Got 2 opinions from different docs. Dr.Bisanga v.s. Dr. Umar. PLEASE HELP!!!

[arturmeireles]

Last year I went to Dr. Bisanga in Belgium for a consultation. He recommended me combination around 2800-3000 with Strip and 800-1000 with FUE but you need to come off steroids 3 weeks prior to surgery because of potential healing issues and no body building activity for a full 6 weeks after surgery to make sure the suture line won't stretch. Today I sent dr. Bisanga updated pics of my scalp and he said that "Your scalp donor looks very weak as you say and worse than a year ago from photos.
You do not have much chest hair and therefore only beard hair is available and this cannot be used for the hair line, so in essence a very large area to cover and in all probability not a venture that will meet your goals and many thousands of grafts would be needed over a lot of surgery as we limit beard grafts to 1,000 grafts at a time.

So, very expensive, long road, and not guarantee we could get the numbers to reach your goals, also the problem of creating a soft hair line is not possible with beard grafts.

So what should you do? For us, do nothing. You look natural and to be honest you are a poor candidate for surgery.

If you wish to see others then of course those are options but make sure to see people in the flesh who have had extensive work with beard.

Debatable if your goals can be met with beard only as would take as said a lot.

Personally we feel best to do nothing, but others have different protocols so we cannot speak for them. We just do not want you to pay a lot of money to us and we do not reach your goals.


Please accept our apologies that we do not feel in good conscience to offer you surgery and wish you all the best in your decisions should you decide to proceed or no elsewhere."

Of course I'm VERY sad to hear this from BHR clinic.
In the other hand I sent the same pics to dr. Umar and he said "Thank you for sending the photos. You have enough head, beard and body donor supply to allow for any level of restoration from the options I have given you."

What you guys think I should do?!?

[El Nino]

If I were you I would shave it down and try and forget about it. I agree with Bisanga that you aren't a candidate for surgery.

Looking at your pics I think you have a good head shape to shave down.

[J_B_Davis]

Bisanga is being honest with you, so you should listen to him. I know it sucks to think that you have no options, but there is nothing wrong with shaving and seeing how things go for you. You can always revisit things when we have better options. Be smart and listen to Dr. Bisanga and don't act out of desperation.

[didi]

Bisanga is king,

it proves he cares about patients


Not many drs are as honest and they would bend truth, twist words, make promisses to get you into the chair...when you go back to complain it would be cliche 'you had unrealistic expectations and other garbage'

[Jotronic]

Agreed, shave and move on. SMP may be a good option once you shave down.

[didi]

wait for a couple of months for dr wesleys scarless fue, you could redistribute hairs on your head and look decent....if it works as claimed i see no risk in going for it

Temp SMP in meantime

[arturmeireles]

What does SMP means?

[PatientlyWaiting]

I wouldn't give up, I would get on finasteride/or dutasteride and rogaine and see what it does for you in a couple of years, then see if you are a better candidate for HT. I have seen plenty of guys worse than you come back because they refused to quit.

However, if you do not want to use hair loss meds then I agree with every one else's advice.

[arturmeireles]

What you guys think about artificial hair implant?

[itsmyhairs]

It looks like you're around a NW6 with very thin donor hair, you'd only ever achieve a thin wisp of hair on top of your head.

Shave it and move on.

[itsmyhairs]

What you guys think about artificial hair implant?

Probably the worst thing you could ever do.

Think about it, it'd be the same hair there FOREVER, it'd degrade over time and look like crap, then there's infection and rejection issues.
The body doesn't like foreign objects being in it.

[aim4hair]

it's all up to you mate, but if i were in your place, i would get an HST or wait for dr. wesely scarless FUE (not sure how well this will work yet). with those 2 procedures you will get no scar on the donor area, so you can fix your hairline and have coverage all over and keep your hair buzzed, with your level of hairloss you might not have a thick coverage, but you can get over that with the buzzcut, plus a buzzcut with a hairline and overall coverage will look much better than the bald look.

[35YrsAfter]

Hair loss commonly causes desperation in men. On the other hand, some men simply don't care about their hair loss at all. As I have mentioned before in this forum, I have a bald friend in his 40's who is a Norwood 6. He's about 5'5" tall and more popular with women than any man I have ever known. He simply doesn't care at all about being bald. He has a positive attitude and an outgoing personality, women seem to love.

At Dr. Cole's office, we see repair patients on a regular basis who were under the false impression that ANY hair is better than NO hair. I personally learned the hard way, that is simply not true. An unnatural looking transplant or even worse, fake implants are far worse than being bald. No man wants to spend years of his life looking like a failed hair restoration experiment and there are doctors out there who WILL do that to you.

Photos can be deceptive. Just to be sure, do a couple of in-person consults with reputable hair restoration doctors. Also remember that as we age, our hair often becomes thinner even in the "safe zone". I am not a doctor, but IMO, at this point, you should learn about non-surgical treatments that are beneficial to hair growth.

Many men with hair loss have expressed their frustration in forums regarding promising treatments and possible cures for MPB that have never materialized. It is possible that a "curve-ball" cure could seemingly come out of nowhere. I personally believe that for the time being, extending the donor supply with products such as ACell will eventually pave the way for a cure. Working at Dr. Cole's office, I have had the opportunity to read studies other hair restoration doctors have conducted that show great promise in eventually unraveling the mystery of MPB. In a recent study, Dr. Cole used ACell in extraction sites within a 1cm square in our patient's scalp donor area. The healing is remarkable 34 days after surgery. Dr. Cole tattooed the corners of the square and spent a great deal of time locating extraction sites. Out of 12 extraction sites, he could only find 4 with magnifying loupes. Dr. Cole confirmed 5 of the extraction sites were growing hair. Where he extracted follicular units with multiple hairs, he is seeing only single hairs growing back in the donor sites. Five out of the twelve extraction sites are growing single hairs. I shot a lengthy video on my Galaxy S3 of Dr. Cole searching for extraction sites with the aid of magnifying loupes. I view the amount of time it took Dr. Cole to locate extraction sites in a 1cm square as a positive development for patients who are not only concerned about scarring, but need to maximize their donor supply.

35YrsAfter works at Dr. Cole's office

[gillenator]

Probably the worst thing you could ever do.

Think about it, it'd be the same hair there FOREVER, it'd degrade over time and look like crap, then there's infection and rejection issues.
The body doesn't like foreign objects being in it.

Definitely stay away from artificial hair transplants! If going to go artificial, better to go with a non-surgical hair system.