bezane

Hey Bill....certainly not insulting anyone's intelligence, especially yours. You know the score as well as anyone here. But this is a sore subject with us guys in need of of hope. It takes money, a good surgeon and thats it. Let's face it, 30K can get you pretty far with Hasson/Wong/Keene/Shapiro etc. And before everyone starts balling about how much money that is, the same idiots don't sneeze at some crappy car with the same price tag. 2-3 good surgeries and 18-24 months and anxieties are a thing of the past. Do you know how much I suffered going from a bushy head of hair to it all falling out. If I was a chick, it's like I woke up and my tits were hanging around my knees. It ruined my life. I did something about it. But not before I put my faith in a lot of hucksters playing games not just with my money but my life. Corn rows. Creams. Lotions. All crap. As silly as some may think it is, baldness is a debilitating freaking thing. I don't take it lightly. And some desperate guy thinking that if he pushes a $700 dollar comb through his head will change anything he is wrong. And those that profess to make that happen need to be called on the carpet. Screw it. The pain and suffering has to stop here. There's the list. Stop spending money on crap for a couple of years and do something. Or shave your head and buy combat boots......BUT PLEASE NO MORE FALSE HOPE. It's 2007. We know what to do.

Seriously guys.....this forum I thought would continue to steer people away from being misled. It's nice to make nice with a Doctor, I guess, but why on this subject? Where's the results, pictures, volumes of success. And further more where's the disclosure? Why would a doctor post on message board? For the good of all mankind? THE LASER COMB DOESN'T WORK. IT SUCKS. THE FDA HAS A LONG TRACK RECORD OF APPROVING IFFY PRODUCTS. I understand this community is doing well, but entertaining this kind of crap in a civil way just keeps the door open to everything bad about the industry. The board used to slam scams and butchers. Now we're more sensitive. Buyer beware.

excellent device the laser comb.....excellent as another means of desperate men wanting to believe something will help the one of the most devastating things they will ever go through, "baldness." Thanks to updated fashion, another great device is providing better results than the laser comb. That would be the razor. A "skin-head" will do just fine in this day and age. If not use a quality surgeon (hasson) and weather the time and 30K, and have a nice decent head of hair. Enough with this nonsense. The Laser Comb is just plain silly. I've endured the surgeries with Dr. Keene. She never "billed me" for laser treatments and simply smirked when asked about it. I have no bald spots anymore. I have no detectable signs of hair transplantation. My hair is not as thick as when I was 17, but it can do most hairstyles. They should call it the "laser comb over." It will make what little hair you have appear thicker to better cover up the spots where theres no hair. C'mon guys. You wouldn't buy insurance that "might" cover you. Throw this device in the garbage and save the board from becoming an infomercial. Some of you guys here are being so diplomatic. But you probably have no patience in your life for others that want to sell you iffy products. Why mess with this. Many here know that this BALDNESS thing affected your life on every level from social to economoic. We know enough now to JUST SAY NO. Open -mindedness should not be open-pocketness. I will return to my exile. Don't want to disturb any paying doctors here. Just needed to save my tongue from being bitten off completely. Thank you to all the great doctors here that get real results.

Mudpup....you're walking a slippery slope. We've graduated to the point where if someone claims to be the best, that they are indeed the best, especially if they slam other doctors and have singing technicians and spring for lunch. The fact that Pat is apologizing to Hank for my "rude" posts, strikes me as strange. While I can tell someone to read up the info on this forum to get educated, I would feel better about sending them to talk to Mike "the pressure" Ferko. At least they will end up at H&W as opposed to maybe being at an upstart that suddenly and strangely has the blessing of this forum. And Jotronic should know that soon it will be deemed better to be the guy on the left than the guy on the right, as long as they were nice to you. Hasson is so good that there's no way he could possibly do every initial consultation. He's the man in demand. Pat, while I love what you've done here, the tone has changed. A poster came on here and slammed a damn good coalition doctor. Possibly two, because we don't know who Ms. 1600 is. Yet insyead of us jumping him for his lack of etitquette, we sent him a teddy bear and tucked him in. I'll agree to not post here any more. But this situation has made it necessary in my opinion to ask the hard question. Do Coalition Doctors pay to be listed here? And if so is Dr. Gabel a perspective customer? Obviously it would be worth it to all these doctors in a business sense, but we all have to be careful. Bigger is not better in this industry as we know. Dr. Williams got slammed. Rightly so. But look at the shill post for him and Hank's. They might as well have been written by the same person. But one gets roasted and the other gets a pass.

Well Hank, that seems a helluva lot more open than your initial post. If you want to stay close to Portland and found a good guy, that's good. I wanted to be a bit closer to home and didn't go to H&W. In fact that pushy salesman forgot to call me back!!! So I'm glad you're happy. Hopefully your results will be stellar. But I will always be the one to call people out when they appear from nowhere and tout greatness from an unknown.

I'm amazed at everyone supporting the shill. Jotronic asked the question. The guy comes back and says if you want to know just ask. Well he did ask. The forum has lost some credibility if this is accepted as entree to the community. In this case, supporting the other docs that were comprimised, far outweighs Hank's feelings. Something suspicious going on here.

tkerr....I couldn't disagree more with you. You say my post and response to Hank was malicious and "wrong", well be specific. In my opinion, Pat is just plain being diplomatic and nice. He has a website to run. But instead of you defending a shill, you should weigh in on what it means to be a reputable doctor that has contributed mightily to this forum, has helped so many men out of their depression, has years of experience and documented successes shared with this website, yet took a backhanded slap from a brand new poster trying to give second grade hype to a new doctor. I guess I could live with someone "sneaking" on here and hyping themselves, but why do they have to slam other doctors, especially in cowardly ways then refuse to directly identify their obvious slam. If this forum is going to be about trying to gain market share as opposed to only engage in what is the very best in the industry, then it will become simply a marketing tool for the mediocre. I personally think I have a very strong voice that isn't afraid to call it the way I see it. If Pat doesn't want any abrasive comments, I'd respect that. But that's when I'd post my insights elsewhere. I don't want to edit my feelings. And go ahead and break down that post of Hank's. It's not informative. It's hostile to our friends, which happen to be probably the REAL BEST SURGEONS IN THE NORTHWEST, and if you research it, it's simply parphrasing much of the doctor's website bio with some hostility thrown in. So I stand by my post, stronger than ever. And did you ever think why Hank didn't answer back right away? This coalition of professional expert doctors is not meant to be politically correct or all inclusive. It, in my opinion, was and is to establish ongoing excellence and help people at least know there is hope. And any new doctors should be introduced in a professional, courteous and humble manner. Not like a bull in a china shop.

Yeah Pat, and I agree, but I personally believe that a post like this is fabricated and I simply pointed it out. I think you've created a forum that has some serious juice, meaning that if someone visits here and really researches the message board, they'll probably get a transplant from a coalition doc. If a time comes when a bunch get sub par work or are mislead by posters recommending certain doctors, the integrity will dwindle. But to further defend my reason behind my skewering, his post was probably aimed at discrediting one of the best HT clinics in the world. And I still think cutting a patient back open to get 197 more grafts is plain silly whether I make fun of it or not. It would be really nice if a doc like Gabel just logged on and introduced himself.

Welcome Hank. Gee Wilikers. You had an awesome experience. Congrats to you. And to Doc Gabel, the swellest doc in the Northwest. You think he the best in the midwest too? About the southeast? Was thinking of travelling to the northwest, but if Doc Gabel ain't the best....everywhere, then why bother. A few things that seem a bit off though. That lady doc with the "low estimate" on grafts, did she say why? Or was she just mean, and didn't want to give you the whole 2200 guarantee? Because only 600 difference means the donor area had some restictions, otherwise she would have said, I can harvest 4000, but I'm not a surgeon that likes those megasessions, even though some do. Pretty amazing that Gabel was drawing on your head for a "full" 45 minutes. Is that instead of a "partial" 45 minutes? And what was he doing, drawing the freaken Mona Lisa on your head. I want a refund from my Doc. She gave me a few stick figures and left the room. Here's the ones I like the best: At 4:30 PM, after enduring 8 "full" hours of surgery, 2200 grafts, on the nose mind you, Gabel decides to either open up your Tri closure or add another opening and stitching and shoot you up more and hassle and dissect, and poke more....for a paltry 197 grafts????? I'd kill him. Don't care how good Gabel or any of you guys' doc is, that donor strip harvest crap hurts like hell. I'm a very tough son-of-a-bitch, and while all the docs do damn good considering what they're doing, it hurts. But Hank didn't feel a thing, wee bitty bit-o-tightness. Can't believe you rubbed that rogaine shit on your head for 10 years!!!! You must of loved it. You dropped almost 10K on that crap. Please!!! So Gabel springs for lunch. That's nice. Does that Technician serenade during the meal, or just when she's placing grafts through a microscope. Steady hands that one. Especially through the high notes. My surgeon gave me a cheese sandwich. She knows who she is. She owes me a real lunch. At least a fresh squeezed OJ. Does Gabel take care of the tip too? Mine paid for the Sandwich but made me leave the tip. That really sucked, because my money was in the other room. Did you suffer any additional hairloss from the pressure? I mean from the other "salesman." I hate when that happens. Oh yeah, and I had to pay extra for my tech to SHUT THE F#%* UP. Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard. I'll consider Gabel next time. Also Hank, you state, and I'll quote..."The fact that Dr. gabel is a surgeon, very personable and hands on made the surgery a breeze andvery comfortable" Well that's nice. Until you told us that I thought he was a gardner. Hank, if you were in my very first writing class, and handed your post in as "persuasive writing," my professor would ask you not to write it over, but to, please NEVER return to class. Make room for someone with potential. Try your luck with math!!!! What is really impressive is that you're one of the new breed of HT clients that, get a HT, then research it after, and then post how great your experience was without researching it. And also know that finding this forum shortly after surgery and posting is a longshot. Without directions how to get here that is. Your post is the best ever. It seems harmless on the surface but a closer look, shows how hard you tried to "convince" us. You failed miserably. Gabel should charge you double next time for losing him so much business. There's more, but I'm laughing too hard. Good thing Pat is very nice and Jotronic has his hands tied, but this post deserves some roasting. This is shameless.

Mrjb....Thanks for the response. I didn't mean to call anyone out on this issue as being part of a cult. But sometimes people are so pleased with the results of certain surgeons, and furthermore are the only ones to weigh in on the subject, that it might appear that there are no coalition docs that use alternative methods. For me it was simply not an option so I'm thankful that there are docs like Hasson that are not money grabbers and will do a surgery in a way they're not comfortable with. Besides, Pat might be a lot of things, but I hear his recipe for Kool-Aid ain't so hot, so being a charismatic cult leader is not in the cards for him.

Awhile back I asked the same question about shaving my head in order to get a HT. I currently have enough hair as to help cover any surgical footprint. Dr. Hasson weighed in for me with an informative response to say the least. And obviously I respect him and what he has done in the field and for his patients (Not to leave out Jerry, for some reason Hasson rolls off the tongue first and easily). However for someone like me, it would mean leaving my job. My contract says I can't alter my appearance even with a severe haircut, hair color, facial hair etc. So the alternative was a leave of absence, which if not for a family matter might not have been possible. Or to quit the job. While I could afford to be out of work for several months, there was no guarantee I could equal my situation. It took me awhile to find a six figure job I can do in 32 hours at night with complete benefits and security. I left my last career in order to pursue a creative endeavor that takes up my day hours. In short I was in a a bad spot if I wanted a HT. There are doctors (reputable ones) that don't necessarily need to shave you down. They come with reputations that speak for themselves and while not in agreement with some of the best, they themselves are also considered by many the best. So in my case, I just can't give it all up for a HT. It's either wait until I have a whole different situation, which could be years, or wait til I retire, at which point I'm not sure a HT is what I want then. Please, this is not to say that these doctors like Hasson are not the very best and will give you results like a Jotronic which is a flawless piece of work. But the idea of this forum first and foremost, in my opinion, is to relieve the stress which baldness and bad HTs cause. So when you finally find help it would be a shame to cause more stress for someone to tell them it's hopeless to keep your life the way you know it if you want a good procedure. My own stress doubled when I asked the question and was told it had to be that way. I went another route and am quite happy, went back to work in ten days and while it is still a bit too soon to scream from the mountain top, I've met quite a few others that went the same way and look so awesome I couldn't believe my eyes. This is not a cult. This is a place to meet your needs. And whatever that is, there's advice here to steer you in the right path.

GPlayer....I'm not sure, but awhile before U2 did the super bowl thing, Bono was really "losing it" then they were not seen for awhile. I did hear back then that he had some great work done. I'll write you when I find out more. But I'm sure it's the case. I think the "style" is more important to us HT patients. We need to get contemporary cuts or cool cuts to compliment it. Often times we see guys just very conservative, but styling (good hairlines with slicked back for example) is the thing. Talk soon.

Help stop the useless repetition. While everyone (I hope) welcomes new members and posters, and would love to help, a simple search of this forum will yield boatloads of info on most doctors. Read first, there's volumes on this doc.

I saw one guy with a flap that was pretty cool. The doc had it on a remote control and the guy could wave it at you when you walked by. Or at least that's how it appeared anyway. Some people might like that.

I'm wondering who sends them to the forum post surgery. I don't need pictures. I don't need testimonials. I simply like to see a newbie (like me back in Dec/Jan), come to the forum, ask questions, choose a doctor and then post the experience. Hype all you want if your doc is great once you've been here. But it is curious that someone goes to get a HT then goes home and does research and finds this forum. But I guess all of our brains fell out along with our hair!!!! Hey, did he use that really cool laser hair dryer? I hear it really works. Simply get a HT, PAY for weekly laser sessions and then your hair grows......in about 3-4 months.

And then look at Bono. His HT is pretty damn good. Just goes to show that men make bad choices (Axl), regardless of how much dough they have, when the stress of hair loss takes over.

Pat, I've thought before to email you privately about this, but here it is on the forum. While I think it would be a tricky endeavor, meaning there's two ways to go (infomercial or reality show), but I think with the onslaught of reality TV and late night paid programming, that producing a video or TV show version of this forum would simply put an end to it all. If in infomercial form, the coalition would come up with the money to produce the show, and airing it would be discussed by members. I know this is a painful way to go because it would in the end be an advertisement, although I will steadfastly deem it a public service. It would also cause the coalition surgeons to be booked solid with over a year waiting list. My surgeon is four months already!!! The other way is to pitch a reality show around Hollywood. In a way it would be scandalous, and that just might fly with iconoclastic producers. Part of that show just "might" touch on bad HT work, celebrity speculation, but in the end it would be a documentary of following before and afters into people like Hasson. And also running ads to find recent "victims" of the infamous butchers. There's many shows now covering plastic surgery but HTs take too long to materialize so are often ditched for breast augmentations which happen to be my favorite as well. Pat this could work and it's all YOURS to make it work. I do know a bit about pitching ideas in Hollywood. Do it. Expose the crooks and coax the kings to show it off. The article in Vogue makes me sick. The show you can do can cover so much, including the absolute emotional torture which convenes when hair starts to fall out. Even D. Keene admitted to me that she never realized how lives can be changed and it was mostly a non vanity application.

Good letter Pat. But now the whole thing has sunk in and it's more deeply depressing than that. The way the journalist went about his work, it can only be one of two things: off the shelf journalism needed quickly to fill a gap asssigned by an equally slip shod editor, or secondly, a "paid" piece of "advertisement" masquerading as a "story." Let's hope it's the former, and in which case, would in and of itself be a catastrophe. And before anyone thinks the latter doesn't happen I would beg to differ. I do freelance writing and you'd be amazed to know that I'm often offered press releases to doctor into 250-1000 word stories. No lie. But, the story you tell Pat is the way most men are going about choosing a doc. Crazy but true. What a shame. What a sham. And the last and more troubling thing, in the new age of what is termed "drive by media," can we all stop and start to accept that the constant repetition of news throughout the day, same story over and over, is probably selected and reported in much the same way. Whether it's a slant on Iraq or the emerging economy of China. But it shouldn't matter because celebrity stories have become the lead ins for most newscasts and programs. Shame on them. Shame on us for buying into it. Thanks Pat. I will read it and write in about it.

Ask your doc. Same as first two?

Hey Northern, it seems you're progressing nicely. I'm curious about the donor area. It looks long! Do you have any idea what the width of the strip was? You said 1800 grafts in front, was that everything? Your blog shows lots of crown. I imagine you had that done as well. What was your total count? Good luck, but it seems you're well on your way to success. The post op looked easy. Good work.

Look at Dr. feller's latest pic post. Flawless. While I like what I've seen from True, the statement that you'd be short changed by not checking him out, before going to Feller or elsewhere, is simply not TRUE. No pun intended. The only problem I have with Dr. True is past association with his firm Elliott & True. Man, the internet is filled with problem horror stories about that. I know for certain Dr. True regrets this and has moved on and moved up but we often have to drag our pasts around. Feller, Hasson, Shapiro just don't have those problems. I took issue with a former patient of Dr. Williams coming on here as a new member "POST surgery" and beating the drum. I will say that while it is not the case here, I do really HATE overzealous statements. And the one about making a mistake by NOT consulting TRUE, and NO SURGEON has more expertise than TRUE, and a new poster GUARANTEES results, is a turn-off. Don't you guys realize that? I think here if Pat or Jotronic "guarantees" something, it has merit. I think it would be a serious mistake in not consulting with one or two coalition memebers. And lastly I think there are a collective few coalition docs on here, THAT are the best surgeons in the world. Dr. Feller is certainly coming on strong and any conversation that doesn't at least include Hasson is INCOMPLETE. Don't have to use them, just realize that it's just the way it is. And just to clarify, I love Dr. Keene. I like her manner the best of all. But I will also say that I've had all my teeth done perfectly by a female doc, my general physician is female and awesome! My accountant is female, a business partner female, HELL!!!....my girlfriend is female! And if I decide to cheat on her....it will be with a female. But I'm certainly not going to tell you that if you don't consult with her you're doomed. She'll tell you that. I actually recommend Hasson from out west here. And until Feller came blazing through I used to tell east coasters to go to Shapiro or Rose if they were uncomfortable going Canuck.

Congratulations on the upcoming appointment with Feller. The pics the Doc just posted are among the best I've ever seen. Amazing. Does he use Laser Treatments? I mean does he put hour head in a fishbowl filled with tiny massaging beams of light that will promote growth? And then charge you for it? Just wondering. Hehehe. Really though.....WOW!!!!! If you turn oput half as good as his latest post you'll be stoked.

Yeah B spot, I think you were part of this forum pre Dr. Shapiro, not sure, but it just strikes me as phony that someone types all caps two months after his surgery just in time to throw a bone in for Dr. Williams. I feel so strongly about the integrity of this forum and those that even reached out off the board to talk with me. Don't like it one bit. So I'm now compelled to press on with my research, thanks to Mr. Just Transplanted. can anyone tell me about the wacky laser machine. Is Williams the only one to use it? If it works why is this dude still waiting for growth after two months. Is this gizmo a fraud? At this point I wouldn't trust a doctor that put in this laser chamber and flipped the switch. Is it FDA approved? Who did the clinical trials?

And furthermore, if my surgeon ever left my procedure to go make a sale I would kill them. And the laser therapy wacky machine is silly. Pleez. Why bother with this nonsense.

No offense Just Transplanted, but you post the same stuff twice, you state yourself that you have no clue what the results are, just that you had a swell time getting a large piece of your scalp removed and 3000 holes punched in your head. But given the recent turn of events in regards to the doctor we speak of you sound like nothing but a cheap schill that will make it difficult for a really good surgeon to get any credibility here. Geez, just when I thought it was safe to go back in the water, we have someone that "finds" this forum "after" a surgery. If the forum is going to be simply an advertising place then it's worthless.