Crown Surgeons - Which surgeons should I be looking at for basically a crown + mid scalp transplant?

[blufforfold]

EDIT: I made a much more comprehensive thread that has more photos and is more about me my situation and my goals rather than just "crown doctors" which will hopefully give much more info for people to be able to guide me and give advice, here is the thread.

Hey everyone,

I went through a series of mostly virtual consults back in the beginning of COVID and was pretty new and didnt ask too many intelligent questions and never really asked about expectations as I didnt really realize at the time the crown was the "black hole" and much harder to get good results.

I am 32 and have a very different balding pattern than my dad & brother so Im not sure if mine is more health related or if thats common but my front hairline is fine and both in person consults I did have didnt worry about my front hairline for now at all.

Ive attached three photos. I got quoted from 1500 grafts as the lowest from some surgeons to 2500 grafts from others as the highest quoted and that includes some in the mid scalp as that area is thinning. I think I actually screwed myself and I had a Dr I saw regularly for PRP on body parts injuries from sports. He said oh I do hair all the time do you want me to do your hair and said I get best results when I do it back to back in the starting, like every week or every other week. (big mistake) and I think almost all of my mid scalp thinning is due to this PRP I did. I had no mid scalp thinning until I did those PRP injections.

ANyways, my dad did go pretty damn bald in the end and my brother is balding pretty hard (hes 36) so even though Ive got a pretty decent hair of head (actually nobody in my life really except for my immediate family even knows I am balding, I have enough hair left that fibers + dermatch when I go in water) has been enough, I do realize that later on in life I will likely need another surgery or two. So im not trying to just lob in 3000 grafts or something and screw my donor for later on.

The only name Ive seen asscoaited with Crown work is Wong. Is there anybody else I should consider? I havent spoken with Wong yet. I did speak with Scott Alexander in Arizona who I also have heard is a top surgeon. I was actually leaning towards Dr. McGrath in Texas for a while and not going to knock them and maybe my result goals are simply unrealstic but they kinda just told me like yeah we suggest 2k grafts, maybe 2.5k when we see you in person but youre still gonna look thin on the crown just FYI. Thats when I started to look into it realized crown is considered the black hole and looking for surgeons known for the crown who are confident. I know nothing is a guarantee and that my health, my genetics and so many other factors play a role into how well the procedure goes. But I am looking to see who is known & going to be confident about their crown results.


 

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by blufforfold

[Future Hair Doc]

Are you on finasteride and minoxidil? Do you have photos of your donor area? It's true that the crown is a tougher area to work with so you have to select an excellent surgeon. You likely need about 2,000 grafts. 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Dr. Suhail Khokhar

[blufforfold]

I will get some pics of Donor area, both in person consults said I have at least 7000 grafts and they werent worried about my donor area. Though to answer your 1st question, I started finasteride after much not wanting to about 8 months ago, to be honest I think it made my thinning worse but I am not sure. I just recently switched to topical finasteride that has minoxidil in it, but thats only been about 1 week so no idea about that

I dont have other good photos of donor area, I will get some, this photo is from about 1.5 years ago when I did my initial consults in December/Jan of 2020

[tosh2004]

I also have done PRP and based on my understanding of the procedure, which as you said has been used for decades on skin, esp. for burn victims, I don’t think PRP could have caused your hair loss.  

 

But I am very surprised that your doctor said do it every other week. My doctor said to do it every 4-6 weeks for a total of ~6 times, and then do 2-3 times a year for “maintenance”. He also says PRP helps transplanted hair, higher chance of growing and faster growth. I have seen this in my own hair transplants that he did on me.

 

In my case, I think PRP made “vellus” hair become thicker, but did not result in significant hair growth. So PRP to me seems like finasteride in that it helps retain what you have, but unlike finasteride, PRP doesn’t involve messing with your hormones, which I like.

 

I know at the age of 32, you would like to cover the area in the crown. But my honest advice is don’t go for HTs for the crown, save your donor hair for 10-20 years from now when your hair in the front may get thinner. For the crown area, use minoxidil, which is supposed to be most effective in the back/crown area, not the front.

 

For me, I am older than you and don’t much care about the back. My main objective is for the front to not look bald, and I’m doing HTs and PRPs to preserve the front. In my case, I am pretty sure doing PRPs has not resulted in hair loss, though as I just said, it didn’t result in much hair growth either.

 

As I said, my doc said that PRP maintenance after the initial ~6 sessions only requires 3 or so session per YEAR. Even for the initial 6 sessions, he said do them every 4-6 weeks. In other words, doing PRP every 1-2 weeks is not something I have heard of, and probably way too frequent.

 

If anyone has had good results with PRP, I would be interested in hearing more.

 

Good luck.

[blufforfold]

22 minutes ago, tosh2004 said:

I also have done PRP and based on my understanding of the procedure, which as you said has been used for decades on skin, esp. for burn victims, I don’t think PRP could have caused your hair loss.  

 

 

 

But I am very surprised that your doctor said do it every other week. My doctor said to do it every 4-6 weeks for a total of ~6 times, and then do 2-3 times a year for “maintenance”. He also says PRP helps transplanted hair, higher chance of growing and faster growth. I have seen this in my own hair transplants that he did on me.

 

 

 

In my case, I think PRP made “vellus” hair become thicker, but did not result in significant hair growth. So PRP to me seems like finasteride in that it helps retain what you have, but unlike finasteride, PRP doesn’t involve messing with your hormones, which I like.

 

 

 

I know at the age of 32, you would like to cover the area in the crown. But my honest advice is don’t go for HTs for the crown, save your donor hair for 10-20 years from now when your hair in the front may get thinner. For the crown area, use minoxidil, which is supposed to be most effective in the back/crown area, not the front.

 

 

 

For me, I am older than you and don’t much care about the back. My main objective is for the front to not look bald, and I’m doing HTs and PRPs to preserve the front. In my case, I am pretty sure doing PRPs has not resulted in hair loss, though as I just said, it didn’t result in much hair growth either.

 

 

 

As I said, my doc said that PRP maintenance after the initial ~6 sessions only requires 3 or so session per YEAR. Even for the initial 6 sessions, he said do them every 4-6 weeks. In other words, doing PRP every 1-2 weeks is not something I have heard of, and probably way too frequent.

 

 

 

If anyone has had good results with PRP, I would be interested in hearing more.

 

 

 

Good luck.

Its not that I think PRP generally casues hair loss, I think the guy doing it caused it. For one thing like I said I did it not only every week I think I may even have done 2x a week in the beginning lmao. But also idk how its done on the scalp by actual hair clinics but here I was just using the same needle/syringe he uses going into shoulders, angles etc. So I think I already had issues with chronic inflammation (health) so just causing tons of inflammation to my scalp every week or even 2x a week just I thinkc aused too much trauma and inflammation & scar tissue. Its not that I think PRP done by a hair clinic will cause hair loss. I was losing my hair already for sure but it accelerated it IMO and it brought it to areas I didnt have it at the time. My new hair loss pattern is the exact pathing he did his injections on, like literally the exact path lol

See honestly I care more now, when im 40-45 and married i dont care anymore. But now Im 32 and still single. When im having kids and married idgaf anymore tbh, just having some hair thats HT but not super full will be fine. I care a lot more now than I do whem im 45-50

Edited April 17, 2022 by blufforfold

[blufforfold]

Bump I really dont see a lot of talk about crowns its always the afterthought

Edited April 20, 2022 by blufforfold

[Zoomster]

4 hours ago, blufforfold said:

4 hours ago, blufforfold said:

Bump I really dont see a lot of talk about crowns its always the afterthought

This is what 4K scalp and beard grafts mixed together gets you with Eugenix ..into a totally slick bald NW6/7 crown ..this is 7.5 months post 2nd procedure..ive applied one or two puffs from toppik spray fibre applicator here .

[Farid]

i've seen stunning cases of the doctor who treated me. Dr Ahmad of Fuegenix hair clinic in The Netherlands. No links allowed but you can easily google him and you'll find a lot of homeruns on crown work. 

[blufforfold]

2 hours ago, Farid said:

i've seen stunning cases of the doctor who treated me. Dr Ahmad of Fuegenix hair clinic in The Netherlands. No links allowed but you can easily google him and you'll find a lot of homeruns on crown work. 

Thanks, does look like they are confident in their results. I will add them to the list. I am going to make a much more detailed and researched thread in the surgeons page with better pics of all 4 sides including expectations and future goals. 

[Noor Vertex Hair Clinic]

On 4/17/2022 at 8:11 AM, blufforfold said:

Hey everyone,

I went through a series of mostly virtual consults back in the beginning of COVID and was pretty new and didnt ask too many intelligent questions and never really asked about expectations as I didnt really realize at the time the crown was the "black hole" and much harder to get good results.

I am 32 and have a very different balding pattern than my dad & brother so Im not sure if mine is more health related or if thats common but my front hairline is fine and both in person consults I did have didnt worry about my front hairline for now at all.

Ive attached three photos. I got quoted from 1500 grafts as the lowest from some surgeons to 2500 grafts from others as the highest quoted and that includes some in the mid scalp as that area is thinning. I think I actually screwed myself and I had a Dr I saw regularly for PRP on body parts injuries from sports. He said oh I do hair all the time do you want me to do your hair and said I get best results when I do it back to back in the starting, like every week or every other week. (big mistake) and I think almost all of my mid scalp thinning is due to this PRP I did. I had no mid scalp thinning until I did those PRP injections.

ANyways, my dad did go pretty damn bald in the end and my brother is balding pretty hard (hes 36) so even though Ive got a pretty decent hair of head (actually nobody in my life really except for my immediate family even knows I am balding, I have enough hair left that fibers + dermatch when I go in water) has been enough, I do realize that later on in life I will likely need another surgery or two. So im not trying to just lob in 3000 grafts or something and screw my donor for later on.

The only name Ive seen asscoaited with Crown work is Wong. Is there anybody else I should consider? I havent spoken with Wong yet. I did speak with Scott Alexander in Arizona who I also have heard is a top surgeon. I was actually leaning towards Dr. McGrath in Texas for a while and not going to knock them and maybe my result goals are simply unrealstic but they kinda just told me like yeah we suggest 2k grafts, maybe 2.5k when we see you in person but youre still gonna look thin on the crown just FYI. Thats when I started to look into it realized crown is considered the black hole and looking for surgeons known for the crown who are confident. I know nothing is a guarantee and that my health, my genetics and so many other factors play a role into how well the procedure goes. But I am looking to see who is known & going to be confident about their crown results.

 

 

Hi there,

I hope you are well.

kindly allow me to tag @DrTBarghouthifor his kind advice.

 

Wish you all the best,

Noor

[blufforfold]

6 hours ago, Noor Vertex Hair Clinic said:

Hi there,

I hope you are well.

kindly allow me to tag @DrTBarghouthifor his kind advice.

 

Wish you all the best,

Noor

Thanks I also made a much more detailed thread here which is more than just about "crown surgeons" but more about me, more photos etc - I just made it @DrTBarghouthi

 

[DrTBarghouthi]

6 hours ago, blufforfold said:

Thanks I also made a much more detailed thread here which is more than just about "crown surgeons" but more about me, more photos etc - I just made it @DrTBarghouthi

 

I will have a look at your other thread and reply there instead. 

[aaron1234]

Here's what Dr. Konior did for my crown with about 700 grafts.

[blufforfold]

21 hours ago, aaron1234 said:

Here's what Dr. Konior did for my crown with about 700 grafts.

Thats pretty incredible work. I am trying to do my best to look at results from various Drs but honestly not many people are posting crown results. 

Dr. Wong seems very good to me but uses a lot of grafts to get his results, which does concern me as I havent lost much in my hairline but no idea what will come for me in the future.

Dr. Konior seems very good, concerned about his prices and wait time however, for me it will depend what his confidence level is at what graft count when I do a consult with him. If hes confident in using a lower number of grafts with my desired fullness I will definitely consider him as an option.

Dr. Wesley has actually impressed me when looking at his results and it seems like he does a lot of no shave surgeries which is great for me. He has now become someone I am 100% doing a consult with and considering for my crown work.

Dr. Ahmad at Fuegenix has some great crown results on the website but I did not like some of the replies I saw on the website from them. Would love if anybody could comment more as to their work, going to look more at their results on this website.

Eugenix results seem to be mostly large surgeries but they do have some good crown results on their website, but I think with my desire to have a top notch result I would think most people will suggest I see someone like Dr. Konior, Wong or Wesley rather than Eugenix.

Dr. Bisanga - honestly again I admit Im a newbie but his results are not impressive to me at all. I do respect that he uses low graft counts but both his before/after on his page on the website & the reuslts in the group do not impress me at all as a newbie. I would not be happy with the density and lack of coverage in almost 50% of the results I see from him but he is using low graft counts for sure. Would love some input on why I seem to not be impressed by his results at all?

Dr. Freitas - still looking into him but seems to have incredible results but I cant find any crown results from him so far. If anybody knows of any that would be great.

Dr. Gabel - I would say the end results Ive seen from him are close to what I would want but he is using pretty low graft counts so I think I would get decent coverage and not destroy my donor with him

Who else should I be looking at that isn't on this list? I am open to travel anywhere, more than open to going to EU if Elite Drs there are better than USA for less money which I keep continually reading.
 

[davidn]

On 4/22/2022 at 5:10 AM, aaron1234 said:

Here's what Dr. Konior did for my crown with about 700 grafts.

This is the most ridiculously well graft to visual impact ratio I ever saw.