open ended question.. who is the best for repair??

[dalew]

Ok all. I know there will be no one answer to this, but i want to get some feedback.

My situation: back in the 80's when young and stupid, i got plugs from the "cleveland hair Clinic" in Phila pa at age 20. all thru grad school, wearing a hat and being humiliated at every turn, i decided to go to Bosely (i know.. how many bad choices can a guy make?) my repairs were done in the early 90's..pluggy, but thicker.

finally in the late 90's i got some $$ and finally did some research and was treated by a fantastic HT guy in Baltimore. He was great.. and did a very nice job.. i actually looked human again and live life without wearing a hat everywhere.

however, now.. 10 years later my hair is thinning some more, and the pluggy straight hairline is becoming more evident. have been using Propecia with good sucess for several years now.. but things are thinning. I am starting to see the "eyes roll up" (a lot of you probably know what i am talking about) from people again.. had not gotten it for a lot of years.

so.. now i am in my mid 40's. my wife is completely behind me.. i would rather be bald.

what to do?

I talked to the Baltimore surgeon a few years back.. his main concern is that i am OUT of donor hair.. had an expander, etc.. I'm done.

My hairline is too low, straight, and pluggy.

i am wondering:

1. can i have my plugs refiltered and put back further for a more mature, natural hairline? i really don't car about scars.. cant be any more embarassing that what i got now. My surgeon from a few years back told me he did not reccomend it due to my cobblestoning.

but.. have things changed with lazers, technique, etc? I suppose i will travel back to Dr. V in Baltimore .. but just got the feeling he did not think he could make any thing better. I respect that.. a lot.. but perhaps things have changed.. or do i go in another direction

2. also, saw a complete reversal on another site from a Dr. cole in Atlanta. pics looked good.. but does anyone else know about this?

3. I keep hearing about Dr. Feller... a top in the field?

 

again, i know there is no one answer.. i need to go, get opinions, tx options, etc.. but my point is:

1. i will travel. I live in Ohio now, but i will amke the trips as to, and where to necessary. you only live once... i got about 40 more years to go. location is not as important as quality!

2. i have the money

3. i want someone who can fix, or remove the plugs.

I don't care anymore about a full head of hair, or volume.. i just want natural as i go into my middle age!

thanks!

[dalew]

Ok all. I know there will be no one answer to this, but i want to get some feedback.

My situation: back in the 80's when young and stupid, i got plugs from the "cleveland hair Clinic" in Phila pa at age 20. all thru grad school, wearing a hat and being humiliated at every turn, i decided to go to Bosely (i know.. how many bad choices can a guy make?) my repairs were done in the early 90's..pluggy, but thicker.

finally in the late 90's i got some $$ and finally did some research and was treated by a fantastic HT guy in Baltimore. He was great.. and did a very nice job.. i actually looked human again and live life without wearing a hat everywhere.

however, now.. 10 years later my hair is thinning some more, and the pluggy straight hairline is becoming more evident. have been using Propecia with good sucess for several years now.. but things are thinning. I am starting to see the "eyes roll up" (a lot of you probably know what i am talking about) from people again.. had not gotten it for a lot of years.

so.. now i am in my mid 40's. my wife is completely behind me.. i would rather be bald.

what to do?

I talked to the Baltimore surgeon a few years back.. his main concern is that i am OUT of donor hair.. had an expander, etc.. I'm done.

My hairline is too low, straight, and pluggy.

i am wondering:

1. can i have my plugs refiltered and put back further for a more mature, natural hairline? i really don't car about scars.. cant be any more embarassing that what i got now. My surgeon from a few years back told me he did not reccomend it due to my cobblestoning.

but.. have things changed with lazers, technique, etc? I suppose i will travel back to Dr. V in Baltimore .. but just got the feeling he did not think he could make any thing better. I respect that.. a lot.. but perhaps things have changed.. or do i go in another direction

2. also, saw a complete reversal on another site from a Dr. cole in Atlanta. pics looked good.. but does anyone else know about this?

3. I keep hearing about Dr. Feller... a top in the field?

 

again, i know there is no one answer.. i need to go, get opinions, tx options, etc.. but my point is:

1. i will travel. I live in Ohio now, but i will amke the trips as to, and where to necessary. you only live once... i got about 40 more years to go. location is not as important as quality!

2. i have the money

3. i want someone who can fix, or remove the plugs.

I don't care anymore about a full head of hair, or volume.. i just want natural as i go into my middle age!

thanks!

[Topcat611]

My advice would be take your time. I would say you need to research at least 1 year or more. The various forums offer a tremedous amount of information, but also keep in mind that they are all sponsored. You don't always get the negative experiences, because they get deleted. This is not always the case, but is does happen often.

 

You might be able to use bodyhair, but the results have been hit or miss. Some patients have gotten zero growth and others have had it all fall out after a year. Now the big thing is beard hair. Don't be the first one in the pool. The longer you can wait, the better your options will be.

 

Some doctors appear to be saints, but from my own private conversations with past patients nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Once again take your time, and wait as long as you can. Learn from your own experience and the experience of others.

 

This is my own personal opinion and since my own experience has been negative, I am a bit more cautious.

[dalew]

Wow,

 

read your blog. sounds very similar! eerie. Not to politic, but i would like to think that most of the docs try to help.. but i guess i wish they would come out and say: "i don't know how this will work out".. or as the gentleman in Baltimore put it" I don't think i can make things any better". I can respect a man, or woman, who knows what their limitations are.. it's the hacks like PUIG who left a bad taste in my mouth as well.

 

I guess, like you, this all starterd for me decades ago, at a younger, more desparate age. I was (and still am) hoping that with the advances, and the internet communication, the bad seeds will fall off the tree.

I guess i was also hoping i could find that one person with lots of great feedback that could fix my problem.

but not unlike the Phillipino faith healers.. i guess there will always be someone out there who just wants your cash.

 

It's odd, i probably have as much as a new Porsche invested in my head over the past 2o years.. and would pay twice as much to have it all gone.

[Glenn]

Originally posted by Glenn:

The various forums offer a tremedous amount of information, but also keep in mind that they are all sponsored. You don't always get the negative experiences, because they get deleted.

 

This is my biggest fear to date....I need repair bad and not sure who to trust. I was already let down by two Doctor who said ya NO PROBLEM...I'll fix that...pencil thin.

 

Life is so tuff living under a hat..sometimes I cant do the normal things in life and when I say to a friend or my wife....nope I dont want to do that...99% its because of shame I feel and dont want anyone to find out I had a HT (a bad one) not to metion the back of my head makes me look like a freak.

[Bill - Seemiller]

The various forums offer a tremedous amount of information, but also keep in mind that they are all sponsored. You don't always get the negative experiences, because they get deleted. This is not always the case, but is does happen often.

 

TopCat,

 

Any genuine experience whether a patient is satisfied or not is welcome on this forum and is not removed.

 

There are rare occasions when we will remove a thread, but it's a very rare occurence.

 

Examples of times we might remove a thread include:

 

1. When one party (patient or doctor) is being unfairly maligned or mischaracterized without sufficient evidence

 

2. A poster has a clear agenda to unfairly discredit this community, a doctor, a patient, promote their product, or continually breach our terms of service. Keep in mind this is different than constructive or genuine criticism. We are very tolerant of opinions that differ from ours.

 

3. A patient doesn't give his physician the necessary permission he needs to share his side of the story. We feel it's only fair to let both the patient and doctor present their case since it's the only way our members can draw a well informed conclusion.

 

Every situation is handled individually one at a time. However, there are plenty of patient posted experiences that are less than favorable that can be found on this forum. Some include experiences with doctors we recommend.

 

We believe it's better to let these threads run their course, give all parties a chance to share their sides of the story, and then let the adult members of the community draw their own conclusion.

 

Additionally, we take patient feedback (privately and publicly) very seriously. Surgeons who don't stand behind their patients and/or show signs of consistently less than optimal results are promptly removed from our community.

 

I hope this clarifies how we run our community to keep it both open and fair to all parties.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[Eman]

Let's get back to dale and try to help him.

 

Dale,

There are some great surgeons on this site who have helped a lot of guys in need of repair. Do a search and click date just so you get the most recent posts by repair patients or docs that post on here about repairs they performed.

 

Take a look at Joe's website, he is a repair patient and now a consultant for Hasson and Wong, plus his result is awesome: http://www.hairtransplantmentor.com/

 

Do a search here though. I don't think you need to do a year of research, but use this forum to assist with any questions you have and to research different doctors recommended here.

 

Eman

[ccexxp1]

Dr. Bernstein in NYC performed 5 separate repair sessions on my head and did a great job, no scars where those unsightly plugs used to be. If you search my history on the forum you will get my entire story, and a mini report after each session. It did take over 1 year to do, but, I'm glad that I did it. I am now waiting for the final transplant to fill in some of the thin areas, but, I'm not wearing a hat now and feel fine with it.

[Topcat611]

Bill,

 

When I say forum's delete negative posts, I'm speaking in general. I'm not trying to slam this site in anyway. This might be one of the better sites, I really don't know. I don't come here enough.

 

When I comment it's mostly geared toward repair work. If we all had virgin scalps the decison would be much easier, with docs like Hasson & Wong, Shapiro and Bisanga out there.

 

Dale, it's hard to say what you should do, without seeing pictures.

 

In my own personal situation I believe I have enough head hair on the sides, especially near the top that can be fue'd to normalize the frontal 1/3. As far as the rest, beard and bodyhair might help. But as we both know what can happen, I am being extremely cautious.

 

I also agree with you about doctors being honest. I have no problem with a doc that is honest and fails. It's the outright lying and fraud that is the problem.

 

Unfortunately fraud and dishonesty do not apply to just the ht industry, as current events plainly point out. Out of control captilism has caused many to lose their moral compass.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Topcat,

 

I realize your statement was addressed to hair loss forums in general, but I thought it was important to address this so our members and guests (Dale included), understand that we don't sweep bad experience posts under the carpet.

 

Eman,

 

I trust you see the relevance and point of my post on this topic. Though my post wasn't directly relevant to his questions, its highly relevant to the reliability of information found on this community. Therefore, it was important to address these points for Dale's benefit.

 

Dale,

 

Like others have said, there are a number of surgeons recommended by this community who specialize and have plenty of experience with repair.

 

Take your time and look through hair transplant photos on this website. You can see clinic posted photos in the "Results Posted by Hair Transplant Surgeons" and patient posted photos in the "Hair Restoration Results Posted by Patients".

 

If you are interested in learning more about a particular surgeon, use the "find" feature of our forum to see what our members are saying about them.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[kaounis]

Dale, I would have to agree, based on my research, I would definatly consult with Dr. Bernstein (NY). He has plenty of experience in repair work. Good luck.

[lorenzo]

Dalew sorry to hear about your experience but your story is quite common. Thank goodness for websites like this that help educate the patients and maybe in the future there will be alot less repairs. Due to lots of incompitent doctor hair repairs are a norm to probaly every coalition doctor. EVERY COALITION DOCTOR HAS PLENTY OF EXPERIENCE WHEN IT COME TO REPAIR. So I would consult with as many of these doctors as you can before you base a decision.

Since I deal with italians 80% of them are repairs. It would be interesting to find out what percentage of repairs the Coalition doctor perform, my guess would be 20-25%.

I find it funny when an these immoral doctors show picture of there repair work when I know that many of there patients have been repaired by other doctors.

Regardless I wish you good luck!

[wylie]

Dale,

 

You need to see a physician experienced in full HT reversals. I trust you have explored the possibility of adding body hair as filler and ruled this option out already. I know that Dr. Cole in Atlanta is a very skilled surgeon who has done full reversals in the past, with success. I would certainly recommend him to you, as I have had personal experience with him and have full trust in both his judgment, and his skill. I have absolutely no idea who would be best at doing this, as he is the only one I know personally who has done complete HT reversals in the past, but there may be many others. Dr. Bernstein in NYC sounded an excellent choice as well. Alot of the best at these various procedures are oft times very busy (they seem to have lots of other obligations, Dr. Cole travels to Asia to work with other doctors there) and they also can be pricey, so its smart to compare after checking out their experience in doing this. I can relate to your personal situation and wish you the best of luck. Make sure whoever you choose has lots of experience in this field and that they also have sound judgment, if money is not the problem you should be looking bald and happy before too long