2nd attempt at hair transplant

[ImBringingHairBack]

Hi all!

I had my first FUE procedure more than 2 years ago, with a very well known surgeon. I had 1200 grafts done on the front. The procedure didn't turn out to be good at all. The doctor himself was baffled with the inadequate growth of the transplanted hair. Furthermore, my right temple is more sparse than my left temple. The asymmetry looks very odd.

Now I'm considering a second FUE procedure. I'd like to fill my right temple first so that at least the temples look symmetrical. Should I go back to the same surgeon or seek a new one? Since the surgeon performed the procedure and knows he didn't go a good job, he might be able to study what happened and be more careful with the second one. But what if he and I just don't match as surgeon and patient? What if he ends up screwing up again?

What do you guys think? Thanks!

 

[global]

Personally, if a surgeon failed with me once I would not go back.

There could be many reasons for his failure, perhaps not all his fault, but why take the risk.

 

[Mahair]

Ditto on what Global said and then some. I am sure he looks "baffled" often , the baffled look is well practiced in this field. Go for a refund. Also if you go back to him and he screws up again and complain his reply will be " he was so pleased he came back for more". I know the playbook.
Hey look at the bright side. At least your not smiling in the back and frowning in the front.

 

[ImBringingHairBack]

The surgeon offered me a free procedure to fill my right temple, making the temples not asymmetrical. He said he could do 200-300 grafts and see what would happen. Since most of the grafted hair from my first procedure fell, he said the smaller amount of grafts would be an experiment to see if they'd stay or fall.

Another strange thing with my recipient area is that it's still reddish after 2 years. The surgeon gave me antibiotics and that didn't get rid of the redness. This is another reason why he'd do only 200-300 grafts, to see if the prolonged redness would occur on the new recipient area. He said he might even do a skin biopsy.

Should I go back to him for those 200-300 grafts at least? Or should I go to someone else?

Thanks!

 

[Mahair]

Who is your "doctor."? " See what happens"? .Hang tough brother I am trying to locate Gil between the two of us we will come up with an answer. He does alot of volunteer work outside of here in addition he has a son that has been deployed to the sand pit so it might take some time. I'm on it O.K.

 

[JohnnySeville]

The surgeon offered me a free procedure to fill my right temple, making the temples not asymmetrical. He said he could do 200-300 grafts and see what would happen. Since most of the grafted hair from my first procedure fell, he said the smaller amount of grafts would be an experiment to see if they'd stay or fall.

Another strange thing with my recipient area is that it's still reddish after 2 years. The surgeon gave me antibiotics and that didn't get rid of the redness. This is another reason why he'd do only 200-300 grafts, to see if the prolonged redness would occur on the new recipient area. He said he might even do a skin biopsy.

Should I go back to him for those 200-300 grafts at least? Or should I go to someone else?

Thanks!

Since you live in NYC is the doctor in question, Feller? Let us know who he is.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Mahair for the PM and heads up on this patient.

ImBringingHairBack,

My word, whatever you do, DON'T GO BACK TO THE SAME SURGEON! Even if some of this was outside his control, a follow-up procedure can only make matters worse.

In addition, having re-growth on one side, but very weak on the other could potentially mean transected hair was implanted in the recipient area. Some areas of the donor region are more difficult to extract and resulting transection can be higher. IMO, something is not right. How does the patient have growth on one side, but the other is poor? That's not the norm as you well know. If it were an isolated yield issue, than it generally would be poor throught the recipient area.

But you see, once the Doctor gets started, even if the extractions are difficult because of hyper-angulation of your donor hair, do you think he's going to tell you that he is transecting too much hair? Especially after you paid him in full?! That means your surgery is a loss in terms of profit because he has to pull the plug on your procedure and yet he has a complete OR team already earning their paycheck. Only an ethical Doctor will stop the procedure and not continue. But you would be shocked how many will continue on simply because they don't want to give you a refund and lose the revenue! Any wonder why they don't like seeing their unhappy patients telling their honest story on a forum? Their carelessness is not good for business!

Did two different techs place the grafts? The reason I ask is because the grafts are often placed in peetree dishes and possibly one of the dishes held more transected hair that was extracted from an area and that particular tech is placing a much higher amount of damaged grafts from that. BTW, did only your surgeon make the extractions or was someone else also involved? Think back. Were any interesting comments made by the surgical staff during the extraction process that indicated any added challenges in getting your grafts out or placed? How long did your grafts sit outside of the body? Did they have another patient the same day as yours? Was your surgeon bouncing in and out of the OR room too much?

I also noticed that you did not reply and mention the Doctor that did your FUE procedure. Possibly you do not want to say anything that might affect his willingness or attitude to resolve your situation with more surgery. Or possibly your doctor threatened you to not mention their name in a public forum or they would sue you. Try to scare you into silence. Don't believe it. You're only stating "facts", things that did in fact happen to you. And you're not going back to the same surgeon are you?

You are also welcome to confide in me privately. You can PM me here if you want to. But really all you have to do is tell us who your surgeon was so others do not end up with the same outcome. You don't have to get into any other explanations if you do not want to.

But if you come into a community and disclose that this happened to you, don't you think you owe it to us to tell us who the Doctor is?

 

[Guest]

Also, the lingering redness can be a result of several possibilities. One is unsterile instruments, meaning they were not autoclaved from their prior use.

Another is the level of callogen (fibrous protein) in your tissue. See a dermatologist for this. DO NOT DO MORE SURGERY to try and hide it with more hair because it won't work. :shock: