Janna

When Matt scheduled Wazaam initially, it was with the Artas so it didn't get changed at the last minute. However, had Wazaam had any misgivings about the Artas, we certainly could have switched it to the SAFE. At the time, we felt the best protocol was to use the Artas for the middle section of the donor (what's referred as the "sweet spot") and then use the SAFE to even it out. The Reps for Restoration Robotics only come if there is a Artas case scheduled. They don't come hoping for us to sway a patient from SAFE to Artas just because they decided to oversee an Artas case.

There is a confusion on manual and motorized. I understand Dr. Rahal typically uses motorized devices like we do. I speak to Dr. Rahal on occasion and we share info.

When a patient says he will no longer take Propecia to stabilize their hair loss but wants other options, we'll speak to them about the laser. We don't do any heavy selling on anything here at SMG. There are patients who have felt they benefited from the laser and we also offer refund on it if patient feel it doesn't work at all. The laser is normally sold at other clinics for $3k, we sold it for $2k.

Sean, Wazaam scheduled as an ARTAS case from the onset. We would not have disregarded the technique he requested. What we charge for SAFE and the Artas are the same. However, because the Restoration Robotics charges for each punch/scoring, it ends up costing us more if patients use the Artas. From the very beginning of using the Artas at our clinic, our protocol was to use the ARTAS the first day and then use the SAFE device to even out the extraction pattern. There were two reasons as to why we chose this protocol: 1) there are certain areas of the head that is more difficult for the Artas to reach so we'd have to even out the extraction pattern with our motorized device. 2) Despite RR and other well known physicians stating the Artas extracts very good grafts, we wanted to see the donor and recipient areas for ourselves before we went full stream with the Artas. The unknown physician is our Dr. Josephitis who also did the SAFE extractions and helped in running the Artas. Dr. Ron would have done the planning, overseeing the Artas & Safe and made all the incisions. In the US, how each surgeon runs their surgery room differs depending on each state. In the state of Minnesota under direct supervision of surgeons, technicians can extract grafts.

I am not sure if I'll be able to address all the concerns and questions raised on this thread but I will try. Firstly, I'd like to post pics taken at our clinic pre-op and use the post-op pictures sent to us by Wazaam. From what I understand, Wazaam spoke to Matt regarding his results and he said that there was a spot that seemed thin so Matt stated we'd take care of it. This is where the 200-300grafts to take care of the thin spot comes into play. Wazaam did indeed have plenty of native hairs present prior to surgery. However, when you looked through the hair with magnified loupes, you see the miniaturized hairs through the frontal 1/2. 2500 grafts is a lot of grafts if used only in the hairline, but as you can see in the immediate post op pics, you can see the circled area that was addressed is close to 100 cm2. Dr. Ron did not want to overly thicken the hairline to conserve donor. It's also not prudent to concentrate on the hairline if you see that there is likelihood of more loss, especially when hair loss prevention meds are not taken. Dr. Ron wanted to replace the area with miniaturized hairs with stable donor hairs. When 2500 grafts are spread out over the front 1/2, the transformation isn't going to be as great as on someone with no hair. It's really to keep up the look of full head of hair.

Hi Loki, Here is your graft breakdown and I've either cropped or blocked out your face for posting. Thanks for your write up and we look forward for following your progress. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding post op phases. Heal well. 1 hair grafts: 944 2 hair grafts: 1785 3 hair grafts: 526 4 hair grafts: 13

Hi DonnyJ, Thanks for posting about your experience and keeping your progress updates on the forums. Your healing is looking right on schedule. You mention that you didn't see much scabbing at 10 days post op but to me There seems to be tiny scabs still remaining. The scabs will come off in the next few days with daily massaging during shampoos. It's looking great. Thanks again for posting and fingers crossed that you don't experience any noticeable shock loss! ____________________ Clinical Operations Manager for Shapiro Medical Group. janna@shapiromedical.com Shapiro Medical Group - Hair Transplantation and Hair Restoration

I agree that this is a really good question. In our experience at Shapiro Medical with beard hair transplantation, we haven't noticed scarring in the recipient area. We have had number of patients whom we did beard hair transplant and they've all been happy with their results. I would like to add that to achieve desired density, it takes 2-3 procedures. Patients who have had the beard transplant don't generally shave their beard clean so it's hard to say if there is any pitting or abnormal healing but we haven't noticed any and we haven't ever received any complaints from our patients.

Thanks hadenough and sadbuttrue! Sad, This would be really hard to say since we don't get feedback from a lot of our patients. If we had to guess, however, we'd say around 60-70% would say they had majority of the growth by 6-7 months post op. Having said that, there are patients who don't seem to get full results until they are closer to 14-16 months post op. This is a much smaller percentage of course but they do exists.

Hello everyone, I'm happy to start posting results of our physician Dr. David Josephitis. Dr. Joe has been working at Shapiro Medical for the last two years and is well liked by all the staff. He's very easy to work with and has a great bed-side manner. His patients like him a lot. Here is one example of Dr. Joe's work:

I have never seen this occur either. Hopefully all the hairs will return to original color. Please keep us posted.

It'll take few months for the stubbles to show up on pictures. Typically, 6 to 7 months post op is when you and others will be able to tell a difference. Looking forward to your updates!

Wings was back at SMG two weeks ago. We took some photos of his result from 2 fue procedures with us. Here is a link to his photos he posted last week: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/177779-amazing-result-shapiro-medical-group.html

It's been fun to watch Matt's healing progress - he's healing up well.

From our experience with SMP, the touch up sessions (6 wks to 12 wks from initial treatment) helps a lot. Our SMP specialist, Nicole, will be in Milan visiting Milena for a refresher course in mid-December, perhaps she can apply the touch up on you. Email me if you're interested.

This link is 6 Mos Result to view progress http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/175291-dr-ron-shapiro-6-mos-fue-result-1695gr-3451hairs.html Here are 12 Mos Result --

No, the incidental sun won't do any harm. You wouldn't want to get your scalp sun-burned so wear a cap or use sun block

Thanks Pcrudance for posting an update. It looks as it should. You're at the worst stage at 2 months post op. It won't be too long before you notice hair growing but I'm glad you're not looking in the mirror everyday now. Time will go by faster if you put your mind to something else until you're over the 6 month's mark. No problem answering your questions.

Hi Hadenough and Sunny, Since you're both experiencing dry scalp due to Rogaine, I wanted to make sure you two are applying it just once a day. Give you scalp a rest for couple of weeks if you continue with dry, itchy flakes on the scalp. It might also be helpful to use Nizoral shampoo every other day for couple of weeks then taper off to just once a week. You can introduce Nizoral shampoo right away. Good luck to both of you in the healing and growth progress.

Did you do the one pass over two days or did you do the follow-up (touch-up) 6 weeks later? Thanks for the feedback, good to know.

Hi Blake, We stopped the using the ARTAS because we did not see an advantage over manual extraction and it ended up taking more time and staff than we expected. It just did not meet our needs. We did over 15O ARTAS cases and by far the majority had good growth about the same as with manual motorized extraction. The major problem we found was not in the viability of the grafts produced…..but that it was not able to extract as many grafts from certain sections of the head as we could manually. We have tried almost every type of extraction technique to try and find the best. Manually, we can use sharp or dull punches depending the tissue and hair caliber. We feel we have more flexibility with manual punches.

It looks like he started Finasteride in January of 2014. Thanks Spankers, Hadenough, & David!

I like your photo documentation too! How do you like the smp?