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[thanatopsis_awry]

Re: Feller's website quote....he or Spex can say for sure, but I'm virtually positive that that statement and the information behind it is outdated. Dr. Feller indeed does sessions comfortably that far exceed 500 and go upwards of ~2k from what I've seen. His website is pretty dated, AFAIK, so don't necessarily take everything off of it as present-day-truth and a reflection of his actual abilities. An actual consult with Dr. Feller or dialogue with Spex is your best bet to get info on them.

 

Anyways, thx for the props on my HT...the pics in that link are actually even a bit dated and don't reflect the "final" result. It got thicker and the hairs softened and matured a good deal. My most recent pics are in one of the main threads floating around this site.

 

My procedure was strip, btw. No major issues aside from me boozing the night before which caused unnecessary bleeding. All's well that ends well, though. Strip is what it is -- it's really not the worst thing to recover from....moderately painful (at times), and it took 2 weeks before I was training boxing and jiu jitsu again, and going out without a hat without much problem.

 

Shoot me a PM/private message if you ever want to get into anything in greater detail.

[hairadv]

Thanatopsis, are Drs. Feller and Shapiro the only US docs on the forum list who do FUE ?

 

Thanks again for your advice and discussion.

[thanatopsis_awry]

Feller and Shapiro are definitely not the only docs on this forum who do FUE. They are probably the two I would most seriously consider; and I think that you should seriously consider them, though this doesn't necessarily mean you don't consider others, as well.

 

How many you consider is up to you. There is really no perfect fountain to go to and drink out of. Those are the two I'd look into...if you asked me for more my first reaction would be Dr. True and Dr. Gable.

[hairadv]

Thanatopsis, thanks for more suggestions to think about. I will read more about those docs. Also, I found the small section on FUE vs. strip on this website and it looks like with recent improvements in strip, the scars have become less noticable. So that is encouraging too.

 

But right now it sounds to me like doing multiple procedures with FUE, with a doc that can do high yield, might provide the optimal outcome, do you disagree with that observation.

 

Also, an interesting area that I would like to try to understand is hair density. When I did the consult with Dr. Jones, he mentioned that after the first procedure the density is 40 grafts / sq. cm. I think he said after two it could be 70 and after three, 90. With my current hair density, 175, and he said I have fairly fine hair, he said I might be a little disappointed with the density (especially after the first procedure).

 

Do you have any thoughts about this issue ?

 

Thanks again.

[Forrest Gump]

Are you sure your current hair density is 175. From what I have heard, it is apparently rare to have density higher than 120 per cm2 (most people apparently have around 100).

[hairadv]

Hi Forrest, Dr. Jones told me mine was 175 and normal is 200.

 

Anyone know ?

[Leeson]

Hi Forrest, Dr. Jones told me mine was 175 and normal is 200.

 

Anyone know ?

He goes by hairs, not follicular units per cm2. So around 200 hairs per cm2 is average.

[hairadv]

Leeson, thanks, that makes sense.

 

Also, does anyone know of a good FUE HT doc in the western part of the US ?

 

Thanks.

[Drew35]

Originally posted by hairadv:

Hi guys, can you please explain this quote to me off of Dr. Feller's website:

 

He also performs follicular unit extraction (FUE) and was one of the early innovators of this minimally invasive hair transplant procedure. However, he does not over sell its benefits and believes that patients needing over 500 grafts are best advised to do strip surgery.

 

 

Why is strip advised for over 500 grafts ?

 

 

If you need more than 3,000 grafts then doing FUE is a mistake.

 

FUE is more expensive and takes more time to have done.

 

FUE also has the potential to cause scarring especially if you are having a large number of grafts done.

 

 

The yield of FUE is also less than strip.

 

According to Dr Ron Shapiro these are the disadvantages to FUE:

 

Potential Limitations of Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE)

 

As seen above there may be some real indications for the use of FUE. However it is important to point out its limitations also.

 

FUE's main limitation, when compared to FUT, is that it is less efficient in harvesting hair from the rich mid-portion of the permanent safe zone.

 

Consequently from this very rich area of donor supply only a portion of the hair can be harvested perhaps only half as much as with FUT.

 

In FUT, the strip is taken from the optimal (central) part of the donor region and all the hair in this area can be removed and transplanted. After the strip is removed, the wound edges are sewn together.

 

In FUE only a portion the hair is extracted, but the intervening bald skin between the follicular units is not removed.

 

Therefore, the hair restoration surgeon must leave enough hair in the area to cover the remaining donor scalp.

 

Consequently from this very rich area of donor supply only a portion of the hair can be harvested perhaps only half as much as with FUT.

 

This represents a significant disadvantage, since a limited donor supply is the main factor that prevents a complete hair restoration in many patients.

 

To compensate for the inability to harvest all the hair from the permanent zone, the surgeon may eventually be tempted to harvest hair from the upper and lower margins of the original donor area and risk the hair being of poor quality or being non-permanent.

 

In Follicular Unit Extraction the wounds, although small, are left open to heal, leaving hundreds to thousands of tiny scars. Although not readily apparent, this scarring distorts adjacent follicular units and makes subsequent sessions more difficult. This is an additional factor that limits the total available donor supply in FUE.

 

Although new techniques and instrumentation significantly decrease the amount of transection and damage during the extraction, the inability to fully access the mid-portion of the permanent zone in a hair transplant procedure, significantly limits the total amount of hair that can be accessed through FUE, rendering it a far less robust procedure than FUT for moderate to advanced balding.

 

Other potential downside for FUE is that this new procedure is much more labor intensive and time consuming; meaning it costs more to perform and far fewer grafts can be obtained in a single session when compared to traditional strip harvesting.

 

Another downside is that not all patients are candidates for the procedure. Many are, but some are not.

 

In some patients FUE is easy and the grafts can be extracted with little to no transaction. In other cases extraction produces unacceptable levels of transection (damage due to cut hair follicles In the past few years with improved techniques and instrumentation the ability to extract grafts more easily with little to no harm has improved greatly.

 

However it is important to either test patients before the procedure or have an alternative plan if during the procedure it turns out that the patient is not a good candidate

 

 

 

 

http://www.regrowhair.com/hair...-transplant-surgery/

 

 

 

If you need 5,000 grafts you are not a good candidate for FUE.

[hairadv]

Drew, thanks again for the info. It is very useful.

 

It looks like Dr. Feller is really the world leader in FUE, does everyone pretty much agree with that ?

 

Also, for larger graft requirements, say 4,000-5,000 grafts and understand the limitations there. Is it possible to do multiple FUE procedures of say 1,000-2,000 or is that also not possible ?

 

And, are there any renown FUE physicians in the western US ? I would like to read more about their approaches.

[hairadv]

Hi guys, it looks like I have been put on ignore or essentially banned over at "B#ld Tr^th" (name changed to protect the innocent , if there are any innocent in this case).

 

All I did was ask questions about HT like I do over here.

 

I guess that proves this is a fair forum and that one is a doctors site which does not put up with real questions. Anyone else have problems over there ?

 

This also makes me wonder if their hero, Sp#ncer K0brin is a phony, any thoughts ?

 

I also just noticed they are one of the few forums that do not list the number of members. Do you think it is because most are inside alias names ?

[hairadv]

Hi guys, I have not been here in a while, but I would like to ask you folks a few more questions, I hope it is ok ?

 

I have a new idea (uh oh ).

 

The folks at Hair Club told me I will need about 6,000 hair transplants grafts.

 

I do not want to go the strip approach.

 

So I am thinking about getting FUE for the front of my head. My understanding is I can do 500-1,000 grafts per procedure. So this would take 7-10 years if I do one procedure per year.

 

So I do the front of my head with FUE and I would get a hair piece for all the rest. Each year, as I did additional procedures, I would make the hairpiece smaller until my whole top is covered.

 

Does this make any sense, or I am I being naive ?

 

Thanks again.

[hairadv]

Oh, yes, one more question.

 

Are there any reps here of Docs who are in So. Cal. and do FUE ?

 

I would like to lean more about FUE.

 

Thanks.

[youngsuccess]

Some patients choose to wear a tailor-made crown piece in conjunction with a frontal transplant, so your idea isn't too far fetched, IMO. Comfortably being able to keep up with what you've outlined probably isn't going to be as easy as it sounds, though. You're also going to have to achieve reasonably strong density in the front to be able to seamlessly incorporate the piece, which can be accomplished more quickly with a strip procedure.

 

The good news is that leading FUE doctors are currently capable of safely transplanting more than 500-1000 grafts during a single/two-day session. Shooting for 1500-2000 grafts might be feasible, provided you can afford it and prove to be a good FUE responder/candidate.

 

Here's a list of the recommended physicians in California:

http://www.hairtransplantnetwo...list.asp?StateAbr=CA

 

You'll have to look over each profile to determine whether or not they offer FUE. Might want to also check out Dr. Feller's work, the Shapiro Medical Group, and results from a few other clinics. You'll be able to pull up a lot of information using the Find feature.

[hairadv]

Thank you Youngsuccess, those comments are helpful. I scanned your list and found the following Docs do FUE.

 

Are there any Docs reps here for:

 

Dr. Carman,

Dr. Rassman,

Dr. Ross ?

 

If so, I have some questions.

 

Thanks.