Norwood 7 need solid doctor recommendation (Melvin?)

[Kassar]

Hi guys,

Apologies for this novel of a post, but I have a situation and I would appreciate some help.

I'm an over 40, Caucasian, blond guy, with fine hair, a q-ball top and crown and a Norwood 7. My hair loss has been stable for more then 15 years. My donor area is pretty normal and has a bow tie shape where the sides in the back are wide and the center, under the crown, is narrower. If I wait to get a haircut and let it grow longer my stylist always has to thin out the bulk, so I feel good about density. My hair loss started at around 17-18, with thinning, receding, and miniaturization, and that's how it went. It never fell out where I would find it in the sink. It just quietly thinned and shrunk. For the longest time I had no money to fix it and I didn't want to take Finasteride because of the sides, specially when I was younger. Rogaine didn't do much of anything.

I have been researching hair transplantation and transplant doctors for many years, so I'm pretty up to date on the subject. Through the years I went through a few consultations, but ultimately I never got around to doing it. Now everything is in place, but I have a hard time deciding who to go with. I'm in LA and really don't wanna travel if I can avoid it, but if I must I'll do it. At one point I was sure that I will go with Dr. Diep, but I nixed that idea after I looked into him more. I know about H&W, but again, I rather avoid traveling if I can. I looked at Mohebi and it seems he would be a good choice, but then I found Dr. Behnam. I searched through the forums and I know what the general consensus is about him here, but I find that odd. I combed through his reviews, his YouTube videos, and his site and he seems to be doing  and saying all the right things. He seems committed, thorough, detail oriented with a really good personality and bedside manner. And his technique and reasoning make perfect sense. What am I missing? I also know about Dr. Carman.

I need a doctor that can maximize what I have, use whatever beard and chest hair I have, which is not a crazy lot but it's usable, and can make it look better than it should be allowed to look. I do know I want to cover everything, the front, crown and mid scalp and barring some kind of surprise it shouldn't be an issue.

I'm under no illusions. I realize that I'm an advanced case, but overall I think I have enough things in my favor that it should be doable. After it's all said and done I will definitely do SMP to help make things look fuller and I will do PRP and whatever else I can do, to keep things in good order and encourage a healthy scalp and follicles. After that I'll be waiting for the hair cloning to be worked out, whichever team gets there first.

Lastly, regarding those consultations I had, I might as well come out and say something about one of the doctors. This is probably for Melvin. One of the consultations I had was with Dr. Gabel and it was several years ago. I had an initial phone consult with him and he wanted to do a video one, which we did. At the end of the video consult he said he will call me the following day to give me his final opinion and recommendations. Well... he ghosted me. I never heard back from him. I tried to reach him three times at random days and times and every time the receptionist said he is not available, without any explanation. I did explain to her why I was calling, so it seemed she was stonewalling. Either Gabel has/had a serious issue with communication in his office, or it was deliberate. From the way it went down I can't give him the benefit of the doubt. I gave them three chances to be reminded and for them to get back to me. Random days and times. He ghosted me plain and simple, and it is unprofessional, petty and childish. If my case was too much for him to handle or he had doubts about his ability to do a good job he should have just come out and say so. He didn't.

I felt I needed to let you guys know.

Regarding my question, all recommendations or suggestions are appreciated.

Edited September 4, 2022 by Kassar
Fixed typos

[mister_25]

When it comes to people at Norwood 7, I think of Dr Sethi at Eugenix or Dr Pitella in Brazil. No one else comes to mind maybe other than a few H&W results I've seen.

I've been seriously impressed by how much Dr Sethi was able to do with Zoomsters beard so if you are going to use beard hair he is the one I would think of. Whilst on Pitellas side I saw a result of his that was outstanding on a Norwood 7 with poor donor.

[BurnieBurns]

Can't to say exactly without pictures. but if I was a NW7 I'd only go to 3 doctors.

If wanting to start with FUT: Dr Wong at Hasson and Wong

If I wanted to use body hair: Eugenix or Dr Pitella 

[HairEnthusiast101]

2 hours ago, mister_25 said:

When it comes to people at Norwood 7, I think of Dr Sethi at Eugenix or Dr Pitella in Brazil. No one else comes to mind maybe other than a few H&W results I've seen.

I've been seriously impressed by how much Dr Sethi was able to do with Zoomsters beard so if you are going to use beard hair he is the one I would think of. Whilst on Pitellas side I saw a result of his that was outstanding on a Norwood 7 with poor donor.

Serious question since you seem very knowledgeable. Zoomster case was incredible but let’s say someone doesn’t have great beard grafts if any and goes nw7. Are they basically hopeless since there will never be enough donor hair for coverage or is there other ways to fill in the coverage?

[Kassar]

2 hours ago, mister_25 said:

When it comes to people at Norwood 7, I think of Dr Sethi at Eugenix or Dr Pitella in Brazil. No one else comes to mind maybe other than a few H&W results I've seen.

I've been seriously impressed by how much Dr Sethi was able to do with Zoomsters beard so if you are going to use beard hair he is the one I would think of. Whilst on Pitellas side I saw a result of his that was outstanding on a Norwood 7 with poor donor.

Thanks for replying.

It seems from your answer that advanced case results with H&W are a hit and miss. When it comes to beard hair, I'm not particularly hairy and I have an average beard mostly along the jaw line and the neck and I can grow a goatee. Can't grow it on the sides and cheeks. So, it's usable, but I doubt it would be a major contributor. I am aware of Eugenix, but India is too far for me. I had to look up Dr. Pittella and I would pick him if there is no one else. Seriously though, there is no one in the US and specifically the west coast or LA that has the chops to do what Eugenix and Pittella are doing? It's not like they're doing sorcery. I mean it might seem like they do because of the results, but all these doctors are talking to each other and learn from each other. And what about Dr. Behnam? Could you elaborate on why the sentiment about him?

[John1991]

Pictures would help.  Pretty much everyone here will tell you not to limit your choices by geography.  And do you really want to spend tens of thousands of dollars and years recovering just to (in all likelihood) look like you're a man who's significantly on the way to balding even after all that?  Why not get a very realistic hairpiece?  That has to be easier.

Edited September 5, 2022 by John1991

[Kassar]

3 hours ago, mister_25 said:

When it comes to people at Norwood 7, I think of Dr Sethi at Eugenix or Dr Pitella in Brazil. No one else comes to mind maybe other than a few H&W results I've seen.

I've been seriously impressed by how much Dr Sethi was able to do with Zoomsters beard so if you are going to use beard hair he is the one I would think of. Whilst on Pitellas side I saw a result of his that was outstanding on a Norwood 7 with poor donor.

I triple and quadruple checked the Norwood scale images just for kicks and giggles and it seems that in actuality I'm a 6, not a 7. At least based on the images. It's the slightly wider section on the 6 image, under the cowlick and the lot wider section on the sides.

[LookMaxx]

Konior 

 

[Kassar]

5 minutes ago, John1991 said:

Pictures would help.  Pretty much everyone here will tell you not to limit your choices by geography.  And do you really want to spend tens of thousands of dollars and years recovering just to (in all likelihood) look like you're a man who's significantly on the way to balding even after all that?  Why not get a very realistic hairpiece?  That has to be easier.

Appreciate your suggestions, and ultimately I WILL travel if that's my only option. As for a hairpiece, hell... no!  I don't need to or have to.

As I've said in my initial post I have plenty enough hair to be able to get a good result in the right hands. I just need to find the person with the right hands.

[Kassar]

Just now, LookMaxx said:

Konior 

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I already looked at his website. The hairlines on some of his advanced hair loss cases look odd, or too high and not natural. It might be just the pictures. And his name doesn't seem to come up regarding advanced Norwood cases.

[LookMaxx]

2 minutes ago, Kassar said:

Thanks for the suggestion. I already looked at his website. The hairlines on some of his advanced hair loss cases look odd, or too high and not natural. It might be just the pictures. And his name doesn't seem to come up regarding advanced Norwood cases.

He doesn’t have many recent cases here either but he’s highly regarded. I figured if a surgeon has decent graft survival rate then Norwood level shouldn’t matter after all at higher norwoods graft survival matters since you’ve so little grafts to move. 

[Kassar]

2 minutes ago, LookMaxx said:

He doesn’t have many recent cases here either but he’s highly regarded. I figured if a surgeon has decent graft survival rate then Norwood level shouldn’t matter after all at higher norwoods graft survival matters since you’ve so little grafts to move. 

From the years of digging around the interwebs it seems that technique is the determining factor in both, extraction/survivability and good/naturalistic results. You can have all the survivability in the world, but if you don't get the placement right it's meaningless. That's how you can have 750 grafts look like 1600 and have 2500 look like it's 750.

And when it comes to advanced cases all that matters even more, because of the already limited donor, and large recipient area. If the surgeon doesn't do it right, there is no redo button.

[Gatsby]

@Kassar you will have to travel. What are your goals? Frontal coverage, full coverage, etc? If you could supply pics with your faced blocked out of your donor and beard it would greatly help to see whether you are Norwood 6 or 7 as well as giving an idea on your donor. If you are Norwood 7 then you will have to augment with beard grafts and Eugenix are renowned for doing this in very high numbers. The only other surgeon I would personally recommend would be Dr Pitella who has had some great results in Norwood 7 cases. Wishing you all the best!

[mister_25]

4 hours ago, Kassar said:

Thanks for replying.

It seems from your answer that advanced case results with H&W are a hit and miss. When it comes to beard hair, I'm not particularly hairy and I have an average beard mostly along the jaw line and the neck and I can grow a goatee. Can't grow it on the sides and cheeks. So, it's usable, but I doubt it would be a major contributor. I am aware of Eugenix, but India is too far for me. I had to look up Dr. Pittella and I would pick him if there is no one else. Seriously though, there is no one in the US and specifically the west coast or LA that has the chops to do what Eugenix and Pittella are doing? It's not like they're doing sorcery. I mean it might seem like they do because of the results, but all these doctors are talking to each other and learn from each other. And what about Dr. Behnam? Could you elaborate on why the sentiment about him?

I wouldn't say H&W are hit or miss. They are definitely at the top of the game (enough so that Hasson is the surgeon I chose for my surgery). Its that different surgeons have different skillsets. (In my case I want someone that is good at Norwood 4s and 5s)

Zarev for example is in my opinion the best if you are a high Norwood with good donor. Whilst Pitella has outstanding results on average and poor donors at grade 7. Sethi is great at high difficulty cases such as complex repair patients and also a wizard at using beard grafts.

If I was a Norwood 7 I would be very picky with the surgeon I would choose. It just makes sense to go to the best the harder your case is. Hair mills can sometimes succeed but when do you ever see a result of theirs that impresses you that is a Norwood 4+? Never. The truth is the more extensive your loss the more difficult a case you are. The more extensive the loss the more grafts you need to transplant and the donor zone can only handle so much, that's why I put alot of emphasis on Pitella and Sethi who have shown their skills with beard/body hair whilst whilst keeping the donor visually intact as much as possible. while H&W are great at Norwood 6/7 they are much more aggressive with their graft counts in lower Norwood's going for higher densities with less sessions. That's where their skills show, still a good option but not their "sweetspot" if that makes any sense.

I can't really elaborate on Dr Behnam, I don't really know much of him as he never flew on my radar of recommended surgeons in the first place. I personally think the whole no reply ghosting thing is unprofessional and would probably carry over into his aftercare. You wouldn't want to get ghosted when asking questions to a doctor that performed surgery on you.

4 hours ago, JoDimaggio22 said:

Serious question since you seem very knowledgeable. Zoomster case was incredible but let’s say someone doesn’t have great beard grafts if any and goes nw7. Are they basically hopeless since there will never be enough donor hair for coverage or is there other ways to fill in the coverage?

The result you get is dependent on how much donor you have. If you have DUPA, you can't guarantee any of your donor to be stable so its always a gamble. If you have retrograde your donor capacity is reduced by either a small or modest amount. Same thing with beard, if you can't grow much of a beard, then you could say your overall donor everywhere on your body is reduced. Depends on what your definition of hopeless is. You might not be able to get the appearance of full coverage but you could get the appearance of thinning somewhat whilst still getting a balanced look. 

The simple answer is that hair transplants are a supply/demand issue. If you are a Norwood 7 which is the worst case scenario on balding on top but you had superhuman donor that was three times denser than the average person then you could get a full head of hair. Whilst someone who was a Norwood 4 with poor donor has a more manageable area to cover and most likely could get a full head of hair again. Yet again another factor is hair characteristics. 1000 grafts from someone with fine hair might look the same as 500 Grafts from someone with coarse hair. 

Scalp hair is always the primary source that is used for hair transplants. Some doctors like Pitella and Zarev go into deep formulated plans where they overharvest in a homogenous way that makes them have a thinner donor area but you aren't able to notice it because its not patchy. That way you can get a larger amount of grafts out of a area whilst still having a good result. 

Beard hair is the 2nd best alternative to scalp hair. Beard hair is coarse/thicker but has a lower anagen phase (meaning grows out for a shorter time frame). In addition from what I've gathered beard hair can be a bit harder to tame than scalp hair and doesn't behave as well when used in large amounts without regular scalp hair mixed in. As good as beard hair can be recently as shown by Eugenix you can end up like a user called track_rat who has these untamable beard hairs that he will need to use a straightener or some other solution on. In addition beard hair can only be used so much outside of this as it will look much more unnatural in your hairline because finer single hair grafts are used. Meaning the best place to place it in is the midscalp and then the crown.

If you don't have the best beard hair and still need the grafts, body hair is the final alternative and from what I've gathered has a much lower survival rate (although a quote on a thread from Pitella says otherwise) and has much less coverage value. Its only used in advanced cases but it doesn't do much heavy lifting on your result. You do rely on your beard/scalp hair at a high norwood case but body hair can really scale up your result. There was a result that was posted by Eugenix a while ago that had incredible body hair characteristics that did a big amount of heavy lifting. If I find it ill edit this post with it below

Take a look at this case from Pitella who had 3276 Beard Grafts and 1065 Chest Hair Grafts whilst having what Dr Pitella describes as Poor Donor.

Poor Donor, Thin Hair, Large head. These are all poor combinations going against this patient and he had nothing on top. Even though he has the appearance on thinning on top. It looks somewhat "normal" and "homogenized" whilst having a strong but high hairline which complements his look when looking at him straight on.  Obviously there is a large amount of illusion at play with the homogenized harvesting and hair style to complement but considering the fact that he was a almost a worst case scenario to having hair that looks this on top I would consider this a very successful transplant.

Here is another example from what Pitella describes as a Average Donor with minimal beard grafts (995) used.

 

To answer you question summarized. You might not be able to get full coverage, but you can still get a impressive hair transplant result that makes you have the appearance of thinning but with hair on top if your willing to compromise and have styles that complement your hair (the illusion of density). You might not be able to achieve full coverage but you might be able to get something on the lines of "Strong Frontal Hairline with diminishing results in the midscalp that slowly approaches the state of thinning in the crown" which all things considered is a massive difference where as you start as a Slick bald in a Norwood 7 zone. In the end donor capacity matters just as much as your Norwood grade.

 

[LookMaxx]

5 hours ago, Kassar said:

From the years of digging around the interwebs it seems that technique is the determining factor in both, extraction/survivability and good/naturalistic results. You can have all the survivability in the world, but if you don't get the placement right it's meaningless. That's how you can have 750 grafts look like 1600 and have 2500 look like it's 750.

And when it comes to advanced cases all that matters even more, because of the already limited donor, and large recipient area. If the surgeon doesn't do it right, there is no redo button.

I disagree. The difference is only survival. You can have the best angles and placement but they’re going to look pretty damn terrible without good survival as has been shown by bad results here. If you’ve 100% survival it will look damn impressive which world class surgeons get close to. 

Eugenix has the best graft survival that’s why they can use beard and body hair and are the go to place for higher norwoods. 

Do you think a norwood 7 will look impressive with 50 amazing placed hairs that managed to survive versus 5000 badly placed hairs (whatever that means?) Funny thing is even Norwood 7 have few hairs on top that have best angles from nature that survive the DHT onslaught and that looks funny as hell. Survival definitely wins over angles. Even people with bad hairs/mop of unstylable hairs look better than a bald Norwood 7 with few amazingly angled stragglers. 

I hear Konior is the best in the world right now but if he has bad results for higher norwoods then maybe he’s not the best.

This is of course my opinion but I will go to a doctor that can move my hairs with 100% survival, I don’t care if they’re angled wherever. Because I have thinned out great angled hairs from nature but I look bad. If I had badly angled hairs I wouldn’t be looking so old. 

Here is an example that this forum considers crap results and bad hair transplant but I would be happy with this result - good survival bad angles

So yeah in my opinion the art part of this business is blown out of proportion for marketing purposes. It’s all about who can move hairs without damaging them 

[Kassar]

18 hours ago, mister_25 said:

I wouldn't say H&W are hit or miss. They are definitely at the top of the game (enough so that Hasson is the surgeon I chose for my surgery). Its that different surgeons have different skillsets. (In my case I want someone that is good at Norwood 4s and 5s)

Zarev for example is in my opinion the best if you are a high Norwood with good donor. Whilst Pitella has outstanding results on average and poor donors at grade 7. Sethi is great at high difficulty cases such as complex repair patients and also a wizard at using beard grafts.

If I was a Norwood 7 I would be very picky with the surgeon I would choose. It just makes sense to go to the best the harder your case is. Hair mills can sometimes succeed but when do you ever see a result of theirs that impresses you that is a Norwood 4+? Never. The truth is the more extensive your loss the more difficult a case you are. The more extensive the loss the more grafts you need to transplant and the donor zone can only handle so much, that's why I put alot of emphasis on Pitella and Sethi who have shown their skills with beard/body hair whilst whilst keeping the donor visually intact as much as possible. while H&W are great at Norwood 6/7 they are much more aggressive with their graft counts in lower Norwood's going for higher densities with less sessions. That's where their skills show, still a good option but not their "sweetspot" if that makes any sense.

I can't really elaborate on Dr Behnam, I don't really know much of him as he never flew on my radar of recommended surgeons in the first place. I personally think the whole no reply ghosting thing is unprofessional and would probably carry over into his aftercare. You wouldn't want to get ghosted when asking questions to a doctor that performed surgery on you.

The result you get is dependent on how much donor you have. If you have DUPA, you can't guarantee any of your donor to be stable so its always a gamble. If you have retrograde your donor capacity is reduced by either a small or modest amount. Same thing with beard, if you can't grow much of a beard, then you could say your overall donor everywhere on your body is reduced. Depends on what your definition of hopeless is. You might not be able to get the appearance of full coverage but you could get the appearance of thinning somewhat whilst still getting a balanced look. 

The simple answer is that hair transplants are a supply/demand issue. If you are a Norwood 7 which is the worst case scenario on balding on top but you had superhuman donor that was three times denser than the average person then you could get a full head of hair. Whilst someone who was a Norwood 4 with poor donor has a more manageable area to cover and most likely could get a full head of hair again. Yet again another factor is hair characteristics. 1000 grafts from someone with fine hair might look the same as 500 Grafts from someone with coarse hair. 

Scalp hair is always the primary source that is used for hair transplants. Some doctors like Pitella and Zarev go into deep formulated plans where they overharvest in a homogenous way that makes them have a thinner donor area but you aren't able to notice it because its not patchy. That way you can get a larger amount of grafts out of a area whilst still having a good result. 

Beard hair is the 2nd best alternative to scalp hair. Beard hair is coarse/thicker but has a lower anagen phase (meaning grows out for a shorter time frame). In addition from what I've gathered beard hair can be a bit harder to tame than scalp hair and doesn't behave as well when used in large amounts without regular scalp hair mixed in. As good as beard hair can be recently as shown by Eugenix you can end up like a user called track_rat who has these untamable beard hairs that he will need to use a straightener or some other solution on. In addition beard hair can only be used so much outside of this as it will look much more unnatural in your hairline because finer single hair grafts are used. Meaning the best place to place it in is the midscalp and then the crown.

If you don't have the best beard hair and still need the grafts, body hair is the final alternative and from what I've gathered has a much lower survival rate (although a quote on a thread from Pitella says otherwise) and has much less coverage value. Its only used in advanced cases but it doesn't do much heavy lifting on your result. You do rely on your beard/scalp hair at a high norwood case but body hair can really scale up your result. There was a result that was posted by Eugenix a while ago that had incredible body hair characteristics that did a big amount of heavy lifting. If I find it ill edit this post with it below

Take a look at this case from Pitella who had 3276 Beard Grafts and 1065 Chest Hair Grafts whilst having what Dr Pitella describes as Poor Donor.

Poor Donor, Thin Hair, Large head. These are all poor combinations going against this patient and he had nothing on top. Even though he has the appearance on thinning on top. It looks somewhat "normal" and "homogenized" whilst having a strong but high hairline which complements his look when looking at him straight on.  Obviously there is a large amount of illusion at play with the homogenized harvesting and hair style to complement but considering the fact that he was a almost a worst case scenario to having hair that looks this on top I would consider this a very successful transplant.

Here is another example from what Pitella describes as a Average Donor with minimal beard grafts (995) used.

 

To answer you question summarized. You might not be able to get full coverage, but you can still get a impressive hair transplant result that makes you have the appearance of thinning but with hair on top if your willing to compromise and have styles that complement your hair (the illusion of density). You might not be able to achieve full coverage but you might be able to get something on the lines of "Strong Frontal Hairline with diminishing results in the midscalp that slowly approaches the state of thinning in the crown" which all things considered is a massive difference where as you start as a Slick bald in a Norwood 7 zone. In the end donor capacity matters just as much as your Norwood grade.

 

It was Gabel in Portland who ghosted me, not Behnam.

I haven't gone to Behnam for anything yet, but I'm gonna at least get a consult. Feel him out and see what he says. And yes, I'm very careful. That's why I'm on here, picking you guys' brains. Frankly this whole process is exhausting. It makes my brain hurt sometimes. Just when I finally settle on a surgeon I find some new info that makes me put the breaks on.

[Kassar]

16 hours ago, LookMaxx said:

I disagree. The difference is only survival. You can have the best angles and placement but they’re going to look pretty damn terrible without good survival as has been shown by bad results here. If you’ve 100% survival it will look damn impressive which world class surgeons get close to. 

Eugenix has the best graft survival that’s why they can use beard and body hair and are the go to place for higher norwoods. 

Do you think a norwood 7 will look impressive with 50 amazing placed hairs that managed to survive versus 5000 badly placed hairs (whatever that means?) Funny thing is even Norwood 7 have few hairs on top that have best angles from nature that survive the DHT onslaught and that looks funny as hell. Survival definitely wins over angles. Even people with bad hairs/mop of unstylable hairs look better than a bald Norwood 7 with few amazingly angled stragglers. 

I hear Konior is the best in the world right now but if he has bad results for higher norwoods then maybe he’s not the best.

This is of course my opinion but I will go to a doctor that can move my hairs with 100% survival, I don’t care if they’re angled wherever. Because I have thinned out great angled hairs from nature but I look bad. If I had badly angled hairs I wouldn’t be looking so old. 

Here is an example that this forum considers crap results and bad hair transplant but I would be happy with this result - good survival bad angles

So yeah in my opinion the art part of this business is blown out of proportion for marketing purposes. It’s all about who can move hairs without damaging them 

You seem to be coming from the assumption that most doctors, or the industry as a whole had garbage survivability. I'm talking about the top tier doctors, the ones all the hair loss, slash transplant forums, trust. The ones that are worth considering and going to. Their survivability is 90 plus percent and then the most important thing is placement. BTW there is no such thing as 100 percent survivability. It can happen by accident but generally speaking you will always have some that don't survive for various reasons. Even if it's just one FU, that by itself is already not 100 percent. How would you even verify? You would have to somehow be able to visibly tag all FUs and be able to accurately count them to see if all of them made it, and do that for thousands of grafts and for every patient.

Bottom line is, we can agree to disagree. Nothing wrong with that.

[Kassar]

22 hours ago, Gatsby said:

@Kassar you will have to travel. What are your goals? Frontal coverage, full coverage, etc? If you could supply pics with your faced blocked out of your donor and beard it would greatly help to see whether you are Norwood 6 or 7 as well as giving an idea on your donor. If you are Norwood 7 then you will have to augment with beard grafts and Eugenix are renowned for doing this in very high numbers. The only other surgeon I would personally recommend would be Dr Pitella who has had some great results in Norwood 7 cases. Wishing you all the best!

Thanks. To answer your question, I have explained most of what you're asking in my original post. As for pics and helping me determine what Norwood class I fall into, that's not what I need help with. I need help with finding a doctor that can handle advanced cases like mine, regardless if it's 6 or 7. We all know that even the best pictures can only tell you so much. As soon as you are in the doctors office, literally under their microscope, assumptions go out the window and reality kicks in. And what was assumed can change really quickly. There is no substitute for physical presence. Certain things are just not possible without the doctor being able to feel the hair quality and seeing the follicles under magnification. Pictures can't do that.

As for me having to travel... we'll see. Maybe you're right and I will have no other option but to travel if I want the best possible chance for the best possible outcome. But maybe not.

[mister_25]

3 hours ago, Kassar said:

It was Gabel in Portland who ghosted me, not Behnam.

I haven't gone to Behnam for anything yet, but I'm gonna at least get a consult. Feel him out and see what he says. And yes, I'm very careful. That's why I'm on here, picking you guys' brains. Frankly this whole process is exhausting. It makes my brain hurt sometimes. Just when I finally settle on a surgeon I find some new info that makes me put the breaks on.

No surgeon is perfect, every surgeon has unhappy customers/patients. Sometimes poor growth happens and its outside of the surgeons hands.

 

[Melvin- Admin]

Behnam was my first doctor the results were okay. I had great results with Dr. Diep, so I have nothing negative to say at all about him. I have observed Dr. Mohebi three times in surgery, so I know he’s excellent.

That said, if you’re a Norwood 7, you should consider Eugenix, Pittella, or hasson and wong. These three clinics have a large portfolio of doing Norwood 6+. There’s no best clinic, only best for your situation.

[Kassar]

3 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Behnam was my first doctor the results were NOT good. I had great results with Dr. Diep, so I have nothing negative to say at all about him. I have observed Dr. Mohebi three times in surgery, so I know he’s excellent.

That said, if you’re a Norwood 7, you should consider Eugenix, Pittella, or hasson and wong. These three clinics have a large portfolio of doing Norwood 6+. There’s no best clinic, only best for your situation.

Thanks, Melvin.

Am I correct about you having your transplant with Behnam back in 2014 or 2015? If it's correct then I would assume that he would have improved since then. Eight years is a long time. I understand you having a bad experience, but I will probably have a consult with him, just to see. As I've said before I was sure I will go with Diep, but there seem to be some issues with him. What's your thought about him for cases like mine?

Even though I'm not keen on traveling I looked up flights to Brazil and India. All the flights I found for Brazil, to see PIttella, are a nightmare. India is a direct flight, so I would probably be forced to go with Eugenix.

Edited September 7, 2022 by Kassar

[Melvin- Admin]

17 minutes ago, Kassar said:

Thanks, Melvin.

Am I correct about you having your transplant with Behnam back in 2014 or 2015? If it's correct then I would assume that he would have improved since then. Eight years is a long time. I understand you having a bad experience, but I will probably have a consult with him, just to see. As I've said before I was sure I will go with Diep, but there seem to be some issues with him. What's your thought about him for cases like mine?

Even though I'm not keen on traveling I looked up flights to Brazil and India. All the flights I found for Brazil, to see PIttella, are a nightmare. India is a direct flight, so I would probably be forced to go with Eugenix.

Personally, I haven’t seen any good recent work from him, could he have improved? Yes, but then I’m sure I would have seen some good reviews here, which I have not. Regardless, by all means consult with him. You could also look up SamB on YouTube another Norwood 6 who went to him, see what you think. 

Cases like yours, you wanna choose surgeons with experience doing megasessions and transplanting high Norwoods. H&W, Eugenix and Pittella have the largest portfolio IMO. 

[Kassar]

2 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Personally, I haven’t seen any good recent work from him, could he have improved? Yes, but then I’m sure I would have seen some good reviews here, which I have not. Regardless, by all means consult with him. You could also look up SamB on YouTube another Norwood 6 who went to him, see what you think. 

Cases like yours, you wanna choose surgeons with experience doing megasessions and transplanting high Norwoods. H&W, Eugenix and Pittella have the largest portfolio IMO. 

Okay, I guess it's settled then. I'll have a consult with Behnam just to see what he says. If I feel strongly that he could do a good job and he agrees to take me on, then I guess I'll be a Guiena pig for you guys as well as for myself. But, I'll grill him good and he better say all the right things, 'cause if I have the slightest bit of doubt the deal will be off, and in that case I guess it's Eugenix and Dr. Sethi.

Now I'll just have to line things up, wrap up all the projects I'm working on and go for it.

Thanks Melvin and everyone.

[shiba1985]

1 hour ago, Kassar said:

Okay, I guess it's settled then. I'll have a consult with Behnam just to see what he says. If I feel strongly that he could do a good job and he agrees to take me on, then I guess I'll be a Guiena pig for you guys as well as for myself. But, I'll grill him good and he better say all the right things, 'cause if I have the slightest bit of doubt the deal will be off, and in that case I guess it's Eugenix and Dr. Sethi.

Now I'll just have to line things up, wrap up all the projects I'm working on and go for it.

Thanks Melvin and everyone.

LOL at basing your decision on what right things the surgeon says. 

Patient: how many norwood 7 cases have you done and how satisfied were the patients

Doctor: 25,000. I have a 99% satisfaction rate.

Patient: sign me up. 

***scratches head***

you are getting in your own way OP. 

[Kassar]

9 minutes ago, shiba1985 said:

LOL at basing your decision on what right things the surgeon says. 

Patient: how many norwood 7 cases have you done and how satisfied were the patients

Doctor: 25,000. I have a 99% satisfaction rate.

Patient: sign me up. 

***scratches head***

you are getting in your own way OP. 

Laugh it up fuzzball. You're assuming that I'm just some gullible dude with absolutely no clue. You don't know anything about my background, my experience, what I do for a living, etc. etc. Believe me, I'm fully equipped to evaluate a medical professional. And I'll leave it at that.