I need your advice... Had a consolation with Dr. Bisanga...

[arturmeireles]

So I went to Brussels in mid March for a consolation with Dr. Bisanga.

I went to there with an idea and I ended up coming back home disappointed...not with him but with the he purpose me in terms of which method of hair transplant I should do. He said I don't have a rich donor area and that the transplant(FUE) I did before was very badly done (I agree) so he said that the clinic that did my FUE 2 years ago killed lots of hair and now I have a poor donor area. So he purpose this:

 

Procedure Type: Strip and FUE

Estimated Number of Grafts: 3,000 Strip, 1000 FUE

Date of Procedure: 3 & 4 September 2012

 

Let me tell you that I don't like the idea of using STRIP. Its such a old method and the scar thing worries me. I have 2 friends that did STRIP a long time ago like 8 years ago and they didn't like the result. So Im very confused about doing STRIP.

Dr. Bisanga told me to not shave my beard for 3 days before consolation cause he will get some hair from my beard. The 1000 FUE grafts its a mix of beard and the hair of my head.

 

My questions are:

 

1) I give much more importance to the front of my head so 1000 grafts would fill up nicely the front of my hair?

 

2) Dr. Bisanga said that he will use STRIP to cover the baldness that I have in the middle of my head. He can't use the grafts from STRIP to use in the front of my head?

 

3) My biggest doubt: Should I cancel everything with Dr. Bisanga and go to Dr. Gho? I sent his clinic an email and they told me I could visit their London office August 29th.

 

BIG thanks everybody!!!

[HARIRI]

I think Bisanga's advice is very professional and strategic. Better to stick with him, dont go to Dr. Gho as Im not comfortable with his procedure and results. There is no way to compare between these two surgeons. My advice is to check out Dr. Feriduni too and see what he says, maybe he can does what you want. Dr. Bisanga is strict in his approach, believe it or not, he even refused to perform me a scar revision while all other surgeons agreed.

 

So my advice is to consult Dr. Feriduni and if you dont like it then go ahead with Bisanga, Good luck and I feel your pain, being a HT victim sucks big time :-(

[arturmeireles]

I think Bisanga's advice is very professional and strategic. Better to stick with him, dont go to Dr. Gho as Im not comfortable with his procedure and results. There is no way to compare between these two surgeons. My advice is to check with Feriduni too ans see what he says, maybe he can do what you want. Dr. Bisanga is strict in his approach, believe it or not, he even refused to give a scar revision while other surgeons all agreed.

 

So my advice is to consult Dr. Feriduni and if you dont like it then go ahead with Bisanga, Good luck and I feel your pain, being a HT victim sucks big time :-(

 

Thanks for the reply Hariri!

The problem is that I upfront 1700€ with Dr. Bisanga :-( and I will lose it if I give up. By the way, where Dr. Feriduni is based? Thanks!!!

[HARIRI]

Dr. Feriduni is located in Hasselt in Belgium too. I really advice you to consult him, if he says the same thing then stick to Bisanga. But if he can does what you wish exactly then better to cancel and go along with him better than going under the knife. Feriduni and Bisanga are my favorite in Europe but Feriduni is recommended here so in my opinion safer. He also does FUE manually..

[arturmeireles]

Dr. Feriduni is located in Hasselt in Belgium too. I really advice you to consult him, if he says the same thing then stick to Bisanga. But if he can does what you wish exactly then better to cancel and go along with him better than going under the knife. Feriduni and Bisanga are my favorite in Europe but Feriduni is recommended here so in my opinion safer. He also does FUE manually..

 

Im going to contact Feriduni, make an appointment and see what he says. I hope he works during the summer :- /.

[arturmeireles]

Can?t find his website. Does someone knows? Thanks

[HARIRI]

His Website is Haartransplantatie - Dr.B. Feriduni, haarchirurgie Aestheticclinics - Haartransplantaties.

His clinic's representative Email is daphne@feriduni.com or cristian@feriduni.com and the doc's personal Email is doc@feriduni.com

[arturmeireles]

His Website is Haartransplantatie - Dr.B. Feriduni, haarchirurgie Aestheticclinics - Haartransplantaties.

His clinic's representative Email is daphne@feriduni.com or cristian@feriduni.com and the doc's personal Email is doc@feriduni.com

 

Once again thank you Hariri!

I visited his website and filled a questionnaire attached my pics and Im going to wait for his contact but Im going to call the clinic monday morning to ask if they are open for consolation during the summer time.

[scar5]

My advice is to avoid getting a strip scar. If your donor is depleted through a bad FUE procedure, you can be sure that the strip scar will be harder to hide if you should need to cut your hair shorter and it is unpredictable as to whether your scar would be thin anyway. Even if it were, you might regret it.

 

It is true that, if you can live with a bald patch on our crown (many happily accept this compromise) a strip would give you volume on top, but if you are like me and want to avoid the donut look, I think you need to have the option to keep the back shorter.

 

Dr. Bisanga will easily suggest a strip. His clinic is equipped for it and he has the cutters set up for it. It is too easy IMO to slip into that frame of mind where you accept a strip. Why don't you speak to Dr. Lorenzo in Madrid? I know he is not recommended yet on this site yet, so few will couch for him, but at least he is committed to avoiding strip scars for guys who really don't need them.

 

Also Dr. Harris - I think he is recommended here?? - in the states. Feller will probably tell you strip, even though he does excellent FUE.

[FinHairLoss]

So I went to Brussels in mid March for a consolation with Dr. Bisanga.

I went to there with an idea and I ended up coming back home disappointed...not with him but with the he purpose me in terms of which method of hair transplant I should do. He said I don't have a rich donor area and that the transplant(FUE) I did before was very badly done (I agree) so he said that the clinic that did my FUE 2 years ago killed lots of hair and now I have a poor donor area. So he purpose this:

 

Procedure Type: Strip and FUE

Estimated Number of Grafts: 3,000 Strip, 1000 FUE

Date of Procedure: 3 & 4 September 2012

 

Let me tell you that I don't like the idea of using STRIP. Its such a old method and the scar thing worries me. I have 2 friends that did STRIP a long time ago like 8 years ago and they didn't like the result. So Im very confused about doing STRIP.

Dr. Bisanga told me to not shave my beard for 3 days before consolation cause he will get some hair from my beard. The 1000 FUE grafts its a mix of beard and the hair of my head.

 

My questions are:

 

1) I give much more importance to the front of my head so 1000 grafts would fill up nicely the front of my hair?

 

2) Dr. Bisanga said that he will use STRIP to cover the baldness that I have in the middle of my head. He can't use the grafts from STRIP to use in the front of my head?

 

3) My biggest doubt: Should I cancel everything with Dr. Bisanga and go to Dr. Gho? I sent his clinic an email and they told me I could visit their London office August 29th.

 

BIG thanks everybody!!!

 

 

 

DO NOT GET A STRIP SCAR!

 

its a really tough call with 1,700 already on the table... but I would cancel and go to Gho... or at the very least, not get a strip scar

 

 

 

go onto some other hairloss forums and check out some Gho stuff... they dont give him much thought here as gho is not one of the surgeons who pays the subscribtion/fee to be on this website.

 

 

 

 

Gho is COMPLETELY SCARLESS and you will be almost fully healed 14 days from the surgery or less. If you get Strip your head will throb for days and days and days. Your scalp will feel tight and possibly numb FOREVER....

 

 

 

I have no been to Gho, but I have researched him extensively. I have a treatment with him in the next two months. I'm very excited.

 

 

 

 

I know that you don't want to hear that you should lose 1,700 but please look at this thread (and then many more on other forums like h*ir site and b*ldtruthtalk.com

Edited July 8, 2012 by FinHairLoss

[arturmeireles]

Scar5 and FinHairLoss thank you for your replies!

 

Scar5 I like the idea of visiting Dr. Lorenzo in Madrid but only If I cancel 100% with Dr. Bisanga. I live in Porto and its easy to go to Madrid for me. Although I would like to give Dr. Gho a try. I have an appointment with Dr. Gho clinic on August 29th.

 

Like FinaHairLoss said, I already have 1700€ on the table :- / so what you guys think if I go to Dr. Bisanga just for a hair beard implant? I wondering if there is a maximum numbers of grafts when using the hair from the beard. Do you guys know? Do you think Dr. Bisanga would refuse to do a FUE using only hair from my beard? Its possible to use the hair of the beard to implant on the front of the head?

By the way I want to save the hair on my head for a future implant with Dr. Gho.

 

Dr. Wesley technique its already available? How it does compare to Dr. Gho technique?

[aim4hair]

Scar5 and FinHairLoss thank you for your replies!

 

Scar5 I like the idea of visiting Dr. Lorenzo in Madrid but only If I cancel 100% with Dr. Bisanga. I live in Porto and its easy to go to Madrid for me. Although I would like to give Dr. Gho a try. I have an appointment with Dr. Gho clinic on August 29th.

 

Like FinaHairLoss said, I already have 1700€ on the table :- / so what you guys think if I go to Dr. Bisanga just for a hair beard implant? I wondering if there is a maximum numbers of grafts when using the hair from the beard. Do you guys know? Do you think Dr. Bisanga would refuse to do a FUE using only hair from my beard? Its possible to use the hair of the beard to implant on the front of the head?

By the way I want to save the hair on my head for a future implant with Dr. Gho.

 

Dr. Wesley technique its already available? How it does compare to Dr. Gho technique?

 

Dr. Wesely scarless technique is not yet available, in his site it says it will be available as soon as 2013, i have requested more info about it but never got a reply.

 

Both techniques are claimed to be scarless! But dr. Gho's technique is also claimed to re-generate 80 to 85% of your donor area which will give you more donor supply, while dr. Wesely's scarless technique is not claimed to solve donor limitation issue.

Dr. Gho currently only perform a maximum of 2000 grafts (sometimes 2500 if your donor good enough for that) while he claims that you can use the same grafts in your next session 6-9 months later since they will be re-generated.

Im not sure how many grafts will dr. Wesley do in one session but i guess the number will be higher.

 

Do your search and go for what you think is right.

[HARIRI]

I consulted Dr. Bisanga last year regarding FUE my scar using beard hair. He agreed using beard hair only for scars and crowns. So i think if you negotiate with him, he will agree using your beard hair for crown as he can extract around 1000 grafts, start with the area under the chin and then FUE some scalp hair for hairline. I agree with many posters that a strip in your condition is very risky and would be impossible to conceal later.

 

If Bisanga refuses which mostly I think he wont then you can try Dr. Lorenzo, he as well more talented in FUE as he uses FUE exclusively in his HT plus he can use beard hair as well. His video results on you tube under name of injerto capilar is outstanding.

 

About Dr. Gho, I don't think you would risk it with him as your condition cant bare any mistakes. He is good for patients with good donors and want to keep it this way but his results do not wow me really. I really don't advice to go to him, visit his website and view his results then judge. Lorenzo and Bisanga are way better IMHO. Good luck.

[1978matt]

It's difficult to express an opinion on what Dr B recommended. for example, if you told him you want maximum coverage on the top and really don't want to have to shave your head close for the rest of your life then strip seems reasonable.

 

If your donor is depleted by a bad FUE then he might only be able to get 1000 grafts FUE from the donor, compared to 3000 strip. So it would totally make sense to go FUT.

 

The only thing I don't get is why he wants to use beard hair on the hairline.

[aim4hair]

About Dr. Gho, I don't think you would risk it with him as your condition cant bare any mistakes. He is good for patients with good donors and want to keep it this way but his results do not wow me really. I really don't advice to go to him, visit his website and view his results then judge. Lorenzo and Bisanga are way better IMHO. Good luck.

 

 

Actually i beleive the resuls are good for the number of grafts, don't forget most of those cases got less than 2000 grafts and you can't compare those to other doctors results with high number of grafts. Plus, have you seen wesley sneijder result, to me that was impressive.

[arturmeireles]

It's difficult to express an opinion on what Dr B recommended. for example, if you told him you want maximum coverage on the top and really don't want to have to shave your head close for the rest of your life then strip seems reasonable.

 

If your donor is depleted by a bad FUE then he might only be able to get 1000 grafts FUE from the donor, compared to 3000 strip. So it would totally make sense to go FUT.

 

The only thing I don't get is why he wants to use beard hair on the hairline.

 

Because my donor area its not dense. My density average is 63.

[scar5]

If your donor is depleted by a bad FUE then he might only be able to get 1000 grafts FUE from the donor, compared to 3000 strip. So it would totally make sense to go FUT.

 

 

This is insane to my mind.

If you only have 1000 left via FUE you have a bad donor - all the more reason not to create a cut straight through the middle of. Take the 1000, be done with it and be grateful you have options. IMO

[arturmeireles]

This is insane to my mind.

If you only have 1000 left via FUE you have a bad donor - all the more reason not to create a cut straight through the middle of. Take the 1000, be done with it and be grateful you have options. IMO

 

So in your opinion I should only do FUE with 1000 grafts and skip the strip method? Thanks!!! I appreciate all the help from everybody!!!

[scar5]

So in your opinion I should only do FUE with 1000 grafts and skip the strip method? !!!

 

Let's assume u r weighing up 3000 strip vs 1000 FUE in your current situation. Now for a start, this equation seems dubious, but a ratio of 2:1 might be more accurate. Even so, for sake of argument, go with the 3000 vs 1000 thing.

 

The better end of FuE keeps getting better, the rubbish is still rubbish, so assuming u go somewhere good for FUE of course -

 

Then it comes down to crown.(and meds) A big strip, designed for a big and volume-up front and frame will get u the resume, letsbefriends.com and Facebook pic u want for life, but u might have an empty crown down the track.

 

A smaller FUE perhaps even combined with SMP, but even without it, will give u a grow or buzz option throughout ur life and u won't be hiding from nasty lights in elevators. U could even get some kinda volume up top to make u look good on FB etc., whilst the crown is still there. U can experiment with different lengths and colors too.

 

But U wanna go to a doc committed to FUE and not one who pays salaries to a group of techs to slither and cut strips for a living, whilst the doc is reading the paper. Lol. Make him earn it!

 

No doubt in my mind, strip follicles are more robust, but ur goal is not to have robust follicles, ur goal is look good and be confident.

Edited July 10, 2012 by scar5
Usual typos

[chrisdav]

Dr Bisanga was one of the best known surgeons for doing larger fue sessions with a good number of documented results and if he does not recommend it then I highly doubt many others will either.

[scar5]

Dr Bisanga was one of the best known surgeons for doing larger fue sessions \\

 

Bisanga is one of my bestest best but..

 

Really? Larger FUE?

 

He is relatively lively - or was - about the "protocol" - a kind of estimation , a nominative figure about what constitutes a reasonable ratio of "extract vs leave", during the era of , "let's discuss where FUE works" . It was something around 25%. i.e. We can take every 4th hair/follicle and leave the rest

 

At that ratio, I don't think "Big FUEs" even compute.

 

But anyway. It is not a matter of science. It is a matter of economics, infomatics, historical trends and expectations.

 

Bottom line = techs in the back room, FUE is a pain in the ass.

 

Just because a composite clinic recommends strip is no reason to do it. It is no slur on strip itself. It just means one has to consider their side of the story. It could be better to do strip afterall, even so.

[1978matt]

Dr Bisanga was one of the best known surgeons for doing larger fue sessions with a good number of documented results and if he does not recommend it then I highly doubt many others will either.

 

Agreed. He's done more surgeries than you can shake a stick at so I'm sure he made these recommendations for good reasons. After all, he looked at this guy's head up close. None of us have.

[aim4hair]

Agreed. He's done more surgeries than you can shake a stick at so I'm sure he made these recommendations for good reasons. After all, he looked at this guy's head up close. None of us have.

 

Actually i beleive that dr. Bisanga is lean toward FUT more than FUE.

I have made a consultation with many doctors and while some of them recommend FUE to me and said i was a good candidate(which was my request to go with FUE in the first place) dr. Bisanga was trying to convince me to go for FUT.

 

 

Arturmeireles,

My advice is that if your donor is limited and not dense then avoid FUT dude, because with the level of your hair loss there is a chance that you won't have good coverage and you might end up not liking the result and in that case you don't wanna lose the option of cutting your hair short.

 

If i were in your place i will consider 3 options:

1) read more about HST and if the evidence convince you about the re-generation of donor, then go for it, even though you will need couple of years to achieve your goal but if gho claims are right (which nobody including doctors could prove them wrong with evidence yet) then it might be the way to go.

2) stick with FUE and try to get as many grafts as you can to get you something to work with then use concealers.

3) use a mix of FUE and BHT to get as many grafts as you can.

 

Good Luck!

[jmghair]

Sounds like you're in a little bit of a pickle. For someone with limited donor such as yourself isn't this where bht comes in? Why is bht limited to beard hair only? I know Dr. Umar also takes bh from the chest as well. This may be an option for you although a pricey one. If Dr. Gho's claims are correct which have not been independently verified than he would be the best option for sure. As far as Bisanga goes he did not convince me to try and do strip. I was a nw2 only going for 1500 grafts though and he said my donor density was low about 65fu average. Bisanga does not strike me as a guy to quote you a plan because he prefers one surgery over the other, this would be unethical. I think he gives honest expert opinions and is on the conservative side.