2600 grafts. 6 month results expectation vs reality

[ILikeMyHair]

7 minutes ago, thappa said:

He charged me 40 rupees per grafts. I did the transplant in July. 2 dollars for you

Yes I know. That is probably the reason why he convinced me so hard to do more grafts because he was making way more money from me per graft. It's 3x more what he charged you per graft. And I still don't know exactly how many grafts they actually planted. Never gave me a breakdown of singles, doubles, triples. Just told me they did 2600.  But for me the money is not the main concern because I can always make it back, but the grafts are irreplaceable. That's most frustrating. 

Edited November 11, 2018 by ILikeMyHair

[thappa]

Even for me they did not share any break down of singles, doubles etc. They said They have extracted 4200 grafts and which is what I paid for. I hardly believe they have implanted 4200. It does not look like but I may be wrong. I spoke with a guy who did the transplant next day of mine, he also said they did not share any breakdown to him. I guess they implant what ever they extract. I really feel sorry for you. If I knew this before I would not have chose Dr Soni. But he share very good results in this site. I am in 3.5 month mark not much of growth and we will see how my result turns out in 6 month and year mark. Did they offer  you to do PRP and FUE session for free? A refund?

[ILikeMyHair]

6 minutes ago, thappa said:

Even for me they did not share any break down of singles, doubles etc. They said They have extracted 4200 grafts and which is what I paid for. I hardly believe they have implanted 4200. It does not look like but I may be wrong. I spoke with a guy who did the transplant next day of mine, he also said they did not share any breakdown to him. I guess they implant what ever they extract. I really feel sorry for you. If I knew this before I would not have chose Dr Soni. But he share very good results in this site. I am in 3.5 month mark not much of growth and we will see how my result turns out in 6 month and year mark. Did they offer  you to do PRP and FUE session for free? A refund?

Yes for free. It will be a cold day in hell before an HT doc will give a refund. At most they will try to give another HT for free.

Edited November 11, 2018 by ILikeMyHair

[HairGone29]

Thats awful. Are you on fin or minox? If not you should be, PRP doesnt work you need fin to promote growth

[txtransplant]

Here is the deal as I can see it and a neutral party. Your hair looked perfectly good before you had this last HT in India. Not to sound mean, but I think you might have a bit of unrealistic image of what you are seeing in the mirror if you felt you needed more work after H&W got you a good hairline. It is just not rational when you will probably be a NW5-6 one day to blow most of what you had left on fixing up an already really decent hairline. Then to lower it well past what is even natural?  The new hairline is so low it goes beyond any ethical doctor should be doing in my opinion. I was not there in the consult room, but if he readily agreed to do that, or worse, suggested you go there with it. Well that's not right. On the bright side, you look fine with your hair styled. It is not the end of the world. But what was your thinking on moving it forward and blowing all your donor on the very front when you are fairly convinced you will be loosing a lot more? At this point if you don't scar at all, maybe they can harvest the new grafts and move them back farther into the hairline? You can't really ad another 2k to that already too low hairline. I mean I guess you could, but it will be asking for real trouble in a decade or so. 

[ILikeMyHair]

4 hours ago, txtransplant said:

Here is the deal as I can see it and a neutral party. Your hair looked perfectly good before you had this last HT in India. Not to sound mean, but I think you might have a bit of unrealistic image of what you are seeing in the mirror if you felt you needed more work after H&W got you a good hairline. It is just not rational when you will probably be a NW5-6 one day to blow most of what you had left on fixing up an already really decent hairline. Then to lower it well past what is even natural?  The new hairline is so low it goes beyond any ethical doctor should be doing in my opinion. I was not there in the consult room, but if he readily agreed to do that, or worse, suggested you go there with it. Well that's not right. On the bright side, you look fine with your hair styled. It is not the end of the world. But what was your thinking on moving it forward and blowing all your donor on the very front when you are fairly convinced you will be loosing a lot more? At this point if you don't scar at all, maybe they can harvest the new grafts and move them back farther into the hairline? You can't really ad another 2k to that already too low hairline. I mean I guess you could, but it will be asking for real trouble in a decade or so. 

Didn't you read my post? He pretty much made me lower it. I had only gone to him hoping to fill the hairline with maybe 1000 grafts. And i told him i don't want to lower the hairline because i want to save them for future. He told me i had enough grafts left for future and that he needs to lower the hairline to make me look handsome. I would've walked out of the clinic if I hadn't paid $500 in advance to reserve the spot. It's a long story but point is he greatly pressured me to lower my hairline despite my concerns. It took 20 minutes of him convincing me to let him lower it. I didn't even have the money for it and had to borrow the money because i had only gone in there with an estimate of doing 1000-1500 max grafts. At the end I thought he knows better than me since he's a doc and does this for a living so maybe i should listen to him. And because he had good reviews on this site and is recommended here so i had few reasons to doubt his integrity and credentials.  

[txtransplant]

But he didn't force you. You decided to do it in spite of knowing the math involved. The thing is you looked great before and didn't need anything done. I really think you have a few options, though none are ideal. 1) get the new weak hairline removed with lazer and be back where you started. That way you will look to have a more natural hairline and it's simple and inexpensive. I mean keep the first 3-4mm of the new hairline as that is usually sparse and will look nice and less abrupt...plus still move your hairline a tad forward from where it was and that would still look good.  2) Live wit it the way it is. My own opinion is that if this were my head and face, I would like it a little higher and not want to fight with it, though you are pulling it off okay now. But just because you can work with it, doesn't mean it looks better than if it were a little higher and was more like I suggested in #1.  It's not a hair contest and one should go for what looks best when you have those options...and you do have those choices. 3) Say the hell with the future and get another fue done NEVER FUT. Then go through this whole process again and then likely end up a 40 year old with a bazaar looking hairline that lives on your forehead. Jude law kind of has a forelock island and it looks okay. But really think how a really low hairline would look with a bald crown. Nothing worse than unnatural. It is the opposite of what someone who really worries about their hairline would ever want. My thinking is you would look really weird, or end up having too shave it all off.  4) If you don't scar, have the new hairline partly harvested and made into a stronger widows peak kind of thing, or moved into the old hairline. 

 

   Part of me thinks from what you are saying here you are seriously considering having more work done. I hope you don't.  Either way, you are not really seeing reality when you look in the mirror, and it may sound mean, but I am telling you from a normal person's perspective you have lost yours on your hair. It was GOOD before your latest surgery.  We all have that a bit. Some part of our face or body we look at and wish were different. But when we ask someone, they say it is absolutely fine. You have to trust others sometimes as the mind has a weird way of making yourself hard to see as a stranger.  Great example are the the older guys who dye their hair and have really unnatural looks and sometimes too agressive hairlines for their age. We see them here and they look at best kind of off, and at worst just plain silly. They can't see it themselves though. To them their jet black hair on a 60 year old looks okay. Because they have no self perspective.  You are not in a terrible place. You have the choice to have a decent and perfectly fine hairline and a few hairs in reserve. I would say your best bet if you don't scar is find a surgeon who uses are .7mm punch and have your new hair in the temple area removed and inserted in the center. That is if money were not an issue. It this were my head and my budget where money might be a minor consideration, I would have most of the new hairline lasered off and move on with my life from hair struggles and spend your time. money and emotion on more important things. Most normal guys are perfectly okay with some recession and thinning. You were already better off than them and time to let this go where it belongs, in the rear view mirror. 

[matt3480]

On 9/24/2018 at 4:36 PM, Bill - Managing Publisher said:

OK let’s start with the obvious that unfortunately doesn’t seem to be too obvious to everybody. Six months is far from the result and while some patients experience a lot of growth that six months, some patients are only just beginning to see signs of new growth around 5 to 6 months. This is hardly cost for future at this stage and I think people really need to reserve judgment until at least 12 months.

Moreover, the first set of photos definitely make the hairline looks worse than it really is as the second set of photos, styled seem to show a much  better look. That said, clearly more is expected and the truth is it six months, we should certainly seem more growth  

So I encourage people not to panic and jump to conclusions which is way too typical on this discussion forum happens almost every time somebody post their concerns. 

Honestly, people really need to start learning and understanding that  everybody grows at different rates  and sometimes, it takes  at least 8 to 10 months to really even start seeing anything close to the final outcome. 

So let’s wait and see what things look like in another six months before anybody jumps to conclusions. 

Best wishes,

Bill

 

You can’t be serious. You are a mod, be better than this. To be honest....some of the mods’ views over the last year have been....concerning.

It’s very obvious by the post-op pics 2 weeks after that he was not packed densely at all. Secondly, he has barely any hair in that area and it’s been 6 months. Third, his latest pics are of him combing the other hair over.....hardly “better”. He is lucky that he seems to have a good caliber hair and he can comb it over....but don’t use that as an excuse that the work leaves a lot to be desired. 

Sure, it’s 6 months....you will get some more growth but this was never going to be dense in the first place based on the pics. 

[Arjun KUmar Singh]

@ILikeMyHair  

As I have seen your another thread in which you have mentioned you had your first procedure with Dr. Hasson & Wong and now with Dr. Soni, both are best hair transplant surgeon as per my research.  

I myself feel that 8 months are not good enough to see the full results, you might have seen patients with slow rate of hair growth and getting delayed results, in some cases it takes more than usual time may be up to 15-16 months. still, you have a good hair growth in 8 months, look decent after combing, don't be impatient, let the hair grow fully.

I strongly believe Dr. can transfer your hair root, but he cannot improve the quality of your hair by surgery & thin hair never gives a very dense looking output, you should be very practical. Please share whether you are taking finasteride for hair thickening as I can see they are very thin in nature.

 

Edited November 22, 2018 by Arjun KUmar Singh

[Gasthoerer]

Hopefully Bill is right and there is more growth to come. I am not as postive as he is about it, but I wish it to you.

However, from what I see (pics are not perfect) the new hairline is just too low:

- Too low cause you had already a transplant before with (below) average grwoth. Why be that aggresiv in the second pass?

- Too low as there is no cosmetic benefit even of you had a perfect result. There was high risk and no reward.

Good thing is that you can cover it up nicely and and it does not luck pluggy. But this is why I always recommend not do draw your new hariline for the first time and have surgery on the same day.

[thappa]

@ILikeMyHair

Any improvement on your transpalnt or is it the same state?

[ILikeMyHair]

16 hours ago, thappa said:

@ILikeMyHair

Any improvement on your transpalnt or is it the same state?

No. Still the same. I have to shave the new hairline to go back to looking like how it used to look before the transplant. Wasted $8000 to make my hairline worse and the hassle of shaving my hairline everyday. 

And people keep asking why I lowered the hairline. They just can't believe that this greedy fu**ing doctor convinced/pressured me to lower it and I didn't go into his office to lower the hairline just to fill it. Well I have the emails to prove it. I had only gone in to fill the hairline. This assh*** kept convicing me for 30 minutes to let him lower it. I told him Dr. Wong's result had poor yield and he said he's more experienced than Western doctors because he does way more transplants each day and has done thousands of transplants over the years compared to western doctors that only do 1-2 a day. He said he's an artist and wants to make me look handsome. Told me some fu**ed up rules about face symmetry and where the hairline should be. It was a pure con job. He charged me double what he charges his local patients per graft. Didn't give me a breakdown of how many grafts he placed in singles, doubles etc. When asked how many grafts he harvested, he says "I told you I put in 2600". I paid him for 2600 doesn't mean he actually got exactly 2600.

If I hadn't paid him $500 deposit to book the slot, I would've walked out of his office. Also I trusted him at the end because he was well reviewed on this site and I thought this site had a thorough vetting process before recommending surgeons. 

The empty zone on the left side still has zero growth and no new hair has grown for the past 2 months. The already sprouted hair are getting a bit thicker and longer. Some hair that actually grew are not getting long at all. They are stuck at 2 cm length. I don't know wtf kind of butcher job he did. This never happened with doctor wong. All the hair that sprouted grew normally with Dr. Wong. With Soni's transplant, 5% of hair are not getting longer than 1-2cm. He said he'll do a FUE to fill in that place free of charge. Well I'm not letting this asshole touch my head again. He has zero experience in FUE transplantation and actually argues against doing FUE transplants all the time. Has no regard for what my hair will progress in the future.

[Cristian1]

Horrible case we have here..

[thappa]

I do not know what to say about your result. I really feel sorry for you. 

I am in similar situation and I had surgery with  Dr Soni

I am at 5 month mark and more patchy areas with no hair. Not sure how it will turn out at a year mark.

As far as I read if the new hair did not show up by 6 month mark even as a tiny sprouts , it is more likely it won't grow at all. 

[home1212]

sorry about your situation, you do seem to have poor growth from both Dr. Wong and your last surgeon, however when you style your hair you look perfectly fine, before doing anything else I would definitely try to get to the root cause of your problem, it could be physiology, it could be your post op care of the grafts, etc.I hope you find a solution that can help you rectify the problem.

[matt3480]

So you’ve had 2 bad results and one was with Wong? That’s physiology, not doctor error. Not sure why you went ahead with a second transplant after your first with Wong didn’t grow. You should have instead been looking for reasons why the first didn’t grow because it was obviously pointing to physiology. 

[ILikeMyHair]

I didnt know there was physiology involved in hair transplant success. The rest of my hair grows just fine so i don't see wtf could be wrong with me. I'm perfectly healthy. Nothing wrong with me. 

[matt3480]

The physiology of a HT has little to nothing to do with your current hair growing or even your overall health.

No different than someone who undergoes general surgery that is perfectly healthy and has no allergies and then has some sort of reaction to the anesthesia out of nowhere.

Wong has been regarded as one of the best.....he just isn't a doctor whose transplants don't grow.

Reading some of your old posts....it seems you used to wear a turban. I would have to think that have been an issue....meaning, did the traction from the turban cause lots of scar tissue underneath your scalp? Or did you start wearing a turban too quickly after your surgeries?

Edited December 30, 2018 by matt3480

[ILikeMyHair]

8 minutes ago, matt3480 said:

The physiology of a HT has little to nothing to do with your current hair growing or even your overall health.

No different than someone who undergoes general surgery that is perfectly healthy and has no allergies and then has some sort of reaction to the anesthesia out of nowhere.

Wong has been regarded as one of the best.....he just isn't a doctor whose transplants don't grow.

Reading some of your old posts....it seems you used to wear a turban. I would have to think that have been an issue....meaning, did the traction from the turban cause lots of scar tissue underneath your scalp? Or did you start wearing a turban too quickly after your surgeries?

I dont know if there is scar tissue underneath or not. I cant see it. Dr. Wong would've told me if there was something wrong physiologically. I'm not the doctor. And i haven't worn a turban since 17 years old so that has nothing to do with the growth.

[Corbinite]

OP Not sure why you chose FUT route...perhaps you would've gotten a better result with FUE. At least recovery and damage control are better with FUE...

I'm really sorry things aren't working out as well as you wanted...I definitely understand wasting away the youth part...I'm facing a similar problem myself.

Perhaps you can try a buzz cut look and getting some grafts placed + SMP on your scars?

Edited December 30, 2018 by Corbinite

[Since21]

I thought your first results with Wong were fine. Not spectacular, but it wasn't a high graft count and for what it was, it looked natural. But no sense in dwelling on the past. It doesn't address your present concerns. I tend to agree with the person who suggested harvesting what you can from the new 'hairline' and use it to boost the hairline work done by Wong. I would consult with a top surgeon about it (maybe even see what Wong says) but I wouldn't go back to the surgeon who did this last procedure. Good luck. 

 

[ILikeMyHair]

1 hour ago, Since21 said:

I thought your first results with Wong were fine. Not spectacular, but it wasn't a high graft count and for what it was, it looked natural. But no sense in dwelling on the past. It doesn't address your present concerns. I tend to agree with the person who suggested harvesting what you can from the new 'hairline' and use it to boost the hairline work done by Wong. I would consult with a top surgeon about it (maybe even see what Wong says) but I wouldn't go back to the surgeon who did this last procedure. Good luck. 

 

Ya I thought the results with Dr. Wong were okay just needed a little density which is what I gone to get filled a little more. I was only thinking of getting maybe 800-1000 grafts more to fill the previous hairline. But I'm such an idiot for letting Dr. Suneet convince me to lower the hairline. Probably the worst decision of my life ever. Lost $8000, 1 year of sanity, and a good hairline. Anyways I also think harvesting from the new 'hairline' is the best option. I don't know if it will scar my forhead though where the extraction occurs. I will go to Dr. Wong to get a consulation. I'm not sure how good they are at doing FUE since they just started doing it recently. But I have no other option now because he's the closest one and doesn't require a flight and a stay in a hotel for me to do it. The most convenient option and least time consuming. Hopefully they are good at FUE as well and can harvest the hair without leaving big visible marks. 

Edited January 1, 2019 by ILikeMyHair

[Since21]

26 minutes ago, ILikeMyHair said:

Ya I thought the results with Dr. Wong were okay just needed a little density which is what I gone to get filled a little more. I was only thinking of getting maybe 800-1000 grafts more to fill the previous hairline. But I'm such an idiot for letting Dr. Suneet convince me to lower the hairline. Probably the worst decision of my life ever. Lost $8000, 1 year of sanity, and a good hairline. Anyways I also think harvesting from the new 'hairline' is the best option. I don't know if it will scar my forhead though where the extraction occurs. I will go to Dr. Wong to get a consulation. I'm not sure how good they are at doing FUE since they just started doing it recently. But I have no other option now because he's the closest one and doesn't require a flight and a stay in a hotel for me to do it. The most convenient option and least time consuming. Hopefully they are good at FUE as well and can harvest the hair without leaving big visible marks. 

I wouldn't throw good money after bad, if Dr. Wong isn't great at FUE and doesn't use smaller graft punches. We've all seen what larger graft punches can do to a donor site. I'd definitely consult him, thoroughly research his FUE results, but keep your options open and talk to a few other surgeons who excel at FUE. Nothing you can do about the most recent procedure now, so you shouldn't be in a hurry to rush into something that isn't the absolutely best option for you at this point. 

[Kiwi Guy]

Thank you for sharing your experience, we need to see cases like yours to get a fair gauge on the good and bad of HT's. Did Dr Wong give you those touch ups for free after his initial result was average at best?

[ILikeMyHair]

17 hours ago, Kiwi Guy said:

Thank you for sharing your experience, we need to see cases like yours to get a fair gauge on the good and bad of HT's. Did Dr Wong give you those touch ups for free after his initial result was average at best?

Yes touchups were free