I rushed into a FUT appointment and need advice

[asterix0]

If you can't live with this, finasteride and minoxidil are things you can take starting today, with much less monetary investment. 

[Melvin- Admin]

I literally made a video on this, we had another guy recently who tried to research backwards. Never heard of this doctor, does it mean he’s bad? No, but if he doesn’t have reviews, that would be a particular concern. Have you consulted with any other doctors? See this thread

 

[hairhairhair2541]

2 hours ago, asterix0 said:

Dude you said you did your research, but out of all the possible FUT and FUE surgeons why did you pick this doctor?

I am almost certain it is because of distance or price, both bad reasons in my opinion. 

Because I found Dr. Beehner so highly recommended online, mostly from this site and he/his office vouched for dr slaughter. He is not cheap (5$ a graft) and he is not close (roughly 4 hours driving). I have linked so many threads of Dr. Beehner from this forum. I'm asking for thoughts on it.

 

2 hours ago, asterix0 said:

If you can't live with this, finasteride and minoxidil are things you can take starting today, with much less monetary investment. 

That's weak, the medication alone won't bring back all the dead hair. I tried rogaine for 6 months and it did nothing. I'm sick of not having hair, it's simply too big of a societal disadvantage. I want to get seriously started asap, no more pussyfooting with this stuff.

 

2 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I literally made a video on this, we had another guy recently who tried to research backwards. Never heard of this doctor, does it mean he’s bad? No, but if he doesn’t have reviews, that would be a particular concern. Have you consulted with any other doctors? See this thread

 

That's what I'm trying to say, Dr. Beehner has tons of reviews, searching his name here he was a big deal. As I've linked before. Is his vouching for his protoge good?

[Melvin- Admin]

51 minutes ago, hairhairhair2541 said:

Because I found Dr. Beehner so highly recommended online, mostly from this site and he/his office vouched for dr slaughter. He is not cheap (5$ a graft) and he is not close (roughly 4 hours driving). I have linked so many threads of Dr. Beehner from this forum. I'm asking for thoughts on it.

 

That's weak, the medication alone won't bring back all the dead hair. I tried rogaine for 6 months and it did nothing. I'm sick of not having hair, it's simply too big of a societal disadvantage. I want to get seriously started asap, no more pussyfooting with this stuff.

 

That's what I'm trying to say, Dr. Beehner has tons of reviews, searching his name here he was a big deal. As I've linked before. Is his vouching for his protoge good?

No, vouching doesn’t equal good. @DenverBuff1989 had surgery with a vouched doctor. I’m not trying to scare you off from this doctor, he may be good. But you need to research slowly. There’s no rush. If anything, you could reschedule the date and continue researching.

[DenverBuff1989]

1 hour ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

No, vouching doesn’t equal good. @DenverBuff1989 had surgery with a vouched doctor. I’m not trying to scare you off from this doctor, he may be good. But you need to research slowly. There’s no rush. If anything, you could reschedule the date and continue researching.

@Melvin-Moderator I've hardly had the worst HT on this site (even tho my 1st one was pretty bad) so I'm really surprised to see my name dragged into this random thread? It doesn't even have to do with any Colorado hair docs, or a gap in the hair, nothing related to me. 

For the record my 3rd hair transplant is 4 months in and starting to grow in great and I am happy with the results. Of course I absolutely would have gone off in a different initial direction, but ultimately my hair is much better from its native state and I am happy with the results. My end goal is actually to move away from this site, because hair transplants are not my life. Its like a recovering alcoholic whose whole life revolves around AA meetings. 

How about only pinging my username when its actually relevant to a thread?

And even then, I'm just going about my day and don't really care to get an email notification from some little hairloss forum. It's basically 15 guys with 10,000 posts whose claim to fame in life is they've had a bunch of hair transplants. And the rest are normies who ask what they need to, and then move on, because a cosmetic procedure shouldn't define your life.  

Great moderating, bro. 

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by DenverBuff1989

[Melvin- Admin]

19 minutes ago, DenverBuff1989 said:

@Melvin-Moderator I've hardly had the worst HT on this site (even tho my 1st one was pretty bad) so I'm really surprised to see my name dragged into this random thread? It doesn't even have to do with any Colorado hair docs, or a gap in the hair, nothing related to me. 

For the record my 3rd hair transplant is 4 months in and starting to grow in great and I am happy with the results. Of course I absolutely would have gone off in a different initial direction, but ultimately my hair is much better from its native state and I am happy with the results. My end goal is actually to move away from this site, because hair transplants are not my life. Its like a recovering alcoholic whose whole life revolves around AA meetings. 

How about only pinging my username when its actually relevant to a thread?

And even then, I'm just going about my day and don't really care to get an email notification from some little hairloss forum. It's basically 15 guys with 10,000 posts whose claim to fame in life is they've had a bunch of hair transplants. And the rest are normies who ask what they need to, and then move on, because a cosmetic procedure shouldn't define your life.  

Great moderating, bro. 

 

Fair enough, 

I only pinged you because you went to a surgeon that was vouched for by a well-known doctor. But I will not tag you anymore. 

best wishes, 

[DenverBuff1989]

6 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Fair enough, 

I only pinged you because you went to a surgeon that was vouched for by a well-known doctor. But I will not tag you anymore. 

best wishes, 

Thanks Melvin. I know a large part of this forum is used to help newcomers avoid mistakes and learn from others, but it genuinely is distressing and just makes me feel bad when I'm busy at work and get a notification reminding me of a bad surgery I had 2 years ago. I have moved from that. 

No hard feelings, but yes please don't tag me anymore. 

Thanks.

[hairhairhair2541]

1 hour ago, qui bono said:

Ive been lurking these forums for about 5 years, and I can honestly say ive never seen one patient thread outlining their work. This doesnt mean they are bad, just unknown, which in itself makes it very difficult to assess properly. If you think the work youve seen is good thats your call/falls in one with your expectations of what you want, but believing their protege is the same standard is nonsense. Ive personally experienced and can name other docs who were trained by prominent doctors and their protege's work wasn't anywhere near as good. It takes years to get good at this job because the work is as much about art as it is a science.

$5 a graft is pretty cheap if its in the US, there are some surgeons here that charge between $10-16 a graft. 

Rogaine can take a year to fully reveal if its working, same as fin, as the hair goes through sheds/cycles. Realistically if waiting 6 months is too long for you, imagine yourself a repair patient - you wait 9 months for the results, then if there are issues you are now forced to spend even more money and time trying to fix it. Some docs won't repair you until 18 months (which is considered the full amount of time to properly assess the growth of a HT) so we are talking now about years of life now even more unhappy than you are now.

Based on your hesitation and nervousness about the operation my advice would be to cancel the surgery immediately. Your bank should be able to handle that as no services were provided.

Id tell you to wait and spend some more time researching, but as you seem so gung-ho on surgery just get consults with H&W, Bloxham, Konior, Cooley who have loads of patient reviews here. Hopefully their assessments can steer you in the right direction.

Good luck

I'm just not willing to sit on my hands any longer waiting for some foam or liquid to maybe sort of work. I want to go in a more concrete direction, transplant followed by medication seems like that direction.

I was more shook when I started this thread but I feel a lot more chilled out about it now that I called in and spoke to some of the people working there. Pretty good chance I just go for it. I appreciate the advice and the concern, I really do but I feel like hesitation just begets more hesitation. I was going to be hesitant regardless of what I went with as the day went on, it's a lot of trust and money to place in another person.

[Melvin- Admin]

1 minute ago, hairhairhair2541 said:

I'm just not willing to sit on my hands any longer waiting for some foam or liquid to maybe sort of work. I want to go in a more concrete direction, transplant followed by medication seems like that direction.

I was more shook when I started this thread but I feel a lot more chilled out about it now that I called in and spoke to some of the people working there. Pretty good chance I just go for it. I appreciate the advice and the concern, I really do but I feel like hesitation just begets more hesitation. I was going to be hesitant regardless of what I went with as the day went on, it's a lot of trust and money to place in another person.

Best wishes, if you’ve made your choice I wish you well. Maybe you can create a thread here, so in the future someone researching this doctor has something to go by. 

[hairhairhair2541]

Just now, Melvin-Moderator said:

Best wishes, if you’ve made your choice I wish you well. Maybe you can create a thread here, so in the future someone researching this doctor has something to go by. 

I've 70-80% made my choice but I'm definitely reading and considering everything in the replies here.

[asterix0]

2 hours ago, qui bono said:

Ive been lurking these forums for about 5 years, and I can honestly say ive never seen one patient thread outlining their work. This doesnt mean they are bad, just unknown, which in itself makes it very difficult to assess properly. If you think the work youve seen is good thats your call/falls in one with your expectations of what you want, but believing their protege is the same standard is nonsense. Ive personally experienced and can name other docs who were trained by prominent doctors and their protege's work wasn't anywhere near as good. It takes years to get good at this job because the work is as much about art as it is a science.

$5 a graft is pretty cheap if its in the US, there are some surgeons here that charge between $10-16 a graft. 

Rogaine can take a year to fully reveal if its working, same as fin, as the hair goes through sheds/cycles. Realistically if waiting 6 months is too long for you, imagine yourself a repair patient - you wait 9 months for the results, then if there are issues you are now forced to spend even more money and time trying to fix it. Some docs won't repair you until 18 months (which is considered the full amount of time to properly assess the growth of a HT) so we are talking now about years of life now even more unhappy than you are now.

Based on your hesitation and nervousness about the operation my advice would be to cancel the surgery immediately. Your bank should be able to handle that as no services were provided.

Id tell you to wait and spend some more time researching, but as you seem so gung-ho on surgery just get consults with H&W, Bloxham, Konior, Cooley who have loads of patient reviews here. Hopefully their assessments can steer you in the right direction.

Good luck

Sound advice, I hope OP listens to you and does his due diligence. 

Edited February 11, 2021 by asterix0

[asterix0]

3 hours ago, hairhairhair2541 said:

Because I found Dr. Beehner so highly recommended online, mostly from this site and he/his office vouched for dr slaughter. He is not cheap (5$ a graft) and he is not close (roughly 4 hours driving). I have linked so many threads of Dr. Beehner from this forum. I'm asking for thoughts on it.

 

That's weak, the medication alone won't bring back all the dead hair. I tried rogaine for 6 months and it did nothing. I'm sick of not having hair, it's simply too big of a societal disadvantage. I want to get seriously started asap, no more pussyfooting with this stuff.

 

That's what I'm trying to say, Dr. Beehner has tons of reviews, searching his name here he was a big deal. As I've linked before. Is his vouching for his protoge good?

Wasn't trying to give you a hard time mate, I just don't want you to make a decision you will regret down the road.

It would be useful to us if you provided some pictures of your hair so we can give you a better opinion on what you should do.

If you are not on finasteride your hair loss may be unstable, so consulting more than one doctor is paramount in getting a better evaluation.

You didn't lose your hair overnight; don't rush to get it back overnight either. You know what's worse than being bald? Getting a bad transplant, spending a fortune and waiting to spend another small fortune as a repair patient.

[Gatsby]

.

 

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by Gatsby
wrong post

[hairhairhair2541]

2 minutes ago, qui bono said:

Medications are meant to stabilise and enhance. Most HT docs want you on them so they can reasonable predict which hairs are safe for transplanting and so you dont progress (in some cases rapidly) to a higher Norwood leaving you chasing transplants. This would mean even more money, time are energy is spent pursuing surgery and looking for a good result. And this is even more true in younger patients who experience hairloss early on. Being on medication also reduces the chances of shock loss following surgery, which in some cases can be permanent.

Medications are but one weapon in your arsenal of dealing with something that will affect you for the rest of your life, but being on them is a personal choice and its something you should seriously discuss with your doctor as it might affect their approach/conservatism in regards to your overall goals. 

You seem quite assertive and willing to do something about this, so again all I can do is wish you good luck. But id still advise you to get some more consults and check out some other docs just in case you havent as its good to understand what other options are out there.

I was given minoxidil tablet and finasteride prescriptions, I just assumed they were to be taken after the surgery. My hair also did stabilize and I was told I'd likely have to go in for a second one if the medication doesn't stabilize my hair loss after.

 

But I'll tell you what friends of hair restoration network forums, you've convinced me. I'll run by and do a consult with every elite coalition member in NY I found with the physician button on the top right of the site.

[hairhairhair2541]

2 minutes ago, qui bono said:

Ideally you should try them a year before surgery to see if your hairloss stabilises. If youve ever gone to Rassman's baldingblog page he has loads of examples of guys who try the medications and actually regrow their hair. Fin reduces the amount of DHT in the body meaning it can stop your current hairloss, whereas minox extends the cycles of hairs and strengthens what you have. So they effectively work together in different ways to stabilise and enhance what you have. 

Theres a thread here by shifty who regrow most of his hair via medications etc. I mean hes an outlier for sure, but he saved himself thousands of $$$ and avoided surgery entirely. 

Some real quality docs in NY (True Dorin, Bloxham, Wesley are all there I think) so I think consulting with them is worth the effort.

Funny stuff, noticed True and Dorin are at the same place. By the way, what's the difference between Ultra-Refined Follicular Unit Transplantation  and normal FUT? I noticed all but one of the elite coalition guys do Ultra.

[hairhairhair2541]

[Melvin- Admin]

16 minutes ago, hairhairhair2541 said:

Funny stuff, noticed True and Dorin are at the same place. By the way, what's the difference between Ultra-Refined Follicular Unit Transplantation  and normal FUT? I noticed all but one of the elite coalition guys do Ultra.

There are some clinics that perform FUT, but they use chunky grafts that are essentially mini-grafts. Some of these clinics are popular on YouTube for “max harvesting.” Ultra-refined FUT is trimmed grafts that are densely packed. 
 

Non-refined FUT

Konior ultra-refined 

 

[Melvin- Admin]

I gave another good explanation here. 

 

[hairhairhair2541]

8 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I gave another good explanation here. 

 

Seems like the regular kind is a bit shit.

[Melvin- Admin]

2 minutes ago, qui bono said:

understatement ^^^

but I dont think Wesley does the regular kind. Most of his results are pretty impressive 

Yes, understatement. Refined work is what makes it look natural. 

[hairhairhair2541]

4 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Yes, understatement. Refined work is what makes it look natural. 

Holy crap bros, that should be in every video and it was in basically none of them. The difference is night and day. What other distinctions should I be aware of?

[pkipling]

OP - A few thoughts/words of advice based on reading through this thread - and please take them all with a grain of salt, and don't let anything any of us here have to say keep you from making the decision you feel is best for you. That said, given all the factors here, I would personally reconsider moving forward with the procedure at the moment, for several different reasons: 

• Nobody here seems to have enough information on this doctor to be able give you an informed opinion. We can only guide you based on what we know, and admittedly, we don't know much. That's not necessarily indicative of him being a bad choice, but it does mean that you probably won't find anyone here singing his praises or giving you valid reasons to move forward with him. 
• I wouldn't let your deposit play a factor in your decision. There's a good chance they would refund you, but even if they didn't, losing a deposit is a much better option and easier to absorb than a hair transplant gone wrong. 30 years from now you wouldn't even miss the money... But if you ended up getting a procedure from someone you later regretted, the chances of being impacted by that 30 years down the road are much greater. *And I want to reiterate - In no way am I suggesting that moving forward with this surgeon would have a negative outcome. He very well could be the perfect surgeon for you who gives you the exact results you want - but none of us can speak to that... And even if someone put a deposit down with the best surgeon in the world and then had second thoughts, I would still advise them to not let the deposit play a factor. 
• My biggest concern with what I've read thus far is how you seem to be making this decision from a place of desperation and urgency... My apologies if I'm misreading that, but I personally wouldn't advise any of my friends or family to make a decision from a place of "My life is on hold because of xyz and I need to move forward with this asap, no matter what." I understand the painstaking feeling of losing your hair and wanting to resolve it ASAP, but I highly suggest not making a decision from that place. A lot of us have been around these forums long enough to know that often when guys do make a decision from that emotionally shaky place, they often don't end up making the best decisions. And again - if that doesn't apply to you and you feel completely comfortable and at ease with the decision you're making, then by all means, move forward and move forward with confidence. 

I should also add that I say all of this as someone who didn't follow the standard advice for finding a surgeon (lol), and honestly, it couldn't have worked out better for me even if I did. The protocol for how to choose a surgeon is a loose guideline, and as great advice as it is, it ultimately comes down to trusting your gut. I've always had success in my life following my gut/intuition when making big decisions, so I felt very confident about my choice to go with Dr. Mohebi - even though others may have told me I was moving too fast. (Granted, he's a well-known, reputable surgeon with a solid online presence, and he also put me in touch with several of his patients so I could ask them anything I wanted - but still... He was essentially my only consultation and my gut said "DO IT!" so I did). So if you feel similarly about the doctor you're considering, then by all means, trust your gut - and then come back and show off your results to all of us.  

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do!

[hairhairhair2541]

1 hour ago, pkipling said:

OP - A few thoughts/words of advice based on reading through this thread - and please take them all with a grain of salt, and don't let anything any of us here have to say keep you from making the decision you feel is best for you. That said, given all the factors here, I would personally reconsider moving forward with the procedure at the moment, for several different reasons: 

• Nobody here seems to have enough information on this doctor to be able give you an informed opinion. We can only guide you based on what we know, and admittedly, we don't know much. That's not necessarily indicative of him being a bad choice, but it does mean that you probably won't find anyone here singing his praises or giving you valid reasons to move forward with him. 
• I wouldn't let your deposit play a factor in your decision. There's a good chance they would refund you, but even if they didn't, losing a deposit is a much better option and easier to absorb than a hair transplant gone wrong. 30 years from now you wouldn't even miss the money... But if you ended up getting a procedure from someone you later regretted, the chances of being impacted by that 30 years down the road are much greater. *And I want to reiterate - In no way am I suggesting that moving forward with this surgeon would have a negative outcome. He very well could be the perfect surgeon for you who gives you the exact results you want - but none of us can speak to that... And even if someone put a deposit down with the best surgeon in the world and then had second thoughts, I would still advise them to not let the deposit play a factor. 
• My biggest concern with what I've read thus far is how you seem to be making this decision from a place of desperation and urgency... My apologies if I'm misreading that, but I personally wouldn't advise any of my friends or family to make a decision from a place of "My life is on hold because of xyz and I need to move forward with this asap, no matter what." I understand the painstaking feeling of losing your hair and wanting to resolve it ASAP, but I highly suggest not making a decision from that place. A lot of us have been around these forums long enough to know that often when guys do make a decision from that emotionally shaky place, they often don't end up making the best decisions. And again - if that doesn't apply to you and you feel completely comfortable and at ease with the decision you're making, then by all means, move forward and move forward with confidence. 

I should also add that I say all of this as someone who didn't follow the standard advice for finding a surgeon (lol), and honestly, it couldn't have worked out better for me even if I did. The protocol for how to choose a surgeon is a loose guideline, and as great advice as it is, it ultimately comes down to trusting your gut. I've always had success in my life following my gut/intuition when making big decisions, so I felt very confident about my choice to go with Dr. Mohebi - even though others may have told me I was moving too fast. (Granted, he's a well-known, reputable surgeon with a solid online presence, and he also put me in touch with several of his patients so I could ask them anything I wanted - but still... He was essentially my only consultation and my gut said "DO IT!" so I did). So if you feel similarly about the doctor you're considering, then by all means, trust your gut - and then come back and show off your results to all of us.  

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do!

Thanks for the write up, right off the bat you're 100% right. It's desperation, I only live once and I'm wasting it with this wasteland of a bald head. It hurts me at work, it hurts me with women. I'm only getting older and my opportunity window is only shrinking. I need a solution yesterday and I'm not going to wait until I'm 37 and pills/cream/whatever only kind of worked to look my age again.

So I did come up with a plan, obviously get my deposit money back. I'll check out the 4 elite coalition doctors in ny and maybe just move forward with one of them. But I am deadset on doing this as soon as possible. My only blockade in this is finding the right surgeon. Besides doing the good "buzzcut" FUT I genuinely, truly, honestly do not know what the difference is between the 4. If they're all so highly recommended by the site as to be called "elite". Maybe some senior members can help expand on that.

I'll tell you how my story differs, I didn't get offers to talk to other patients and his online presence is fairly minimal. I basically was going entirely off his mentor/co-worker's word. I found very few posts even mentioning the man here and I messaged the one that was a patient and go no reply. So clearly something is a little bit different.

[hairhairhair2541]

Sidebar, any thoughts/knowledge you could drop on me about this org? https://www.iahrs.org/our-members

[hairhairhair2541]

I'm looking into the 4 NY doctors from here. Bernstein and True/Dorin want 175$ just to see me for the consultation. That's insane to me, should I really do that for each doctor? Is that normal? How do I know which one between them is the best one? If they're all elite coalition members.

Edited February 11, 2021 by hairhairhair2541