My Bosley Story

[Foundation]

I figured I'd share my story now that I have just completed my second hair transplant... that I chose NOT to do at Bosley.

 

Well, I was 23 years old at the time I went to Bosley. I was young, desperate and willing to pay anything and listen to anyone, and it didn't hurt that the guy I met with could have sold the Kabbahla to Bin Laden. They were willing to perform a surgery on me at such a young age and suggested I get 400-500 grafts. At that point my hairline had receded, and they were going to fix that in one shot. Well, what did I know? Not much apparently, it sounded good to me. So the day came and there I was, 7:30 in the morning in NYC. Well, at about 8 am I entered the chair and was out of there by 5 pm. What, you're going back to read that sentence again? It took my almost 9 hours to get 500 grafts. Actually it ended up being closer to 800, b/c my donor hair is so strong. So about an hour per 100 grafts. Once again, what did I know. They had told me that I had really thin blood, so I was bleeding a lot and it was hard for them to work with that (aren't they supposed to be professionals?). As I looked in the mirror I realized that they hadn't put nearly enough grafts by my left temple. I would tell you the doctors name, but honestly, I have forgotten it as he has since retired and I only saw him for about 15 minutes anyway. I filed it as a complaint and was on my way home, hysterically crying (9 hours of your scalp being crunched only to end up disappointed is somewhat traumatic). About three months later things started to come together and by 6 months I was spiking my hair again! Well, that lasted for about 6 months until I lost a few hairs and realized that they had spaced my grafts about an inch apart from each other. I was able to deal with it pretty well, as my mom is a hair stylist and I had become pretty skilled at hiding my baldness (in fact, people would tell me how cool my hair was). Little did they know that I would sometimes spend up to 2 hours in front of the mirror, washing and re washing, and pushing and looking in every mirror at every angle in every room. God, that was horrible. Well, as my 25th year came around I discovered that apparently Propecia stops working. Wish someone had told me that before I bothered to spend that much money just to screw up my sex life. Anyway, I stopped taking it and for about a year thinned. I had gotten to the point of my hair loss where I was going to be at that age regardless of whether I ever took Propecia or not. Not exactly worth it for a few years of keeping my hair. So I headed back to Bosley. They told me I wasn't ready for an HT and sent me packing. I waited 3 months, and went back. They did the same thing again (Dr. Dibiase... what a dick). So I said to him, "how come you were willing to do one 3 years ago but you wouldn't now. What sense does that make? He basically told me he never would have done it to begin with and walked out on me. Thanks dick. No, honestly. So I set up another appointment, this time with Dr. Alpeter. He thought an HT was the best thing for me at this time, go figure. He drew his plan on my head which pretty much had him transplanting hair into areas that were somewhat thinning. "But what about shock loss I said"? "Don't worry about that" He said. Wow! Well, I have to say, he is one of the nicer guys I've met in this crazy bald world, and for all I know he does a fantastic job, but I left that building (after talking to another used car salesman) reluctantly having made an appointment. I spent the next few days with an ominous feeling. I began to do my research. I ended up here, and found that a guy by the name of Dr. Feller was one of the best surgeons in the world and basically worked around the block from me. Today I got 1300 hair grafts for about half the price of the 700 I got at Bosley, and was literally done in half the time. Oh yea, as for my scar, Feller told me they had done a good job, but I was a small case so you'd have to be a real schmuck to have messed me up bad. Anyway, my experience with Dr. Feller was made me feel like I was in the Wizard of Oz. I left the black and white Bosley and entered a world of color at Fellers.

 

In conclusion, do I think that Bosley is the devil like some people will have you believe on here? No, I do not. Do I think they will ruin your life? Probably not, I haven't met any of those people, have you? Do I think they're are better options out there? F*ck yea! Feller is one of them. To the 3 of you who finished reading this novel, I say thank you. I hoped my story isn't just a waste of bandwith. Jeez, I'll shut up now

[wantego]

I'm really glad you had a good experience with Dr Feller. He has a very good reputation. These Bosley nightmare stories are so heart breaking. I hope you are doing well now.

[dakota3]

In conclusion, do I think that Bosley is the devil like some people will have you believe on here? No, I do not. Do I think they will ruin your life? Probably not, I haven't met any of those people, have you?

 

I went to Bosley, and while I dont believe they ruined MY life, they certainly made it alot harder for me to feel good about myself. There are some people on this forum that would disagree w/ you and say that "YES" Bosley did ruin their life. THEY ARE JUST PLAIN LOUSY!

[Eman]

thanks for sharing your story foundation. hopefully you will stick around here and share your story and steer people away from the hair mills...

[Chuckisduck]

All I can say, is that I am glad I waited on the Bosley guys, and went with Dr Keene.

[andersonja]

If you do your research, Bosley is one of the last places a person should consider. THE last place, from my experience. Save yourself from potentially the worst mistake of your life. Stay miles away from Bosley.

 

This is one of many negative excerpts and reviews telling the truth about Bosley on the internet:

 

http://www.bosleymedicalviolat...datelineexcerpts.htm

[gotohairforlife]

I usually don't respond to blogs b/c anyone can say what ever they want without a way to verify. That being said I've had 3 procedures with Bosley and I'm extremely pleased. Professional and results oriented. Apparently, there have been varied experiences, but when someone is the biggest - everyone loves to tear them down. The American way. I wish those concerned with hair loss look at all their options to find the right solution. If I had listened to the plastic surgeon (not Bosley) I first visited, I would be shaving my forehead with a bic. Good luck.

[flyby]

I concur with Dakota 3 100%! Too bad the internet and sites such as this weren't as prominent back in 1993-94.

 

Gotohairforlife. I'm sure everyone here would be happy for anyone who is extremely pleased with their results regardless of where they went. BUT, If Bosley was deserving of a good reputation you wouldn't be seeing the number of unhappy former Bosley patient outnumbering the happy ones by such a wide margin. I'm sure there are some great Bosley results out there but as a whole they're not even close to the top doctors here. With the best docs here you probably would have had fewer procedures, paid much less and received a far superior end result!

[Bobman]

As I am currently trying to find quality hair transplant clinics to represent and work with, can you believe that one of the advice that a doc gave me was to try and see if I can get in with Bosley or MHR?!? I wasn't rude to the guy, but it was not good advice in my book.

 

Thank you for sharing your story. Glad the end result was the one that made all the difference.

[M&M]

Originally posted by gotohairforlife:

I usually don't respond to blogs b/c anyone can say what ever they want without a way to verify. That being said I've had 3 procedures with Bosley and I'm extremely pleased. Professional and results oriented. Apparently, there have been varied experiences, but when someone is the biggest - everyone loves to tear them down. The American way. I wish those concerned with hair loss look at all their options to find the right solution. If I had listened to the plastic surgeon (not Bosley) I first visited, I would be shaving my forehead with a bic. Good luck.

 

I'd love to see some photos of the work Bosley has done that has made you so pleased.

 

I can attest that I went to Bosley and I *thought* that my "nearly undetectable" hair that actually "grew" and didn't look like the old "dolls hair" clumps from years ago was state of the art... but then I found this site and realized that there are doctors that actually do state of the art work, utilizing start of the art techniques.

[M&M]

Originally posted by Bobman:

As I am currently trying to find quality hair transplant clinics to represent and work with, can you believe that one of the advice that a doc gave me was to try and see if I can get in with Bosley or MHR?!? I wasn't rude to the guy, but it was not good advice in my book.

 

Thank you for sharing your story. Glad the end result was the one that made all the difference.

 

Bobman! I was wondering about that. I remembered and posted your story from HLH where you mentioned you were looking to work in the HT industry but I hadn't heard an updated and wondered if you'd chosen the clinic to work with yet or moved on to something else. Good to hear the update. Keep us posted.

 

PS - I'm sure Bosley or MHR would pay a LOT if you'd just lie and say that they did your HT to prospective patients!!

 

M&M

[That Guy 2009]

My story has a lot of similarities to the OP. I got my first transplant at 24 and like the OP, I didn't do the proper research. I just went in and paid and had it done.

 

I was scheduled for 800 grafts and they ended up giving me about 1,050 (or at least that's what they told me. They punched 1,050 holes in my head either way) Anyway, the nurses were really nice and the procedure only took about 4 and a half hours. They started at 8am and I was out of there at 12:30pm. The procedure itself wasn't bad at all. I did what they said and watched for shock loss, etc. Having not done the proper research, I was really expecting a lot from these 1,050 grafts. Now I know that I needed about 5 times that many to see any of the results I was expecting. Needless to say I noticed some new hair but was a little discouraged.

 

The OP was smarter than me though. I went back for another helping with Bosley about 2 and a half years later. I even got the same doc although I don't even remember his name. That's how little research I did. I just expected it to work. Anyway I was scheduled for 800 grafts and got around 1,050 just like the first time, but this one took around 9 hours and sucked big time. It was the same exact procedure, but supposedly they were short on nurses that day and that was the reason. Anyway it was a lot worse to sit there for 9 hours after expecting to be out of there after 4 and a half again.

 

I started on propecia after the 2nd transplant, but started getting bad dizzy spells after 2 months of taking it, so I had to stop.

 

It's been about 3 and a half years since the 2nd procedure and I'm still not really happy with the results. It's not that they did a horrible job. It's just that my expectations were unreasonable. I wanted the results you get after 5,000 or 6,000 grafts. I just didn't realize that that's how many it would take to accomplish those results.

 

For now, I'm done with hair transplants. I recently shaved my head with no guard all over just to see what it looked like. The scar from the donor area obviously shows through big time until the hair grows out to about a 2 or 3 guard, but at least I do still have a hairline now, even with the hair cut short. I guess I'm happy about that. I just don't like that I paid the same price for 2,100 grafts from Bosley that could've got me 4,000 or 5,000 grafts from a better surgeon.

 

I thought my Bosley rant was actually going to end up being longer than Foundation's, but he still has me beat.

[youngsuccess]

ThatGuy2009,

 

I'd be really interested in seeing how your hair looks buzzed down. I've accepted the fact that donor scar detectability is pretty much guaranteed at that length, so I'm actually more concerned with how the recipient area looks. It's pretty hard tracking down these types of photos; I've only seen a handful. Care to post any pictures? I'd really appreciate it.