Worst decision ever - Dr Gaffney Advanced Hair Restoration Los Angeles, CA 1200 grafts No Shave FUE

[AdvancedHairNightmare]

This was the single worst decision I have ever made, both financially and in terms of attempting to improve myself. It has taken a long time to write this review - I got my procedure done here in March 2019 - but it has been a constant source of frustration & aggravation that stays with me to this day, and I feel dutiful in my need to warn ppl.

My hair loss was not all that bad when I went in, especially in hindsight. It was mostly receding at the temples, but I wanted to be proactive so it wasn't obvious I had a procedure in photos later in my life. I went into it thinking I would be able to keep this a secret. I also had very long hair at the time that I was precious about, & did not want to shave it all off. I searched around quite a bit but was ultimately lured here due to about a 10% better price than the competition + the no-shave FUE option. God, what a mistake, but a couple thousand dollars is still a lot of money to me, & the reviews of the doctor I had intended on seeing looked good, so I thought why not save a little? The before & after photos on the website were very convincing too, even for a smaller number of grafts. I ended up going with a 1200 graft no shave FUE at their suggestion.

 

 

A day prior to my procedure I was looking over the contract / literature etc & I noticed that my doctor was one I was unfamiliar with. I called them up & Carl who consulted with me proceeded to try and assuage my fears by telling me the guy was one of the best in the business etc. I asked where his profile was on the site if he was so highly regarded & he said give me a bit of time & I'll send you a link. A few hours later I got a link for another doctor's profile, Jon Gaffney, who wasn't linked from their front page. My research showed me he was very seasoned, 30+ years, but that was also a tell for me. Turned out he was in his mid 70s. I don't care how decorated a person is, at that age, you can not convice me you're at the physical & mental capacity of your younger or even middle age, let alone with hand dexterity. I shouldve listened to my gut at this point, but with the procedure being so close I decided to go with it. Dr Gaffney was nice enough, but he also had the demeanor of a man who had been going through the motions for many years.

They numbed me up, he made a lot of incisions on my head, & that was that for him. The actual harvesting and insertion of grafts was done by a small team of employees.

I was optimistic about everything til a couple months later when the grafts started to sprout.

So if you have long male hair, you can't have bangs since it's too long, & the weight of it pulls the rest of your hair sideways or backwards so that your hairline is always exposed. So what happens when things start growing? Well, hair literally just starts sprouting on your forehead. Very unnatural to see occur & impossible to hide! At that point, I started shaving that area because what else was I supposed to do, until finally realizing I had no choice but to cut all my hair off in order to get some bangs to cover this area. I have included photos of what it looked like around this time. In cutting it short I also made another discovery. They had extracted the hair in small strips like an FUT, & I had three very visible scar-like areas when the reason for doing an FUE was in order to prevent that!

 

So the no-shave aspect only served to delay the inevitable cutting of my hair, which was definitely not something they mentioned, & the FUE has made it impossible to wear it shaved in the back without it looking like the back of my head got swiped by a bear claw. And then the truly depressing part: the hair in front was so patchy & scattershot it just looked like a mess. There was no density, and a noticeable gap between where the hairs started growing & my real hairline was. In short, it looked terrible, & when I came in for the 9 month follow up, both the doctor and consultant were like "...so you're not satisfied?" Do you have eyes?!? It looked like someone glued pubes to my freakin forehead. At this point, they offered to do another procedure for the same amount to try and improve it. Yeah, thanks but no thanks guys. The mere fact that they would even attempt to pretend that it looked decent was insulting. Trust shattered, I spent the next couple of years always having bangs down and wearing hats to hide the mess they created. It took me years to save up to get someone to repair it, & the doctors I saw following up remarked that many grafts had been put in the wrong way & that it was possible they were using unlicensed medical assistants for the procedure. I have included many different photos to give you a sense. It has taken at least $20000 more dollars to make me look presentable again, and I still will never be able to wear my hair high and tight without the scars being visible. Do not fall for this trap, they are all about volume and making that sale. Spend a little bit more and get someone to do it right the first time. No amount of hospitality during the procedure can make up for terrible results.

[Melvin- Admin]

Wait a minute, are these linear scars from your FUE?

[AdvancedHairNightmare]

That is correct. Why they did not distribute it around my head, I have no idea. 

[GoliGoliGoli]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I know sharing this type of thing is not easy but it may save another patient from going to these clowns. 

Was your repair successful at least? 

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, AdvancedHairNightmare said:

That is correct. Why they did not distribute it around my head, I have no idea. 

This is absolutely shocking, you’re in LA? This is one of the most shocking things ive seen in a while. Have you consulted with any doctors?

[WhiteyUK]

1 hour ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Wait a minute, are these linear scars from your FUE?

Wow …. These people should be jailed

[Turkhair]

Wow this is the worst thing I have ever seen. This is like kids were tasked with harvesting your grafts…what the hell. They gave you 3 FUT scars!!!!! How many grafts was this? If they implanted only 1200 then they must have wasted the rest. They even did a scar on your crown!!

I know Turkish hairmills get a lot of bad reputation but even they wouldn’t have done you this bad. 

Well it’s a good thing you’re in US and can use the legal system. Sue the clinic! 

[jjalay]

4 hours ago, AdvancedHairNightmare said:

This was the single worst decision I have ever made, both financially and in terms of attempting to improve myself. It has taken a long time to write this review - I got my procedure done here in March 2019 - but it has been a constant source of frustration & aggravation that stays with me to this day, and I feel dutiful in my need to warn ppl.

My hair loss was not all that bad when I went in, especially in hindsight. It was mostly receding at the temples, but I wanted to be proactive so it wasn't obvious I had a procedure in photos later in my life. I went into it thinking I would be able to keep this a secret. I also had very long hair at the time that I was precious about, & did not want to shave it all off. I searched around quite a bit but was ultimately lured here due to about a 10% better price than the competition + the no-shave FUE option. God, what a mistake, but a couple thousand dollars is still a lot of money to me, & the reviews of the doctor I had intended on seeing looked good, so I thought why not save a little? The before & after photos on the website were very convincing too, even for a smaller number of grafts. I ended up going with a 1200 graft no shave FUE at their suggestion.

 

 

A day prior to my procedure I was looking over the contract / literature etc & I noticed that my doctor was one I was unfamiliar with. I called them up & Carl who consulted with me proceeded to try and assuage my fears by telling me the guy was one of the best in the business etc. I asked where his profile was on the site if he was so highly regarded & he said give me a bit of time & I'll send you a link. A few hours later I got a link for another doctor's profile, Jon Gaffney, who wasn't linked from their front page. My research showed me he was very seasoned, 30+ years, but that was also a tell for me. Turned out he was in his mid 70s. I don't care how decorated a person is, at that age, you can not convice me you're at the physical & mental capacity of your younger or even middle age, let alone with hand dexterity. I shouldve listened to my gut at this point, but with the procedure being so close I decided to go with it. Dr Gaffney was nice enough, but he also had the demeanor of a man who had been going through the motions for many years.

They numbed me up, he made a lot of incisions on my head, & that was that for him. The actual harvesting and insertion of grafts was done by a small team of employees.

I was optimistic about everything til a couple months later when the grafts started to sprout.

So if you have long male hair, you can't have bangs since it's too long, & the weight of it pulls the rest of your hair sideways or backwards so that your hairline is always exposed. So what happens when things start growing? Well, hair literally just starts sprouting on your forehead. Very unnatural to see occur & impossible to hide! At that point, I started shaving that area because what else was I supposed to do, until finally realizing I had no choice but to cut all my hair off in order to get some bangs to cover this area. I have included photos of what it looked like around this time. In cutting it short I also made another discovery. They had extracted the hair in small strips like an FUT, & I had three very visible scar-like areas when the reason for doing an FUE was in order to prevent that!

 

So the no-shave aspect only served to delay the inevitable cutting of my hair, which was definitely not something they mentioned, & the FUE has made it impossible to wear it shaved in the back without it looking like the back of my head got swiped by a bear claw. And then the truly depressing part: the hair in front was so patchy & scattershot it just looked like a mess. There was no density, and a noticeable gap between where the hairs started growing & my real hairline was. In short, it looked terrible, & when I came in for the 9 month follow up, both the doctor and consultant were like "...so you're not satisfied?" Do you have eyes?!? It looked like someone glued pubes to my freakin forehead. At this point, they offered to do another procedure for the same amount to try and improve it. Yeah, thanks but no thanks guys. The mere fact that they would even attempt to pretend that it looked decent was insulting. Trust shattered, I spent the next couple of years always having bangs down and wearing hats to hide the mess they created. It took me years to save up to get someone to repair it, & the doctors I saw following up remarked that many grafts had been put in the wrong way & that it was possible they were using unlicensed medical assistants for the procedure. I have included many different photos to give you a sense. It has taken at least $20000 more dollars to make me look presentable again, and I still will never be able to wear my hair high and tight without the scars being visible. Do not fall for this trap, they are all about volume and making that sale. Spend a little bit more and get someone to do it right the first time. No amount of hospitality during the procedure can make up for terrible results.

Sht man this is horrible, and the doctor was surprised that you were not happy with the result? In your case i would difinitely seek some legal advice and chase these clowns.

[jjalay]

In their website it says the doc has 30 years of experience with over 16000 hairtransplants performed🤐... He has worked for Bosley and Hairclub for men for many years, that preety much says it all.

[WhiteyUK]

1 hour ago, jjalay said:

In their website it says the doc has 30 years of experience with over 16000 hairtransplants performed🤐... He has worked for Bosley and Hairclub for men for many years, that preety much says it all.

Over 30 years that averages over 1.5 ht a day without a day off …. Good going that 😬

[AdvancedHairNightmare]

56 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

This is absolutely shocking, you’re in LA? This is one of the most shocking things ive seen in a while. Have you consulted with any doctors?

I was at the time. One of doctors I consulted with afterwards suggested the team who harvested and inserted the grafts was quite possibly unlicensed (the difference between a medical assistant and a licensed technician, I believe). The guy who did my actual repair transplant didn't want me to cause waves bc I think he didn't want to be embroiled in anything, but in all the cases it was immediately obvious this was not a desirable outcome in the slightest vs the kind of like faux perplexed response I got at Advanced Hair when I returned for my 9 month consultation where they were talking slowly and carefully but still suggesting that it's not bad. That really just added insult to injury.

[Melvin- Admin]

There was a case here recently where a group of patients were working with authorities to bring down a clinic where an unlicensed person was allegedly performing the surgeries.

If that’s true, what they did to you is illegal. In California, it’s illegal for a technician to score skin, even if they’re licensed surgical techs. 

[Berba11]

Insane.

Do you have any pictures and details of your repair work we can see?

[Big Rome]

9 hours ago, AdvancedHairNightmare said:

This was the single worst decision I have ever made, both financially and in terms of attempting to improve myself. It has taken a long time to write this review - I got my procedure done here in March 2019 - but it has been a constant source of frustration & aggravation that stays with me to this day, and I feel dutiful in my need to warn ppl.

My hair loss was not all that bad when I went in, especially in hindsight. It was mostly receding at the temples, but I wanted to be proactive so it wasn't obvious I had a procedure in photos later in my life. I went into it thinking I would be able to keep this a secret. I also had very long hair at the time that I was precious about, & did not want to shave it all off. I searched around quite a bit but was ultimately lured here due to about a 10% better price than the competition + the no-shave FUE option. God, what a mistake, but a couple thousand dollars is still a lot of money to me, & the reviews of the doctor I had intended on seeing looked good, so I thought why not save a little? The before & after photos on the website were very convincing too, even for a smaller number of grafts. I ended up going with a 1200 graft no shave FUE at their suggestion.

 

 

A day prior to my procedure I was looking over the contract / literature etc & I noticed that my doctor was one I was unfamiliar with. I called them up & Carl who consulted with me proceeded to try and assuage my fears by telling me the guy was one of the best in the business etc. I asked where his profile was on the site if he was so highly regarded & he said give me a bit of time & I'll send you a link. A few hours later I got a link for another doctor's profile, Jon Gaffney, who wasn't linked from their front page. My research showed me he was very seasoned, 30+ years, but that was also a tell for me. Turned out he was in his mid 70s. I don't care how decorated a person is, at that age, you can not convice me you're at the physical & mental capacity of your younger or even middle age, let alone with hand dexterity. I shouldve listened to my gut at this point, but with the procedure being so close I decided to go with it. Dr Gaffney was nice enough, but he also had the demeanor of a man who had been going through the motions for many years.

They numbed me up, he made a lot of incisions on my head, & that was that for him. The actual harvesting and insertion of grafts was done by a small team of employees.

I was optimistic about everything til a couple months later when the grafts started to sprout.

So if you have long male hair, you can't have bangs since it's too long, & the weight of it pulls the rest of your hair sideways or backwards so that your hairline is always exposed. So what happens when things start growing? Well, hair literally just starts sprouting on your forehead. Very unnatural to see occur & impossible to hide! At that point, I started shaving that area because what else was I supposed to do, until finally realizing I had no choice but to cut all my hair off in order to get some bangs to cover this area. I have included photos of what it looked like around this time. In cutting it short I also made another discovery. They had extracted the hair in small strips like an FUT, & I had three very visible scar-like areas when the reason for doing an FUE was in order to prevent that!

 

So the no-shave aspect only served to delay the inevitable cutting of my hair, which was definitely not something they mentioned, & the FUE has made it impossible to wear it shaved in the back without it looking like the back of my head got swiped by a bear claw. And then the truly depressing part: the hair in front was so patchy & scattershot it just looked like a mess. There was no density, and a noticeable gap between where the hairs started growing & my real hairline was. In short, it looked terrible, & when I came in for the 9 month follow up, both the doctor and consultant were like "...so you're not satisfied?" Do you have eyes?!? It looked like someone glued pubes to my freakin forehead. At this point, they offered to do another procedure for the same amount to try and improve it. Yeah, thanks but no thanks guys. The mere fact that they would even attempt to pretend that it looked decent was insulting. Trust shattered, I spent the next couple of years always having bangs down and wearing hats to hide the mess they created. It took me years to save up to get someone to repair it, & the doctors I saw following up remarked that many grafts had been put in the wrong way & that it was possible they were using unlicensed medical assistants for the procedure. I have included many different photos to give you a sense. It has taken at least $20000 more dollars to make me look presentable again, and I still will never be able to wear my hair high and tight without the scars being visible. Do not fall for this trap, they are all about volume and making that sale. Spend a little bit more and get someone to do it right the first time. No amount of hospitality during the procedure can make up for terrible results.

this is so sad man, I wish stuff like this didn’t happen in the transplant industry! it’s riddled with life ruining hair-mills & sub par money grabbing low life’s. I hope you have somewhat gained some normality back 💙

[consequence]

Are those after pics at 12 months? If so that is perhaps a 25-40% yield.

Not many cases where there is such a deviation from the standard of care as to have a possible lawsuit but I think this is one of them. 

The peak years from most surgeons are from 40-60, at least as far a studies on error rates. Earlier than that and they don't have the experience yet, later and they've kind of clocked out. And even if not, as you've pointed out, manual dexterity becomes an issue.

Your surgeon just lent his license to the techs and collected payment. F*cking sociopath and an embarrassment to the profession. And what's worse is he knows what he's doing and doesn't care.

And there is literally almost no regulation on hair techs in the United States at the current time. The legal system is extremely bad at enforcing a standard of care for medicine because it's money driven not based on ethics or morality. This is why this forum is so important.

Was the surgeon even in the room during the placement?

God your experience really just infuriates me. I'm so sorry man.

[A_4_Archan]

You can seek legal advice and file a complaint ..this is just outrageous 

[OliverAtom]

21 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Wait a minute, are these linear scars from your FUE?

I can not believe this happened! Hopefully they will never again perform a surgery of any kind ever again 😱

[AdvancedHairNightmare]

On 9/19/2023 at 12:51 PM, GoliGoliGoli said:

Thank you for sharing your experience. I know sharing this type of thing is not easy but it may save another patient from going to these clowns. 

Was your repair successful at least? 

Well it certainly looks leagues better. I’m pretty sure with the repair he did 1800 grafts although I can’t seem to find our contract via email and the paper contract is probably in storage. I still can’t say I’m totally satisfied considering the relative level of hair loss versus how much I’ve paid in total. I’m including pictures and will explain my qualms and would love some feedback in the process as well because maybe I have unrealistic expectations. Had this been the result first time around, I think I would have been happy with it, but basically, where the hairline is set at is great but I feel like I can personally pretty readily tell I had a transplant.

For starters the way the hairs protrude from my head makes this apparent. The roots are thick and brown and their placement is fairly uniform, and if you look at my temples the visible roots are much softer and have kind of a blondness to them that looks more natural. Secondly, with the uniformity, I feel like I can see a few inches back so that the curvature of my forehead is visible “through the trees” so to speak. Similar to a grove that has been spaced out manually, I can see farther into the thicket. If my hair is wet I feel like it’s even more apparent. 

I still feel a little self conscious about wearing my hair “up” as a result, so I tend to do it mostly at night. For what it’s worth though, nobody has ever said anything to me, including my barber, although if I volunteered the info I am sure they might feel comfortable discussing truthfully considering I’m allowing that professional courtesy. If there are rumors (and after all i’ve been through, honestly i care MUCH less) they’ve never made it to my ears. 

Am I wrong to think that if done a certain way or with a greater graft number, my hairline would be truly indistinguishable from a natural one? It seems 3 procedures is the magic number for the guys that are on youtube or wherever acting as best case proof of concepts for a new hairline. 

Thanks in advance and for all the support regardless, this is motivating me to take action beyond just sharing my story 

 

[GoliGoliGoli]

Based on those pics no one in the general public will be able to tell that's a hair transplant.  We are all our own biggest critics and whatnot. When did you get the repair done? 

[AdvancedHairNightmare]

16 hours ago, consequence said:

Are those after pics at 12 months? If so that is perhaps a 25-40% yield.

Not many cases where there is such a deviation from the standard of care as to have a possible lawsuit but I think this is one of them. 

The peak years from most surgeons are from 40-60, at least as far a studies on error rates. Earlier than that and they don't have the experience yet, later and they've kind of clocked out. And even if not, as you've pointed out, manual dexterity becomes an issue.

Your surgeon just lent his license to the techs and collected payment. F*cking sociopath and an embarrassment to the profession. And what's worse is he knows what he's doing and doesn't care.

And there is literally almost no regulation on hair techs in the United States at the current time. The legal system is extremely bad at enforcing a standard of care for medicine because it's money driven not based on ethics or morality. This is why this forum is so important.

Was the surgeon even in the room during the placement?

God your experience really just infuriates me. I'm so sorry man.

He definitely took off right after doing the incisions. Pretty sure I didn’t see him afterwards as well (was sedated and it’s been a minute).

 

But yeah this guy was the definition of clocked out 

[AdvancedHairNightmare]

Just now, AdvancedHairNightmare said:

He definitely took off right after doing the incisions. Pretty sure I didn’t see him afterwards as well (was sedated and it’s been a minute).

 

But yeah this guy was the definition of clocked out 

Those photos are 11 months I believe. I saw no improvement after around 7 or 8 

[AdvancedHairNightmare]

16 minutes ago, GoliGoliGoli said:

Based on those pics no one in the general public will be able to tell that's a hair transplant.  We are all our own biggest critics and whatnot. When did you get the repair done? 

Cool, yeah that was my general take as well. I should have mentioned that no significant other has said anything, of which there have been 2, so that should prob be the biggest indicator. I got it re-done 2 years ago 

[consequence]

It seems like post repair you've improved a lot. If you're still unhappy you can try PRP to thicken things up. I'm not sure who is the "best" for revisions, everyone has their favorite on this -- definitely need to do your own research.

Edited September 22, 2023 by consequence

[AdvancedHairNightmare]

 

10 hours ago, consequence said:

It seems like post repair you've improved a lot. If you're still unhappy you can try PRP to thicken things up. I'm not sure who is the "best" for revisions, everyone has their favorite on this -- definitely need to do your own research.

Yeah, huge improvement, just not for me what I'd consider some flawless-looking jobs based on some photos I've seen. Like the other gentleman said though, you're your own worst critic. I tried PRP prior to getting anything done and didn't see any improvement. Should I have reason to believe it might by different this time around since it's hair from a different area?

[4chanhrn]

Looks fine. I feel people here have a tendency to obsess over small things.