Why did my afro hair transplant fail after 5 months??

[MsAyeBeeCat]

On 6/6/2023 at 9:25 PM, Ajamilo said:

Spot on. Honestly I have told some the black brothers who have contacted me regarding my surgery to run away from Mwamba and look for another clinic that has track record with real patient. I never thought I would said it but is better go to HOI than them 

In an ideal world, only real patients would recommend a certain doctor for a surgery with photographic evidence. I dare say, many members will jump on a bandwagon or have other motives to push certain ones and we never know who's who. So, always always ask a lot of questions directly to doctors and research reviews from multiple sources. Playing with your life/health/physical appearance based on hearsay is no joke. 

Edited June 8, 2023 by MsAyeBeeCat

[wadsef]

I went to Mwamba 2 months ago. I'm too lazy to do periodic updates, but I've been taking pictures. I'll make a big post including the pics once progress starts with my post-shedding regrowth. Once there are actual results to review, I'll be an honest take on his results with afro hair.

I would recommend chatting with him if it's free. He's very knowledgeable, personable, and will listen and respond to you sincerely (if you're able to get him on a call). My talks with him were unlike many of the other surgeons that I had consultations with, and those talks were the reason why I chose to go to his clinic.

To be explicit: I consulted with Dr. Mwamba based on the recommendations of this forum and others, but I chose him for the procedure off of the strength of the consultation call as compared to other doctors that I spoke with. As an aside, my consultations with Dr. Bisanga and Dr. Diep, stood out as exceptionally bad.

 

After working with Mwamba, my perspective is that he handles afro-textured hair pretty frequently, and he's extremely experienced in how to handle it -- especially the extractions. I know first-hand that he works with afro hair because there were a several other black patients coming in and out (for follow-ups etc.) while I was there. The doctor and I also talked for hours about the precise details of the operation, and he explained basically everything he was doing (to me and to one of his newer techs) while he did it. He was also in the operating room for the entire +30 hours of my three day procedure, which shows dedication.

However, Dr. Mwamba's clinics are pretty mismanaged with regard to their business communication and aftercare follow-up. It seems like anything administrative that doesn't involve Mwamba personally is completely hit or miss. I'd rather not go into detail unless prompted because I did have a good experience at his clinic. Maybe the poor communication is because I have to interact with the clinic and staff in English and they are bilingual native french speakers, but it's still hard to excuse. Also, I haven't heard from his office since the procedure besides a couple questions I asked his staff a few days later. They've also ignored a couple of my messages. The spotty communication and admin is a massive negative, but so far that's the only thing I could possibly complain about. Everything else was top quality and gives me optimism about my results.

P.S. Mwamba kept insisting that I buy these really expensive French hair shampoos from him. I caved and bought them, and --shockingly-- they cured my lifelong dandruff problem overnight. Dandruff prevention is absolutely NOT the reason Mwamba told me to buy those products, but it's a pleasant side-effect, I guess 🤷🏿‍♂️
 

Edited June 9, 2023 by wadsef
grammar, clarity

[futureresearch]

13 hours ago, wadsef said:

I went to Mwamba 2 months ago. I'm too lazy to do periodic updates, but I've been taking pictures. I'll make a big post including the pics once progress starts with my post-shedding regrowth. Once there are actual results to review, I'll be an honest take on his results with afro hair.

I would recommend chatting with him if it's free. He's very knowledgeable, personable, and will listen and respond to you sincerely (if you're able to get him on a call). My talks with him were unlike many of the other surgeons that I had consultations with, and those talks were the reason why I chose to go to his clinic.

To be explicit: I consulted with Dr. Mwamba based on the recommendations of this forum and others, but I chose him for the procedure off of the strength of the consultation call as compared to other doctors that I spoke with. As an aside, my consultations with Dr. Bisanga and Dr. Diep, stood out as exceptionally bad.

 

After working with Mwamba, my perspective is that he handles afro-textured hair pretty frequently, and he's extremely experienced in how to handle it -- especially the extractions. I know first-hand that he works with afro hair because there were a several other black patients coming in and out (for follow-ups etc.) while I was there. The doctor and I also talked for hours about the precise details of the operation, and he explained basically everything he was doing (to me and to one of his newer techs) while he did it. He was also in the operating room for the entire +30 hours of my three day procedure, which shows dedication.

However, Dr. Mwamba's clinics are pretty mismanaged with regard to their business communication and aftercare follow-up. It seems like anything administrative that doesn't involve Mwamba personally is completely hit or miss. I'd rather not go into detail unless prompted because I did have a good experience at his clinic. Maybe the poor communication is because I have to interact with the clinic and staff in English and they are bilingual native french speakers, but it's still hard to excuse. Also, I haven't heard from his office since the procedure besides a couple questions I asked his staff a few days later. They've also ignored a couple of my messages. The spotty communication and admin is a massive negative, but so far that's the only thing I could possibly complain about. Everything else was top quality and gives me optimism about my results.

P.S. Mwamba kept insisting that I buy these really expensive French hair shampoos from him. I caved and bought them, and --shockingly-- they cured my lifelong dandruff problem overnight. Dandruff prevention is absolutely NOT the reason Mwamba told me to buy those products, but it's a pleasant side-effect, I guess 🤷🏿‍♂️
 

Glad to hear the transplant went smoothly. Really looking forward to seeing how it turns out, hope you update us! I consulted with him a year back so I agree he’s pretty knowledgeable, but you’re right it’s really hard to communicate with them after.

 

Did you do it in ATL? I’m based there so would make things considerably easier if I didn’t have to travel lol

[MsAyeBeeCat]

15 hours ago, wadsef said:

I went to Mwamba 2 months ago. I'm too lazy to do periodic updates, but I've been taking pictures. I'll make a big post including the pics once progress starts with my post-shedding regrowth. Once there are actual results to review, I'll be an honest take on his results with afro hair.

I would recommend chatting with him if it's free. He's very knowledgeable, personable, and will listen and respond to you sincerely (if you're able to get him on a call). My talks with him were unlike many of the other surgeons that I had consultations with, and those talks were the reason why I chose to go to his clinic.

To be explicit: I consulted with Dr. Mwamba based on the recommendations of this forum and others, but I chose him for the procedure off of the strength of the consultation call as compared to other doctors that I spoke with. As an aside, my consultations with Dr. Bisanga and Dr. Diep, stood out as exceptionally bad.

 

After working with Mwamba, my perspective is that he handles afro-textured hair pretty frequently, and he's extremely experienced in how to handle it -- especially the extractions. I know first-hand that he works with afro hair because there were a several other black patients coming in and out (for follow-ups etc.) while I was there. The doctor and I also talked for hours about the precise details of the operation, and he explained basically everything he was doing (to me and to one of his newer techs) while he did it. He was also in the operating room for the entire +30 hours of my three day procedure, which shows dedication.

However, Dr. Mwamba's clinics are pretty mismanaged with regard to their business communication and aftercare follow-up. It seems like anything administrative that doesn't involve Mwamba personally is completely hit or miss. I'd rather not go into detail unless prompted because I did have a good experience at his clinic. Maybe the poor communication is because I have to interact with the clinic and staff in English and they are bilingual native french speakers, but it's still hard to excuse. Also, I haven't heard from his office since the procedure besides a couple questions I asked his staff a few days later. They've also ignored a couple of my messages. The spotty communication and admin is a massive negative, but so far that's the only thing I could possibly complain about. Everything else was top quality and gives me optimism about my results.

P.S. Mwamba kept insisting that I buy these really expensive French hair shampoos from him. I caved and bought them, and --shockingly-- they cured my lifelong dandruff problem overnight. Dandruff prevention is absolutely NOT the reason Mwamba told me to buy those products, but it's a pleasant side-effect, I guess 🤷🏿‍♂️
 

Thanks for your honest feedback with pros and cons. I don't know about anyone else, but I find with any service, no matter how great they are, if the aftercare/customer service is crap, it completely puts me off. As this is essentially when you are going to need them the most. Things can go brilliant on the day with the surgery, but if/when things go wrong or you need urgent advice and they just can't be arsed, bad communication or just bad customer service, it can make or break a successful transplant if it comes too late or not at all. 

[wadsef]

14 hours ago, futureresearch said:

Did you do it in ATL? I’m based there so would make things considerably easier if I didn’t have to travel lol

I did it in Kinshasa. As far as I know, that's the only clinic where you're guaranteed that Dr. Mwamba will do the operation himself.
 

12 hours ago, MsAyeBeeCat said:

Thanks for your honest feedback with pros and cons. I don't know about anyone else, but I find with any service, no matter how great they are, if the aftercare/customer service is crap, it completely puts me off. As this is essentially when you are going to need them the most. Things can go brilliant on the day with the surgery, but if/when things go wrong or you need urgent advice and they just can't be arsed, bad communication or just bad customer service, it can make or break a successful transplant if it comes too late or not at all. 

Yeah, I see your point. If that sort of thing is important to you, then my experience prevents me from recommending Mwamba very highly.

I went into the operation thinking that the results would be determined by my genetics, the skill of the surgeon, and how well I followed general aftercare instructions in the first few days. For that reason, I didn't have particularly high expectations for communication more than a month post-op. However, even my low expectations were disappointed, which is pity because of how great my experience was at his clinic.

[MsAyeBeeCat]

14 hours ago, wadsef said:

I did it in Kinshasa. As far as I know, that's the only clinic where you're guaranteed that Dr. Mwamba will do the operation himself.
 

Yeah, I see your point. If that sort of thing is important to you, then my experience prevents me from recommending Mwamba very highly.

I went into the operation thinking that the results would be determined by my genetics, the skill of the surgeon, and how well I followed general aftercare instructions in the first few days. For that reason, I didn't have particularly high expectations for communication more than a month post-op. However, even my low expectations were disappointed, which is pity because of how great my experience was at his clinic.

I'm basing my opinion purely on my bad experience in that my surgery 'failed' and 1. I still don't know the answer as to why - my surgeon was fine on the day, and was fine when things were going well month to month, but let me down big time when it started to go wrong in month 5 and in the beginning got quite defensive and then when pushed just give me generic suggestions of things to try to remedy which I did until month 10 when things were still not right.

Though I was due a in-person review at month 12, I decided it was probably not going to help in anyway and I would probably just be really angry and wasn't worth the energy. So, this is why I am seeking the help of a dermatologist/surgeon who will give me 100% and who will do all necessary tests and biopsy (If absolutely required) so they can determine a) why mine failed (poor graft handling or an undiagnosed condition) b) when we have a possible diagnosis if I should consider another transplant with a different surgeon.

I'm determined to solve this hair loss issue and get my life back one way or another as I'm sick of waking up everyday to the same depressing reflection for years.

Edited June 10, 2023 by MsAyeBeeCat

[consequence]

You posted this 2 weeks ago and haven't had your biopsy yet? You need to see a dermatologist and get your biopsy extremely urgently, like literally find one that specializes in hair if you can and call their receptionist often till a spot opens up this week.

If this is a fungal infection, the longer you wait the more will be irreversible/harder to correct with a revision. There is no point in seeing a surgeon till you look into this.

Your surgeon might have had a point about LLLT, PRP and minoxidil, but biopsy first.

[MsAyeBeeCat]

7 minutes ago, consequence said:

You posted this 2 weeks ago and haven't had your biopsy yet? You need to see a dermatologist and get your biopsy extremely urgently, like literally find one that specializes in hair if you can and call their receptionist often till a spot opens up this week.

If this is a fungal infection, the longer you wait the more will be irreversible/harder to correct with a revision. There is no point in seeing a surgeon till you look into this.

Your surgeon might have had a point about LLLT, PRP and minoxidil, but biopsy first.

The issue happened last April and had tricologist look at my hair last year. There is no fungal infectioin. My hair hasn't worsened, it is just back to how it was before my transplant. I have tried Minoxidil which doesn't work. I have a Hairmax doesn't work. PRP will not work long term months after when I needed my surgeon the address the issue when I flagged it up as soon as it happened.  The urgency is not there as this happened months ago. A biopsy may show something like scarring, but I will sort that out when I find a competent dermatologist soon. 

[consequence]

7 minutes ago, MsAyeBeeCat said:

The issue happened last April and had tricologist look at my hair last year. There is no fungal infectioin. My hair hasn't worsened, it is just back to how it was before my transplant. I have tried Minoxidil which doesn't work. I have a Hairmax doesn't work. PRP will not work long term months after when I needed my surgeon the address the issue when I flagged it up as soon as it happened.  The urgency is not there as this happened months ago. A biopsy may show something like scarring, but I will sort that out when I find a competent dermatologist soon. 

Have you had a biopsy? You can't exclude the diagnosis by inspection, tinea and seb derm don't always read the text books and trichologists are not MDs.

Edited June 14, 2023 by consequence

[MsAyeBeeCat]

19 minutes ago, consequence said:

Have you had a biopsy? You can't exclude the diagnosis by inspection, tinea and seb derm don't always read the text books and trichologists are not MDs.

I am going to. I just have another life stuff going on. Its all in hand already. I'm not going to stress over it at the moment as its not getting worse.