FUE surgeons in MA/NY area? General help? 26 y/o newbie.

[blurrynights]

Hey, everyone. So I'm in a bit of bind. Since last October I've been on the hunt for a surgeon to undergo an FUE surgery to fill in my hairline. I first visited a surgeon in Maine who didn't seem very experienced, so I then went to Leonard Hair in Newton, Mass. I'll admit, during my consultation there I was off-put by their omission of projected grafts, as well as the overall vibe I got from the gentleman who greeted me (before the doc). He was pushing products on me and I felt like I was in an infomercial. I understand that they may make commissions and maybe these gadgets and products actually do help, but it all felt a little snake oil salesman to me.

 

Now, I chose Leonard Hair because in my (admittedly not-so-thorough) research, their clinic was one of the few nearby that offered the ARTAS option. It was probably naive on my part, but that intrigued me. Also, my surgeon was going to be Dr. Lopresti, not Dr. Leonard himself, who I'd heard various complaints about, so I felt a bit more reassured. They also told me they'd be willing to do a "stealth shave" in the back since my hair is long enough. I had a surgery scheduled with Dr. Lopresti for yesterday, which I cancelled a day before due to a last-ditch combing through of reviews/experiences with the clinic; many of which came from this site. The consensus was that Leonard Hair Transplants be avoided, and I had to go with my gut rather than commit $8k+ and be dissatisfied. I'm not sure if most people were referring to Leonard himself, but what's done is done, and again, I had to go with my intuition.

 

So, with my deposit gone and my surgery cancelled, I feel a bit foolish, though I've given myself more time to research and contact various surgeons. I'm hoping to re-try with someone I feel more confident in during the winter break from school in December.

 

I've heard good things about Dr. Feller in the NYC area, and was wondering what everyone thought about him? I know he seems to be more prone to FUT, which I'm absolutely opposed to—may be more effective, but I'm not having a strip scar on my head. Also, I'm okay with traveling, but as the title in my post indicates, the Mass./NYC area would be about as far as I want to go, and given the reputation of both places I would think I'd be able to find someone within those limits.

 

I've included pics of my hairline, and also the crown of my head. The crown seems to be fine for the most part, though slightly thin in certain types of light towards the front—I plan to ask whichever surgeon I meet with next if peppering in some grafts in that area would be okay, given that my hair loss has been a slow-going process (knock on wood). I should mention, too, that I'm not sure how to gauge how many grafts I should expect to fill in (or mostly fill in) the bald areas of my hairline, as well as lower the hairline itself a bit? I wear my hair with longish bangs currently, which I'd like to continue doing, so I don't need perfection since I'm not planning on getting a cropped haircut—long hair works on me and I have a creative job which doesn't call for anything manicured.

 

Apologies if this post seems all over the place, I'm just a little mixed up after having thought I would be well on my way to seeing new hair growth as of today, but now I'm back at square one. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Speegs]

Alan Feller or bust if you're not willing to travel outside of the Northeast in my opinion.

 

Be very selective and deliberate, PM me if you want my personal physician opinions in depth.

 

There's only about five doctors i would let touch me.

 

I had my first HT at 26 as well.

[blurrynights]

I just saw a video on YouTube from Dr. Feller indicating that if you're an FUT candidate, he won't do FUE. This is a bummer. I'm not doubting the FUT results, I just do not want a strip of flesh taken from my head.

[trashpanda]

blurrynights,

 

Don't be discouraged by the decision you made today, you are better off not getting a HT than you are going with a surgeon/clinic you are not 100% comfortable with. You're not foolish at all for making that last minute call, but rather quite the opposite. I know hair loss can be tough on young guys like us and you just want to be able to fix it and go back to "normal", but this is not something you want to rush into!

 

I didn't see it in your post, but are you on any preventative medications? If you are considering a HT at this age and your current level of hair loss, it is in your best interest to prevent any further loss. Everyone has their own opinion on this, but I personally wouldn't suggest anyone our age with MPB to go through with a HT unless they have stabilized their hair loss.

 

I'm not familiar with doctors in your area, but if you are set on getting a HT, I would not limit your search to your immediate area. Do A LOT of in depth research about doctors all around, even if it means you have to travel. Do as many online and in-person consultations as you can to determine what is your best option going forward.

 

While you do have hairloss, you still have a decent amount left that you can hang on to if you stabilize the loss. The crown is a tough area to work on because it requires a lot of grafts to present the illusion of density. You also risk having shockloss there if you place grafts there since the crown isn't completely bald, rather it has thinned and has a lot of weak hairs left. However, this is where you should take advice from a professional and hear their thoughts.

 

Good luck going forward. Don't rush into anything and remember there are plenty of people on this forum that are willing to help you make the best decisions for yourself.

[1978matt]

I had as much hair as you at age 26 and guess what? It f'kin went! Whatever you do dont fill in those temple recessions or lower the hairline. If you do that now you run the risk of running out of donor hair and having a weird look the rest of your life.

 

It looks to me like you could be thinning a lot more than you realise. (Unfortunately the loss of hair density doesn't always become apparent until 50-75% of it has gone.)

 

If you get a HT soon you should only reinforce the outline of your existing hairline (guessing a bit based on the lack of pictures). I'd also think about trying propecia for a minimum 6 to 9 months.

 

If you go FUE I'd only really recommend doing it with a Coalition surgeon, e.g. Konior, Feller, Ron & Paul Shapiro, Rahal, Gabel, Cooley etc. These doctors have the ethics to turn you away if they don't think it's a good idea based on your particular circumstances.

[Dr Blake Bloxham]

Blurry,

 

I'm Dr Feller's partner, so I figured I'd chime in and give my "two cents" regarding your situation. First and foremost, read Matt's post several times. You're a young patient and androgenic alopecia (male pattern hair loss) is unpredictable. This means Long-term planning is crucial. The last thing you want to do is be overly aggressive or compromise the donor.

 

Having said all that, I'll basically explain what I would tell you during a consultation. And since I'd be the one doing the initial consultation if you came to the clinic, hopefully it helps!

 

If you had come in to the office and provided no information about wanting to go FUE, FUT, etc, I would have initially recommended FUT for you. But stay with me here.

 

I would have recommended FUT because you're a young guy with the potential for decades of progressive hair loss. What this tells me is that: 1) you need to use every graft carefully (IE optimize the changes of each growing -- AKA the "yield") and 2) you need to keep that donor in the best shape possible.

 

The way to accomplish both of these goals is FUT. The yield from FUT is 95%+ at clinics with seasoned technicians (our seniors have 18 years a piece). In the most recent issue of the International Society for Hair Restoration Surgery Journal, Coalition surgeon Dr Mike Beehner released a study demonstrating FUE yields at levels closer to 70%. From what I and Dr Feller (who has been performing FUE since 2001, has patents on tools, is frequently noted as an FUE pioneer, was written up in the original FUE chapter in the "Hair Transplantation" textbook, and has trained dozens of FUE doctors) have noted, these numbers are pretty accurate.

 

And although FUT does leave the linear scar, the 1-2 millimeter wide line of scar tissue is the only area of damage in the entire donor. EVERYWHERE else is virgin. This means it can be accessed in large quantities several times over as strips, and then again via the FUE technique once you're "stripped out."

 

So, I would have evaluated your scalp and explained the above. I would then map out a plan if you were to do the FUT technique. This would involve an age appropriate hairline and frontal band rebuild and likely some "reinforcing" of other thinning areas behind it (that we know are "on the way out" and have enough visible thinning not to be affected by something like shock loss).

 

However, if I knew you just absolutely could not undergo an FUT procedure I would have told you that this could be done -- at our clinic -- as an FUE, but the plan would be different. And this is where I think the big difference between the FUT and FUE approach comes in my mind. Could you do something as an FUE? Sure. Would it be my initial recommendation? No. But here is what it would be:

 

If you were dead set on doing this as an FUE, the procedure would be more focused on filling the currently thin areas and would not involve as many grafts in the frontal band. This would result in a much more conservative restoration in the front. It would still involve some "foundation" work with respect to rebuilding the hairline and frontal band (and filling that gap in the middle there) simply because I don't like doing "patch" fills like this if you'll have further loss because you could end up with "islands" of transplants.

 

I would also recommend keeping the graft count to somewhere less than 1,500 with FUE, because I truly feel the integrity of the donor and the number of quality life-time grafts becomes compromised over this point (at least in one sitting). I'd also be very upfront about the yield differences, and the fact that I truly don't believe FUE provides the same thick, dense, "wow" transformations that FUT does.

 

I'd probably show you this case as an example of what I'm referring to as well (and I'd also tell you that I'd be much more apt to perform FUE if you were closer to this patient in age and had more stable loss):

 

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/163492-doctors-experience-dr-alan-feller.html#post2283430

 

I'd further tell you that if you liked the overall plan and potential for results with the FUT better but just couldn't do the strip harvest, our mFUE approach may be a good option. But that's another discussion for another time.

 

So I hope my different "philosophies" when it comes to the FUE versus FUT approach makes sense. I think Dr Feller and I have been labeled "anti-FUE" on several occasions, but I think of it more as not thinking of these two techniques as interchangeable and outlining clear plans and realistic goals based on each approach. I'm also a firm believer in "informed consent." Even if telling the truth or only recommending FUT/mFUE means patients go elsewhere.

 

If you'd like to come in to have everything evaluated in person, we'd be happy to see you. I'm also doing some FUE cases next week, so you may be able to catch a "sneak peak" of our FUE protocols if you come in during one of those days.

 

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any additional questions or contact me here or via email.

[Melvin- Admin]

If you have your mind made up on FUE, go to a clinic that specializes in FUE, don't limit yourself to a geographic location, when choosing a hair restoration physician you want to choose the physician that could provide you the best possible outcome for the procedure you want.

 

I could not undergo an FUT procedure, I chose FUE and my hair loss was way more advanced than yours, it's true you definitely need to plan for the future because you will inevitably lose more hair, but in my personal experience that does not mean you can not undergo several FUE procedures.

 

I have had two FUE procedures totaling 4,000 grafts, I just had my donor microscopically evaluated yesterday by a coalition physician. He estimated I still have about 2,000 grafts possibly 2,500 to give via FUE, I'll be having my 3rd FUE procedure in October which should put me at around 5,500 total grafts with another 1,500 still in reserve, I'm not saying FUE is the right way, I'm just stating that it is possible to plan long term and have several procedures with FUE and still achieve good yield. It is undoubtedly more expensive though so that's always something to consider.