21 year old that had procedure done 11 months ago

[simple32019]

I am a 21 year old guy, and had a hair transplant 11 months ago. I was told by the doctor that it would be okay to get a procedure done at this age, that I could always add more grafts when I am 26/27, and that getting it now would not cause issues for the end result. I originally had a consultation with him because I was conscious of my forehead, which was quite large since birth. I expressed concerns about whether it might be too early to get it done, but the doctor assured me that it would be okay as getting it after 25 was an old mindset that isn't really true anymore. I was very excited at the thought of having a smaller forehead that I was not conscious about, and rushed into it. He had quoted me with 1500 grafts, but in the end we ending up taking 1823 grafts.

Right before the procedure, the doctor told me that it would be best to get a combined fue/fut procedure done if needed because that way he would be able to get the most grafts and it was best for my hair type. I willingly obliged because I believed he knew best. During the procedure, I felt quite a lot of pain as the anesthetic was not that strong. It felt as if someone was ripping skin from my head. I also was quite shocked during the implantation portion which was done by the hair techs, as they were watching netflix during it, having conversations, and laughing loudly. I felt like a stage animal in that moment. In the end, 1250ish grafts came from fue, and 550ish grafts from fut.

After the procedure, it was very hard to contact the office with questions that I had. They would always say that everything is fine and to stop worrying, and get extremely frustrated when I asked if I could talk to the doctor. At one point, they said that I have exhausted the ability to talk to him. I also contacted the office as I noticed there were issues in the amount they charged me. They said they made a mistake and charged me as if it was for all fue, when it should have been fue and fut. This was around 8 months after the procedure. The procedure ending up costing around $15000.

I am quite shocked by the results of the procedure, and at ends over what to do from here given my young age. I have a strong sense of regret for going through with any sort of procedure in the first place, as I wasn't really significantly balding but rather had slight recession with a large forehead. The transplanted hair itself sticks straight out at a near 90 degree angle, and it is very difficult to style. I have cobblestoning throughout the frontal region. I also have a huge fut scar for only 500 grafts. There are 2's and 3's in the hairlines as well. The hair that he transplanted on the side sticks straight out at 90 degrees as well, even though it is supposed to be angled down with my natural hair. It seems like my natural hair hairline as also gone back significantly as well, possibly from permanent shock loss. I expressed my concerns to the office, but all that they said is that it "looks good". I would pay anything to have my hair from one year ago.

[Vann]

Thanks for sharing your story. I am sorry you had this experience and I am sorry to say that whoever did this to you practiced extremely poor ethics and borderline malpractice. Do you have the name of the surgeon/clinic on hand? Also, you said they accidentally charged you 15k? How is this possible, if you have financial records you would be able to see this and dispute the charge would you not?

Thing is, what is done is already done, the next steps would be to get a repair case and see what types of things you can salvage and if you already are not on medication I advice to start that immediately and see your doctor to get a prescription and run some lab tests.

[Chetman2112]

22 minutes ago, Vann said:

Thanks for sharing your story. I am sorry you had this experience and I am sorry to say that whoever did this to you practiced extremely poor ethics and borderline malpractice. Do you have the name of the surgeon/clinic on hand? Also, you said they accidentally charged you 15k? How is this possible, if you have financial records you would be able to see this and dispute the charge would you not?

Thing is, what is done is already done, the next steps would be to get a repair case and see what types of things you can salvage and if you already are not on medication I advice to start that immediately and see your doctor to get a prescription and run some lab tests.

Agree 100% with what @vann said, please name the clinic, you could prevent someone from suffering what you are going through, start researching repair doctors and do a lot of research in this forum, what’s done is done, move on from the previous Clinic, they are criminals. 

[Gatsby]

I am so sorry to read this. It is almost the same as my story at 18. The first thing you must do @simple32019 is to forgive yourself. They told you everything that you wanted to hear and at 20 that is like honey to a bee. Nearly everything you pointed out about your experience goes again what to expect from an elite surgeon/clinic. You would be saving others like yourself and myself if you could name the clinic so that no one else has to go through the same experience or worse. From here you must look forward. There are some excellent repair doctors on this forum and I recommend you consider going on Finasteride as you are at such a young age. 

[Pbaird98]

I’m not a fan of his work but it’s pretty obvious who the Dr (D?) is, This is poor planning,  and sub par work to say the least, so sorry you have been left with such a poor scar and I can’t stress enough how important it is to look for a proven alternative for a repair. Nothing about this transplant sits right at all. 😞

[Chetman2112]

One more point although it may seem hopeless right now it’s not, there are very good repair surgeons out there, do your homework and look towards the future, things will get better, also technology is getting better every day, ask the forum for help with your questions regarding research, hang in there!

[A Fue Good Men]

I’m very sorry you’re going through this. I would not go back to this clinic nor communicate with them any longer unless it’s for a refund. Unfortunately, there are many repair patients out there (I myself am one) but just know there is hope. You just need to see a reputable surgeon and make a solid plan with them moving forward.

 

Is this doctor by chance in the San Francisco Bay Area of California?

[HappyMan2021]

@simple32019 im really sorry to hear about this. When I read the title to this thread, I thought the results were going to be poor solely based on the fact that no ethical doctor would operate on a 20 yr old, but I still held out hope and was optimistic. Unfortunately, my senses were right and your story is a tale as old as time itself in terms of botched hair transplants. 

I am a repair patient myself, and a cold hard truth I learned is that for every botched hair transplant, you likely need 2 (in really horrible cases 3) repair surgeries to correct everything. 

The only treatment for bad angles is excision. Camouflaging with new grafts will not stop the bad angle from revealing itself. Removing bad angles often takes numerous surgeries due to the sheer volume of bad grafts involved and the need to minimize scarring. Removed grafts are then re-implanted elsewhere at a correct angle

You can always do electrolysis and kill off the grafts outright but grafts are finite and who knows if they will be needed later. 

1 hour ago, Pbaird98 said:

I’m not a fan of his work but it’s pretty obvious who the Dr (D?) is

 

1 hour ago, 5BetaReductase said:

Is this doctor by chance in the San Francisco Bay Area of California?

@Pbaird98 @5BetaReductase what clues lead you to believe its the Bay Area doctor? I personally can't tell, but do you guys see a cornrow implantation pattern? 

OP, for the FUE did the doctor only take hair from one side of your donor? If so then we know who it is. 

Regardless, you are doing yourself no favors by keeping the clinic anonymous. That's exactly what the doctor and clinic want you to do - to suffer in silence and go away. 

By naming the doctor, you are doing a tremendous service to this community and helping others avoid this path. Not only that, but doctors and their patient advisors are regularly on this forum. A bad review or botched patient publicly airing grievances is far more damaging than simply giving you your money back. 

It would be most beneficial to you yourself if you name the doctor. 

Edited December 13, 2022 by HappyMan2021

[HappyMan2021]

*accidental doublepost*

Edited December 13, 2022 by HappyMan2021

[Pbaird98]

@HappyMan2021Everything I can see and have read would lead me to believe it could only really be one Dr, OP can you confirm this? And yeh the planting pattern is a major clue. Pre and post op pics would obviously give them game away. OP really hope you can share some more pics. 

[BotchMeifUcan]

2 hours ago, HappyMan2021 said:

@simple32019 im really sorry to hear about this. When I read the title to this thread, I thought the results were going to be poor solely based on the fact that no ethical doctor would operate on a 20 yr old, but I still held out hope and was optimistic. Unfortunately, my senses were right and your story is a tale as old as time itself in terms of botched hair transplants. 

I am a repair patient myself, and a cold hard truth I learned is that for every botched hair transplant, you likely need 2 (in really horrible cases 3) repair surgeries to correct everything. 

The only treatment for bad angles is excision. Camouflaging with new grafts will not stop the bad angle from revealing itself. Removing bad angles often takes numerous surgeries due to the sheer volume of bad grafts involved and the need to minimize scarring. Removed grafts are then re-implanted elsewhere at a correct angle

You can always do electrolysis and kill off the grafts outright but grafts are finite and who knows if they will be needed later. 

 

@Pbaird98 @5BetaReductase what clues lead you to believe its the Bay Area doctor? I personally can't tell, but do you guys see a cornrow implantation pattern? 

OP, for the FUE did the doctor only take hair from one side of your donor? If so then we know who it is. 

Regardless, you are doing yourself no favors by keeping the clinic anonymous. That's exactly what the doctor and clinic want you to do - to suffer in silence and go away. 

By naming the doctor, you are doing a tremendous service to this community and helping others avoid this path. Not only that, but doctors and their patient advisors are regularly on this forum. A bad review or botched patient publicly airing grievances is far more damaging than simply giving you your money back. 

It would be most beneficial to you yourself if you name the doctor. 

I think it would be best if he not named the doctor, simply because this young man needs AS MUCH help, advice/guidance, and support as humanly possible. What was done to this young man is legitimately criminal - and - if he names the doctor, I have a very strong feeling this thread will be locked by the moderators to protect the doctor. this is just my hunch. and we cannot afford to have this young man have this thread locked/silenced AT ALL COSTS. He needs our help. 

[HappyMan2021]

5 hours ago, simple32019 said:

I have a strong sense of regret for going through with any sort of procedure in the first place, as I wasn't really significantly balding but rather had slight recession with a large forehead.

@simple32019 the more I think about it, the more I think electrolysis actually makes sense. 

Speaking from my own repair journey, I am guessing repairing your bad grafts is going to be a costly, multi-procedure multi-year effort. 

1823 grafts is a fair amount of grafts, but not like a horrifically horrible number to kill off. 

If the above is true - you weren't balding badly to being with and you legitimately wouldn't mind reverting back- doing electrolysis and killing off the bad grafts to look like you did before can save you from doing a multi-year repair journey and spending tens of thousands of dollars more. 

Then when you are much older, you can always come back to hair transplant world - or better yet learn to embrace your hairloss and not need surgery at all.

21 is way too young to predict final MPB pattern, so no one can really say if 1823 grafts lost would severely limit your ability for transplants in the future. If you have a generous donor I don't think it would be too much of an impediment. 

[ITA]

10 hours ago, BotchMeifUcan said:

I think it would be best if he not named the doctor, simply because this young man needs AS MUCH help, advice/guidance, and support as humanly possible. What was done to this young man is legitimately criminal - and - if he names the doctor, I have a very strong feeling this thread will be locked by the moderators to protect the doctor. this is just my hunch. and we cannot afford to have this young man have this thread locked/silenced AT ALL COSTS. He needs our help

You are not on the European forums, here nobody blocks anything to protect clinics or surgeons who pay good money.

[BDK081522]

This is an absolutely unethical surgical intervention and the surgeon needs to be held accountable. There are so many things wrong with this whole scenario and OP we are here for your guidance and reassurance that you can still be helped. You need to seek help from the repair experts that deal with these types of cases. Search the forum for repair cases and see what can be done. You should have never been operated on as a 21 year old. You should never have been given an FUT for 500 grafts. That is absolute absurdity in 2022. The angles are almost perpendicular and the pluggy look is just downright wrong on so many levels. Please let the forum know who is responsible for this as there are ethical issues as well as the obvious technical ones.

Edited December 14, 2022 by BDK081522

[Pbaird98]

10 minutes ago, BDK081522 said:

This is an absolutely unethical surgical intervention and the surgeon needs to be held accountable. There are so many things wrong with this whole scenario and OP we are here for your guidance and reassurance that you can still be helped. You need to seek help from the repair experts that deal with these types of cases. Search the forum for repair cases and see what can be done. You should have never been operated on as a 21 year old. You should never have been given an FUT for 500 grafts. That is absolute absurdity in 2022. The angles are almost perpendicular and the pluggy look is just downright wrong on so many levels. Please let the forum know who is responsible for this as there are ethical issues as well as the obvious technical ones.

Exactly this, we can help guide you and offer support, but please do confirm who this was, some of us may already know, but it needs to be put out there for the unaware/uninformed too. 

[hockeyman]

The techs were watching netflix??!!! ........OMFG

[Pbaird98]

1 minute ago, hockeyman said:

The techs were watching netflix??!!! ........OMFG

Netflix and kill (grafts) 😞

[HappyMan2021]

@simple32019 i hope you didnt get scared off by the bad news everyone is telling you OP. 

While this is undeniably a negative situation you have found yourself in, just know that repair is an option. The light may be lengthy and costly, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I sincerely hope you reply to some of the comments here, and provide more input. 

The more input you provide, the more the community can help you out.

[simple32019]

Hi everyone. The procedure was done by Dr. Diep. I have been significantly depressed about all of this, and I think it might be best to try to get my mind off all of this for the time-being. It has been significantly affecting my day-to-day life for the past 3 months, and have had to seek mental help because of it (I have never had any previous issues).

Like I mentioned before, the toughest part was that I was just a little insecure about a large forehead. If you see my photos from before (which I wouldn't want to post due to privacy given my younger age), I was still able to cover my forehead and it honestly looked pretty fine (I think my young age amplified my paranoia as well as being in college), I would just be nervous around the wind, water, etc.  I wanted to do something to get rid of my insecurity, and was gaslit into thinking surgery was completely fine to do. Now my worries are a thousand times more greater, and every day I am not able to get the worry out of my head. It really scares and depresses me significantly to think I will have to spend my 20s and probably 30s as well working to salvage this to try to just look natural. Worse, I fear what I will end up like in the future.

I don't know if I have the mental strength to work to address the issue now. Thinking about what was done to me has a PTSD like effect for me, and it feels debilitating. Like I said before, it might be best to try to distance myself from the issue. It has significantly affected my motivation in life and school. I really appreciate everyone's guidance and help.

[mister_25]

Another Diep case that ends this way. And the techs were watching netflix the whole time!? Thats just crazy to me. 

I think we are way overdue a official discussion about Dieps place on the forums recommended list. 

[Pbaird98]

Just now, mister_25 said:

Another Diep case that ends this way. And the techs were watching netflix the whole time!? Thats just crazy to me. 

I think we are way overdue a official discussion about Dieps place on the forums recommended list. 

For sure, this can’t continue. 

[HappyMan2021]

39 minutes ago, mister_25 said:

Another Diep case that ends this way. And the techs were watching netflix the whole time!? Thats just crazy to me. 

I think we are way overdue a official discussion about Dieps place on the forums recommended list. 

the ethics of operating on a 20 yr old NW2 is more worrisome to me than the surgical result, and that's saying something.

I wonder if the doctor in question is struggling to find new patients? 🤷‍♀️

Edited December 14, 2022 by HappyMan2021

[hockeyman]

It's not like this young guy went to a cheap hairmill in Turkey. He paid top dollar to go to a doctor recommended on this site which makes things even worse. Hopefully, if/when he decides to do a repair, the next surgeon will show some compassion and give him a financial break. 

Edited December 14, 2022 by hockeyman
spelling

[Gatsby]

I actually have a huge problem with the surgeon who performed surgery on this young guy. Now I can only go on the pictures and what was stated in the OP. But if it was in fact Diep then I think that he should be taken off the forum's recommended doctors. I'd like to hear Diep's side of the story (if it is in fact him) but it just isn't good enough. I went through this crap 38 years ago. I can't believe I'm reading this. It's a long way from even just far from not good enough! 🤬

[WhereIsMyMind]

What the hell. Just the fact of going FUT for such small amt of grafts and so young seems completely unnecesary.

Let's not mention the fact that the temple angles look completely amateur and he didn't use nape and weaker hairs.

Are you 100% sure Dr Diep did the incisions or it was their techs? It's hard to believe someone with good track record did this. Im very confused.