Uk Dr Feller patient*

[Justjulien]

Justjulien's Hair Loss Story

 

Well where to begin,

 

I have been slowly receding from the front of my Hairline since the age of around 26 (I am now 38 yrs of age) and have also noticed the gradual thinning of the crown area, every time I'd go for a haircut and you'd get the back view of your hair I'd cringe at the bald spot, and thank the hairdresser profusely just so they would take away the mirror.

As we all probably did I tried various lotions creams shampoos and different "styling" to see is I could camouflage the problem, but I was inevitably fighting a loosing battle. I started taking propecia around the age of 27-28 and this definitely helped somewhat in preserving what I had and even encouraging a small amount of regrowth. I think for me this was the 1st important lesson I learned you have to work with what you have and maintain what you can.

So I managed this for another 3-4 years whilst in the back of my mind considering some form of Hair Transplant Surgery.

I'd heard and seen so many horror stories and bad plugs that I was sceptical that a "natural" look could be archived.

Anyway I started to do a ton of research on the Internet prompted largely by the actor James Nesbitt who I thought looked like a new man after his surgeries.

 

During the course of my research two names kept coming up time and again, those of Spex and Dr Alan Feller.

I initially made contact with Spex as I am UK based and he spent time listening to my story and concerns and gave me some support and advice on the next steps to take. He put me in touch with Dr Alan Feller of Great Neck York, and I scheduled my 1st surgery in April 2011.

 

Once I had taken the decision I had a few months to get my head around the idea of what I was about to go through and organise myself with everything I needed for the Surgery- Blood work, flights (fly to JFK not Newark as it's much closer) hotel (I recommend Andrews near the surgery you get a good deal if you mention Dr Feller and the staff could not have been nicer)

 

The day of the surgery arrived and I met Dr Feller at his offices around 7.30 am and we talked through what I wanted from the surgery and how he envisaged the day would go. Turns out it's a whole process, so you may need 1, 2 or 3 surgeries depending on your goals, before you achieve your desired result. I have thinning through the front of my hairline and in the crown area, and almost a Mohawk of hair on top. We discussed the options and Dr Feller and the aim of stage 1 was to rebuild my frontal hairline area with around 2500 grafts in a cap like shape and he suggested returning for a second procedure to address the thinning crown once I had seen the results of the 1st procedure.

The procedure itself was reasonably painless I was in the chair for around 7 hours with a break for lunch and by the end of the day I had the beginnings of a new hairline and rebuilding the thickness in the top of my head.

Dr Feller is extremely professional and talked me through every stage of the process, what to expect immediately after and in the coming months. Also it must be said all of his staff are super friendly as you have team working of your head and grafts throughout the day.

 

Immediately after the procedure I returned to my hotel and spent 48Hrs relaxing before returning home to the UK. During this time I had to be extremely careful not to damage the grafts but you are given fairly explicit aftercare instructions and medication for the pain which helps.

 

The down time afterwards for me was around 2 weeks - you can return to work earlier, but I wanted to wait till my own hair grew back before I returned to work so I looked as natural as possible. In the end I told anyone who asked as it generated quite a bit of interest amongst friends family and colleagues.

 

Its now been 6 months and as the photos show I’ve had a fantastic result, not the hair of a 21year old me, but the hair of the 38yr old me which looks natural and is coming in nicely.

 

I’ve just been in touch with Spex and have made arrangements to have my Crown area addressed in March 2012.

 

Roll on March-best thing I ever did!!

[TakingThePlunge]

Justjulien,

 

Welcome! Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with Dr. Feller. I had a look at your photos and it appears that you've make quite a nice transformation thus far.

 

Congratulations and best wishes. Please be sure to keep us updated on round two!

[richie48]

hi bud

 

looks ace , great transformation , looking forward to seeing the crown done in march , keep us updated

 

richie

[egghead1969]

Looks good from what i can see JustJulien congratulations;) .

 

Such a shame about the difference in photo lighting though. Do you have some more pictures with different angles and lighting you could post?, or maybe a hairline shot so we can see this great result better.

 

I am looking forward to following your crown progress, bet your very excited.

 

On a side note though, please don't leave it six months to post your new procedure as it would have been much cooler if you posted straight away so we could have followed your whole progress instead.

 

Best Egghead

[Justjulien]

Thanks I'll keep you updated

[chrisdav]

2500 grafts have been used very efficiently and he looks great.

 

Has he got any plans for the crown now?

[Justjulien]

Hello- thought it was time to update my treatment post crown work.

In Aug 2014 i was travelling through India and heard on the forums of a surgeon called Dr Bhatti who performed FUE. Most of the reviews i had read had been entirely positive and i was interested in having some additional volume added to my crown area so after some consideration and research i plumped to have some FUE to the crown in India with Dr Bhatti. When i arrived and during same day consultation Dr Bhatti asked why no one has addressed my uneven temples and my frontal hairline. I had never really considered these to be "problem" areas, but Dr Bhatti made the recommendation that i had these looked at also. BIG lesson i learnt here is to know what you want before you see any surgeon and stick to that. Dr Bhatti was a nice friendly man but maybe (and only upon reflection, neither had i..)he hadn't considered that by increasing the area for hair to be implanted it would mean the future up- keep would be greater, since we were bringing everything forward, hairline, temples etc. Don't forget i was only really wanting some increased volume in my crown area. Dr Bhatti said the crown was a tricky area as it expands/grows with age (??!!??). Im not sure how true this is but he was the expert so what reason would i have not to believe him. To be honest i was not entirely happy with the results. The angle of the hair in the temples was put in differently as i had serveral placers working on me (this only became evident to me post surgery) and the volume of hair behind the new hairline was patchy, the angle if the hair in the front was put in poorly and flops forward- to be honest a poor job all over. I have some pre-op pictures to share, but when i asked Dr Bhatti for some post op pictures he said the following..

 

"Dear Mr Julien Munsch,

 

I am very sorry to state that the graft breakdown is not available at present for your case.

The file is corrupted and when I have it I shall mail you.

I can however mail your pictures if you wish me to"

 

It was at this point i knew i was going to need the help of either Dr Feller or Dr Lindsay in order to review my options and revise if possible.

[Justjulien]

So the quest continued.. i was very fortunate that Dr Feller and Dr Lindsey were making a trip to the UK in late 2015 so they could assess my case post Dr Bhatti. Dr Feller told me that the doner area had been pretty ravaged during Dr Bhatti's procedure so another strip surgery would not be possible for me. I was gutted. However all was not lost Dr Feller suggested his collegue Dr William Lindsey (Dr L) could perform a procedure called MFUE which stands for Modified FUE- where we could harvest anything from 500-800 grafts for transplantation. Having had 2 previous strip surgeries with Dr Feller i can honestly say he is for me an honest, trustworthy and skilled surgeon and i had no hesitations in moving forward with the MFUE with Dr L.

Based in Washington - the whole experience was great. Dr L is very passionate and really cares about giving you the best results possible. He does this whilst fully managing your expectations as to what is reasonable/feasible and what is not.

Bright,clean functional offices with super friendly staff -Wendy even picked me up the morning of my procedure and dropped me back at the airport for my flight home.

Results exceeded expectations i got 838 grafts, and the best news is that i still have some good donor hair that Dr L could harvest with a similar case next year if needed. Also the below pictures show that all the hair up front is likely Dr Feller hair, and the upper sideburn hairs i had placed by Dr Bhatti were in different directions, so he tried to match that pattern.

I cannot thank Dr L and his staff enough for all their help and support- ill be back soon i expect but am looking forward to seeing the results!

Pics to follow!

[Justjulien]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dr. William Lindsey]

Hey Julien

 

Great write up. Thanks

 

2 things. Wendy was convinced you would talk more about hanging out with her than me. I won a bet with her on that!

 

Second, nobody has ever called me passionate...Blunt maybe, or hard-headed...but its all the same. I want it to work ALMOST as much as you do. And this will.

 

Stay in touch!

 

Thanks again.

 

Dr. Lindsey

[Dr Blake Bloxham]

Julien,

 

It was great to meet you in the UK. So pleased you were able to travel to DC and undergo an mFUE session. We've had a lot of success with mFUE in patients with similar situations to yours. I really look forward to updates.

 

Grow well.

[wibbles180]

Just need dr feller to chime in now and the promotion purpose is complete .... This forum is becoming ridiculous

[HairJo]

Wow you see what mean some doctors get all nicey ,nice and they can completely sway your thinking. I'm sorry this happened to you. Why did you switch doctors anyway if you were happy with your first results? I hope you get the results you want too bad you have to go through this again sorry man.

[Petchski]

Thanks for the update, i think lowering the hairline on your third HT was maybe not a good idea, and i couldn't really see what results you got from Dr Bhatti, as the photos didn't really show it from what i could see, but i'm sure you'll be getting an excellent result from the Mfue.

[Petchski]

Just need dr feller to chime in now and the promotion purpose is complete .... This forum is becoming ridiculous

 

This is a guy's experience, what's ridiculous about that?

[HairJo]

The close up pictures were great nice to see it step by step good presentation

[bunsenburner]

Julien:

 

Fascinating insight into your journey. I hope everything grows properly this time around.

 

I find the "M-FUE" approach quite interesting. I had an extensive conversation with Dr Bloxham about the technique when I consulted with him and Dr Feller in December. He's obviously passionate about it, and (to me) it makes a lot of sense. However, both doctors agreed with my desire to use FUT. But I would consider M-FUE at a later time if I needed further work.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

Julien,

 

I'm glad your staying active on this thread.

 

Bunsenburner...I agree. At a reputable office, strip works 95% of the time, isn't terribly expensive, and works. And its the most consistent.

 

That said...guys who need a true buzz cut...FUE is probably the way to go. For guys who have hair a half inch long, that's 1.27mm for you Europeans, why not do strip? (That is a hypothetical question, I'm not trying to turn this into another FUE/strip thread).

 

And if you are truly worried about that linear scar...mfue is an ideal compromise.

 

Finally 911fan...I tell EVERY patient...bring a flash drive and I'll give you your pics. That said, 80% of guys forget or don't want them. This guy asked that I email them to Spex to help him update his online presence. There was no other agenda.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[chris39]

Julien,

 

For guys who have hair a half inch long, that's 1.27mm for you Europeans,

 

Ha - I think that sould be 12.7mm !

[bunsenburner]

Spex (and Dr Lindsey):

 

So the healing scabbed areas represent where the M-FUE procedure was performed?

 

How many follicle unit grafts were removed from each M-FUE extraction? Dr Bloxham told me he averages around 45 in patients who have not had previous surgery. Is this consistent with your (Dr Lindsey) results?

 

I'm impressed by the amount of scarring left after removing this many follicle unit grafts at once.

[HairJo]

It looks pretty good to me I must say good job Dr. Lindsey

[PaulB79]

Dr Feller told me that the doner area had been pretty ravaged during Dr Bhatti's procedure so another strip surgery would not be possible for me. I was gutted. However all was not lost Dr Feller suggested his collegue Dr William Lindsey (Dr L) could perform a procedure called MFUE which stands for Modified FUE- where we could harvest anything from 500-800 grafts for transplantation. Having had 2 previous strip surgeries with Dr Feller i can honestly say he is for me an honest, trustworthy and skilled surgeon and i had no hesitations in moving forward with the MFUE with Dr L.!

 

So Dr Feller claimed that another strip would be impossible. But here he claims that strip after FUe is possible --- http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/182519-failed-fue-need-advice-2.html

 

"So what to do? Simple. Switch to the FUT procedure. This procedure does not traumatize the grafts. So even very physiologically fragile grafts have a far far greater chance of surviving the transplant process and growing.

 

In my patient described above he had virtually no growth from his FUE (performed elsewhere though I don't remember where that was), but after the FUT he had virtually 100% growth. We just did a second procedure on him using FUT as well. While we did have to work through a lot of FUE scarring, it really isn't a problem for a skilled team of technicians. "

 

So which is it? Possible after FUE or not???

[PaulB79]

Spex (and Dr Lindsey):

 

So the healing scabbed areas represent where the M-FUE procedure was performed?

 

How many follicle unit grafts were removed from each M-FUE extraction? Dr Bloxham told me he averages around 45 in patients who have not had previous surgery. Is this consistent with your (Dr Lindsey) results?

 

I'm impressed by the amount of scarring left after removing this many follicle unit grafts at once.

 

The scarring looks worse than FUE scarring - much bigger areas of scar

[Dr Blake Bloxham]

Bunsen,

 

I'm sure Dr Lindsey will chime in as well, but I'll give you my thoughts regarding your questions.

 

Yes, the "scabbing areas" represent the areas where a grouping of grafts was removed via the mFUE technique.

 

45 has been my average during the last few mFUE procedures I've performed -- and I think this is probably what I told you during our consultation. There are a variety of different ways to do mFUE extraction. Different size and shaped punches, superficial scoring with blade excision and blade/scissor + forceps extraction, etc, etc. The most frequent way I -- and I believe Dr Lindsey as well -- do it now is with an elliptical-shaped punch used to score very superficially and then excision ("cutting around") and extraction with a blade and forceps. With this method, I've averaged around 45 strip quality grafts with very little transection from each elliptical mFUE grouping.

 

The scarring is a series of small "dashes" spread throughout the donor. It's usually very good. But remember that the goal isn't to create undetectable scarring in the donor; this is impossible with any technique. The goal is to remove strip-quality grafts without taking a strip and leaving the resulting linear scar. But I think a small dash is a good trade off for 45 strip quality grafts.

[HairJo]

I can see Paul B79 another attacker never heard of you before when were you invented??? It's so clear what's going on here. Am I the only one who sees this??? Gee another bashing