Thoughts on Dr. William Lindsey in the Washington, D.C., area?

[Goosesausage]

I'm looking to get a hair transplant in the Washington, D.C., area, and Dr. William Lindsey was highly recommended in one of the old threads on here. But he doesn't appear to be on this forum's recommended list anymore, even though he's still practicing. Why is that? And are there any other surgeons in the area that are worth checking out?

Thanks in advance for any helpful responses.

[Melvin- Admin]

We removed Dr. Lindsey because we felt he no longer met our standards for recommendation. We have not reviewed his recent work, and that doesn’t mean you won’t get a good result. 

[Rafael Manelli]

6 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

We removed Dr. Lindsey because we felt he no longer met our standards for recommendation. We have not reviewed his recent work, and that doesn’t mean you won’t get a good result. 

I had no idea he was removed. What changed in particular that made him fall off the list?

[Rafael Manelli]

Dr Lindsey was in the coalition here and has tons of cases posted

[Melvin- Admin]

8 minutes ago, Rafael Manelli said:

I had no idea he was removed. What changed in particular that made him fall off the list?

We no longer felt his results met our standards. This was a year ago, so he may have improved since then. 

[Rafael Manelli]

1 minute ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

We no longer felt his results met our standards. This was a year ago, so he may have improved since then. 

Is there an associated topic or discussion one can read on this? 

[Melvin- Admin]

15 minutes ago, Rafael Manelli said:

Is there an associated topic or discussion one can read on this? 

We didn’t write a particular topic, we looked at the results posted here by his clinic and also by the reviews shared. You could search his name and review the work yourself.

[Rafael Manelli]

Just now, Melvin- Moderator said:

We didn’t write a particular topic, we looked at the results posted here by his clinic and also by the reviews shared. You could search his name and review the work yourself.

That is what I'm doing at the moment. 

It's always a surprise when an esteemed surgeon loses his edge 

[Melvin- Admin]

6 minutes ago, Rafael Manelli said:

That is what I'm doing at the moment. 

It's always a surprise when an esteemed surgeon loses his edge 

Contrary to whats posted on places like Reddit, we regularly review our surgeons body of work, and if it no longer meets our criteria we remove them. We just don’t make it a spectacle. 

[Goosesausage]

2 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

We didn’t write a particular topic, we looked at the results posted here by his clinic and also by the reviews shared. You could search his name and review the work yourself.

Can you link some specific examples of his work no longer meeting your standards? I'm looking at your list of recommended surgeons, and the closest to me are all the way in NYC. Are there really no good surgeons in the entire Washington, D.C., area?

[Melvin- Admin]

13 minutes ago, Goosesausage said:

Can you link some specific examples of his work no longer meeting your standards? I'm looking at your list of recommended surgeons, and the closest to me are all the way in NYC. Are there really no good surgeons in the entire Washington, D.C., area?

Search his name and you’ll see all the results. Never let location dictate your choice. Choose surgeons based on results, not location.

[Goosesausage]

1 hour ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Search his name and you’ll see all the results. Never let location dictate your choice. Choose surgeons based on results, not location.

This was the only hair transplant that I found where the patient wasn't happy. Was that all it took to lose his recommended status?

[Melvin- Admin]

36 minutes ago, Goosesausage said:

This was the only hair transplant that I found where the patient wasn't happy. Was that all it took to lose his recommended status?

No, as I said it was also the results he posted. There were many. They no longer met the standards we hold, that is not to say you wouldn’t be happy. At the end, we encourage everyone to do their own due diligence on choosing a surgeon. 

[Goosesausage]

On 4/11/2023 at 11:11 PM, Melvin- Moderator said:

No, as I said it was also the results he posted. There were many. They no longer met the standards we hold, that is not to say you wouldn’t be happy. At the end, we encourage everyone to do their own due diligence on choosing a surgeon. 

So would you say he went from an S tier surgeon to an A tier surgeon? I had a consultation with him earlier today and he told me that he estimated that I'd need about 2,200 grafts, that he recommends FUE, and quoted me $10,300. He also classified me as Norwood 3 (maybe even a 4 down the line) since the only place I'm losing hair is at the front of my head and going back 3 or so inches with a healthy tuft of hair in the middle-front of my hairline. He also said that I may need 1 to 2 more surgeries in the future if I continued to go bald.

I know you already recommended that I don't pick a surgeon based on location, but he's only about 30 minutes from me and it would be super convenient to get my transplant done by him. I also don't think that my transplant would be super challenging since I still have most of my hair.

[Melvin- Admin]

6 minutes ago, Goosesausage said:

So would you say he went from an S tier surgeon to an A tier surgeon? I had a consultation with him earlier today and he told me that he estimated that I'd need about 2,200 grafts, that he recommends FUE, and quoted me $10,300. He also classified me as Norwood 3 (maybe even a 4 down the line) since the only place I'm losing hair is at the front of my head and going back 3 or so inches with a healthy tuft of hair in the middle-front of my hairline. He also said that I may need 1 to 2 more surgeries in the future if I continued to go bald.

I know you already recommended that I don't pick a surgeon based on location, but he's only about 30 minutes from me and it would be super convenient to get my transplant done by him. I also don't think that my transplant would be super challenging since I still have most of my hair.

Ask for examples of his work on cases like yours, primarily on FUE. 

[HairyHand]

I had two transplants with him, and cannot recommend him. I’m going for a final repair with another doctor later this year. I think Lindsey is a reasonably good surgeon but has not kept up with the latest techniques. Take a look at recent threads and compare them to the elite doctors recommended on here. Lindsey’s still implanting grafts straight up and down and in straight, sparse lines, and his work simply doesn’t look “clean” relative to what elite doctors are doing. This may have been adequate 10-20 years ago but isn’t acceptable today, and his results are a lot worse.  You’ll get hair, but it’ll be sparse and unnatural.  He won’t do what he calls “upper sideburns” aka temples likely because this is tricky work that requires fine hairs implanted at extreme angles. He’s an FUT evangelist in spite of the general consensus that FUE is as good or better (there is of course nothing wrong with FUT, just the inflexible allegiance to it). All in all I can see why he was recommended before when techniques were not as advanced but he has not kept up.  I wish I’d been more informed when I picked him the first (and second) time!

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, HairyHand said:

I had two transplants with him, and cannot recommend him. I’m going for a final repair with another doctor later this year. I think Lindsey is a reasonably good surgeon but has not kept up with the latest techniques. Take a look at recent threads and compare them to the elite doctors recommended on here. Lindsey’s still implanting grafts straight up and down and in straight, sparse lines, and his work simply doesn’t look “clean” relative to what elite doctors are doing. This may have been adequate 10-20 years ago but isn’t acceptable today, and his results are a lot worse.  You’ll get hair, but it’ll be sparse and unnatural.  He won’t do what he calls “upper sideburns” aka temples likely because this is tricky work that requires fine hairs implanted at extreme angles. He’s an FUT evangelist in spite of the general consensus that FUE is as good or better (there is of course nothing wrong with FUT, just the inflexible allegiance to it). All in all I can see why he was recommended before when techniques were not as advanced but he has not kept up.  I wish I’d been more informed when I picked him the first (and second) time!

Do you mind sharing some pictures? 

[HairyHand]

Sure, these are the best I’ve got. You can see the angles and density are not good which leads to an undesirable see-through effect. There are even some multi-hair grafts in the front of the hairline. All frustrating because as you can see I have an absolute ton of donor hair and only needed to fill the front so supply should not have been an issue. Next procedure should be a slam dunk and I can wrap this up.

 

[Melvin- Admin]

7 minutes ago, HairyHand said:

Sure, these are the best I’ve got. You can see the angles and density are not good which leads to an undesirable see-through effect. There are even some multi-hair grafts in the front of the hairline. All frustrating because as you can see I have an absolute ton of donor hair and only needed to fill the front so supply should not have been an issue. Next procedure should be a slam dunk and I can wrap this up.

 

Yes, I can see why you’re disappointed. Who are you considering next?

[HairyHand]

8 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Yes, I can see why you’re disappointed. Who are you considering next?

Dr. Cooley