Dr.Shapiro Hairline advice

[parsia]

Hello Everyone . 

I'm 38 years old and NW4 , I may need 3500-4000 grafts based on some consultation I had before for my first surgery to get reasonable recovery. 

I am not able to leave the US ,  I know DR.Shapiro work is solid and very natural , However his hairline is somehow conservative for my taste , I personally like DR.Rahal hairline more as

my reference  . 

I will have in person consultation with Dr.Ron Shapiro next month and here are the questions I have if anyone can help  : 

1- Is it possible to ask Doctor to give you more aggressive hairline ( If donor is not an issue ) compare to his routine hairline ?! In Another words is it a good idea to have surgery with doctor who have solid work but try to negotiate about hairline/density design ?

2- Between DR.Shapiro and DR.Cooley which doctor have the best hairline/density  outcome ( I know they are par and very close but I want to know more details ) 

Thank You in advance. 

Edited June 11, 2022 by parsia

[Melvin- Admin]

Yes, absolutely you can ask him to be more aggressive. Keep in mind, you have to consider the future. 

[Gatsby]

Are you able to post some pics so we are able to give you better advice based on your situation? All the best!

[Fue3361]

Asking never hurts.  I specifically argued for my hairline to be lower than my surgeon wanted, spent a good 10+ minutes convincing him haha.

[parsia]

5 hours ago, Gatsby said:

Are you able to post some pics so we are able to give you better advice based on your situation? All the best!

Of course and Thank you for trying to help with my concern. 

I have attached some pics who has been taken under good lighting and also some flash , The length of hair is very short , Number 4 , If I make my hairs longer it will cover some of baldness . 

[parsia]

5 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Yes, absolutely you can ask him to be more aggressive. Keep in mind, you have to consider the future. 

Melvin , I am considering to do FUT First and have FUE later to maximize the result based on DR.Shapiro study , I may need to get 2-3 surgeries for my desire density . I believe I have a good Donor at this moment and capable of doing that. 

My only concern is if doctor hairline approach is very conservative ( Dr.Shapiro in this case)  , Will his design of more aggressive hairline outcome can be good as his routine  Conservative  hairline ?! Since that is probably not his routine work .  ( I do understand there are many factors are existing in the final result though )

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by parsia

[HairRun]

What might be helpful is to show what hairlines were proposed by each. 

[parsia]

27 minutes ago, HairRun said:

What might be helpful is to show what hairlines were proposed by each. 

You're right , I tried to look at the hairline of both doctors ( Shapiro and Cooley ) carefully  and couldn't find much difference , Just like to get opinion of members  who have more knowledge about them .

[A Fue Good Men]

Both are excellent surgeons IMO. Cooley tips the scale for me a bit especially for fue as he is involved in most of the surgery including the extractions. Shapiro has Dr. Josephitis do extractions for fue from what I recall. Not a knock on josephitis just stating my preferences. 

[parsia]

18 minutes ago, 5BetaReductase said:

Both are excellent surgeons IMO. Cooley tips the scale for me a bit especially for fue as he is involved in most of the surgery including the extractions. Shapiro has Dr. Josephitis do extractions for fue from what I recall. Not a knock on josephitis just stating my preferences. 

Thank you for your comment , You're right Josephitis do extractions for FUE DR.Shapiro , I will probably have to do FUT with either Shapiro or Cooley.

Do you have any opinion about the difference of hairline between them ? Or preference ? I would love to hear. 

[parsia]

Hello Guys , 

Quick Update that I will go to DR.Ron Shapiro office this week and my appointment is on Thursday.

Please share with me your opinion about hairline since I'm looking for more aggressive hairline than what DR.Shapiro normally do , So I can address that during consulation.

Any Opinion or comment will be appreciated.

 

[parsia]

On 6/11/2022 at 5:31 AM, Gatsby said:

Are you able to post some pics so we are able to give you better advice based on your situation? All the best!

I have uploaded some photo of my hairs , I hope it can help to get better advice.

[Gatsby]

You have a lot of hair to keep @parsia. Are you taking minoxidil or finasteride? You can certainly go lower with your hairline but it would be a good idea to keep it to your original one. I assume those thin hairs at the mid point was where your original hair line was? The number one goal you really want to be aiming for is to look as though you never had a hair transplant in the first place. Let that dictate where the hairline should be and also the fact that you want a hairline for life as you age. All the best!

[parsia]

5 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

You have a lot of hair to keep @parsia. Are you taking minoxidil or finasteride? You can certainly go lower with your hairline but it would be a good idea to keep it to your original one. I assume those thin hairs at the mid point was where your original hair line was? The number one goal you really want to be aiming for is to look as though you never had a hair transplant in the first place. Let that dictate where the hairline should be and also the fact that you want a hairline for life as you age. All the best!

Thank You Gatsby for your response, Yes I am using both Lipogaine ( Compound Minoxidil )which gave me some thickening and Finasteride also and yes those thin hair in midpoint is what was my original hairline was , I'm not looking to lower my hairline at all , Picture can be a little bit misleading since I'm at Narwood 4 and keeping this hairline is the best option as you mentioned , But I do like more dense hairline than the average of what I saw in DR.Shapiro work , No question he is the best surgeon in US but I just like youthful hairline more ( My taste preference ) 

 I do understand " Aging hairline  " concept  , But if we assume the person has a really good donor , Even with some future loss and doing second surgery , What is the cons of having youthful hairline ? I've heard this a lot and I do like to know the answer since I see people at age of 60's and still have youthfull hairline ( Even though between men they are in  minority ) 

I appreciate if you can address this for me .

[Gatsby]

In short IMHO a lot of hair transplant surgery is really about supply and demand (aside from the art of surgery). You appear to have a great donor so let yourself be guided by your doctor and remember there is no such thing as a silly question so ask him/her as much as you need to. When it comes down to hairlines no two people have the exact same hairline. If you are a candidate in your surgeon's opinion (and from their wealth of experience) for a lower hairline that will work well over your life span then go for it. It's mainly young guys in their late teens/early twenties who want a hairline that will waste not only precious grafts but will also look unnatural in the years to come. All the best!

[parsia]

7 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

In short IMHO a lot of hair transplant surgery is really about supply and demand (aside from the art of surgery). You appear to have a great donor so let yourself be guided by your doctor and remember there is no such thing as a silly question so ask him/her as much as you need to. When it comes down to hairlines no two people have the exact same hairline. If you are a candidate in your surgeon's opinion (and from their wealth of experience) for a lower hairline that will work well over your life span then go for it. It's mainly young guys in their late teens/early twenties who want a hairline that will waste not only precious grafts but will also look unnatural in the years to come. All the best!

Thank you for your advice , Yes I totally agree with you it is all about supply and demand + Art of Surgery , I do have a little bit thinning in some area of my Donor area as well but overall I do believe my donor is more than average  , Plus my hairs are thick and curly when it grows so it can cover more area , At this point I also  like to see if FUT would be the best choice for me or not in a case if I want to follow that by FUE to harvest more grafts  ( Which based on DR.Shapiro research it can give you  1500-3000 more grafts compare to only doing FUE ) and thats the main reason I like to have consult with DR.Shapiro since he is doing both FUE and FUT to find the best option for my situation and also my goals. 

[HairRun]

That's funny because in my initial review I thought that Dr Shapiro has more youthful looking hairlines from the initial reviews I looked at. I thought I had to convince him to go more conservative but when I got to him in person and told him that I am off finasteride so there's a possibility that I'll lose my whole top, he came up with a hairline that was even more conservative than I was thinking of, but I went for it because I could always build it up later. 

If Dr Shapiro comes up with a hairline, I would go for it because he's taking into account the long term. 

Dr Josephitis did the extractions for my punchouts, I got the best result possible , no noticeable difference. 

I ranked Shapiro #1 for my case because he came across as a person who has spent a ton of time researching, pioneering, and learning from others. I was a complicated case due to several questionable techniques used in my first hair transplant surgery. I needed a doctor who was the most 'seen it all' person, and I ranked Dr Shapiro #1 in that category. 

My impression was confirmed at the surgery since I could tell he was considering a lot and the wheels were always turning. His curiosity and learning was also confirmed, as he was curious about many aspects of my first surgery, including how the FUT scar was closed and how they did the numbing. 

They also did stuff that I don't think they charged me for like the graft relocation and scar revision. They just seemed to focus on fixing everything done wrong in my first procedure. 

Now that I have learned that grafts can be extracted without visible scaring, I plan to go more youthful since I have a ton of beard grafts in the bank. Also, my crown doesn't seem to be losing even though I've been off Fin for nearly 4 months, which is also encouraging but too soon. 

I'm not a complicated case anymore but I hope to pick Dr Shapiro again for my buildup procedure because of the great experience the first time, but I don't see Beard grafts transplant listed on his website, but I hope he's open to it. 

 

 

[parsia]

26 minutes ago, HairRun said:

That's funny because in my initial review I thought that Dr Shapiro has more youthful looking hairlines from the initial reviews I looked at. I thought I had to convince him to go more conservative but when I got to him in person and told him that I am off finasteride so there's a possibility that I'll lose my whole top, he came up with a hairline that was even more conservative than I was thinking of, but I went for it because I could always build it up later. 

If Dr Shapiro comes up with a hairline, I would go for it because he's taking into account the long term. 

Dr Josephitis did the extractions for my punchouts, I got the best result possible , no noticeable difference. 

I ranked Shapiro #1 for my case because he came across as a person who has spent a ton of time researching, pioneering, and learning from others. I was a complicated case due to several questionable techniques used in my first hair transplant surgery. I needed a doctor who was the most 'seen it all' person, and I ranked Dr Shapiro #1 in that category. 

My impression was confirmed at the surgery since I could tell he was considering a lot and the wheels were always turning. His curiosity and learning was also confirmed, as he was curious about many aspects of my first surgery, including how the FUT scar was closed and how they did the numbing. 

They also did stuff that I don't think they charged me for like the graft relocation and scar revision. They just seemed to focus on fixing everything done wrong in my first procedure. 

Now that I have learned that grafts can be extracted without visible scaring, I plan to go more youthful since I have a ton of beard grafts in the bank. Also, my crown doesn't seem to be losing even though I've been off Fin for nearly 4 months, which is also encouraging but too soon. 

I'm not a complicated case anymore but I hope to pick Dr Shapiro again for my buildup procedure because of the great experience the first time, but I don't see Beard grafts transplant listed on his website, but I hope he's open to it. 

 

 

 

26 minutes ago, HairRun said:

That's funny because in my initial review I thought that Dr Shapiro has more youthful looking hairlines from the initial reviews I looked at. I thought I had to convince him to go more conservative but when I got to him in person and told him that I am off finasteride so there's a possibility that I'll lose my whole top, he came up with a hairline that was even more conservative than I was thinking of, but I went for it because I could always build it up later. 

If Dr Shapiro comes up with a hairline, I would go for it because he's taking into account the long term. 

Dr Josephitis did the extractions for my punchouts, I got the best result possible , no noticeable difference. 

I ranked Shapiro #1 for my case because he came across as a person who has spent a ton of time researching, pioneering, and learning from others. I was a complicated case due to several questionable techniques used in my first hair transplant surgery. I needed a doctor who was the most 'seen it all' person, and I ranked Dr Shapiro #1 in that category. 

My impression was confirmed at the surgery since I could tell he was considering a lot and the wheels were always turning. His curiosity and learning was also confirmed, as he was curious about many aspects of my first surgery, including how the FUT scar was closed and how they did the numbing. 

They also did stuff that I don't think they charged me for like the graft relocation and scar revision. They just seemed to focus on fixing everything done wrong in my first procedure. 

Now that I have learned that grafts can be extracted without visible scaring, I plan to go more youthful since I have a ton of beard grafts in the bank. Also, my crown doesn't seem to be losing even though I've been off Fin for nearly 4 months, which is also encouraging but too soon. 

I'm not a complicated case anymore but I hope to pick Dr Shapiro again for my buildup procedure because of the great experience the first time, but I don't see Beard grafts transplant listed on his website, but I hope he's open to it. 

 

 

Thank you for sharing your experience and also posting on my thread , I have actually saw your thread before and as you mentioned since your case was a repair case it can be categorize differently than mine , No question about DR.Shapiro expertise in designing hairline and having long term plan and his ethics , Thats why I am flying from California to go and visit him . 

His hairline design is very natural and in most cases you can't even say they have done surgery but  as you know people have different taste when it comes to hairline and also definition of Youthful hairline can be different between two individual  , If I want to just give you  an example of youthful hairline I am considering  , If you have seen DR.Rahal hairline before , Those are the hairlines I'm considering as youthful hairlines , You can add DR.Armani and Hayatdavoudi to that list  because the foundation of their works is pretty much similar to DR.Rahal .  

Edited September 26, 2022 by parsia

[parsia]

UPDATE: 

I finally had in person consultation with Dr.Shapiro and I made another thread on the forum , I post the link below for those who help me on this matter and also like to follow the result : 

 

 

[parsia]

Update-

I have finally done my surgery with Dr.Shapiro and also DR.Joe about a week ago since I was on waiting list for 11 months  , We have done the FUE for 3500 grafts and totals of 7151 hairs , I was amazed by their team and how professional they were to treat me as a patient  , Overall I was very satisfied with how the surgery went , Even though we did kind of a large surgery  but the staff was very friendly and It went very smoothly , Also my many thanks to my friend Ryan on forum who helped me a lot for my surgery , If you have any question about procedure feel free to ask and I will be happy to answer .

[hairmee]

I sent you a message

[parsia]

Thank you all for your help and comments and supports.  

 I have started a thread of my result and I wanted to share with you all who helped me , Feel free to comment or share your thoughts on my thread :

 

 

[parsia]

On 9/25/2022 at 6:01 PM, Gatsby said:

In short IMHO a lot of hair transplant surgery is really about supply and demand (aside from the art of surgery). You appear to have a great donor so let yourself be guided by your doctor and remember there is no such thing as a silly question so ask him/her as much as you need to. When it comes down to hairlines no two people have the exact same hairline. If you are a candidate in your surgeon's opinion (and from their wealth of experience) for a lower hairline that will work well over your life span then go for it. It's mainly young guys in their late teens/early twenties who want a hairline that will waste not only precious grafts but will also look unnatural in the years to come. All the best!

Hi Gatsby , I just wanted to say my special thanks for your support to me and all other members on this forum , I have also posted a a link of my new thread with my results. 

Side note : You were right about me having great donor without seeing my donor , Lol , Because when I had in person consultation with Dr.Shapiro he also mentioned that ( Also two surgeons I had consultation with them before they were complimenting about my donor )

Thank You 

Edited March 24 by parsia

[Silent123]

Hey man, I'd a bit a little more conservative and not go super low. Think how you will look in 20 years time

[parsia]

3 hours ago, Silent123 said:

Hey man, I'd a bit a little more conservative and not go super low. Think how you will look in 20 years time

Hello , Thank you for your comment , I have already done the surgery and posted the link of thread and photos on this thread in abogeryve messages.

I did the conservative hairline and would probably tweak in in near future.