortunately, unethical doctors, unethical equipment manufactures, and uninformed but loud online posters mislead the public into thinking that they are.

My questions are very basic and are the same questions I ask every FUE doctor. PM me your information and I'll get started.

Gas, Would you be interested in doing a three way phone call with any or all of these doctors you have been quoting? Let's recording it and then post the recording right here on this forum for everyone to listen to. I would love to hear what these doctors have to say regarding the comparison between FUT and FUE. Send me your real name and phone number and we'll do a three way call and record it. Are you in ? Dr. Feller

In America the only trend regarding FUE is to move AWAY from it. While the hype and performance of this procedure has become epidemic in other countries, this country has been roundly rejecting it for very very good reason. FUE has it's place, but not as a first line procedure for large numbers of grafts. Instead, the gold standard of hair transplantation known as FUT or Strip method should be employed. Through interviews with experienced hair transplant doctors we seek to educate the public as to the very real limitations and unavoidable consequences of the FUE procedure. We understand- to the normal person the FUE procedure SOUNDS preferable to the FUT procedure, BUT these interviews with the expert surgeons who actually perform hair transplantation will help you to understand why this is just not the case. FUT is a far far better option. Rather than relying on anonymous online posters who have created almost 100% of the false hype underlying FUE, we present actual doctors who have dedicated their careers to hair transplantation. These experts tell the truth about FUE and why they would not have such a procedure on themselves-opting instead for FUT.

Dr. Feriduni does excellent FUT work. He's a good choice. Dr. Devorye is also an excellent choice. Dr. Chris Bisanga is also excellent. All produce jaw dropping FUT results ON A CONSISTENT basis over many years. I'm sure I'm missing a few, but these Drs come to mind immediately.

HLS2015, I do know your stance and I remember your situation well. You are the textbook cautionary tale underlying my own FUE philosophy. Your situation is the embodiment of what I am trying to teach the viewers of this site. I commend you for sharing your story on here. Most wouldn't do it. To answer your question, the answer is no. Even if somehow grafts could regenerate as a matter of practicality after being purposefully transected, the graft that was removed would still be injured and be expected not to grow as well. Today FUE doctors DON'T mean to transect grafts and yet they still do. That's what the mystery pimples are that patients on this very thread complained about 5 weeks after their procedure. What the average FUE patient doesn't realize, and what the average FUE HT surgeon fails to report to the world is the number of ATTEMPTS to remove a graft to the number of EXTRACTIONS actually achieved. To get 3000 grafts it may have taken 4,000 attempts. But that 1,000 injured grafts is never discussed or acknowledged. I call this the ATTEMPT to SUCCESS ratio. FUE is not the procedure to supplant the FUT procedure. It would take a revolutionary new way of cutting the skin and so far there is nothing on the horizon that I have seen. For now, as far as FUE goes, the fatter the graft, the better the growth.

If a physician does not offer all of that information in written form then they are guilty of not providing Informed Consent. The omission of which, alone, is enough to get a medical license pulled. In addition, failure to provide Informed Consent is actionable in court. Doctors have been sued for less. On top of this, it is unethical to hide, withhold, or omit disadvantages of surgical procedures. However, in the third world and parts of Europe doctors have no such accountability. So omission of Informed Consent has little or no practical repercussions. Why do you think America is the epicenter of modern surgery and medicine in the world ? It's because U.S. standards, ethics, and legal repercussions are the highest in the world as well. No matter what the surgery is, if it's not being done that way in the United States there is a damn good reason for it. Look at all the FUE mills in Europe and the Third world. There are tons. Now look at America. None. There is a reason for this.

Sorry Jean, you leaped before you looked. I was the first to perform 2,000 graft and 3,000 graft FUE procedures before any of the doctors you mentioned were even in the hair transplant industry. I performed the worlds first live FUE surgery procedure in 2003. I produced and posted the worlds first FUE procedure video online with full disclosure as to how it was technically done. I also performed the worlds first successful FUE into donor scar repair procedure and documented it online in 2003. I also produced the worlds first surgical tools designed specifically for FUE and received US Patents on them. I have been recognized as a true pioneer in FUE, unlike just about every other FUE doctor who fraudulently make these claims. You don't see large procedures of FUE from me because I stopped performing them. And why did I do this ? Because they don't grow as well as FUT procedures on the whole; and, they inflict too much damage to the donor area when compared to FUT. By the way, any doctor who can do 1,500 FUE can do 3,000 FUE. There is no difference in technique. Only in your willingness to injure the patient to greater and greater extents.

Gas, I don't debate layman and I don't consult with laymen as to the particulars of surgery. There are two reasons for this: The first is because you are not qualified to debate me. Do a few thousand surgeries and then get back to me. The second is because you don't know what you don't know and you aren't going to learn the particulars of surgery from a layman's online forum no matter how intelligent or enthusiastic you are. If you have a true question (not a statement in the form of a question), I will be happy to answer it for you. If you think you know it all already, then you don't need me or any other doctor. By the way, I trained Dr. Law how to perform FUE, performed his first FUE procedure with him in my office, video recorded it, and sold him his first FUE tools (my patented designs). Dr. Feller

Mike, This is a great quote and applies to far too many doctors performing FUE megasessions today. In the Golden Age of hair transplantation, about 1992 to 2010, the integrity of the follicle was universally held to be sacrosanct. There were articles and chapters written about how fragile grafts were and how they should not be mishandled. Now that all seems to have been conveniently forgotten. What was unethical yesterday seems to be treated as ethical today. And it's a shame. Dr. Feller Great Neck, NY