My (long) anaysis and choice of HT Doctor

[BaldWhisky]

After long time lurking on this incredibly informative forum it’s time to give something back. I’ve been researching extensively for a hair transplant doctor over the last couple months and have probably spent 100 hours+ on this forum and want to share one experience of mine, on a topic that I think is important when it comes to the final decision –deciding which doctor to go for. Being a novice (at least at first) I started looking into FUE and I think this is where most people start. However, I soon realized that I was a NW5 and Strip became more of the natural choice. Now, over to how I researched and the results I found.

 

Many experienced posters on this forum say that you shouldn’t let location and cost be of very big importance when deciding which hair clinic to choose. I agree that this should be where you start researching. And so I did.

 

As I am located in Europe I started looking into the clinics locally I presumed to be the best ones.

 

The one I’ve looked into are Feriduni, Devroye, Bisanga, Farjo, Hatting, HDC and Mwamba. In addition I looked into the Turkish ones of Koray, Keser and Kulachi.

 

Now keep in mind that this is my personal subjective review of what I found, and even though I’ll keep this utterly brief there are numbers of hours behind the decisions.

 

*Koray and Keser both seems like good doctors but focus mainly on younger low NW patients. Further research was therefore not needed

*Kulachi, I didn’t like the cases where she claimed a 90%+ survival rate, as my donor area is limited compared to what I need

* Hattingen have too few results to show, and likewise with Prohair after their main doctor “retired” and just the team was back.

*HDC I just didn’t like, and they have some cases to show that aren’t very good.

 

That ended with me having four potentials from Europe to compare with from the rest of the world. The natural next step would we North America where I’ve looked into Umar, Feller, Rahal, Armani, Bernstein, Arocha, Konior, H&W and Shapiro.

 

Unlike the European alternatives, I couldn’t take any of these of my list because of quality. Actually at this point I was already of the impression that I was dealing with mostly world class doctors, where it comes more down to personal preferences and other factors when it comes to choice.

 

* Umar was removed until further as I am not in his focus group at the moment. However, should I need a BHT at some stage, he would be my top choice.

 

* Feller and Bernstein are one the top of many potential clients lists, and I have no doubt they are world class. However, when I am considering doctors all over the world, I have an issue with flying into the most expensive spots on the planet. I think they are great choices for residents close by, or if you can get there easily but keep in mind that you the doctor also have to pay his rent and personell. Therefore, everything else unchanged you pay more in a high cost area than elsewhere.

 

* Similarly with Armani, I didn’t really see the reason to pay extra for a doctor that others (better experts than me) have set question marks with.

 

Of the others I have been particularly impressed with Ron Shapiro, H&W and Rahal for bigger strip sessions. Honestly I found it very difficult to distinguish the results from the other doctors. In no way could I say “yup, that a Bernstein hearline”. Either others (naturally excluding the 1000+ posters) are better at analyzing than me, or a majority is adjusting their comments to what they want to see as it fits the choice they’ve made based on other factors.

 

So after looking into the high cost countries I looked into whether I could find just as good choices in much cheaper Asia. In India I looked at Dr A and Madhu. In Thailand I researched Pat and Pong.

 

* Madhu also appears to do excellent work. However, an issue brought to mind after studying other Indian work, was that for the most part his patients has been dark/Asian not bleak north European with blond thin hair like me. Maybe it’s just because of ignorance from my part, but as most of his clients, including American based, seemed to have different hair quality than me I decided on not taking the risk.

 

* In Thailand I was impressed with both Pat and Pongs work. They also have more cases of western looking clients. The two doctors appear to be good friends serving different parts of the country. Pong even has a picture of the two of them on his wall, and they refer clients to each other if they are fully booked. Pat in Bangkok and Pong in much cheaper Chiang Mai. As Pong was a lot cheaper, he would be my choice in Thailand. As with the US doctors, I just didn’t find any good reason to go for Bangkok over the lovely and cheap city of Chiang Mai.

 

So there you have my shortlist. Feriduni, Mwamba, Bisanga and Devroye in Europe, Shapiro, Rahal and H&W in North America and Pong for the cheap choice. And this is where I think a lot of future HT take a wrong step. If you research worldwide, without having found one absolute favorite don’t spend a lot of energy of actually finding one!

 

When you have narrowed it down this much, you have already excluded 99%. Like if you are picking an apple from a tree and can’t choose between the two that looks the best. Sure they are different but most likely you’ll be just as happy either way, and if you only want one you’ll never be sure if the other had been better. Therefore, let other factors such as price, location and availability play a bigger role. First do the open minded analysis, but when that is done, count in the other factors to a bigger extent than many others give the impression of, as that part is foremost a comments to the newbies here.

 

I decided that I could find just as good doctors in Europe as in US. Due to the exchange rate US doctors are more expensive at the moment, so for my first hair transplant I see little point in going there.

Of the cheaper choices, Pong became my top choice for my first hair transplant. However, being a married man it is easier to get support from choosing a world class clinic than taking cosmetic surgery in Asia. Also compared to other investments, it’s not massive compared what one (or at leat I) will waste over a lifetime on for example a car that is slightly too expensive car.

 

So, down to Mwamba, Feriduni, Besinga and Devroye. After speaking with Mwamba, he charges the same per grafte either Strip or FUE. As I’m having strip, he therefore relatively overcharges for strip.

Feriduni Besinga and Devroye all looked like top choices to me. Feriduni clearly has a lot of fans here (but also slightly more expensive). Top results, megasessions and thin scars. Devroyes analysis fit what I was looking for very well both with focus areas on high NW patients and hair angle and shadow effects. Besinga, shows that he’s a good master overall with world class FUE, knows the art of repairwork and very nice strip work.

 

I ended up with trying to find dates with all of them, as I didn’t see any good reason to narrow it down further. It ended up with booking with Devroye on December 5th, which I’m looking a lot forward to as I know my destiny is left in world class hands!

[Janna]

Hey, at least we were in the running......

You made a wise choice. I like Dr. Jean DeVroye and have known him for a long time. I'm sure he'll take great care of you.

 

All the best.

[biscuit]

After looking at the gallery on Dr DeVroye's web site I suggest you meet some of his patients in person. The photos show the pre-op and post-op conditions nicely, but I don't see many photos of the final result. And in the end, it's the final result that determines your happiness.

 

I'd guess a lot of his gallery patients will have thin coverage in real-world conditions. Primarily due to the number of grafts. 3,500 grafts is not going to cover a NW5. 5,000 grafts is a good estimate, more is better. Does he have the staff/facility to do more than 3,500 grafts in one day? If not you will end up going back for more surgery.

 

Can you post some photos so we can see your current condition?

[hairthere]

baldwhisky, Dr. Feller is not in the heart of NYC, but rather on Long Island in a very unassuming office. I would definitely consult with him and see what he could do for you. That being said, your other choices are very good and they all made my top 5 list.

Edited October 21, 2011 by hairthere

[HARIRI]

Well due to all respect to the mentioned surgeons in Belgium, I would say Bisanga goes first and maybe Feriduni second and Devroye last (Although he is the most expensive). Bisanga and Feriduni have very great posted results. Plus if you are looking for good rates in US with cheaper locations, you got Rahal in Ottawa and Shapiro in Minnesota.

 

I would always chose a doc who knows both techniques very well. So in future I don't need to search for another if I needed FUE. Thus, If I were in Europe I would seriously consider Dr. Bisanga. Trust me. BTW you made great analysis and please for the love of God never go Asia for it, its the worst in my opinion. They post first 3 months and stop, check out the recommended doctors results posted by patients in hair transplant network.

 

North America would be always my number one choice, its where the hair transplant revolution started. Good luck buddy :-)

Edited October 21, 2011 by HARIRI

[kathie47]

this is really the sort of research for HT needs--i don't totally agree with your final choice, but it's still a good one and you've clearly put a lot of time into it. good luck!

[BaldWhisky]

Thanks for the feedback guys, much appreciated.

My analysis probably doesn't make perfect sense in the way that I've focused on most doctors that have proven good results in megasessions, and landing on one that in my eyes shows very good results but have quite few megasessions (3000+). For all I know he might not have the team size for such a size.

But at some point through my research I came to the conclusion that it's better for me to go for two transplantations rather than one. I've been on Prospeica for 8 months now, but am not entirely sure my balding of vertix has stopped yet. Therefore I'll leave that part out now and rather focus on the other areas. In total there is little doubt that I need 5000+ grafts but that won’t be the case at my first transplantation.

One of the doctors I spoke with suggested that I'd wait four years (till I'm 35) with the vertex which I thought was a good idea as that's not an area that bothers me too much.

I'm also pretty sure that my donor graft density is below average, so even with a large strip I'd be surprised to see more that 3500 grafts. So my conclusion was that for the number of grafts I will have, I found Devroyes results to be very good on patients that looked to have many of the same hair characteristics as myself (equally good as the others on my US and EU shortlist).

I admit that I might have jumped to the conclusion a bit too quickly on Feller, and good to see that most agree with my shortlists. However I’m not sure convinced that US doctors in general need to be better. It could easily be led in that direction as there are more US posters here. Europeans also tend to speak less when they have something positive to say. So I was rather looking whether I could find anything negatively said by Europeans about the Belgium doctors which I basically couldn’t find.

I’m sure there are some good doctors in Asian as well, but I agree that it’s more difficult to be completely convinced. So for me Asia is out of the question also for the second transplantation. That will either be one on my European or American shortlist unless a new superstar pops up in the meantime.

[orlhair1]

You did thorough research, narrowed it down in a thoughtful way and made a decision that is right for you. Everyone has an opinion, but in the end this is your decision. As long as you do thorough research like you did and choose among top surgeons, you will be fine. I have seen some really nice results on here by Dr. DeVroye.