Dr John Diep - 1 year result FUT - 37 y/o male

[AlexMeister21]

Interestingly, Mohammad's review got removed from Yelp while another one took its place.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/medical-hair-transplant-and-aesthetics-los-gatos?hrid=D3IFswnlTdLom5yPGb58eg&utm_campaign=www_review_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)

Edited May 2, 2023 by AlexMeister21

[Melvin- Admin]

Alex,

He’s already posted additional pictures, what else are you looking for?  Antagonizing members aren’t going to make them return. 

[AlexMeister21]

1 hour ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Alex,

He’s already posted additional pictures, what else are you looking for?  Antagonizing members aren’t going to make them return. 

At the risk of being banned or silenced, I don't think this thread is that genuine. The behavior and writing is just too similar. I don't think it's beyond Diep and company to have some influence in these types of reviews being posted. It's just strange that Mohammad's review was removed from Yelp and then another one took its place that pretty much sounds like an advertisement for MHTAClinic. I personally have had experiences with them where I left negative reviews on Yelp, RealSelf and then 2 hours later, I receive a phone call from Allison to discuss partial refund and signing NDA agreement. After declining, coincidentally, two positive reviews popped up on both platforms to overshadow mine, which both reviews have also, for some reason, been removed from Yelp.

I'm just trying to protect other people from being disingenuously influenced here and I wish you'd be more mindful of that as well. I've seen you or some other moderator delete these type of Diep threads before, so I don't know if you noticed similar IP addresses or something else was in violation for those threads. I've also seen you lock obviously genuine threads for great doctors like Pekiner because you believed they were being incentivized, but for some reason you still seem to defend Diep to some degree.

[Mohammad A.]

I don't have an immediate photo of my hairline, but attached is one taken 2 months ago. Trust me, my hairline is much better now 🙂 

My hairless was of level 6. I started losing my hair from when I was 18 y/o (I am 37 now). We decided to go with FUT to transplant as many as grafts in 1st op. We ended up having around 4K grafts.

 

[Mohammad A.]

I'd like to share my thoughts on the comments made in this thread. It appears that some individuals have had negative experiences with Dr. Diep in the past, and I understand their frustrations. However, I just wanted to express that my experience with Dr. Diep was positive and I wanted to share an honest review.

I believe the goal of this forum is to share ideas and opinions, and it is not appropriate to engage in bullying or negative behavior towards others.

On another note, I noticed that yesterday's discussion was beginning to deviate from the original topic. I was asked a question regarding Dr. Diep's involvement in the surgery, but I did not feel comfortable engaging in that particular conversation.

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, AlexMeister21 said:

At the risk of being banned or silenced, I don't think this thread is that genuine. The behavior and writing is just too similar. I don't think it's beyond Diep and company to have some influence in these types of reviews being posted. It's just strange that Mohammad's review was removed from Yelp and then another one took its place that pretty much sounds like an advertisement for MHTAClinic. I personally have had experiences with them where I left negative reviews on Yelp, RealSelf and then 2 hours later, I receive a phone call from Allison to discuss partial refund and signing NDA agreement. After declining, coincidentally, two positive reviews popped up on both platforms to overshadow mine, which both reviews have also, for some reason, been removed from Yelp.

I'm just trying to protect other people from being disingenuously influenced here and I wish you'd be more mindful of that as well. I've seen you or some other moderator delete these type of Diep threads before, so I don't know if you noticed similar IP addresses or something else was in violation for those threads. I've also seen you lock obviously genuine threads for great doctors like Pekiner because you believed they were being incentivized, but for some reason you still seem to defend Diep to some degree.

I’m not defending Diep in any way, who I’m defending are genuine patients. Voicing dissatisfaction for your own procedure is fine, but harassing someone else is not. You’re not protecting future patients, if this patient already had it done, and there we’re already some people negatively critiquing the results. That’s the whole point of this forum.

I can understand being skeptical. But this member has already posted multiple pictures, multiple times. At some point you have to give the member the benefit of the doubt. This forum isn’t about being interrogated or bullied.

I want to make it clear that everyone is welcome to share their review, whether good or bad about any surgeon. The community is free to discuss the results whether good or bad. But bullying a new member is not acceptable, nor will it be tolerated. Being civil doesn’t equal being silenced. 

[AlexMeister21]

14 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

I’m not defending Diep in any way, who I’m defending are genuine patients. Voicing dissatisfaction for your own procedure is fine, but harassing someone else is not. You’re not protecting future patients, if this patient already had it done, and there we’re already some people negatively critiquing the results. That’s the whole point of this forum.

I can understand being skeptical. But this member has already posted multiple pictures, multiple times. At some point you have to give the member the benefit of the doubt. This forum isn’t about being interrogated or bullied.

I want to make it clear that everyone is welcome to share their review, whether good or bad about any surgeon. The community is free to discuss the results whether good or bad. But bullying a new member is not acceptable, nor will it be tolerated. Being civil doesn’t equal being silenced. 

I don’t think there’s much bullying or harassment going on here, certainly skepticism. I think it’s reasonable to have skepticism if there were numerous Diep posts in the past that just praise the doc, staff, but don’t go into detail about their procedure or 12-month growth process and then the OP may stay for a day or two but never returns again. If Mohammad’s initial post were more detailed about his procedure or sounded more personal, then there wouldn’t be any skepticism. There would also be less skepticism if this same review wasn’t found on Yelp. The last 20 or so of these Diep reviews had the same intention of promotion across numerous platforms. 

May I ask why several of these Diep threads were deleted in the recent past? 
 

 

[Melvin- Admin]

3 minutes ago, AlexMeister21 said:

I don’t think there’s much bullying or harassment going on here, certainly skepticism. I think it’s reasonable to have skepticism if there were numerous Diep posts in the past that just praise the doc, staff, but don’t go into detail about their procedure or 12-month growth process and then the OP may stay for a day or two but never returns again. If Mohammad’s initial post were more detailed about his procedure or sounded more personal, then there wouldn’t be any skepticism. There would also be less skepticism if this same review wasn’t found on Yelp. The last 20 or so of these Diep reviews had the same intention of promotion across numerous platforms. 

May I ask why several of these Diep threads were deleted in the recent past? 
 

 

I’ve removed threads in the past if they’re a hit and run post, this case certainly isn’t one of those instances. The member himself feels like he’s being bullied. I expect the community to show members the same respect they’re showed. 

[Mohammad A.]

I think I've shared my thoughts on the topic, but I don't want to continue discussing it any further. Good luck to everyone!

[AlexMeister21]

8 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

I’ve removed threads in the past if they’re a hit and run post, this case certainly isn’t one of those instances. The member himself feels like he’s being bullied. I expect the community to show members the same respect they’re showed. 

I think this can be classified as a hit-and-run post, though there's more effort on the OP's end. The photos posted by Mohammad are clearly from a genuine Diep patient, but I don't think the intention or motivations here are that genuine. Mohammad has made clear his intention to leave, and that intention was clear to me from the beginning based on the writing and the behavior. Perhaps he feels bullied and no longer wishes to be here, but I would bet there would have been no response out of him had there not been the pressure or skepticism put onto this thread. Just look at the history of all these other threads and how they turned out. They all sound the same and have the same behavior and even posting the same review on Yelp on the same day. Why would so many people go through this effort, having the same behavior and patterns if there's no incentive for them to do so? Why don't we see this type of behavior from obviously genuine Diep patients such as WS2020?

 

 

 

[AlexMeister21]

I just think there should be more done to protect members of this community from these kind of threads. At the very least, it would be nice to have a disclaimer on these low-effort threads from newly created accounts just based on Diep's history and the frequency that these types of posts occur and have the same outcome. Obviously, most members here are well-aware of Diep's controversy, but there may be other people who are doing research and may not understand all the controversy. I was once that ill-educated guy, came here and saw some bad things being posted about Diep, but also saw good things being posted and people vouching or standing up for him and then thinking all the bad results had to just be flukes. I don't blame anyone for my decisions to go to Diep, but I can see how others may be influenced disingenuously from these promotional threads.

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, AlexMeister21 said:

I think this can be classified as a hit-and-run post, though there's more effort on the OP's end. The photos posted by Mohammad are clearly from a genuine Diep patient, but I don't think the intention or motivations here are that genuine. Mohammad has made clear his intention to leave, and that intention was clear to me from the beginning based on the writing and the behavior. Perhaps he feels bullied and no longer wishes to be here, but I would bet there would have been no response out of him had there not been the pressure or skepticism put onto this thread. Just look at the history of all these other threads and how they turned out. They all sound the same and have the same behavior and even posting the same review on Yelp on the same day. Why would so many people go through this effort, having the same behavior and patterns if there's no incentive for them to do so? Why don't we see this type of behavior from obviously genuine Diep patients such as WS2020?

 

 

 

I think you’re wrong here. Not everyone is familiar with forums, many come here believing it is like Yelp or Google where you just leave a review and that’s it. If it’s a hit and run post, they never return no matter what is said, you just posted the proof that isn’t the case here. This member has been responsive both here and on pm. 

I don’t blame him for not wanting to participate, who would want to participate in a forum where they’re attacked for no reason. There needs to be a definitive line between the patient and the surgeon. Just because you had a negative experience with the surgeon doesn’t mean the patient should be attacked, its not his fault.

Two things can be true at the same time. You can have a negative experience, and someone else can have a positive one, they both can be true. It’s not black and white. You can have a result that someone else might be satisfied with, for a variety of reasons. 

Furthermore, someone in the beginning of the thread pointed out what they felt as flaws/criticisms of the hairline. You had criticisms regarding the scar as well. Maybe he’s happy with a result you would’ve been unhappy with, that can also be true.

At the end of the day, the whole point of this forum is to post genuine reviews. The community can draw their own conclusions about the results, which has already been done. I have a duty to protect members. Attacking new members doesn’t help your cause in anyway, and it’s not what this forum is about. You have criticisms towards the doctor, okay thats fair. But what does this member have to do with that, he’s just a patient like you. 

[AlexMeister21]

13 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

I think you’re wrong here. Not everyone is familiar with forums, many come here believing it is like Yelp or Google where you just leave a review and that’s it. If it’s a hit and run post, they never return no matter what is said, you just posted the proof that isn’t the case here. This member has been responsive both here and on pm. 

I don’t blame him for not wanting to participate, who would want to participate in a forum where they’re attacked for no reason. There needs to be a definitive line between the patient and the surgeon. Just because you had a negative experience with the surgeon doesn’t mean the patient should be attacked, its not his fault.

Two things can be true at the same time. You can have a negative experience, and someone else can have a positive one, they both can be true. It’s not black and white. You can have a result that someone else might be satisfied with, for a variety of reasons. 

Furthermore, someone in the beginning of the thread pointed out what they felt as flaws/criticisms of the hairline. You had criticisms regarding the scar as well. Maybe he’s happy with a result you would’ve been unhappy with, that can also be true.

At the end of the day, the whole point of this forum is to post genuine reviews. The community can draw their own conclusions about the results, which has already been done. I have a duty to protect members. Attacking new members doesn’t help your cause in anyway, and it’s not what this forum is about. You have criticisms towards the doctor, okay thats fair. But what does this member have to do with that, he’s just a patient like you. 

I very much would appreciate it if genuine Diep patients come here and post their reviews. The problem is that the genuineness of this thread is questionable. It makes sense why there was initial skepticism on this thread because it is way too similar to the other threads of this nature. As mentioned before, I've seen you crack down on very detailed threads for Pekiner because of suspicions of incentivization. I know you had your own history with Diep and don't believe there are any incentives from these hit-and-run threads being created. In the Diep threads posted above, you're defending the users who only post once and never return. Why are so many of these threads being created and specifically for Diep? I don't see this occurring with any other doctor here on these forums.

[Melvin- Admin]

20 minutes ago, AlexMeister21 said:

I very much would appreciate it if genuine Diep patients come here and post their reviews. The problem is that the genuineness of this thread is questionable. It makes sense why there was initial skepticism on this thread because it is way too similar to the other threads of this nature. As mentioned before, I've seen you crack down on very detailed threads for Pekiner because of suspicions of incentivization. I know you had your own history with Diep and don't believe there are any incentives from these hit-and-run threads being created. In the Diep threads posted above, you're defending the users who only post once and never return. Why are so many of these threads being created and specifically for Diep? I don't see this occurring with any other doctor here on these forums.

I only cracked down on Pekiner when I had proof from multiple patients that he was paying them. As a diep patient I know that he sends you an email asking you to share a review on Yelp, realself and here, no discounts, no payments. Dr. Diep is not paying anyone to post a review that I know, there’s a lot of things you can criticize, but that’s not one. There were concerns that it was his clinic taking patients photos. That sounds more plausible to me, but I checked this patients IP and email, he’s not in the same area, and his email is a personal one.

Nothing about this case says it isn’t genuine to me. The only reason why you’re skeptical is because he’s happy. Would you have said the same thing if he came here saying he was botched by Diep? You see, there’s always a bias. But we need to be fair across the board. The truth is there are happy Dr. Diep patients. Maybe you see their results and think they got botched, but thats why results can be subjective. End of the day, he shouldn’t be penalized for the actions of the doctor he chose. Patients and surgeons are separate.
 

[AlexMeister21]

1 minute ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

I only cracked down on Pekiner when I had proof from multiple patients that he was paying them. As a diep patient I know that he sends you an email asking you to share a review on Yelp, realself and here, no discounts, no payments. Dr. Diep is not paying anyone to post a review that I know, there’s a lot of things you can criticize, but that’s not one. There were concerns that it was his clinic taking patients photos. That sounds more plausible to me, but I checked this patients IP and email, he’s not in the same area, and his email his a personal one.

Nothing about this case says it isn’t genuine to me. The only reason why you’re skeptical is because he’s happy. Would you have said the same thing if he came here saying he was botched by Diep? You see, there’s always a bias. But we need to be fair across the board. The truth is there are happy Dr. Diep patients. Maybe you see their results and think they got botched, but thats why results can be subjective. End of the day, he shouldn’t be penalized for the actions of the doctor he chose. Patients and surgeons are separate.
 

I 100% am not skeptical just because he claims he is happy with his result. I'm skeptical because his writing was low-effort, only praised Diep and staff and did not go into detail about his procedure or journey, which is similar to the past 10-20 Diep threads of this nature. I genuinely want to see a review of Dr. Diep where the result actually turns out good. The last one was probably WS2020 while the rest have been these hit-and-run threads where it is unknown if they are genuine or not. There's also hair2022, but he's been MIA.

I have more experience with Diep and his staff than the average person here does and I know you do as well. I just find it a coincidence that they have these gaps of no reviews being posted for them, but then all of a sudden, you see several pop up and they all sound the same. As I mentioned before, I know that there were several that popped up after I left my own reviews and Allison called me to discuss. You reached out to Diep to address the criticisms being made against him, but he declined to respond. I bring up to Allison about Diep's removal from the Surgeon's Recommended List, and she gives an egotistical response of how they weren't removed and they requested to be taken off to distance themselves from HRN. If it weren't for the 20 or 21-year-old that had a poor result by Diep, he'd very likely still be on the recommended list to this day.

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, AlexMeister21 said:

I 100% am not skeptical just because he claims he is happy with his result. I'm skeptical because his writing was low-effort, only praised Diep and staff and did not go into detail about his procedure or journey, which is similar to the past 10-20 Diep threads of this nature. I genuinely want to see a review of Dr. Diep where the result actually turns out good. The last one was probably WS2020 while the rest have been these hit-and-run threads where it is unknown if they are genuine or not. There's also hair2022, but he's been MIA.

I have more experience with Diep and his staff than the average person here does and I know you do as well. I just find it a coincidence that they have these gaps of no reviews being posted for them, but then all of a sudden, you see several pop up and they all sound the same. As I mentioned before, I know that there were several that popped up after I left my own reviews and Allison called me to discuss. You reached out to Diep to address the criticisms being made against him, but he declined to respond. I bring up to Allison about Diep's removal from the Surgeon's Recommended List, and she gives an egotistical response of how they weren't removed and they requested to be taken off to distance themselves from HRN. If it weren't for the 20 or 21-year-old that had a poor result by Diep, he'd very likely still be on the recommended list to this day.

They have gaps on this forum because users on the forum aren’t choosing him. The people who go to him probably have no idea about this forum. So when they post here, they’re posting without having knowledge of how forums work. 

You’re looking at it from the perspective of someone familiar with this forum and other reviews. But not everyone goes to forums or frequents them. It was understandable being skeptical at first, but at this point it’s just being antagonistic towards this member. 

Bottomline, I expect new members to be treated with respect. If there’s skepticism ask questions and for more details, if that is provided, they deserve respect. Period.

[AlexMeister21]

1 hour ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

They have gaps on this forum because users on the forum aren’t choosing him. The people who go to him probably have no idea about this forum. So when they post here, they’re posting without having knowledge of how forums work. 

You’re looking at it from the perspective of someone familiar with this forum and other reviews. But not everyone goes to forums or frequents them. It was understandable being skeptical at first, but at this point it’s just being antagonistic towards this member. 

Bottomline, I expect new members to be treated with respect. If there’s skepticism ask questions and for more details, if that is provided, they deserve respect. Period.

I'm sorry, but it's not reasonable to assume that the reason all these people up and out after dropping a review for Diep is because they aren't familiar with how forums work. It's because their main intention is promotion. Whether that's an okay thing to do or not is subjective. I just find it strange that so many of these people have the same exact pattern and verbatim. So many reviews that are posted one after another on here and then Yelp on the same day seems suspicious to me if there isn't much motivation or incentive involved on the patient's end. I don't see that happening with any other doctor. It's also strange that all these reviews say the same thing, praising Diep and staff, talking about how the post-op instructions are detailed, saying how you will look 15 years younger after 9 months, saying how easy it is to schedule a consultation with MHTAClinic, etc. It's like all of them have anterograde amnesia and can't remember any details after their procedure with Diep.

When future threads like this are created, I think it's fair if other members impose their own disclaimers if the thread indeed turns out to be a hit-and-run. There are good Diep results,yes, but there are also good results for Tarscan, hair mills, and Bosley patients. The biggest issue is that Diep and company are well, well aware of all the criticisms being made, but they make excuses and act as if they're being victimized. It's dangerous if a doctor does not care to improve when they have produced so many poor results.

[mister_25]

Regardless if its a real poster or not, to an outsider this thread doesn't make us look good. Straight away to pointing fingers and making us look like a angry mob. Its what the people on reddit have criticized us for with biased surgeon/clinic pushing and biased surgeon/clinic shaming etc. I am not saying I would recommend Dr Diep to anyone but if it is a real poster then its unacceptable for them to be shamed/judged for wanting to share their result that they were excited enough to share with us. It portrays a unwelcoming image to the new visitor. 

@Mohammad A. You look much better than your before photos, I don't think anyone can disagree with that. In my opinion, a small-moderate surgery to refine and soften the hairline would be great and I'm not entirely sure how FUT scar revisions would work or if they are applicable here but if it was a bit smaller it would be almost invisible at a majority of lengths.