A Procedure That Almost Ruined My Life

[HairlessUser]

Hi guys, I will be sharing my first hair transplant experience in this thread that was performed by Dr Parsa Mohebi, but before that, I want to give some background about myself.

 

I am a 29 year old fairly good looking guy (that's what other people say) who has been losing hair since my early 20's. I am destined to be a Norwood 6. I have had 2 hair transplants so far, the first one being at the age of 27 (A little over 2300 FUE grafts) performed by Dr Parsa Mohebi, which did more harm than good. I already have a separate thread where I have shared the progress of my 2nd procedure.

 

I want to point out that this post is not to mar the reputation of the aforementioned clinic/doctor, but to share my experience, so that it may help fellow people who are in the same boat as me, allowing them to make a more informed decision for their hair restoration journey. I also feel I was partially responsible for not doing enough research and ending up like I did after my first procedure (Pics to follow). Anyways, here is how it went.

 

As I said earlier, I started losing my hair in my early 20's. I had been on and off on Rogaine for 7 years (No Propecia, which was a huge mistake), and finally when I had sufficient funds to think about restoring my hair, I started looking up hair transplants. I set up consultations with a few local doctors (I live in Southern California), and Dr Parsa Mohebi was one of them. A couple of doctors rejected to operate on me considering how much native hair I had, and suggested I get on Propecia sooner than later. On the other hand, although the consultation with Dr Mohebi was pretty thorough, I could feel he was in full on sales mode. I told him I do not intend to take Propecia as I do not want to risk the side effects and also suggested I need sometime before going the hair transplant route.

 

After a couple of weeks, I got a call from his office (can you believe it?), where one of his receptionist's wanted to know whether I was considering a procedure, and quickly set up a pre hair transplant meeting with Dr Mohebi. Since I was in a helpless situation in any case considering my hair loss, I felt into the trap and agreed to do the transplant.

 

During the pre hair transplant consult, we discussed the do's and dont's before the procedure. I again told the doctor about my reluctance to take Propecia, to which he suggested I should reconsider my decision about not taking the medicine.

 

Anyways, the procedure was done, we got a little over 2300 hair grafts, around 900 of them using the Artas robot, and I was a happy camper, hoping to get a great result considering that I have very nice thick hair.

 

However, 8 months after my procedure, there was very poor growth along with major shock loss, and I looked even more worse than I did before my procedure. A few people even pointed out that I had lost a lot of hair. I felt that I had just been duped of 20000$ which had gone down the drain and that the world had come down to me. Words cannot explain how bad I felt.

 

I had to quickly get a second hair transplant from a different doctor to fix the mess the first one created. I am very happy after my second procedure, which I truly feel has changed my life.

 

For fellow people in the same boat as me, I have some advice. Research, do your research thoroughly before jumping to the hair transplant route. You may end up looking worse if you do not make a well informed decision. If you still have a lot of native hair, DO NOT, please DO NOT get a hair transplant if you are not on Propecia. I would suggest everyone to at least give Propecia a try. I really think I should have tried Propecia a lot sooner, as I had to get on it anyways later on and feel like I have been playing the catch up game since then.

 

Here are the pics I promised. The first 2 are before any procedure (look at the quality of my donor area, which makes the result even more poor), and the last 2 are 8 months post my 1st hair transplant.

Edited May 22, 2018 by HairlessUser

[quidproquo82]

Can you share the current state of your hair after your revision?

[HairlessUser]

Can you share the current state of your hair after your revision?

 

Hi quidproquo82, I have been documenting the progress of my second procedure in the following thread:

 

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/187828-3200-grafts-dr-diep.html

 

I am now 8 months post op and this is how my hair looks today

[Payam]

Hi quidproquo82, I have been documenting the progress of my second procedure in the following thread:

 

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/187828-3200-grafts-dr-diep.html

 

I am now 8 months post op and this is how my hair looks today

 

Speachless, wow.. congratulations mate, hope you are happier now because that looks.fantastic.

[Melvin- Admin]

I’m glad you received the results that you deserve.

[n00b]

Glad that things turned out well. Happy for you...

[wheretogo]

Glad everything worked out for you

[SWdan]

Wow...what a fantastic improvement..! Looks great.

[wylie]

You paid Mohebi twenty grand?

 

Damn. He should have refunded every penny.

[HairlessUser]

You paid Mohebi twenty grand?

 

Damn. He should have refunded every penny.

 

Yes, you read that right. Although it does hurt that 20000$ is a lot of money, what hurts me more to this day is that I lost over 2300 precious hair grafts. And when I did my 7th month follow up with Dr Mohebi, I didnt know what to expect, and his receptionist told me this was one of the best results she had seen. After my second procedure, I can clearly say how blatantly she lied and what a fool I had been.

 

Had I gone to Dr Diep (who did my 2nd procedure) for my first procedure as well, I am sure I would have been sitting in my home laughing that I even had any type of hair loss to begin with.

[wylie]

It's a damn shame that there is zero accountability with so many people. On the flip side, I had a bad experience with an SMP procedure at Shapiro medical (no fault of theirs, the problem was my scalp was bumpy and uneven from multiple plug surgeries in the 90's and the resulting surgeries to repair these) and the SMP was uneven and splotchy in places. Dr. Shapiro (who did not do the surgery) listen to me and after seeing it, agreed with me and issued a full refund!

 

So there are doctors out there who are accountable, but yours is not one of them. Glad you got fixed up, you look great now.

[Sean]

I am glad your repair was successful. It isn’t the same for many folks. It is the worst feeling to go through. I happen to know it all too well.

[HairlessUser]

It's a damn shame that there is zero accountability with so many people. On the flip side, I had a bad experience with an SMP procedure at Shapiro medical (no fault of theirs, the problem was my scalp was bumpy and uneven from multiple plug surgeries in the 90's and the resulting surgeries to repair these) and the SMP was uneven and splotchy in places. Dr. Shapiro (who did not do the surgery) listen to me and after seeing it, agreed with me and issued a full refund!

 

So there are doctors out there who are accountable, but yours is not one of them. Glad you got fixed up, you look great now.

 

 

I am happy that things worked out for you. Thanks, delighted with the results so far

[HairlessUser]

I am glad your repair was successful. It isn’t the same for many folks. It is the worst feeling to go through. I happen to know it all too well.

 

Thank you. I am sorry to hear about your experience. Being a victim myself, I also know how it feels, words cannot describe it.

[BigBen]

I am so glad that you finally got the results that you deserved because you must have felt really bad. Your hair looks awesome now.

[Dolph1969]

Glad this ended happily. Very stressful dealing with a bad outcome.

[HairlessUser]

I am so glad that you finally got the results that you deserved because you must have felt really bad. Your hair looks awesome now.

 

Thank you.

[HairlessUser]

Glad this ended happily. Very stressful dealing with a bad outcome.

 

Thank you. Yes, a bad outcome is even more worse than not getting a hair transplant in the first place.

[Parsa Mohebi, MD]

We are just being made aware of this situation and have reviewed this case. Unfortunately, these concerns were never brought to our attention, and therefore, we were never given the opportunity to address it or make it right. The photos we have at 8 months do not show the same results that the photos posted here do, and based on the evaluations at all of his followup visits ( including the one at 8 months post op), it seemed as if the patient was on track for a solid result. 

We always strive to make sure that every patient is satisfied with their results, and we take it very seriously on the rare occasion that a patient is not happy for whatever reason. I stand by my work and the consistent results we provide to satisfied patients nearly every single day, and I wish that this patient would have addressed his concerns with me directly. 

It should also be noted that we discussed from the very beginning that he would need more than one hair transplant to achieve the sort of density he should have. As we did not evaluate him at the time when his hair was at the state it is in his personal photos, I cannot speak as to why the density seems so much lower than in the 8 month photos we have on file. I simply cannot address an issue when the patient keeps this from me, so providing an explanation at this point is unfortunately impossible.  

Regarding the photos from his second procedure, it is to be expected that his hair look drastically different, as I told him from the very beginning that it would take more than one procedure for a patient like him with an advanced class of hair loss to achieve the optimum result. This was never going to be possible after one procedure. 

None of this is meant to discredit this patient or to deny his concerns. This is, however, intended to give a clearer understanding of the bigger picture and to make it very clear that I, (and any other surgeon, for that matter) cannot work with an unsatisfied patient if they are not forthcoming with their concerns and give their doctors an opportunity to evaluate their issue properly and make it right when possible.

If this patient would like to reach out to us, I would love to have a conversation with him and help him at this point if possible.

Edited August 1, 2018 by Parsa Mohebi, MD

[quidproquo82]

He may have needed more than one procedure, but his pictures clearly show that his hair looked WORSE after his transplant.  

And his revision surgery made use of LESS available grafts (because he had many failed grafts) and achieved MORE than the initial procedure.   Seems like he did reach out considering he was told his results looked like the "best" that was ever seen by the receptionist.   Hmmmmm.

[wylie]

I do believe it is appropriate to consider a partial refund. No one hits a grand slam on every at bat. That's life. 

[BigBen]

6 hours ago, quidproquo82 said:

He may have needed more than one procedure, but his pictures clearly show that his hair looked WORSE after his transplant.  

And his revision surgery made use of LESS available grafts (because he had many failed grafts) and achieved MORE than the initial procedure.   Seems like he did reach out considering he was told his results looked like the "best" that was ever seen by the receptionist.   Hmmmmm.

I agree with you. I don't know the patient nor the doctor and I don't know if the patient did or didn't contact the doctor but the reality is that his hair is worse after the first HT. He lost grafts, he wasted money and he went through a stressful situation, so the least anyone could expect is a (total) refund as he already had another doctor fixing that mess. Fortunately, he got a good result after the first bad result and he can go on with his life.

I wonder why some patients writing on the forums have so much trouble trying to reach their doctors, not a single doctor but many of them, and the patients are only attended by receptionists after the HT that are not doctors and end up being a wall for the patient and a shield for the doctor. That is not ethical.

Edited August 3, 2018 by BigBen