Which doctor to go for FUE?

[filthiestfish]

Hi everyone,

Long time lurker, first time poster of the forum with much needed advice on my upcoming 1st FUE. Feel free to chime in with your insight on this topic please.

I am 38 years old, living in the UK, and began experiencing hair loss in my crown area from around the age of 20. 

By the age of 30 I was a 5 on the Norwood scale. By that point I had been using Minoxidil for around 3-4 years.

In April 2012 I decided to have my first hair transplant.  Dr Saifi in Poland performed an FUT and extracted 2650 grafts, which mainly went into creating a new hair line and filling the front areas.

After my surgery, I started taking Finasteride, which Dr Saifi had prescribed, and continued applying Minoxidil twice a day.

12 months later I went back to Poland for a 2nd FUT with Saifi, this time for 2000 grafts, which went into further filling the front, and some on my crown area. 

So a total of 4650 grafts were transplanted under 2 FUT procedures.

I continued using Minoxidil and Finasteride for the next year or so but for some reason I got out of the habit of using them and partly, it was my cynicism questioning their effectiveness that made me stop using them.

Fast forward to 6 years later, and not only has the area of hair loss in my crown expanded, but I am also unhappy with the density in the front area that was touched upon.

I have reached out to a number of reputable doctors and they have come back with the following:

Dr Bisanga in Athens recommends 2500 grafts x €2,50 per graft = €6,250

Dr Ferriduni in Belgium recommends 2200-3000 grafts=€10,406-13,310 (VAT inclusive)

Dr Erdogan in Turkey recommends 4000-4500 grafts over 2 days=€10,000-11,250 

Dr Doganay Turkey recommends 4000 grafts at a price of €2 per hair graft and €2.5 per beard graft, but has not specified whether any beard grafts are needed, so I'm awaiting a response. 

Dr Bhatti in India recommends 2600 scalp & 400 beard grafts-=279,400 IND rupees (€3,550 for equal comparison)

Dr Saifi Poland 1500-1800 grafts-12 Zloty per graft -10% loyalty discount=(€4216-5060 for equal comparison)

Firstly, can anyone explain why there is such a disparity between the number of grafts estimated by each doctor? I mean there is a huge difference between Saifi's and Erdogan's estimates!

I know that Saifi does a good job, and I will be in safe hands with him, but I find him to be far too conservative with his numbers, and I fear that I would need yet another FUE a year after.

Both Erdogan and Doganay have estimated the largest number of grafts. Is it quite common for Turkish doctors to overestimate, IYO? The fact that both are estimating so many more grafts over the others is swaying me in their direction.

I like Dr Bhatti, but I will keep him as my last option due to the long distance factor; i.e. discomfort of flying back long haul after surgery. I'm also unsure whether hygiene standards in Indian hospitals are up to standard with those in Europe.

I have attached some images of my existing hair. I would love to hear from you with your comments, suggestions, feedback etc.

Thank you

 

 

[Melvin- Admin]

Can you post pictures of what your hair looked like before having any surgeries? We discontinued Dr. Doganay's participation years ago, I hope he has improved his practice since. Dr. Feriduni, Bisanga and Erdogan are all great surgeons, Dr. Bhatti has put out quality work as well and is probably the cheapest out of all of them. But yea, if you live in the states that flight is a killer. I believe Dr. Bisanga has better pricing in his Athens clinic, and he no longer runs it with another surgeon that can't be named here. 

[Fozzie]

Depends on what you are looking to achieve really. If you are open to using and sticking to medication, maybe give finastaride a go for a year or so and see what it can do for you, especially the crown before you go in for another HT. Did the surgeons you've consulted with give a breakdown of where exactly their quoted number of grafts would go? 

On a separate note, wasn't aware Dr Bisanga is running the clinic in Athens on his own now, when did that happen?

[1978matt]

The doctors are basically quoting their maximum daily number of grafts, perhaps with the exception of Erdoğan who might even go higher. 

Could you do an FUT / FUE combo? I think you will need all the grafts you can get. 

You might then have to go back for a further FUE in the future, but at least you will have exhausted the FUT donor. 

Forget about beard hairs. Bad idea. 

[filthiestfish]

2 hours ago, 1978matt said:

The doctors are basically quoting their maximum daily number of grafts, perhaps with the exception of Erdoğan who might even go higher. 

Could you do an FUT / FUE combo? I think you will need all the grafts you can get. 

You might then have to go back for a further FUE in the future, but at least you will have exhausted the FUT donor. 

Forget about beard hairs. Bad idea. 

None of them have mentioned an FUE/FUT combo. I am scheduled to see Bisanga in London next month, so could raise it with him then. Once he's had a proper look at my donor area and FUT scar he will be in a better position to advise.

Do you think that I will ever be able to get crown area covered?

Why do you say that beard hairs are a bad idea?

 

[filthiestfish]

5 hours ago, Fozzie said:

Depends on what you are looking to achieve really. If you are open to using and sticking to medication, maybe give finastaride a go for a year or so and see what it can do for you, especially the crown before you go in for another HT. Did the surgeons you've consulted with give a breakdown of where exactly their quoted number of grafts would go? 

On a separate note, wasn't aware Dr Bisanga is running the clinic in Athens on his own now, when did that happen?

I thought that Finasteride was effective at slowing down further hair loss rather than promoting hair growth?

Only one surgeon gave a breakdown of where the grafts will go but you raise a very important point and I shall go back to ask each one this.

Believe Dr Bisanga running the clinic by himself now is a very recent turn of event.

[filthiestfish]

7 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Can you post pictures of what your hair looked like before having any surgeries? We discontinued Dr. Doganay's participation years ago, I hope he has improved his practice since. Dr. Feriduni, Bisanga and Erdogan are all great surgeons, Dr. Bhatti has put out quality work as well and is probably the cheapest out of all of them. But yea, if you live in the states that flight is a killer. I believe Dr. Bisanga has better pricing in his Athens clinic, and he no longer runs it with another surgeon that can't be named here. 

Thanks. I will try to post some pictures of my hair before my first op, but it might take me a while to find them.

[Fozzie]

10 hours ago, filthiestfish said:

I thought that Finasteride was effective at slowing down further hair loss rather than promoting hair growth?

Your crown doesn't look slick bald. Lot's of miniaturised hairs which finasteride could possibly help bring life to. If you can tolerate and commit to finasteride, I'd be tempted to see if it can help turnaround things in the crown area first. Obviously depends on how you respond to it but worth a go imo.

 

[1978matt]

20 hours ago, filthiestfish said:

None of them have mentioned an FUE/FUT combo. I am scheduled to see Bisanga in London next month, so could raise it with him then. Once he's had a proper look at my donor area and FUT scar he will be in a better position to advise.

Do you think that I will ever be able to get crown area covered?

Why do you say that beard hairs are a bad idea?

 

Bisanga has done combos before, without doubt.  Typically they are max FUT + about 500 FUE on top.

The crown will certainly be difficult looking at the area to cover.  You could use 4000 grafts and that still may not be enough.

I've seen some bad beard hair results.  Why use them when you still have donor to use, that is unless they are for scar repair.

Edited November 6, 2019 by 1978matt

[mitts]

On 11/6/2019 at 7:59 AM, filthiestfish said:

None of them have mentioned an FUE/FUT combo. I am scheduled to see Bisanga in London next month, so could raise it with him then. Once he's had a proper look at my donor area and FUT scar he will be in a better position to advise.

@filthiestfish if you are looking for Combo FUT + FUE then there is another doctor whom I have been following from few months and results are very good.

Check @Dr. Suneet Soni from Medispa clinic in India.

[kw877]

Erdogan always quotes huge numbers over other Drs, and he has very, very little to do with the surgery as asmed has such a high amount of patients per day. Going there was one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made. Look at Dr Keser or someone like him who performs the entire procedure. I’m looking into getting my asmed job repaired sometime in the future with him. 
 

[pvlife]

On 11/5/2019 at 8:23 AM, Melvin-Moderator said:

Can you post pictures of what your hair looked like before having any surgeries? We discontinued Dr. Doganay's participation years ago, I hope he has improved his practice since. Dr. Feriduni, Bisanga and Erdogan are all great surgeons, Dr. Bhatti has put out quality work as well and is probably the cheapest out of all of them. But yea, if you live in the states that flight is a killer. I believe Dr. Bisanga has better pricing in his Athens clinic, and he no longer runs it with another surgeon that can't be named here. 

Why can that surgeon be no longer named here?

[Melvin- Admin]

5 hours ago, pvlife said:

Why can that surgeon be no longer named here?

For legal reasons.