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Showing results for 'Dr. Ron Shapiro'.
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This website is such a great resource for research and finding top notch hair restoration surgeons that ironically I'm very stuck on where to go among good choices. I'm currently 28 and seeking a surgeon for an FUT procedure. I've been quoted ~1500-1800 grafts for hairline repair by multiple clinics (I have photos posted on an earlier thread: here) Dr. Carlos Wesley - Completely raised the bar on the quality I thought was possible for interaction with the provider. Extremely responsive, attentive, and detailed. His results are superb and, reviewing his research and credentials, I believe he is always abreast of latest HT developments to achieve good results (i.e. using ATP holding solution for grafts to increase survival rate) Dr. Bloxham - Extremely skilled, and has a lot of experience/specialty in FUT. Video documentation of results is the best bar none. Scars are practically invisible. I see he has a lot of late-20's patients like me and achieved great results for them. Dr. Cooley - Did extensive research on results which are phenomenal and good proximity to NY. However I've been trying to get a consultation over the telephone since the start of the month and they still can't give me even a graft estimate until the 14th of July. Dr. Ron Shapiro - Also phenomenal results, if a little more on the conservative side. Haven't done consultation yet. Per research here he's an FUT specialist as well which is appealing. Clinic in MN where some family is so I can make a dual purpose trip out of it... If anyone can pitch in their experience on these surgeons or give me advice on what I should do next I'd really appreciate it. This thread has been half asking for help and half just getting my thoughts out in writing, lol. All this hair transplant research has me going bananas I guess -
Great names, Have you consulted with any of these physicians through our online consultation form? If you submit a consultation we can then reach out to the doctor and make sure you get an estimate. That said, you have excellent names, different levels of experience and different areas of expertise. Are you leaning towards FUT? I think Bloxham is a great choice for FUT, but if you want FUE, he probably wont recommend it. Dr. Wesley is top notch, highly skilled at both FUE and FUT. I'm always impressed with the appearance of his donor areas. I follow him on Instagram, and he seems like an all around good guy. Dr. Cooley is also top notch, very skilled, he performs FUE and FUT on a consistent basis. Check out @HTREGRETS he was a guy who got botched at a place that rhymes with fosley. Dr. Ron Shapiro, many call him the Godfather of modern hair restoration. Many don't know this, but he was @Pat - Community Publisher surgeon, and in many ways it is because of him that this site even exists. Choosing him is choosing decades of experience, he also offers both FUE and FUT. With all of the great names you have listed, it's difficult to make a choice. My suggestion is to schedule facetime meetings with each of them, discuss your goals, costs, etc. Once you do this, it will be easier to make a decision. Also, don't forget to ask to speak to one of their past patients, see if they're able to set up a meeting. https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/Consult-a-Physician/hair-transplant-surgeons.asp?sr=HRN -
looks like you need another mega-session based on the balding area that needs to be restored, since you've already had an FUT procedure, I would look into that again to yield as many grafts as possible - Dr. Blake Bloxham, Konior, Shapiro, Hasson & Wong, Dr. Cooley, Dr. Gabel - just a few I would be researching and talking with -
Failures occur from both procedures, I think there is a common misconception that FUT is some how "fail-proof" in fact, some popular surgeons led the community to believe in this dogamatic view, which of course is a load of garbage. The skill, experience, and talent varies widely from surgeon to surgeon, as do their results. Now, I will contend that there is a real problem with 'black market' FUE performed by untrained technicians with no experience, however, high-quality surgeons such as Dr. Shapiro, Konior, Gabel, and Hasson and Wong have all admitted that FUE in their hands is just as good as FUT. So the question isn't about the surgical technique itself, it's about the person executing the technique. In the wrong hands, FUT and FUE can cause permanent damage to both the donor and recipient zones. There is no doubt that biases exist, and they exist on both sides, as previously mentioned there was a popular surgeon on here who vehemently attacked FUE and was very dogmatic in his approach. I think surgeons who perform both FUE and FUT on a consistent basis are a lot less bias and are willing to dive in to the advantages and disadvantages with both. Now, there are cases where FUT may be out of the question, and vice versa, but I think the vast majority of patients benefit from having both procedures, and certainly this maximizes their donor supply better than just one or the other. Lastly, when listening to these dogamatic statements made by certain surgeons on a crusade to dispel an entire surgical technique altogether, I'm reminded of a quote from Dr. Konior, who happens to perform both procedures with excellent results and yield.
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Hi, I've had 3 transplants in the past to try to fix my receding hairline and I am very unhappy with the results (My first was with someone from Bosley, 2nd with Dr. Shapiro and a 3rd with Dr. Arronovitz). If the wind blows my hair back, its very unnatural looking and sparse. I'm not sure if there is something wrong with my scalp and the transplanted hairs won't grow or what? But after 3 transplants, I should have much thicker looking hair in my opinion.... On top of that, my scar is very large. I want to give this one last shot and am willing to travel anywhere in the world for the best results. Who would you recommend as the absolute best for a situation like mine? I am hoping to achieve a full and thick hairline and get rid of that giant scar. Thanks so much in advance everyone! -
Hi Dr. Shapiro, Thank you for your reply, and again my apologies for not clarifying which Shapiro did my previous procedure. I really don't want to "move backwards" and punch out my existing hairline.... I understand it wouldn't be perfect, but can't I achieve pretty good results by just having a better surgeon (such as yourself) add hairs to the temple areas to increase the density so it looks full? And what about using the new "exosomes" treatment? Do you think that could work in my situation? Thank you!
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Hi everyone, I would like to clear up that one of my previous procedures was NOT with Dr. Ron Shapiro. Sorry if this caused any confusion. It was with a different Dr. Shapiro (I believe his first name was Larry)
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I believe I have incorrectly assumed he was referring to the great Dr. Ron Shapiro, there are other Shapiro’s, and this work definitely doesn’t look like Dr. Ron’s. Op I will PM you.
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Stem cell is just hype, there’s no evidence that it does anything, I recall they’re used to be a so-called regenerative FUE. Turned out they were splitting hairs, literally. Dr. Konior is definitely worth consulting with, but honestly I don’t think he’s any better than Shapiro. I don’t know if you’ve spoke about your results with him, but I’d start there first, they stand by their work.
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They can do a biopsy, to rule out any physiological conditions. Dr. Shapiro is as elite as they come, I’d be interested to know what he said about your results. What did your hair look like before?
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I'm very interested to know what Dr. Shapiro had to say about your results. He has always been a top doctor, and pretty much as elite as any surgeon that will be mentioned. My concern is that perhaps you compromised vascularization in the hairline after 3 surgeries. You may also have some scarring, that could inhibit growth. I think before undergoing another procedure, you should really speak with Dr. Shapiro and perhaps have some tests done.
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Anyone recommend Scalp Society @ Bay Area, CA?
Melvin-Moderator replied to Biceps's topic in Scalp Micropigmentation (SMP)
I've never heard of them, in my opinion, you are better off going to a surgeon for SMP. Check out Shapiro Medical Group and Dr. Umar in LA. -
Hi Jana, I am a patient of Dr. Ron Shapiro. I used this forum as a decision basis for selecting a surgeon in particular your blog entries. I had a transplant August of 2017 and documented my progress and visited the office several times post surgery and had at least three discussions with Dr. Shapiro about density concerns. I sent him an email twice over the last two months. And a very detailed patient assessment this week. I feel like the clinic is diverting around my density concern questions. It’s a simple equation of 2700 grafts in an area coming out to far more grafts than what is present on my scalp. I’m very displeased with the hairline density it’s so sparse. And I was a low Norwood situation with a lot of native hair. The density just isn’t there for what I paid for. I would like to ask you to please step in and see what you can do to help me resolve this. I have not documented my case on the forums as I have been patiently trying and waiting to see how Dr. Shapiro handles my situation. Post operative issue resolution is just as important as pre op and operative in fact maybe more important. I appreciate anything you can do to help me reach a resolution.
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My story. This website has given me a huge amount of information, and to be honest I wouldn’t have gone through with my recent hair transplant surgery if it wasn’t for this forum. Therefore I feel obliged to give back to the community and tell everyone here about my story. I have split this up into 2 parts and several chapters. I suggest that any new comers, or people who haven’t themselves had a HT read the whole thing. The more experienced members on this forum are probably better off picking out the parts of interest as I admit it is long winded. DISCLAIMER - Just to point out, that I am not a doctor, I don’t represent any doctors, and I have nothing to gain whatsoever from writing this (other than alleviating the guilt of taking so much from this website and never giving anything back). I take no responsibility at all for any decisions anyone makes from my post (or any future post), and I mean no offence where my comments get controversial. I also have another user name on this website that I am not using now as some of the HT surgeons I refer to anonymously below will be revealed by doing a simple search under my old user name. So yes I created this account now, and this is my first post. If anyone wants to ask me a question by all means do, but I won’t be checking this very often so please don’t get offended in my delay in answering. Here is the breakdown in case you want to pick and choose what you want to read. PART 1 – MY STORY. A – ABOUT ME. B – HOW I CHOSE MY HT SURGEON. C – SHAPIRO MEDICAL GROUP. D – THANKS TO… PART 2 – LESSONS LEARNT. A – MY THOUGHTS ON THE COALITION LIST AND THIS WEBSITE. B – WHAT CRITERIA WHEN CHOOSING A HT SURGEON. C – THE PYSCHOLOGICAL CHALLENGE ** MAYBE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART TO READ. D – RESEARCH. E – OPERATION ITSELF. F – TIME BEFORE GOING OUT INTO PUBLIC - GROW YOUR HAIR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. G – THINGS I SUGGEST YOU BUY PRIOR TO SURGERY. H – INCONVINIANCES AFTER SURGERY. I – OTHER THINGS. PART 1 – MY STORY. A – ABOUT ME. I am a NW 2 – 3, and am now in my mid 30s. I have been receding slowly all my life and it wasn’t until November 2010 when out at dinner that a very close friend made a innocent comment about my hairline. I had always thought to myself that one day I would have a HT to rebuild my hairline, but you never really expect that day to arrive when it does. I went to my dermatologist and he immediately prescribed propeceia. I absolutely ruled it out from day 1 for two reasons. 1 – I know myself and I don’t want to take a pill every day for the rest of my life that wasn’t originally created for hair loss. 2 – I have heard too many horror stories about propeceia. (Now I have so much that I want to share with this community that I really don’t want to go into the whole Propecia debate!! If any of you want more info there is loads of it on this forum and also there is a website called propeciahelp.com which is a totally biased appraisal of propecia and seems to be the Mecca of all disgruntled propecia users, but at the same time it left an impact with great enough effect on me that I will never ever take it. To conclude, propecia was more of a physiological decision for me as the slightest underperformance in the bedroom would have had me panicking that it was the meds.) Instead I went on Biotin on a daily basis. My recession from November 2010 to the date of my HT surgery was very minor but this of course could be coincidental. B – HOW I CHOSE MY HT SURGEON. At the time I made the decision to go for a HT I discovered this web site from a Google search and there is an absolutely HUGE amount of information here. It actually became a bit of an obsession. I spent about an hour at the end of every working day reading stories and educating myself. For all newbies, I suggest you click on “today’s posts” and go through them every day. It’s amazing how much you learn (make sure you read my Part 2 – A below though). My dermatologist recommended a local HT surgeon and told me all the usual words “he is the best there is”, “Hollywood stars have gone to him” etc… I went to visit him (please don’t ask me in private messages who, as I don’t want to discredit him as I chose not to go with him) and to be honest I was impressed with his credentials, but there wasn’t enough before and after photos, and I felt that I didn’t get a chance to ask him everything I wanted as I felt rushed. All round the chemistry was wrong between us. I also went to see another doctor I found on this website (again no names) and who gets a lot of coverage and has a good reputation and I personally wasn’t at all impressed with him or his setup. (more below). So I read more and more and I realized entirely from this forum that I had to go and visit Dr. Ron Shapiro. His description as being very consistent, conservative and good with hairlines jumped out t me. I had 2 more backup doctors to go and visit if I didn’t like him. I happened to be in the west coast for work back in April so on my way home to Europe I flew to Minneapolis and I went and saw Dr. Ron Shapiro and I knew right away that he was the one for me. Well I took up an hour and a half of Matt’s time, 30mins of Dr. Shapiro’s time, 2 further follow up phone calls of 40mins each to Matt and about 40 hours of research to go from 95% sure to 100% sure! Also, when I learned that Dr. Ron has performed more HT surgeries on HT surgeons themselves than any other surgeon out there I knew he had to be very good. To read the continuation go to the below “WHAT CRITERIA WHEN CHOOSING A HT SURGEON”. C – SHAPIRO MEDICAL GROUP. SMG all round were absolutely fantastic. There is so much you can read about them on this forum that I won’t be repetitive but all round I couldn’t have asked for anything more. In brief… I got in at 8am and left at 6pm, and I promise you all that I actually had an enjoyable day. I got drugged up on valium, didn’t feel the slightest pain whatsoever (apart from the forehead numbing shots which were about 5 or 6 3seconds long very sharp pains), watched TV and chatted with everyone there. They really looked after me and made me feel very well taken care of. Dr. Ron was calm and I never felt rushed at any point. He even stayed an hour longer to do some final touch ups. For everyone reading this, SMG deserve pages and pages of credit, and all I can tell you is that I never in my wildest dreams (and hours and hours of research) expected things to go as smoothly as it did on the day. That night I even had dinner with no pain at all. The only discomfort came on days 5-12 after as my donor scar healed. I never needed pain medication. I suppose it was a bit like having a slight ear ache. You can get on just fine with your day but its bothersome. D – THANKS TO… OK not to sound like I’m receiving an Oscar… Matt (the patient care director) was amazing. How he always listened to my questions and never made me feel crazy for asking them (there were a lot of questions). Dr. Ron Shapiro, is an absolute gentleman/perfectionist/professional. He has a very calming persona and you just feel when you are with him that everything is right. Janna, was also amazing and helped me so much on the day and did a great job placing the grafts. Her after care follow up emails have been amazing too! All the technicians (I think I had 10 cutting my grafts) were really nice and chatty and did a great job all round. I also want to thank very much HAL and ORLHAIR1 for all their posts. It made my decision making a lot easier and I really enjoyed following their stories! PART 2 – LESSONS LEARNT. A – MY THOUGHTS ON THE COALITION LIST AND THIS WEBSITE. This topic is a little more controversial. Let me first start by saying that this website offers A LOT!! Actually you can pretty much answer any questions and determine whether you are right, or whether you really want a HT entirely from this site alone so long as you use it properly and put the hours in. Although, there is some self promoting, and some propaganda. If something smells fishy, it probably is. The good thing is there a lot of users who will be quick to point out that a surgeon’s reviews sound a little too good to be true. The only issue I have is with the coalition list. I think users have to keep in mind why doctors are on the coalition list. They are there because they meet some requirements and pay the fees. Therefore there are plenty of good HT doctors who are not on the coalition list and some lousy ones that are! I know this is going to open a whole can of worms, but I don’t make this bold statement lightly. I make it from experience. One HT surgeon (the first doctor I saw) absolutely refused to sell himself online because he argues that his reputation and results don’t need it. He is a top surgeon (some would say the best there is) and probably my number 2 choice. (yes it’s his fault and not the fault of the coalition list that he is not on it but just know where you stand with this list). The second surgeon I saw (who is on the list and gets a lot of positive coverage on this web site) really shouldn’t be considered a top HT surgeon by any means whatsoever. It’s as simple as that and I won’t go into any more details. Now if I was to reveal this doctor's name (which I won't) a lot of people on this forum would be furious with me, as I am sure some of you out there think this guy is the best in the world. If I had gone to him and had a great experience and perfect results I would be describing him the exact same way.... But more importantly, if I had gone against my gut feeling, and the results were lousy, I would have always said to myself "I knew I should have listened to my intuition". So the point I am trying to make is go with a doctor you are 100% comfortable with, and if you can't find one keep on looking. There are lots and lots of doctors out there. Also one more point to add... If you hear a certain actor or sports personality or famous person has been somewhere, please don't give that place any more credibility. Do you honestly see Hollywood movie stars or sports personalities staying up late at night doing research on this forum?? Back to the coalition list… I consulted 3 HT surgeons… one is on the coalition list and deserves to be. One wasn’t and should have been. One was and shouldn’t have been. Therefore my accuracy ratio was 33%. Yes I sampled a very small amount of doctors relative to the whole list, but in my experience and in my opinion the coalition list is not the be all and end all! Think of the coalition list like OPEC’s representation of oil producing nations. A lot of the members of OPEC have a huge amount of influence on oil’s supply, but not all influential oil producing nations are members, and some relatively small nations are part of it. Saying all of this though, I don’t want to take anything away from this web site. If it wasn’t for its creation I would never have found Dr. Ron Shapiro, nor would I have had the necessary information to proceed with my surgery. So in conclusion, the coalition list is not the be all and end all, nor do the managers of this forum pretend it to be, and nor do the experienced users of this forum think it is. My message is directed towards those who haven’t yet discovered this for themselves. When I first discovered this web site I actually thought it was the be all and end all, and it took me a couple of months to realize on my own it wasn’t so consider this long winded chapter a catalyst in your thinking process… B – WHAT CRITERIA WHEN CHOOSING A HT SURGEON. Bottom line is you have to have a good gut feeling. I will go through my basic question list, but I think if you’re sitting in the chair having your questions answered before you have a chance to finish your sentence, or if you have a surgeon who rolls his eyes because you ask questions that are hard to answer like “what are my chances of shock loss” or “how much worse is my hair loss going to be if I do nothing” then you have to recognize that something isn’t right. This was my basic question list that I found on a piece of paper. I am sure I asked more at the time though as the conversation progressed… There are many other questions that probably should be asked, but this is most of what I wanted to know. In no particular order of importance… - How long would I need to hide for, post surgery? - Risk of shock loss? - FUE or FUT? - If it’s the right time for me to perform a procedure. - Whether I will need to shave my head prior to surgery. - Am I a good candidate to achieve my goals? I.e. Is there too much native hair in the way, and should I wait before deciding to do this? - Who will be doing the actual transplantations and who will make the actual incisions? - If FUT, how long will my scar be? - How long has the whole team worked together? - How many technicians? Are they employed full time? - Is there anyone I can physically meet who has had a procedure done by you? (This for me was very important). - How many grafts do I have in my donor area, i.e. how many HT surgeries can I have? - Have you ever had a result you considered disappointing? There are way more questions. Remember to ask absolutely everything. No question should be embarrassing to ask. Also, don’t let geographic distance and cost be an issue. If you can’t afford the best doctor you have found, then wait until you can. (Sorry if I offend some with this statement, but don’t let cost be an obstacle. If it is, then think again as you should only be going to who you think is the best. Remember that, not who I think, but who you think is the best.) If you can’t be bothered to get on a plane and fly for many hours to get it done, then you will only blame yourself if the closer, inferior doctor, doesn’t do a good job. Really give your decision all the financial and geographic flexibility you can possible afford. This is for life. C – THE PYSCHOLOGICAL CHALANGE. This was by far and away the hardest part of all for me. Getting my mind around the idea that I would be cutting an 18cm incision voluntarily into my head, or even the concept that as a man I am going for cosmetic surgery was seriously the hardest part. The worry, and the fear of all the scary things like shock loss, a visible scar, maybe having to go again one day in the future etc… all these things scared the sh1t out of me, and for about 6 months I went back and forth on my decision about 10 times. All I can say is you have to overcome these concerns on your own. Don’t let anyone tell you it will all be fine. Find out what needs to be done to minimize all the risks involved and go into the surgery knowing that they might still occur but you have done everything possible to prevent it happening, and if it does happen you have done everything possible to cope with it if it does. As far as I was concerned, I was not at the stage of going through with this until I had exhausted my limits to research. It was only at the point that I was truly looking forward to the surgery, and I was all round 100% positive for the day of my surgery and I was willing to accept any consequence that might arise, that I knew that I was ready. I hope for readers of this post your “eureka” moment comes quicker than it did for me, but I urge you to reach that point before going ahead. On that note don’t ask anyone who you are close to if you should do it or not. It doesn’t matter what advice you get, as the decision has to be 100% yours and no one else’s. For me the physiological barrier was by far and away the hardest part of all. But for me though, when I felt ready for my surgery, I went in with all guns blazing knowing 100% sure that I wanted this with all my heart. D – RESEARCH. This is pretty self explanatory… if you are serious about getting a HT, you have to research and research and still do more research. Don't delegate this someone else! There are a lot of lousy doctors out there and a lot of mis-information. Whatever you do, don’t read a post like mine describing the whole procedure as a breeze, and think that it will be the same for you too. My point is research as much as you can and know what the worst possible outcome is and what the day of surgery will involve. One last thing, go on your chosen doctor’s website and look at his or her results! If you can’t find many on their own sites, or the ones you can see you don’t find particularly good then that should be alarming. Also if you see members on this forum who are praising someone else’s results and you yourself don’t think they are very good, don’t question yourself as to whether you are missing something… mostly likely you are not and the results are simply not good… E – OPERATION ITSELF. I have said it earlier on, but it’s worth saying it again… The operation itself was no big deal at all. I had my girlfriend come with me, which really helped me get over my nerves before the surgery and keep an eye on me that night when I got back to the hotel. I recommend having someone with you if you can but its definitely not necessary. To be honest we both live busy lives and to have 9 solid hours together watching TV, eating Chinese food, chatting and having a laugh with all the technicians was actually a fun experience. The point I want to make is the operation itself (the pain, the inconvenience, the hassle of getting there etc…) should not be a factor in the decision making process. Yes maybe for me (and most people that go to SMG) it was a very easy operation and the only pain I experienced were the forehead injections that lasted about 3 seconds each and there were about 5 of them (not bad for 9 hours!) But the decision making process as to whether to go for a HT should not be focused on the actual surgery. Recovery time and potential consequences and the physiological barrier are way more important to focus on. F – TIME BEFORE GOING OUT INTO PUBLIC - GROW YOUR HAIR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. Another one of my greatest concerns prior to surgery was how I would look after. I spent many hours trying to determine how long I would need to hide for. (keep in mind I only did my hairline so this may not apply for those doing megasessions). Well I didn’t cut my hair for 5 months prior to surgery. I would say the length of my hair is about 7-8 inches long. My theory was have it long for the surgery and if I can, cut it afterwards… you can’t exactly add it back on after. Well apart from looking a bit scruffy and like I was 18 years old again, it was the best decision I could have made. Two days later I was able to go out for dinner by flopping my hair forward with a centre parting that looked like I had curtains. This look disguised about 95% of all the grafts. Its looks a bit silly, but it enables me to go out care free. I think I should say though that someone who knows me really well, or someone who knows what post operative patients look like would have been able to look at my central hairline (between the curtains) and been able to tell I had done something. I spent parts of the first week out and about… 3 dinners out, my long flight home, an outdoor lunch etc and as people spoke to me I watched their eyes to see if they would look at my front hair line. I only caught one person doing it. After 8 days when all the scabs and ink were gone I didn’t have any fears of people noticing. As for the scar in the back, it’s impossible to see with such long hair. Even on a windy day, 48 hours after surgery I asked my girlfriend to stare at the back of my head and see if could see the reflection of the staples and she couldn’t. Having long hair has helped me a huge amount. G – THINGS YOU SHOULD BUY FOR YOURSELF PRIOR TO SURGERY. - An in shower shaving mirror. I never found anyone here recommending this and I am probably the first… the first week of shampooing is a bit challenging. You have to gently pat the shampoo onto your grafts. As its important to clean all the grafts well on a daily basis, I would physically have get out of the shower every day and stand in front of the mirror making sure I did this right. Of course I would make an absolute mess in the bathroom, so an in shower shaving mirror would have really helped. - A travel neck pillow. Lots of people mentioned it and I went out and bought one and it really helped. Mostly for sitting up in bed while reading or watching TV as it cushions the suture line. - Lots of ice gel packs. For the first 3 days it was very soothing to have an ice pack on my sutures and forehead. - A small empty spray bottle. To better describe this… when you go to a pharmacy and they sell those small (less than 100ml) see through bottles so that you can carry your liquids in your carry on luggage, usually you will see next to it a similar looking thing with a spray top on it. For the first few days (at least with Dr. Shapiro) you have to spray your grafts with grafcyte every 30mins. (It's actually not as inconvenient as it sounds. Set your cell phone snooze delay interval to 30mins, set your alarm, and keep on “snoozing” all day long.) Well as the grafcyte bottle is about half a liter big, it helped me a lot to go out with a miniature version in my pocket, rather than lugging that massive thing around. - A loose fitting cap. Yes you all know about this already, but don’t go trying on your loose fitting cap for the first time post surgery as pressure on the suture line really hurts if you get it wrong. H – INCONVINIANCES AFTER SURGERY. Best to list these in bullet form… - After day 5 my suture line became bothersome. It did make me lose sleep, but not terribly. You can’t really get comfortable lying on your back in bed. You find throughout the day you get a random tingling sensations, followed but a small thud of pain. It’s like the nerve endings are all firing off randomly. Nothing bad enough that I had to take meds but it was an inconvenience. This all stopped when the staples were removed. - Forehead swelling. I was warned about this so fully expected it. Day 2 it appeared. It was its worst on days 3 and 4. By day 7 it was gone. Basically my whole forehead swelled up (despite lots of forehead icing). I noticed it most in front of the side burns. Also you don’t get any wrinkles when you frown. There is a bit of jaw pain, and also your cap will feel a little bit tighter. No big deal but something to note. - The whole 2 week shower procedure is a bit tricky but again if you are aware of it prior to surgery then it won’t be a big deal when you have to do it. I – OTHERS THINGS. - The staples came out on day 12 and it was much more comfortable after that. - I came down with a severe (the worst I have ever had) case of strep throat on day 10 and started Amoxicillin. From all the research I did, from consulting with SMG and from this forum, there are no antibiotics that will affect the outcome of your procedure. - I started shedding my new hairs on day 10, and it was heavier and heavier every day. - Sorry for not posting photos. When I am 6 months out I might put some up and let you know how I am getting on I think the main message I wanted to get across is all above. So that’s about it as far as all my notes and thoughts that I have gathered and the many lessons I have learnt. I have passed on absolutely everything I possibly could from my experience and I really hope this helps a few people out there. It certainly would have helped me a lot had I read this 10 months ago. Good luck to everyone out there and feel free to ask me anything you want. Even if you want hotel advice in Minneapolis. I may not be that quick in responding though. Lastly, thanks to everyone for all their input on this forum and for the creators of this forum. Without it I would never have gone through with my decision. -
I met with Dr. Ron Shapiro last month in Minneapolis for a face to face on this same issue. He advised he could excise my grafts. If I wanted to proceed with another surgery I could a month later.
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Yes, I do have some great doctors I can work with, but I want to try it out, to document it and see if it is in fact a viable option. I know Dr. Charles does SMP, so does Dr. Gabel, and Dr. Shapiro, I'm not sure who else. Maybe the community can help me out here.
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Growing hair back? - The Big 3 ++ Journey
Shmiggy replied to Shifty's topic in Hair Restoration Questions and Answers
I was just at Shapiro Medical Group this week and Dr. Paul says oral is much more effective. He takes the oral himself and says if you don’t have any heart issues then that’s the route to go. -
You've been given great names. I would take a look at Hasson and Wong, Dr. Gabel, Dr. Diep, Dr. Mohebi. That said, Dr. Shapiro is an excellent choice.
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Hi All, I first need to thank this forum and the members. I cannot overstate the impact of this forum throughout my journey. After thoroughly researching this forum and having several phone consultations, I figured out that Shapiro medical group is the right option for me. Given the extensiveness of the surgery I needed (photos are attached), I decided to go with Dr. Shapiro. My surgery was on June 19th (three days ago), and currently I am super pleased with the experience. The surgery itself went very smoothly and I didn't feel even a little pain (that could be because Dr. Paul has an expertise in pain management). Initially we were shooting for 3500-4000 grafts, but we ended up with 4775 grafts (I think it is considered mega-session, right?). I have attached pre- and post-op photos. I appreciate if you give me your feedback. Any comment is very much appreciated. -
So after lurking around this forum for a while I had decided to dive in head first (pun intended) and go ahead with the transplant. If you'd like to ask me any specific questions I'd be happy to answer. I'll just say that the HT itself was relatively painless and aside from some acceptable uncomfortableness and tenderness in the first 3 weeks the entire process was relatively as smooth as one would expect. I've been taking Finasteride for 2 and half months prior to surgery and I'm using Minoxidil once daily starting 2 weeks after surgery, per Shapiro's instructions. I was a NW 3/4 with balding spots in the crown and heavy thinning in the frontal hairline region. Shapiro has decided on using the entire grafts extracted on the frontal region and let Finasteride do its trick on the crown area. Right now I'm at the 1 month mark. I've been losing a lot of hair during this time, especially after starting to apply Minoxidil. I will update every month or two with pictures of my progress. Hopefully it will be a good one! -
@LonelyGraft No problem! No. Dr. Rahal did not work under Dr. Armani. I'm sure they shared information, learned from each other, shared tips, etc. For example, Dr. Ron Shapiro visited Dr. Rahal not too long ago. He shared some tips and vice versa. Combined both have 60+ years experience... so there is a lot to share and learn from each other. It was cool to see both talking "hairlines." For a hair geek like me anyway. lol BTW, Dr. Ron Shapiro designs some awesome hairlines. He's Not talked about much. But does amazing work. Dr. Rahal's also in contact with Dr. José Lorenzo and others all the time, sharing tips, trade secrets, etc. Hope this helps -
Hair transplant in Turkey
Portugal25 replied to RonBurgundy's topic in Hair Restoration Questions and Answers
Ron there are tons of patient results for HLC at the italian forum BelliCapelli. HLC has Dr. Ozgur and Dr. Akin that are top level doctors but it`s not certain they will do the surgery because they have other doctors. -
Hair transplant in Turkey
Portugal25 replied to RonBurgundy's topic in Hair Restoration Questions and Answers
Ron I am talking with Dr. Pekiner assistant, Alex to book my second HT. I chose Dr. Pekiner because he only has 1 patient per day, does the whole surgery with techs just to provide support and has amazing results posted by patients on the italian forum. Couldn’t find any other doctor with this price level and results. Also, I have limited donor area and Dr. Pekiner said he can take 2000 grafts from my beard plus 3000 grafts from my scalp. Pekiner started out in this field working with Keser and then for HLC during 7 years. He opened his own clinic in 2017 because people were going to HLC because of him. He is building a name for himself very quickly and already told me he will increase the prices in 2020. if I were you I would go with Pekiner or Keser. -
You can also try Dr. Shapiro in Minnesota. -
Hi All, I had recently posted a description of my recent HT with Dr.Ron Shapiro on Sep 7, 2006. I just found the time to spend a few hours in creating a detailed blog and updating it with my pre-op, post op day 1 pics by Dr.Shapiro/Matt, and several post op (day2, day3 and day13) photos. I would very much like any comments/feedback on my post/blog and my progress. My Story: (This is detailed in my blog as well, Blog link at the end of this post) ______________________________________________________________________________________________ I have been losing hair since my early twenties gradually. I used to sport fairly long hair when I was young, sometimes shoulder length, so i used to notice more hair loss while combing or taking showers etc. Gradually this decreased as I moved into later twenties , most probably, due to the density decreasing and the hair itself gradually thinning out. I used to be quite sensitive to any comments like - hey you are losing hair, or you have lesser hair etc. Not that too many people have made such comments, it was probably only a handful of people and when such comments were made, I just lost my respect for them and probably did not care much for them after that. But the fact remained that I continued to be sensitive to my hair loss. Similar story to most hair loss sufferers listed here. I did not really think about any treatments for my hair loss, to be honest. There was once , in my early twenties when i first started noticing hair loss and went to a doctor and he looked at my head and said that I was fine and gave me some pills for peace of mind - can you believe it? Anyway, it was only very recently, that I learnt about success stories of HTs - even though I had heard about hair pieces, hair weaving etc earlier, but never was comfortable with any of them. I would any day have preferred to bald gracefully than to look like a clown in any of those solutions. But recently, after reading about latest techniques and success stories of HT, I went to Bosley and MHR for consultations. And in fact scheduled a procedure with MHR. Just like for a few other people on the Hairtransplantnetwork, Pats discussion forum site came to my rescue in the nick of time. And I started my research anew by reading through the website in detail. I quickly narrowed my search to a few top surgeons and decided to finally go with Dr.Ron Shapiro due to the great feedback he had, and also because I had happened across his name earlier during my Bosley/MHR research. For some reason, his name had stuck in mind, I would never have thought earlier that i would fly cross country for a HT. I quickly decided to go with Dr.Shapiro, and called Matt the very next day , and scheduled a procedure for the very next week (Sep7). Luckily someone had cancelled and a date opened up that was offered to me and I grabbed it. It all happened to me at lightning speed thereafter. I had never thought that I would decide upon and undergo a HT so quickly , as I had only started reading about HTs about late last year (2005). I underwent a procedure with Dr.Shapiro on Sep7. Everything went great (I have posted my experience of the visit on the ht forum). It was very much like others have described a HT procedure with Dr.Ron Shapiro - great doctor, great person, great team - Matt, Janna and all their other staff, very smooth procedure throughout. I think I would classify as a 4 or so - never asked Dr.Ron specifically about where I stood on Norwood scale. Since I am 31, and my thinning is mainly around the hairline front 1/3 and toward the crown, these were the areas primarily addressed. Dr. Shapiro gave an initial high level recommendation for about 2000 grafts for the front 3rd with about 500 grafts or so toward the top part of the crown, keeping future loss in mind, and also with the assumption that propecia may help keep/grow some hair in that region. I ended with a total number of 2523 grafts for the front 1/3 and some on the top of the crown with about a two finger width region on the top of my head not being touched as Dr.shapiro indicated that I had decent thair in that region and he did not want to risk going through it. Dr.Shapiro cut my thin hairs in the front region and also some small hairs on the crown were cut to enable placment of grafts there. Today is exactly day 15 after my HT - my scabs have healed well and i had my staples removed on day 12. I am noticing a lot of hair loss (probably both transplanted grafts and native hair) after week1. This is happening more as I am starting to shampoo and massage my hair more vigorously now. Maybe I should stop that and be more gentle. I would very much like any comments/feedback on my post/blog and my progress.
