Dr Diep FUE 1356 Grafts on Temples (NW2/3) [2-12-2020]

[Tentpole91]

Yep, it's definitely a waiting game. I'm excited to see how your results turn out. In the meantime, I will keep you all updated with my progress. 

[Spidey]

The hair angles and also over use of multi hair grafts on that one side is pretty unacceptable imo. 

[Tentpole91]

Yep, totally agreed. Mentioned earlier in the thread, but it really does feel like they were done by different doctors. No other way to put it.

[hybonix]

@Tentpole91 How’s the 6 month looking? Great progress and excited to see the one year mark.

[Specific-violinist60]

Can we get some more donor pics? My donor is healing slowly. Looking for more patients that i can look at and remain positive 

[jimcraig152]

On 9/20/2020 at 6:00 PM, Specific-violinist60 said:

Can we get some more donor pics? My donor is healing slowly. Looking for more patients that i can look at and remain positive 

Would be awesome if you were willing to share your journey again. Even if it is still troublesome, it would help the rest of those to follow be spared the same fate. If not, I really hope you aren't under NDA and just really want to remain private.

@Tentpole91, looks like you are at 7-months. An update would be great buddy! Don't forget the donor pics.

[MagnificentAl]

Hey @Tentpole91thank you for sharing your journey! Quick question has anyone that doesn’t know about your procedure commented on your right side? And people that do know about your procedure? 

[Tentpole91]

Apologies for radio silence. I'm pretty much waiting for the year mark to schedule a follow-up surgery with a different surgeon for repair.

The main things I'm looking to address with follow-up surgery:

• Covering up the corn row appearance on the right side. I'm pushing my hair to the side to disguise this, but if I were to push my hair straight back, it would be obvious & unnatural. 
• Putting a layer of grafts in front of the transplant with a more natural angle and appearance. Right now when I grow out my hair, the directions are a bit of a mess: the transplanted areas stick straight up, while the middle part of my hair does not. 
• Explore doing SMP on the donor area, since there are parts of the donor that had too much concentrated extraction

Overall, my assessment of the surgery isn't changed since the last time I posted. I've gotten density and a hairline, but all of the other considerations -- angle, natural appearance, and donor management -- continue to be problematic and will require repair.

[Tentpole91]

Oh, and one more thing: I haven't seen any notable growth since my last post. No late-stage growth of singles on the right side to save the day, or anything like that. It is what it is, and the best I can do now is to get it repaired as best as possible. 

[jimcraig152]

Thanks for the update @Tentpole91. I feel bad for the circumstances but am glad you didn't get passed an NDA and still do speak truthfully about the experience.

Best......

 

[HTHope]

17 minutes ago, Tentpole91 said:

Oh, and one more thing: I haven't seen any notable growth since my last post. No late-stage growth of singles on the right side to save the day, or anything like that. It is what it is, and the best I can do now is to get it repaired as best as possible. 

Who are you seeing for repairs?

[Abi28]

Such an overrated doc, great at marketing himself though!

[Sam818]

Just make sure you go to a top doc and you’ll be fine. My first surgery was a total disaster...much worse than yours as at least you got good growth. I went to a top doc for my repair and it’s coming along great. I am also looking into doing some smp into my donor just so I could occasionally get some close fades as I used to before. Good luck and I hope you keep us updated. 

[MrAr]

I got the same experience with dr diep smh 

[Melvin- Admin]

Did you speak to Dr. Diep? What did he say? Did he offer to help?

[Tentpole91]

Dr. Diep offered a free repair. There are several reasons I chose not to take that path, mainly donor treatment and ensuring hairs are placed in the right directions. There are other surgeons who are more skilled in both of these areas, and getting it right is worth the extra cost to me. I will be going significantly upmarket for this repair, and pay for the best. 

 

[jimcraig152]

@Tentpole91,

I am in contact with a member via PM in pretty much the same predicament and in a lot of despair. He asked me who I would consider for repair. Honestly, I haven't explored the topic yet (too early). Do you have a shortlist or have identified who you will go to for the repair? I'd like to pass the info to that member.

@Sam818, same question to you sir. Who did you go to?

[Sam818]

@jimcraig152

     In my opinion for either FUE or strip the best in North America for repairs are konior,gabel,H&W & Shapiro. For strip only add cooley and bloxham to that list. I went to konior.

 

 

[Melvin- Admin]

6 hours ago, Tentpole91 said:

Dr. Diep offered a free repair. There are several reasons I chose not to take that path, mainly donor treatment and ensuring hairs are placed in the right directions. There are other surgeons who are more skilled in both of these areas, and getting it right is worth the extra cost to me. I will be going significantly upmarket for this repair, and pay for the best. 

 

Thanks for updating us, I’m glad Diep offered you a free repair, that is what should be done when a patient isn’t happy with the results. Would be nice to see a full update of front, sides and downward pictures.

[HTHope]

On 11/6/2020 at 2:51 AM, Tentpole91 said:

Dr. Diep offered a free repair. There are several reasons I chose not to take that path, mainly donor treatment and ensuring hairs are placed in the right directions. There are other surgeons who are more skilled in both of these areas, and getting it right is worth the extra cost to me. I will be going significantly upmarket for this repair, and pay for the best. 

 

Did he offer any explanations?

[smurf]

looks good, seems like Dr. Diep has a certain style both on extracting parts of the donor side instead of evenly rounding out the whole part and linear implantation. Would anyone consider Dr. Konior or Dr. Nadami superior in technique? I was considering Diep but I am finding more reviews that conclude what I am inferring to..

[hybonix]

5 hours ago, smurf said:

looks good, seems like Dr. Diep has a certain style both on extracting parts of the donor side instead of evenly rounding out the whole part and linear implantation. Would anyone consider Dr. Konior or Dr. Nadami superior in technique? I was considering Diep but I am finding more reviews that conclude what I am inferring to..

Dr. Konior and Nadami definitely superior in extraction of grafts. Diep yields generally favorable results per YT. There are a couple of unsatisfied clients on the forums in recent memory, about 2 or 3. But there are a lot of people happy with Diep on these forums. You should also consider H&W, SMG, Rahal, Cooley, Gabel and etc. I would consult with several doctors and go with the clinic you feel most comfortable with.

Also, please find a clinic who have good ethics and look at your future hair loss. Too many clinics are simply wanting to sell you more grafts at the expense of your limited donor supply.

[Tentpole91]

It's been quite the journey, everyone. This will be my last post on this thread, and I apologize for not answering several PMs. I'm 5 days post-op from a 1337 graft repair that did not exceed any part of the region that was originally operated on. I'm not posting the name of the doctor who did the repairs, sorry.

Here's what I can say, and I hope some of you find it useful. This is a TLDR of what I've learned over the last 18 months getting quotes from 10+ doctors, and going through another transplant:

• As others have said multiple times in the thread, my right side grew out to be pluggy and unnatural. Let's dive deeper here: what constitutes a pluggy, unnatural appearance?
  • The main factors in my case were the overuse of higher caliber hairs at the hairline, and unnaturally even spacing between the grafts. Those two things done in combination will never look natural, because it's not how hair grows. In nature, hair grows randomly, and you can see from my day 1 photos that the grafts were not implanted randomly. 
• My recent repair made Dr. Diep's extraction feel like 19th century technology. Yes, yes, I know it's all about results, but it's unbelievable how much faster my body recovered from the more recent surgery. You couldn't even see the extraction marks after day 4, and I removed my bandage in <24hrs with no subsequent bleeding. 
• When you're evaluating doctors, ask them hard questions. Things like:
  • How do you judge the depth and angle with which to implant a graft? What trade-offs do you consider when making that decision?
  • How many different extraction tools do you use on a typical surgery? Do you vary the size of your extraction tool based on the size of the folicule?
  •  What is, in your view, the most important outcome of a procedure?
  • For hairline work: Do you typically incorporate napes into your surgery? Do you find them valuable to extract, or too much work for the heightened risk of graft failure? When doing hairline work, how many napes would you say you extract on a typical procedure? 
    • If you're doing hairline work, I'd recommend finding someone who can give you a very thoughtful and detailed explanation of why they do or do not use napes. There are legitimate concerns when using them because they don't generally have as high a survival rate, but they can do wonders to soften a hairline. The answer to the question isn't important IMO, it's more how they answer it -- do they talk about the risks and rewards? Or just brush it off? Typically, nape extraction requires more effort, so that's one reason alone that some doctors won't use them. (Or if they do, not a lot of them) 
  • What's your average rate of graft loss? 
    • It's been a while, but I think doctors should know this, and the answer they give you should be realistic.
  • How many patients do you, personally, perform surgery on each day?
    • I would really, really only go with doctors that do one a day unless it's a relatively small procedure that can be done in a morning. What you don't want is a doctor "supervising" multiple large surgeries at once, because you'll get a lot less attention, and a lot more of your surgery delegated to assistants. 
  • How far out are you scheduling new surgeries?
    • Don't forget to ask this one. Sometimes you can get pretty far along with a doctor only to discover that their waiting list is 3-4 years. 
  • What's the average tenure of your assistants? Of your current staff, who has been with you the longest?
    • Good doctors hire good assistants, know their value, and pay them well enough to keep them around. If someone has an assistant they've been working with for 10+ years, that's a really good sign, because the assistants tend to do a lot of the work (depending on the doctor: graft separation, graft implantation, etc).  
  • What factors do you consider when determining whether a transplant requires multiple procedures? 
    • Good question to ask if you're higher on the Norwood scale. You might need multiple surgeries, but if you do, you should be getting them for the right reasons. 

 

If you are looking to learn from my mistakes, here are my top 3 pieces of advice:

• 1. Get at least 5 quotes from different clinics. You will be able to see pretty quickly which ones take their craft seriously based on the questions they ask, their general demeanor, and how they discuss the potential surgery. When doing the consultation, don't be afraid to ask a sampling of the questions I posted above (you probably won't have time for all of them + the ones you already have). 
• 2. Don't look at YouTube. Don't look at YouTube. Don't look at YouTube. There is no positive incentive for a doctor to upload a bad result. Trust what you see on the forums, because they are the real deal. I got sold by the YouTube videos, and you all know how my surgery turned out. 
• 3. If there is a doctor you're particularly interested in, PM a few people on HRN who got surgery there and ask them questions. I've found people here to be friendly and responsive to direct PMs, and people will be way more candid with you about the good, the bad and the ugly. 

Thanks to everyone who helped me along the way. It's been a long journey, and I still have a ways to go.