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Dr. Sanusi Umar

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About Dr. Sanusi Umar

  • Birthday 12/12/1966

Basic Information

  • Gender
    Male

Hair Transplant Clinic Information

  • Hair Transplant Surgeon
    Dr. Sanusi Umar
  • Hair Transplant Network Recommendation Profile
  • Hair Transplant Clinic Name
    DermHair Clinic
  • Primary Clinic Address
    510 North Prospect Avenue, Suite 209
  • Country
    United States
  • State
    CA
  • City
    Los Angeles
  • Zip Code
    90277
  • Phone Number
    (310) 318-1500
  • Website
    http://www.dermhairclinic.com
  • Email Address
    (310) 318-1500
  • Provides
    Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE)
    Eyebrow Transplantation
    Eyelash Transplantation
    Body Hair Transplantation (BHT)
    Free In-depth Consults

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Dr. Sanusi Umar's Achievements

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  1. This photos posted by hairguy without the ruler (see above) appears to be a closer representation of his true forehead size. The distance between the wrinkle lines appear to be closer to the photos in our file. The problems are with the photos claiming a 5cm hairline which differ from the above photo I had the above photo analyzed and compared to our photos as well as the one photos posted showing his forehead with a ruler mounted with a tape that obscures a good portion of the forehead. To allow for an apple to apple comparison 4 pictures were made to fit to the same scale as the before photo in our files. All photos were simply inputted into the same software and only scaled to the same size ratio. This is what emerged: Do note that pictures #1 and 3 are those posted by hairguy As mentioned in my first response, this finding suggests that in the photos claiming a 5cm hairline, the forehead has been deliberately manipulated to make it appear shorter than it is. Even with that manipulation, the hairline measured 5.5cm not 5cm. Without the manipulation, his hairline was at least 6.5cm including on photo #3 which is hairguy's own posted photo.
  2. Hairguy has not specifically addressed the inconsistencies in his statements. Furthermore, Hairguy has shown a photograph with a ruler on the forehead of the person in the photo. Supposedly, this is to address the doubts raised by his first photo posted earlier in this thread. If anything, in my opinion, this photo raises more questions and the possibility of doctoring of photos. Please compare the photo from HG to the next 2 photos that were taken immediately before and after surgery at my clinic, that show a similar view. In all comparisons, please focus on the 3 horizontal wrinkles on the forehead. Here are the 3 photos. Please see comments afterwards: Photo posted by hairguy: PHOTO TAKEN AT THE CLINIC IMMEDIATELY BEFORE SURGERY WITH MARKINGS FOR PROPOSED HAIRLINE: PHOTO TAKEN AT THE CLINIC IMMEDIATELY AFTER SURGERY SHOWING NEW HAIRLINE POSITION: 1. In our photos (authentic), there are 3 horizontal lines on the left half of his forehead and only 2 on the right half of his forehead. On the photo posted by HG, there are 3 horizontal lines on both the left and right forehead halves. 2. In our photos, the distance between the wrinkle lines is much wider and consistent with a younger patient with a normal facial expression. In HG's photo, in my opinion, the distances between the lines are much shorter and consistent with an older patient and/or a photo that has been photoshopped to make the forehead considerably shorter than it truly is. 3. In our photos, the distance between the hairline placement and the top most line is at least 1.5 time the distances between the various lines. In HG's alleged photo, in my opinion, it is 0.5 time this distance. 4. In HG's photo, the way the rest of the head sits on the eyebrows looks completely different from the overall head shape proceeding from the eyebrow in our photos, giving the suggestions of a very obvious attempt to manipulate the photo. This is my considered opinion. On another note, HG states that some tech in another clinic told him they removed a grafts that was upside down, 6 months after the fact. FYI, when a graft is placed upside down, it does not survive 6 months, so that it can be removed by a tech. As to Hairguy's statement that I threatened him with a lawsuit, it is false. I never threatened him with a lawsuit, nor did I harass him. I did object to a defamatory statement made by him, and asked him to retract it. This long thread makes clear, that Hairguy ignored my request.
  3. During the course of several email consultation dialogue, Hairguy350 was given two options. Here are direct email quotes: 1. 1800 grafts we would restore your hairline conservatively and blend it into your frontal scalp. 2. 3000 grafts would advance your hairline and fill in as well as bolster density in the frontal scalp. HG: Dr. Umar, I would like to proceed with the aggressive procedure in early January 2013. I met HG on January 10th to discuss his hairline, frontal scalp and the transplanting of his grafts prior to surgery. He was not sedated, because no sedating medication was provided to him until after we had discussed what HG wanted and what was achievable. I gave HG a marking pencil and had him draw in the hairline he wanted. He was alert and drew his goal of a hairline with one a steady holding the pencil and another holding a large mirror. I then photographed it from several different angles. A couple of those photos are shown below: Aggressive hairline drawn by HG prior to surgery I then explained to HG that the hairline he drew was too low. After wiping off that line, I took the marking pencil and drew what I thought was an appropriate hairline, in light of HG’s expressed goals. I photographed that hairline. This hairline met with his approval. Again, HG was awake, and of clear mind, there was no sedating medication in his system. Less aggressive hairline drawn by Dr Umar and approved by HG Before any medication was given to HG, I assessed his condition. After the assessment, I instructed a member of my staff to provide and administer meds to him. All of the members of my staff, the medical assistants, the registered nurse, are licensed or certified to practice within their scope of certification in the State of California. They would not perform tasks that is outside the scope of their state sanctioned designation. They would not give a patient medication until after I had seen the patient and Okay the choice and doses of the medications. We hire only state sanctioned medical personnel in the clinic. There were two days of surgery earmarked for working his frontal scalp and hairline, January 10th and 11th. Although we discussed the overall transplant and hairline, and drew the hairline on January 10th, the transplanting of grafts into HG’s new hairline area did not occur until the second day of surgery, January 11th. Only the frontal scalp and areas behind the proposed hairline were done on the first day. Prior to the hairline surgery on January 11th, HG did not raise any concerns or request any modifications of the hairline I drew the day before which was still evident. Photo taken at end of surgery to Frontal scalp (day 1) and hairline (day 2) I note that HG wrote on this thread: “However, I never saw the doctor until I was already given sedatives to knock me out for the day. At that time I was under the influence of these sedatives, and not able to fully comprehend or understand what exactly was going on. I passed out shortly after Dr. Umar entered the room. I have no recollection of asking any questions, getting any answers, or collaborating, or agreeing to what was designed.” Contrast that with an excerpt of an e-mail that I received from HG: “You are correct that you did give me a mirror to draw where I wanted my hairline, however, I recall drawing a line at the recession of my existing hairline. You made a remark that I was not much of an artist and instructed me to lean my head back and began to draw a hairline on my head. Leaning my head back is the last thing I remember due to the medication that you instructed your techs to give me.” You can see that HG does recall what occurred and claims to have no memory when it is convenient for him. He suggests that he lay back and passed out as I drew in his hairline. Except that he wasn’t laying back when I drew in the hairline, he was sitting up wide awake. As you can see from the posted photographs HG was sitting up, with the hairline drawn in. If he would grant permission to allow his eyes to be shown, you would find that HG was looking alert and attentive. The notion that HG was sedated before we discussed the transplant and hairline, and that he passed out shortly after I entered the room, is absurd. Then there is the issue of when he believed his hairline was not right. 9/16/13 “I had issue with the lowness of the hairline from day one,…” 9/17/13 “I did not realize the gravity of what had transpired until several months later when the transplanted hair grew in, and around the six-month mark I felt something was wrong.” HG e-mailed the clinic almost every month. On June 4th he wrote “While I find that the work is very artistic and professional, everything seems to look pluggy at this point, will that change?” I don’t transplant plugs, I transplant follicular units, naturally occurring groupings of hair, by FUE. In the early stages of growth, before all the transplanted hair has grown in and areas look thin, individual follicular units might look pluggy to some, but the look of a hair transplant is not meant to be assessed at 5 months. I responded: “I will not worry about plugginess until the 12th month since a lot of the softer hairs may take 12-18 months to grow in” in Another email I advised: “ The nape hairs used for softening of vanguard hairs takes at least 1 year to manifest fully. It is at that point the softness or lack thereof can be judged” In this thread, on 9/6/13, HG wrote “In my e-mails with Dr. Umar he echoed his sentiment that I would likely need another procedure to fill in some gaps where hair was sparse.” I did not tell him that. I did advise that if HG wanted to add density, there is always the option to have another procedure to add density. Whether or not the density of a transplant is acceptable to a patient, can only be determined after waiting at least 10 months. Again, I told HG to allow the hair to grow, and that I thought he would be pleased with the ultimate outcome. HG is able to “consult every attorney imaginable in California,” visit at least one laser clinic and a number of other transplant doctors, but didn’t come to my office and show me what was bothering him. Whatever his complaint or concern was, I would have listened to him and reviewed in detail the specifics of any complaint he had. In all of my communications with HG prior to the publication of this thread, I have always been courteous and respectful with him. As to the photo posted by HG in which “5 cm” is written in blue ink on HG’s forehead, if the point of the photo was to communicate that HG’s hairline was 5cm from his eyebrows, a photo with a measuring tape or a metric ruler placed on the forehead would have shown the actual height of the hairline. In my opinion, HG has his eyes wide open and his forehead furrowed so as to make his forehead seem smaller, so as to make his hairline appear lower than it actually is. The hairline which HG received at my clinic was not 5 cm. The posted photos should make that fairly obvious. As to the issue of plugginess, I cannot speak to suspect photos shot under nebulous circumstances and likely shot after the areas have been lasered and or surgerized by another clinic (s). I can only speak to what I do in my clinic and the kind of result it produces. Many members of this forum are recipients of my hairline work. In qualified candidates, I use finer nape and finer peri-auricular hairs (fine hairs around the ears) in conjunction with regular head singles to achieve the softness needed for natural looking hairlines and temple points. Nape and peri-auricular area hair: Like body hair extractions, require extra FUE skill to harvest efficiently. It is well know to this forum that I have been using this hair in qualified patients for hairline, temple point reconstruction, as well as eyebrow hair transplants which all have a need for softness. After 8 years of using this hair, I have found that with the exception of some body hair ( see my publication on the subject in JAMA Dermatology JAMA Network | JAMA Dermatology | The Transplanted Hairline: *Leg Room for Improvement ) , nape hair singles impact the softest possible look to hairlines. Nape hair doubles also impart softness that may even exceed the regular head singles that is traditionally used in transplants. Under high power magnification, however they would appear as doubles. In nature the fineness of the hairline is imparted by the presence of thin caliber hairs that include doubles. Traditional transplants tries to mimic this by planting only thick single hairs from the middle of the back of the head. We are capable of mimicking nature by using a mix of single nape hairs, regular head singles and finer double nape and periauricular hairs. Thus In a work that involves not only the advancement of a hairline and reconstitution of the temple points, but the thickening of the frontal scalp, you would come across all variations of hairs. And in this evolved approach, the appearances of these hair (cropped or not) would vary at 6 months, 10, 12 and 18 months. No serious clinic would pass judgment on work done at 6 months or less to the extent of committing the patient to the invasive procedure of reversing the hair transplant surgically. Which appears to have occurred in HG's case. In May, about 4 months after surgery, HG e-mailed and indicated that there was a gap between his old hairline and new hairline and that the frontal area seemed thin. Although provided photos did not reveal this to me, I responded back and informed him that these areas would fill in over time. On June 4 and June 6, about 5 months after surgery, HG disclosed to me that he had been diagnosed with mental disorders and implied that because of this, he could not wait for the hair to grow in. A couple of days ago HG wrote “I do not wish to discuss my mental health because I do not believe it is related.” I recognize this is a sensitive issue. However, when HG wrote to me, he indicated that it was related. And if after implying that he cannot wait for his hair transplant to fully manifest becasue of the diagnosis and follows shortly afterwards with non surgical and surgical procedures to remove his transplant, it is rational to assume it is related. Please note that I did not disclose what his diagnoses were, nor did I disclose the text of those e-mails. As time went by I received e-mails from HG complaining that his hairline was too low, and that he was going to have his grafts removed. I asked him, in the strongest terms possible, not to remove his grafts. I told him that if another doctor had advised him to remove his grafts, have the doctor call or e-mail me. I did not receive a call or e-mail from any doctor or clinic. I eventually became aware that HG wrote on another website that he had laser surgery to remove his grafts. At another point, he e-mailed me and told me he was under the care of another transplant doctor, and that this doctor would call me. That doctor did not call me. I treated this patient just like all of my other patients. He would have received a good result if he had waited for his hair to grow.
  4. Hairguy350 came to my clinic for surgery in January. More than one month before surgery, the consent forms were sent to him to review and sign. He signed them on December 12, 2012. HG indicated that he wanted an "aggressive hairline." On January 10, 2013, HG came to the clinic for 2 days of surgery. Prior to the start of the first surgery, I discussed with Hairguy the placement of his new hairline. He was of a clear mind and in full control, he was not sedated. On that day, and during the subsequent day of surgery, he never voiced one complaint about his hairline. On June 4th HG informed me that he cannot wait for his transplant to grow in. He informs me that he has been diagnosed with two mental disorders (not caused by his hair transplant) that are affecting him. I sent him a message of sympathy and support in lieu of his revelation. While I am sympathetic and supportive of his efforts to find peace of mind, the bottom line is you have to wait a year and allow all of your grafts the time necessary to grow and to mature to a cosmetically pleasing look. On June 11th, I am told by HG, for the first time, that his hairline is too low. He tells me he wants to remove his hairline and wants a refund. Some time thereafter, HG informed me that in addition to having non- surgical procedures (Lasers) he is also having surgeries to have his grafts removed. He confirmed later on that he is now a patient of a doctor in Alpharetta, Georgia. If HG had told me, prior to surgery, that he could only wait 6 months for his transplant to fully manifest, I would have declined to work on him. If a patient from another doctor came to see me at 6 months or less post-op, with a complaint about their transplant result, I would refer him back to his doctor and advise him that you must wait at least 12 months to be able to evaluate the result. P.S. HG wanted me to mention that I am not a psychologist.
  5. Hairguy350's story is not true. I will respond to it after he provides me with written authorization to discuss his medical information publicly. In the meantime, I would like for Hairguy to post his before and after photographs. This articles discusses and presents examples of my approach to hairlines: http://www.dermhairclinic.com/hairline-transplant/
  6. Mr Moopookoo, These assertions are not true. If another clinic tells you this, then you are being misled. This is a healthy debate to have in the forum. It is also good to use facts when making such allegations. The video introduced by Atticus explains instances where I have required a test. Before seeing me, the patient in the video had a failed strip surgery, followed by a failed FUE procedure in 2 separate clinics. There are different methods and techniques to FUE and all clinics do not adhere to the same protocols neither are they all with the same level of competence and experience in FUE or Strip surgery. As such a blanket test requirement cannot be reasonably required of every clinic. Poor yield can occur in all HT procedures. A cursory search of this forum would reveal cases of poor yield at the hands of both FUE and FUT clinics. A test requirement might as well be applied to FUT surgeries since the majority of patient presenting to my clinic with complaints of poor yield have had FUT surgery and not FUE. This of course is a reflection of the fact that there are many more strip procedures being performed worldwide than there are FUE. I do not require a test procedure in the majority of patients presenting to my clinic. I do however for patients with tightly curled afro-textured hair. That said, a patient should have the option to request for a test procedure (whether it is an FUE or Strip procedure). They should have a low threshold for such requests if the clinic they are dealing with is new to the field (FUE or FUT). There should be no good reason for a clinic to refuse a test request since the test procedures are done at a fee.
  7. Hello All, RMP is a repair case with prior multiple surgeries at other facilities one of which led to scalp necrosis. I began repair last year and he was happy with the outcome, including the transplant to an area of necrosis from prior surgeries. Because of this he requested another session of 2500 grafts to address other areas. Normally we would complete this in less than a 2 full day sessions. However, we spent 2 and half days working on the case. I explained that his case required more time and I would not want to rush it. As he mentioned I personally placed the grafts in his last session. As a matter of fact, He wanted and repeated demanded more grafts and was prepared to pay for it, but I declined and asked that we continue our incremental approach to his repair. When he sent me an email about a problem area on his grafted site, I asked him to come into the clinic. I found that he has a limited focus of skin breakdown in the area of a prior scalp reduction scar. I cleaned the area, started him on nitropaste to reperfuse the site and limit further spread as well as placed him on antibiotic. A wound care regimen was prescribed. That is how this situation is managed. With this measure, the area should heal up and contract. I explained that he would likely loose some grafts in the necrotic site. Once the healing process is complete, we would graft the affected areas as we had for his prior areas of necrosis he presented to me with. RMP understood that prior scalp reductions and history of prior necrosis does place one at a higher risk for this happening. RMP was very satisfied and expressed gratitude for the quick action and mentioned that this was a different experience from his prior incident at another clinic. He was clearly reassured. He was to return for a follow up shortly. a coupe of days later, my email carrier was down. In that time RMP had emailed me and received a delivery failure message. He has in the past been able to reach me by phone and i have an emergency phone contact system for direct access as needed. The following day, RMP contacted my office and on the phone wondered if he should continue his nitropaste. I encouraged that he does. he again expressed satisfaction at the healing and confirmed that in his opinion the necrosis is contained. So yes, it came to me as a surprise reading certain accounts on the forums. But it is something I have an understanding for. From no fault of their own, a good portion of my patients are repair cases, many have been placed in a very poor and sometimes impossible place (esthetically and emotionally) by their prior poor surgical experiences. Anxiety over a possible replay of such past experiences often plagues our interactions. Hand holding in these instances is key. In this situation even an email bounce back may become a source of panic. I am used to this and have been prepared to always take this into account in our interactions. This understanding has been invaluable in dealing with even the most difficult situations. We are all humans and our actions do get influenced by our past experiences. I am a volunteer faculty at UCLA dermatology and I have residents and medical students shadow me every now and again. In these instances I have a teaching responsibility. So in a 4-5 hours session of extracting grafts words do get spoken. It is all in a professional setting. I do not have a confidentiality waiver/agreement/document barring my patients from discussing their outcome. I have a clause in my consent that enables me/my clinic to respond to allegations about my work. I am sure all would consider this fair. I understand that RMP has decided to rework his posts in keeping with the clarity he has about the situation. It is big of him to have done so. Best to all.
  8. Hello All, RMP is a repair case with prior multiple surgeries at other facilities one of which led to scalp necrosis. I began repair last year and he was happy with the outcome, including the transplant to an area of necrosis from prior surgeries. Because of this he requested another session of 2500 grafts to address other areas. Normally we would complete this in less than a 2 full day sessions. However, we spent 2 and half days working on the case. I explained that his case required more time and I would not want to rush it. As he mentioned I personally placed the grafts in his last session. As a matter of fact, He wanted and repeated demanded more grafts and was prepared to pay for it, but I declined and asked that we continue our incremental approach to his repair. When he sent me an email about a problem area on his grafted site, I asked him to come into the clinic. I found that he has a limited focus of skin breakdown in the area of a prior scalp reduction scar. I cleaned the area, started him on nitropaste to reperfuse the site and limit further spread as well as placed him on antibiotic. A wound care regimen was prescribed. That is how this situation is managed. With this measure, the area should heal up and contract. I explained that he would likely loose some grafts in the necrotic site. Once the healing process is complete, we would graft the affected areas as we had for his prior areas of necrosis he presented to me with. RMP understood that prior scalp reductions and history of prior necrosis does place one at a higher risk for this happening. RMP was very satisfied and expressed gratitude for the quick action and mentioned that this was a different experience from his prior incident at another clinic. He was clearly reassured. He was to return for a follow up shortly. a coupe of days later, my email carrier was down. In that time RMP had emailed me and received a delivery failure message. He has in the past been able to reach me by phone and i have an emergency phone contact system for direct access as needed. The following day, RMP contacted my office and on the phone wondered if he should continue his nitropaste. I encouraged that he does. he again expressed satisfaction at the healing and confirmed that in his opinion the necrosis is contained. So yes, it came to me as a surprise reading certain accounts on the forums. But it is something I have an understanding for. From no fault of their own, a good portion of my patients are repair cases, many have been placed in a very poor and sometimes impossible place (esthetically and emotionally) by their prior poor surgical experiences. Anxiety over a possible replay of such past experiences often plagues our interactions. Hand holding in these instances is key. In this situation even an email bounce back may become a source of panic. I am used to this and have been prepared to always take this into account in our interactions. This understanding has been invaluable in dealing with even the most difficult situations. We are all humans and our actions do get influenced by our past experiences. I do not have a confidentiality waiver/agreement/document barring my patients from discussing their outcome. I have a clause in my consent that enables me/my clinic to respond to allegations about my work. I am sure all would consider this fair. I understand that RMP has decided to rework his posts in keeping with the clarity he has about the situation. It is big of him to have done so. Best to all.
  9. Hello forum members, This thread in my opinion is a credit to this community. Instead of inflaming anxieties, the responses resulted in JBB contacting me for clarification which I gladly gave. Looking back, my email could have been clearer. It assumed that our past interactions would make obvious the fact that I would be happy to address all concerns to do with the procedure. While I am happy to work on JBB once more, I have no problem having my work reviewed by any physician he might consult. It was my expectation that a 2nd opinion might assuage despair and allay anxieties as we move forward with the solution phase. In any case, thanks to the community, all is well. Thank you all.
  10. Before Surgery: Was a Norwood Level 3 male pattern baldness Had no previous surgeries Surgery: Goal: create a more advanced, more aggressive hairline FUE hair transplant using 3200 grafts from head and nape Surgery Results: Before and after results shown are at 9 months post-surgery DermHair Clinic staff photo taken in the King Harbor marina, in front of the clinic building
  11. Before Surgery: Was a Norwood Level 3 pattern baldness No prior surgeries Surgery: Goal: add density to eliminate the appearance of baldness 3000+ grafts transplanted using follicular unit extraction Grafts derived from head used for density and nape of neck used for hairline Surgery Results: Results pictured below in video are at 19 months post-surgery, and in photos at 5 months post-surgery, with one immediate post-op photo of the donor area
  12. Before Surgery: Underwent scalp reduction previously Underwent punch grafting decades prior These surgeries were unsuccessful in restoring hair—baldness persisted Pluggy hairline and punch scars on rear scalp as a result of punch grafting Depleted head donor source Surgery: Goals: Fill front and crown, refine hairline conceal rear scarring Body hair to head transplant had to be used 5500 FUE grafts derived from beard, chest, stomach, legs, and arms Surgery Results: Results shown in photographs and video are from 7 months post-operation &feature=player_embedded
  13. Before Surgery: Prior strip surgery of over 1000 grafts Prior FUE surgery of approximately 1000 grafts The transplanted hair never grew, thus the patient still had a thinning hairline and crown Strip procedure gave him a linear scar, which he had tattooed in an attempt to conceal it Surgery: Goal was to conceal the strip scar and restore density to the hairline and crown 1200 grafts transplanted using follicular unit extraction: 800 to the hairline, 250 to the crown, 150 to the linear scar Surgery Results: Results pictured below are from 10 months post-surgery
  14. Before Surgery: Underwent strip harvesting previously and was left with two strip scars Had tried tattooing the scars to conceal them Surgery: Goal was to conceal linear scarring 1200 FUE grafts transplanted from the beard (facial hair to head transplant) to strip scars Surgery Results: Results pictured in photographs and video are from approximately one year post-surgery
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