Advice for FUE - Considering Doctors

[Daddyshaker]

Hello All,

 

First of I am very thankful for you guys to introduce this fabulous website so ppl can share their experience and thoughts.

 

For almost more then an year I am reading different posts here randomly whenever I get chance to see what's new, learn from others experiences and educate myself.

 

I am Asian, 27, English is not my native language and based in States. I started loosing hairs when I was 18 and by the age of 23 I shaved and hairs; since then never came back on the front of my head so till now I am shaving my head. I kinda like it the way I look but recently I started feeling strange after I visited my home country to see girls for marriage.

 

I think by reading posts over here I have learned that ppl are not too fond of FUE in compare to strip surgery but I am very strict on having FUE for HT.

 

Matter of fact a friend of mine went to Pakistan/Karachi to have his HT(strip) and got 3000+ grafts for overall $4000 including fare. Amazing result...

 

It would all be very easy if I would think about strip process then I can blindly go to H&W and have it done long time ago but unfortunately I am afraid of having surgery and leaving scar for rest of my life.

 

The reason I am going for FUE is because I am very scared of surgeries, hospitals, and dr.s. I am lucky enough that I never had a surgery of any type.

 

Having a scar on my back for life gives me goose bumps plus since I shave my head so I would like to keep my hairs to short length like to clipper no. "00" or "1" and or max "2" size.

 

I have done some online consultation w/ few FUE doctors including Dr. Mohebi, Mazhar Hussain (Pakistan), some Dr. in Turkey, and Dr. Umar. I was not pleased by the response from Dr. in Turkey.

I still have to do phone consultation w/ Dr. Mohebi to straighten my decision, Dr. Mazhar Hussain looks promising but looking at the price for travel and other accommodation I do not want to go for him. The other reason is that he was very straight forward and told me upfront by looking at my donor area that he can only get upto 3000 grafts w/ price of 3.5 Euro on his special discount and I may have to come again later for another surgery.

 

I am looking to have one mega session of FUE and BHT so the best would be to go for Dr. Umar and he was my first choice too.

 

So I filled the online consultation form three times and call few times to their clinic but no response from Doctor. Finally I talked to Glenda and she told me that sometimes emails goes to spam when you have pictures attached so I may have to fill the form again and w/o pics.

 

After so much of waiting I got the response from Dr. Umar; very precisely and straight forward not one of those where you get the warm welcoming feeling that we are the best, we will take care of you and just come and do the HT .

 

Response more like after evaluating you can have such and such number of grafts, price will be this and if you want then clinic will contact you.

 

Anyways as I understand he is so far the best dr. in his profession and have shown some great results so doesn't bother me that much. I have replied to Dr. asking if they are running any special or have any sort of discount that they can offer me or should I go for 2 surgeries but it's been over a week now and I haven't receive any response back from Dr. I don't know if I have done the right thing by asking him about discount.

I think that he may be busy or didn't get chance to reply back to me but I will send another follow-up email to him to see what he has to offer or say and base on that I can only make my decision.

 

If you guys are wondering then I think I am NW6 and he quoted me $7 per graft for 6500 - 7500 FUE and BHT from head, nape and beard hairs. The problem is that 52000 is over my budget and can only afford half of that from my 4 years of savings .

I am hoping that he will come back w/ some loan option or discount as I always thought he charge $5 per graft and in some cases $6 dollars and can offer some discount if you willing to post pictures of you.

 

I would like to know what you guys have to say in my condition and what should I do. I really want to have FUE hair transplant but I don't have this much money in cash. I do not have a credit card.

 

Is there is any other good doctor(s) you guys can recommend me, should I personally go and see Dr. Umar and or should I just drop the idea to have HT till I save up enough money.

 

No heart feelings but plz do not recommend me to Dr. Feller as I was not impressed after reading the long thread of argument and accusing b/w him and Dr. Umar.

 

Plz direct me to right direction or options as you guys have more knowledge and experience then I do.

 

**I am sorry guys bcaz you guys have to read my long post but I just want to say anything everything that comes in my head as this is my first post.

 

P.S. Plz forgive me if my post will unintentionally hurt, or point finger and or disrespect/insult anyone by any means.

 

Thank You

F.

[splitting hairs]

Hey man, you've got a lot of info there. To be honest, wanting FUE is fine, but please be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of it. I have heard some good things about Dr Umar and his FUE. However, I feel that 7000 FUE is a MASSIVE session.

 

You should know that not everyone is a candidate for FUE. There is increased damage to the follicle during extraction, decreasing the yield.

 

You should also know that BHT is very inconsistent and in some cases, no hair grows, since body hair actually is easier to damage during extraction than scalp hair.

 

Without a doubt, if I was in your shoes, I would go for strip - it gives the best results with such large sessions. You should also consult with Shapiro medical group and Hasson and Wong.

 

Dr Feller is a top Surgeon and I would advise you to consult with him as he will give you an honest opinion as to whether FUE or strip is best for you.

 

You should also be aware that prior to surgery you are given benzodiazepines to calm your nerves.

 

Good luck, and make sure you do your research.

[TC17]

I would be EXTREMELY reluctant to under a combo FUE + BHT procedure. In my opinion, BHT can provide some benefits to certain patients, but since you are not a repair case I would not put you in that category. I think that you should do some more research and get more opinions. If Dr. Mohebi was correct in that your donor can only give 3,000 grafts, I would stick with the 3,000 from FUE and forget BHT. 3,000 grafts can give a very nice effect over the frontal 2/3rds of your scalp - provided you keep your hair short. I would hate to see you piss $52,000 down the drain on a combo procedure that might not give you any better results than the 3,000 grafts from FUE alone. Splitting hairs was correct when he said that BHT is notorious for being inconsistent and having poor growth. That is not to say that it is worthless, and maybe in time it will prove to be as viable as scalp hair, but right now it is too hit and miss for me to consider it as anything other than a last chance effort at salvaging a brutalized scalp.

 

I would consult with Dr. Feller, SMG, Dr. Feriduni and Dr. Devroye. I personally believe that FUE is the way to go for 90% of all people under the age of 30, so I wholeheartedly agree with your desire to avoid strip.

[splitting hairs]

Just to add, your best option may well be a strip procedure (3000 grafts), give it a year, then do a FUE. This will maximise use of your scalp donor.

[Daddyshaker]

Thanks veteran and Guru for your explanation and suggestions.

 

Actually Dr. Fellar is bit expensive for FUE procedure and it would be more then what I will pay to Umar.

 

I will definitely contact Dr. Feriduni and Devroye to see what these doctors are saying.

However I did submit an online consultation before for Feriduni but never received a response. I will try to contact them today or atleast fill online consultation.

 

Veteran, thanks for educating me on Strip procedure but sorry as I said I will die but will not go for strip surgery .

 

So now I guess I would probably look for good doctors w/ reasonable FUE cost and probably undergo a surgery for 3000 or so grafts excluding BHT.

 

Again Thanks guys for your inputs.

[thanatopsis_awry]

Look into Bisanga, too, for FUE. Unfortunately, he has a very low (if not non-existent) presence on this forum; but I would sincerely recommend looking into him. I think TC gave you a very good list of people to consider and consult with.

 

You are essentially a "strip candidate", yet you aren't because you simply won't go a route other than FUE. Thus, a very large FUE session is what you want; the problem here, of course, is that getting a lot of grafts in a single FUE session isn't the simplest thing, and there is a ton of hype in this realm.

 

So, where am I going with this.....I would give particular investigation into both who is *willing* to do a larger FUE session for you, and who has the *actual* capabilities (re: yield).

 

My impression is that: DeVroye does FUE sessions upwards of ~2500 (this is from something I remember him saying); Dr. Feller ~1800-2000 (this is from what I've actually seen); and SMG on a slightly smaller scale, ~1000-1500 (this is just from what I've anecdotally observed).

 

But ya, the only docs who I've seen megaession-FUE from that rivals strip pound4pound is from Bisanga and also Dr. Mikelas from HDC Cyprus. I personally wouldn't go to them tomorrow, so I wouldn't recommend you do either; but, in your circumstance, I would absolutely investigate in that direction.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Daddyshaker,

 

I think you're the second member to state you haven't gotten a response back from Dr. Feriduni when filling out a virtual consult. Thus, I've taken the liberty of contacting him to make sure there's not a technical issue and he's received them. All virtual consults are stored in our database, so he'll be able to login and check all virtual consultations ever sent through our site.

 

Regarding BHT - I'm a firm believer of using all scalp donor hair up before moving to body hair, simply because BHT is typically inconsistent.

 

By the sounds of your last message, you're doing good research and narrowing down your choices to a few excellent doctors.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[Mohsin Raja]

DaddyShaker,

 

I would recommend FUT. I did it with Dr. Epstein and the scar is barely visible. From my research, FUE can be very very long process. Also, as other members said, I would not recommend BHT. Also, I have heard and seen some good results from Dr. Humayyun ( I think). He did it for Rana Naveed ul hasan the cricketer and u can see it on youtube so that might not be that bad of an option. I have friends who did it in Pak and told me that other than Dr. Humayyun, stay away as there are butchers all over.

 

Good luck dude!

[Dr. Bijan Feriduni]

Originally posted by Daddyshaker:

Thanks veteran and Guru for your explanation and suggestions.

 

Actually Dr. Fellar is bit expensive for FUE procedure and it would be more then what I will pay to Umar.

 

I will definitely contact Dr. Feriduni and Devroye to see what these doctors are saying.

However I did submit an online consultation before for Feriduni but never received a response. I will try to contact them today or atleast fill online consultation.

 

Veteran, thanks for educating me on Strip procedure but sorry as I said I will die but will not go for strip surgery .

 

So now I guess I would probably look for good doctors w/ reasonable FUE cost and probably undergo a surgery for 3000 or so grafts excluding BHT.

 

Again Thanks guys for your inputs.

 

Dear Daddyshaker,

 

We just found out that you send us an online consultation request but did not receive an answer from us. Unfortunately we are dealing with the problem that not all of the request are coming through to our email address. If you are still interested you can send your pictures with details directly to our email address info@dr.feriduni.be and we will send you a quotation with personal treatment plan as soon as possible.

 

Sorry once again for the inconvenience!

 

Best regards,

 

Dr. B. Feriduni

[HairHope]

For that size session, if you are paying over $5 US a graft, your getting bent...IMO!

[stepladder]

Ive tried contacting Dr Feriduni as well and got a response back after TWO WEEKS. (without any apology for delay)

 

To be honest i was not even interested to even consider the consulation after that. One would expect a prompt response from a reputable Doctor.

 

Dr Devroye has not only responded next day but also provided an in-depth online consultation. Very impressive.

[thanatopsis_awry]

Dr. DeVroye certainly seems to be meticulous in running his operation. I'm kinda surprised more forum members haven't gone to him; he really does ace work.

[Bill - Seemiller]

stepladder,

 

How did you try to contact Dr. Feriduni's office? They've been having some serious email issues and we've been working with them the last couple days to help them resolve them.

 

I trust that Dr. Feriduni and his staff are not purposely avoiding you or any other prospective patients who are trying to contact him. In fact, when I notified him of a potential email problem, I received the below response from him. I specifically notified him about Daddyshaker's attempts and this thread which is why he posted a response on this thread. You are not being purposely neglected, I'm sure of it.

 

---------------

 

Thanks for informing us about the problems with the unanswered consultation requests, we are busy looking for the reason why these requests do not get to our email inbox and we hope to find the solution as quickly as possible. Anyway we answered Daddyshaker on the HTN forum and hopefully he will contact us once again because we do not want to lose any potential patients.

 

---------------

 

I'm not telling you which surgeon to choose. But I'd hate to think that you'd stop considering a doctor due to technical difficulties their office is having receiving emails.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[stepladder]

Ive contacted Dr Feriduni through his website at the same time i contacted Dr Devroye which was in end of May.

 

Surely Dr Feriduni's clinic can't be having techincal problems with emails for nearly 3 months!

There are lots of network engineers looking for job these days.