Janna

It means we're going slowly until we know more about how the temporary ink works. Have you contacted other smp clinics?

A clinic in Illinois??? Kasia doesn't know any smp clinics in Illinois because there aren't any that we're aware of. I'm not confused by what she told me. H&W and ZM in Beverly Hills are the only temporary clinics we know in all of USA. Out of the two I'd say H&W have more experience. Perhaps one of those clinics referred you to someone in Illinois. You didn't offend me. We feel more hopeful that the new machine will address the fading issue and the ink is going in slightly deeper but aside from that, we are making sure our patients are aware that its a definite possibility that the ink may fade sooner than 8-12 months. We don't guarantee that it'll last a certain amount of time because how fast it fades depends on each person. We are still not doing smp treatments everyday until we get more feedback and results.

The ink needs to set for 24 hours before shampooing - So it's really 3 days total where you don't shampoo - day 1 & day 2 of treatment days then 24 hours later. I suppose when you have extra ink in your hair for few days it seems like a week.

Thanks everyone! This patient was beaming ear to ear when he was at the clinic for his follow-up visit with Matt. I saw him in the front lobby and his first words to me were, "I'm really happy". It was later in the conversation that he mentioned he's only at 6 months. I told him other patients are going to be jealous of his result. It makes your day to see patients so happy.

It's tough going through the first 3 months. I don't believe there's much to write home about until 4 to 5 months post op so I agree pics aren't necessary. Hang in there and it'll all be worth it in the end.

Thanks CD. Didn't detect an ounce of sarcasm.

Arrie is one of the concerns I mentioned regarding the ink fading sooner than we expected. He was one of the first patients we worked on and that's why we did it for free. He was happy to be our test subject. Since his treatment, we have been using a brand new machine that seems to work much better. We're hoping the ink will last 8-12 months before needing a touch up. This is one of the reasons why we want to go slow so that we don't end up with lots of unhappy patients who didn't get what they expected. Here are pics of Arrie with his SMP treatment at Shapiro Medical.

I believe Kasia referred you to H & W and Lelani of Ziering Medical because these two clinics use the same temporary ink and were trained by Melina of Beauty Medical in Italy. After speaking with you multiple times, she didn't feel she could achieve your goals.

It sounds like there's a miscommunication because we wouldn't have said we have tons of results because we don't feel we've done tons of SMP treatments. Getting good pictures have been a challenge and patients coming back for their feedback has also been a challenge. We can only go by how they feel about it over the phone. We've done mostly scars and some thickening effects patients. We are taking the whole procedure slowly because there are so many variables and we had some concerns at the beginning with the ink fading faster than we anticipated on some of the patients. We've since started using a new machine it seems a lot better. In the meantime, we're encouraged by experiences of H & W and we speak with Joe and other SMP clinics reguarly.

Hello, I understand there have been some frustrations communicating with SMG regarding our Temporary SMP treatment. On behalf of Shapiro Medical Group; please accept our sincere apologies. Dr. Ron and I were speaking about our SMP protocol just the other day and our need to address some concerns. Kasia recently got married and pregnant all within a short period of time, and to top it off, she doesn't have the capability to easily access patients' charts and photos so we definitely needed to make some changes. We're in the process of having two SMP technicians and we're going to handle SMP inquires like our hair loss inquiries with a thorough consultation with Matt or me. Hopefully, these changes will alleviate any further scheduling or communication problems. Thanks for your understand and patience.

HERE'S A SHORT CLIP ON YOUTUBE OF THE DONOR AREA:

Growth timelines vary from patient to patient but on the average - 50%-70% by 6 months 90%-100% by 12 months

Hi Aviva & Forever21, There will be more growth from your transplant procedures in the coming 6-7 months for both of you. Growth rates vary from patient to patient but I would think it'd definitely be a rarity to achieve full result at 6 months post op.

Hi Forever21, I noticed you posted on couple of threads regarding Artas and your concern regarding growth. Since you are at 5 months post op, it's much too soon to judge if you have good or poor growth. Expect much more growth in the next 6 to 7 months. You can send pics at 6 months and I'd be happy to put them side by side with your pre-op pics so that you can see the progress at 1/2 way mark. We can do it again at 1 yr mark when you've achieve full growth. Feel free to touch base with Matt or me when you have concerns.

Coming along nicely at 7 months post op. Thanks a lot for updating.

Back in the early days of doing fue, we were definitely more conservative. All the data and reports about fue were that the yield on the average was approximately 70%. Due to lower yield and graft survival of fue grafts, our physicians planned smaller sessions knowing patients could always add more in the future. Since then, we have implemented many changes to our fue protocol because we were not satisfied with the industry's 70% yield. Due to these changes, I strongly believe our current yield is 90 to 98%. I also believe that we have produced many "amazing" results via our fue method. 1400 grafts isn't a lot, especially utilizing mostly 1 and 2 hair grafts for the hairline. We would estimate that thaiphan achieved 70-80% yield. He sent us 12 months pics and there is definite growth and improvement. I can post the pics that Thaiphan sent us with his face blocked if he consents. Had we done a strip, we probably would be done closer to 1800-2000 grafts in the same area. Since Thaiphan has started out with FUE, we'd advise him to stick to fue. All he needs is more hairs to achieve his goals. We always stand by our work and support our patients so we'd be happy to work with thaipan on his goals.

We like to see patients at 6 months and 12 months post op. We send out a reminder letter for our patients to either send pics or come in for an evaluation. At 6 months follow up, there's more growth/maturing of hairs to follow but it's a good time for us to evaluate if the patient is progressing as he/she should. You'd have to check with your physician/clinic to see when they like to review patients.

IMO, the design, the work, and the result is top notch. Congrats Spanker!!

FUEONLY, You can email kasia@shapiromedical.com to ask specific questions regarding our SMP. I believe there are 3 zones but Kasia can give you all the details. If you have any more questions that's not associated to this result, such as SMP questions, could you start a new thread in the SMP section? Thank you! MP96, Thank you!!

At 10 days post op, the follicles are well secured few millimeter underneath the dermis so long as the coolant didn't burn the surface of the skin, your grafts are fine.

7:30am to midnight? That's a marathon surgery day!! You have plenty of time to gather up all the specifics about your surgery. Dr. Konior is a hard working, meticulous physician so you were in great hands. Rest up and heal well.

Hi Hariri, This is not quite correct - Dr. Ron does almost as many fue surgeries as Dr. Paul but since majority of Dr. Ron's patients come from abroad, we don't get the results as often as Dr. Paul. REM, Thanks for posting about your experience. The reason why Dr. Paul opted out of the Artas was due to the fact that the fine donor hairs he needed for the hairline, temples,and temple points were not ideal donor areas for the Artas. We will always use the best method for the patient.

We use the same machine and temporary ink as H&W that's from Melina of Beauty Medical in Italy, you should be able to find plenty of info on the type of ink use. We are still taking it very slow so we do not have very many patients nor have we set a price structure yet.

Where's your question about Shapiro SMP?