FUE newbie questions

[baldslacker]

Hi Everyone, 

I am newbie to the forum and apologies if any of the questions are repeated. 
(I did searched previous posts but that raised more questions)

Little bit about myself:
1. My Age: 33
2. My hair started thinning about 10 years ago and I used to use Minoxidil, 5% Topical Solution and Finasteride Pills. 
   I took them for over 1.5 years and gave up on them as I noticed hair fall continued as soon as I stopped using them for even a week.
3. Since then I didn't took any care of my hair. (Probably a mistake but I just thought all solutions are temporary and transplantation is the only solution)
4. I have been thinking about FUE for an year now and I finally decided to go for it now (next few weeks).
5. I am planning to spend up to 15,000 USD.

Questions:

Premise for Q1:
   I am in halfway between Dr.Vories (South Carolina, USA) and Dr.Cooley (North Carolina). 
   I talked with Dr.Vories 12 months ago and he seemed fine to me. He was recommended to me by one of my friend who went through FUE and his results are just "ok".
   After joining this forum I learnt about Dr.Cooley and I am in dilemma now.
   I reached out to Dr.Cooley and still waiting for response from them.(Its been a week now)

Q1: Any personal experiences anyone can share which can help me decide between Dr. Vories and Dr. Cooley ?

Q2: As I said before I am not using any medicines right now. I have seen some posts in this forum where ppl recommended using some medicines at least 6 months before transplantation procedure.
    Is it a good practice thing ? or Is it mandatory to yield good results?
    Dr. Vories didn't talked about this and was ready to go with transplantation almost immediately.

Q3: For last 6 months I am being troubled with dandruff. Tried different of the shelf shampoos. (Didn't really took care of my hair properly.)
    Should I take some serious medicines to get rid of dandruff before going with FUE transplantation ?

Q4: For some mandatory ritual, I have to shave off my head in 18 months. Assuming I did go through FUE now, can I have my hair shaved after 18 months or ever in my life ?
    Am I going to loose any transplanted hair ? Will the aftermath of FUE will leave any spots on my head which will look bad and make me never be able to have clean shaven head or even short hair ?

Q5: Are there any other solutions that can help me other than FUE ?

 

Thanks in advance for your time.

Edited March 13, 2021 by baldslacker
Formatted

[baldslacker]

Bumping this up to get some attention to the thread.

[Carbon]

I’m actually considering Vories too and still a bit skeptical. Can you elaborate more on your friend’s result being just “okay” and how many months has it been post op for him?
 

how many grafts did he recommend? 
 

following this thread.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Carbon

[baldslacker]

For me he recommended 3000 grafts.

It’s been 4-5 years since my friend got  his transplantation done. I haven’t seen him in person but all his Instagram pics are with long hair and thickness isn’t very good. 

[Carbon]

20 minutes ago, baldslacker said:

For me he recommended 3000 grafts.

It’s been 4-5 years since my friend got  his transplantation done. I haven’t seen him in person but all his Instagram pics are with long hair and thickness isn’t very good. 

I see..was your friend happy with the results? I guess that is all that matters. 
 

 

[Melvin- Admin]

Have you consulted with Vories and Cooley? 
 

Are you on nizoral?

Are you on fin or minoxidil?

[baldslacker]

21 minutes ago, Carbon said:

I see..was your friend happy with the results? I guess that is all that matters. 
 

 

Yeah he seemed to be happy.

[baldslacker]

3 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Have you consulted with Vories and Cooley? 
 

Are you on nizoral?

Are you on fin or minoxidil?

I consulted with Vories and waiting on response from Cooley’s office  for 10 days now.

I am not on any medication and that was one of my questions. Should I be on some medication prior to transplantation for good results ?

[Melvin- Admin]

3 minutes ago, baldslacker said:

I consulted with Vories and waiting on response from Cooley’s office  for 10 days now.

I am not on any medication and that was one of my questions. Should I be on some medication prior to transplantation for good results ?

Where did you send your request? Was it through our link? 
 

Absolutely, use medication before. Hair Transplants do not stop hair loss. You need to hit hair loss with medication first.

[baldslacker]

19 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Where did you send your request? Was it through our link? 
 

Absolutely, use medication before. Hair Transplants do not stop hair loss. You need to hit hair loss with medication first.

Thanks for quick responses Melvin.

I wasn't aware of reference link through this forum. So i submitted a request on their website directly.
 

Thanks for you advice on using medication before transplantation. How long should I be using this ?
When I consulted with Dr. Vories he was ready to jump into transplantation right away even though I mentioned that I was not on any medication.
He did advised me to use some medications after the transplantation though.

That was one of my reason to be skeptical about Dr. Vories, does he have my best interests or he want to do a surgery asap.

[Melvin- Admin]

Here’s our full list of recommendations. My suggestion is to contact many doctors. I suggest using medication at least 6 months before having surgery.

https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/Consult-a-Physician/hair-transplant-surgeons.asp?sr=HRN-MOB

[baldslacker]

8 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Here’s our full list of recommendations. My suggestion is to contact many doctors. I suggest using medication at least 6 months before having surgery.

https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/Consult-a-Physician/hair-transplant-surgeons.asp?sr=HRN-MOB

Thank you very much, I reached out again using this link.

[Carbon]

42 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Here’s our full list of recommendations. My suggestion is to contact many doctors. I suggest using medication at least 6 months before having surgery.

https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/Consult-a-Physician/hair-transplant-surgeons.asp?sr=HRN-MOB

What’s the reason for taking medication at least 6 months prior to procedure? I’ve consulted with a handful of recommended doctors from this forum and only 1 told me to start on finasteride first and then re-evaluate. Another one said do not use min until after the procedure. 

Edited March 15, 2021 by Carbon

[Melvin- Admin]

2 hours ago, Carbon said:

What’s the reason for taking medication at least 6 months prior to procedure? I’ve consulted with a handful of recommended doctors from this forum and only 1 told me to start on finasteride first and then re-evaluate. Another one said do not use min until after the procedure. 

Because 6 months is the time you start seeing results from medication. You may not need as many grafts or may change your mind about getting an HT for example @Shifty

[Shifty]

1 hour ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Because 6 months is the time you start seeing results from medication. You may not need as many grafts or may change your mind about getting an HT for example @Shifty

Yeah i am starting year 3.  I can get away nicely with fibers now, although I am still entertaining because of a high hairline in the front. 

 

Oddly I had a reputable and good doctor here in NY recently tell me I need the same amount of grafts as Diep did pretty much  4 years ago. Its strange my head is night and day. 

[Repairpt]

Hey, I'm a patient of Dr. Vories and Dr. Cooley's. Dr. Cooley repaired the work done on me by Dr. Vories-2000 fue that looked totally unnatural and scarred my recipient zone. My experience with Dr. Cooley was outstanding.

[baldslacker]

3 hours ago, Repairpt said:

Hey, I'm a patient of Dr. Vories and Dr. Cooley's. Dr. Cooley repaired the work done on me by Dr. Vories-2000 fue that looked totally unnatural and scarred my recipient zone. My experience with Dr. Cooley was outstanding.

Oh my, scary. Dr Cooley’s office was too busy and also didn’t give an answer for estimated cost at all so I went ahead and paid deposit amount to vories today. It’s non refundable:(

[Repairpt]

Honestly, worse than the cost of the procedure was the repair and that's just speaking on the financials. It was emotionally devastating to have an enflamed, soon to be cobblestoned scalp with what looked to be doll hairs-plenty of 3s placed in a frontal hairline that looked totally unnatural-in a profession where I can't where a hat. I was 30 years old at the time of  my procedure with Dr. Vories, and it was probably the most devastating decision of my life, which I'm paying for 5 years later. I would urge not to make the decision in haste, do your research. I checked out Joe Tillman's site searching for hope after I realized I'd be walking around getting strange looks for the rest of my life, and that's how I found Dr. Cooley-I'm in NC and I have no regrets with him, it was a total 180 from my first experience. 

[giegnosiganoe]

15 hours ago, Repairpt said:

Honestly, worse than the cost of the procedure was the repair and that's just speaking on the financials. It was emotionally devastating to have an enflamed, soon to be cobblestoned scalp with what looked to be doll hairs-plenty of 3s placed in a frontal hairline that looked totally unnatural-in a profession where I can't where a hat. I was 30 years old at the time of  my procedure with Dr. Vories, and it was probably the most devastating decision of my life, which I'm paying for 5 years later. I would urge not to make the decision in haste, do your research. I checked out Joe Tillman's site searching for hope after I realized I'd be walking around getting strange looks for the rest of my life, and that's how I found Dr. Cooley-I'm in NC and I have no regrets with him, it was a total 180 from my first experience. 

Can you create a thread and share any photos?

[SamBoy]

On 3/26/2021 at 1:45 AM, Repairpt said:

Honestly, worse than the cost of the procedure was the repair and that's just speaking on the financials. It was emotionally devastating to have an enflamed, soon to be cobblestoned scalp with what looked to be doll hairs-plenty of 3s placed in a frontal hairline that looked totally unnatural-in a profession where I can't where a hat. I was 30 years old at the time of  my procedure with Dr. Vories, and it was probably the most devastating decision of my life, which I'm paying for 5 years later. I would urge not to make the decision in haste, do your research. I checked out Joe Tillman's site searching for hope after I realized I'd be walking around getting strange looks for the rest of my life, and that's how I found Dr. Cooley-I'm in NC and I have no regrets with him, it was a total 180 from my first experience. 

How is your donor area looking now ? i'm planning to get a hair transplant with Dr.Vories. 

[SamBoy]

On 3/25/2021 at 4:40 AM, baldslacker said:

Oh my, scary. Dr Cooley’s office was too busy and also didn’t give an answer for estimated cost at all so I went ahead and paid deposit amount to vories today. It’s non refundable:(

@baldslacker how is your experience with Dr.Vories ? did you get hair transplant with him ? how are results so far ? 

[Berba11]

@baldslacker I don't know if you went ahead with this but regardless...

I'll only address Q1 as it's the immediately relevant one...

You absolutely should not be selecting your hair transplant clinic based on proximity to your house. We're talking about surgery here - a surgery that takes a long time to complete, that takes a long time to show final results, a surgery that will likely not be a case of "one and done" and one that could radically alter your appearance both positive and negative. It's also a type of surgery in which there are more (many more!) bad clinics than good ones.

That you happen to live near Dr Cooley is great, and if he's in your price range, even better. That's a convenience most people don't get to enjoy. But even still, it seems you've narrowed your choice down to two clinics that happen to be conveniently located, rather than based on any in depth understanding of their work, reputations and the intricacies of good hair restoration more broadly. Regardless of how reputable and good Cooley is, you shouldn't be going to him or considering him on the basis of location. You should be considering him based on in-depth research. Despite getting slightly lucky by being near to Cooley, you've put down a deposit on some other clinic that you've already said you'd seen mediocre work from is concerning and exactly makes my point. I don't know anything about Dr Vories other than your own words, for the record.

You shouldn't even be thinking too much about the answer to Q1 until you've adequately found answers to Q3, 4, 5 etc and done some serious research on HT's.

I'd be interested to know what you did in the end, if anything.

[Britanium]

Would indeed be interesting to hear what OP did ! @baldslackerover to you 👍🏽

Edited September 5, 2021 by JohnAC71

[baldslacker]

12 hours ago, SamBoy said:

How is your donor area looking now ? i'm planning to get a hair transplant with Dr.Vories. 

I had my HT in last week of June with Dr. Vories.

My donor area is completely normal within  10-12 days.

But after 3/4th week am developing some pores now and then.

I was told they are normal and are due to ingrown hair follicles.

 

[baldslacker]

40 minutes ago, Berba11 said:

@baldslacker I don't know if you went ahead with this but regardless...

I'll only address Q1 as it's the immediately relevant one...

You absolutely should not be selecting your hair transplant clinic based on proximity to your house. We're talking about surgery here - a surgery that takes a long time to complete, that takes a long time to show final results, a surgery that will likely not be a case of "one and done" and one that could radically alter your appearance both positive and negative. It's also a type of surgery in which there are more (many more!) bad clinics than good ones.

That you happen to live near Dr Cooley is great, and if he's in your price range, even better. That's a convenience most people don't get to enjoy. But even still, it seems you've narrowed your choice down to two clinics that happen to be conveniently located, rather than based on any in depth understanding of their work, reputations and the intricacies of good hair restoration more broadly. Regardless of how reputable and good Cooley is, you shouldn't be going to him or considering him on the basis of location. You should be considering him based on in-depth research. Despite getting slightly lucky by being near to Cooley, you've put down a deposit on some other clinic that you've already said you'd seen mediocre work from is concerning and exactly makes my point. I don't know anything about Dr Vories other than your own words, for the record.

You shouldn't even be thinking too much about the answer to Q1 until you've adequately found answers to Q3, 4, 5 etc and done some serious research on HT's.

I'd be interested to know what you did in the end, if anything.

I agree with you.

unfortunately I had too much of other things going at life at that moment and didn’t spent lot of time in researching. So just went ahead with someone whom my friend had personal experience with.

 

I had my HT and end of June.

I guess it’s little early to know the success of my procedure… to keep it simple 

- I am not super happy right now 

at the same time, atleast procedure didn’t went wrong and created patches like repairpt had.

 

thnaks for your recommendations , will keep in mind if I happen to do another procedure.