My Hair Transplant Hell - where do I go from here?

[Alan1980]

I am currently under treatment at Hair Science Institute. They call FUE and FUT old treatments, as with their treatment perhaps not all grafts start growing for sure, but at least they seem to have quite a good rate of people actually left with a lot of transplanted grafts that are growing, but also with donor area hair that regrows. And they use extremely thin needles so you are not left with all these scars! I feel really sorry for you man, perhaps it is not the best to intimate this guy as you stay feeling horrible about all this, and it will give you no hair or smooth skin back will it? But for other people I would just like to mention this new method as it took me ages to find a transplant with a. good results, b. no pain and c. no scars so I can always shave my head if in a few years time I will have the guts to do so. Wish you all the best man!

Hello Mikey, congratulations on your new HT, it sounds like your very happy and you chose that right clinic and surgeon, I am very pleased for you, it is nice to know there are plenty of people very happy with their HT. I was promised no pain, no mention of scarring, but what I got was the complete opposite. It is great to know you did not have these problems.

My surgeon did not mention any side effects like scarring during my consultation, he even recommended it over strip surgery so I could buzz my hair short if I wanted. He did mention my donor area was sparse, but that did not stop him recommending a Fue procedure.
The clinic manager wanted the surgeon to take even more hair from my donor area, more than the surgeon even recommended.

Fue has been known to leave unsightly scarring I have found out for myself, but when donor the area is very thin or sparse it can leave peoples head in a terrible mess when not enough hair can grow back to cover any scarring. I now know I should of definitely not been considered for a Fue procedure. My surgeon admitted to not having the correct tools with him for my type of grafts, maybe that is why my scarring looks like it does, or one of the reasons why my procedure failed.

I don't think revealing who my surgeon is will leave me feeling bad or worse Mikey. I gave him a large sum of money and trusted him to improve my life and confidence, but he destroyed it instead. It seems he has no empathy or compassion for what's happened, so I will definitely not feel guilty about telling the world who was responsible for my Fue transplant.

Thanks for taking the time for reading my story Mikey and sharing yours.

Alan.

[Alan1980]

Sucks man really sorry to hear your story.

There are definitely sub-par surgeons in the list imo. There are only really a handful surgeons worldwide who are considered elite.

Anyway who was your surgeon? Also start uploading pictures.

Hello Swooping, I realize the IAHRS can't be responsible for a surgeons personal actions, but I think most people considering a HT would rather go to a IAHRS surgeon than a surgeon who is not certified.

I am making a complaint to the IAHRS about my Fue procedure over the christmas period.

I have taken some pictures and I will upload them today, looking at the pictures makes me feel very depressed, I never realized how much donor hair I actually don't have left.
The pictures are not of very good resolution but do show my patchy scarring and my hair growing in patches, and of course almost zero hair growth on head.

Today I called the clinic to speak to the clinic manager, but she was not there, the clinic will get her to call me back tomorrow, I will see what happens tomorrow and where she stands, and take it from there Swooping.

Alan.

[Mikey V]

I am currently under treatment at Hair Science Institute. They call FUE and FUT old treatments, as with their treatment perhaps not all grafts start growing for sure, but at least they seem to have quite a good rate of people actually left with a lot of transplanted grafts that are growing, but also with donor area hair that regrows. And they use extremely thin needles so you are not left with all these scars! I feel really sorry for you man, perhaps it is not the best to intimate this guy as you stay feeling horrible about all this, and it will give you no hair or smooth skin back will it? But for other people I would just like to mention this new method as it took me ages to find a transplant with a. good results, b. no pain and c. no scars so I can always shave my head if in a few years time I will have the guts to do so.Wish you all the best man!

[LogicalBald068]

Hi, well first of all, It is the worst case where this kind of experiences can be the part of these surgical methods. Well i am very feeling sorry to see your bad experience with FUE treatments, It’s true as not always best hands can only do workout best. As (user) have mentioned you should intimate him through this kind of platform and let him aware of deepness of your surgery and get back your money. And i even feel worst for the treated methodology, clinic should honour your refund if your complain has perfect validation. Wish you all the best!

[Swooping]

Sucks man really sorry to hear your story.

There are definitely sub-par surgeons in the list imo. There are only really a handful surgeons worldwide who are considered elite.

Anyway who was your surgeon? Also start uploading pictures.

[Alan1980]

Hello August, yes I have considered micropigmentation, I have seen it up close first hand. There was a guy who used to go to my gym who you could clearly see he had micropigmentation done. I could see he had it done under his existing hair and his bald spot. The contrast between the two areas did not look good and that was from about 6 feet away, he had his existing hair buzzed short. Of course from the other side of the gym it looked fine. I am not sure if the purpose was to hide scarring or for the full head of hair look.

I have done quite a bit of research on it and I have seen some decent results at hiding scars from HT, best case scenario probably, and I have seen some terrible results where it looked very fake.
Maybe it could help cover my scarring and get me back to square one, but I do not think I am ready to be put in another make or break situation. I just want to concentrate on my current battle and situation August, getting my Dads money back for my failed HT.

If my surgeon had told me at the start I might have to have hair tattooed all over my head if my Fue went wrong, I would of walked away fast. If I had known what I know now about the pain, mentally and physically and the journey I would have to make for my particular Fue HT I would of said thanks but no thanks.

Thank you for advice and suggestion August, it might be something to consider one day, but I am not ready for any more procedures that might go wrong yet.

As a few forum members have requested I will try and take some pictures tonight rather than wait for my friend, they will not be very high resolution, but they will show my scarring and how sparse my donor area now is.

Alan

[August]

Hello Alan. Sorry to hear about the failed transplant. Is there a chance you could show us a photo of the scarring?
And have you considered camouflaging the scars with scalp micropigmentation? That technic has recently become popular for hiding the kind of scars that you might have.

[Alan1980]

Alan ,

You will have the support of all the forum members here . From the sounds of it , they may not looking to refund you for the procedure anyway , so giving details may not make that much difference . Again , I'm staggered at their lack of response .

Just to advise also , that you may be able to get pro-bono assistance from some HT surgeons with a possibility of fixing your poor results . If you check out Hair Transplant Mentor , you will find further details for this .

http://www.hairtransplantmentor.com/...splant-repair/

Hello Suarez, thank you very much for the details for hairtransplant mentor. I am not sure what can be done for me, I have very very little donor hair left. But I will definitely contact them and see what they say might be possible.

As a last resort Suarez I am going to give the clinic one last call and verbally direct them to my HT story and say nothing else. At least then I will know 100% they definitely know the situation.

Thanks again for the info Suarez.

Alan

[suarez]

I have emailed and text my surgeon directing them to this thread, but I yet to here anything back. It might actually get to the point where I will be naming my surgeon and clinic. I know that will probably mess up any chance of a refund, but I may be helping people avoid going through the hell I have been through.

Alan.

Alan ,

You will have the support of all the forum members here . From the sounds of it , they may not looking to refund you for the procedure anyway , so giving details may not make that much difference . Again , I'm staggered at their lack of response .

Just to advise also , that you may be able to get pro-bono assistance from some HT surgeons with a possibility of fixing your poor results . If you check out Hair Transplant Mentor , you will find further details for this .

http://www.hairtransplantmentor.com/hair-transplant-repair/

[Alan1980]

Hi Alan

Im sorry you have been mistreated like this, it is a sad read. Have you any pictures that you could share
as I think it would help with the advice you recieve

All the best
ej

Hello ejj, I am hoping to get my friend who is a photographer to take some high resolution pictures for me in good light with his nice expensive cannon camera, I took some pictures of my scalp with an ipad a while back but they are not very good and it's in poor light, but even then it does still show the extent of the Fue scarring, and also the extent of my HT failure especially my crown where I had 3500 hairs but I am still bare bald.

Thank you ejj
Alan.

[ejj]

Hi Alan

Im sorry you have been mistreated like this, it is a sad read. Have you any pictures that you could share
as I think it would help with the advice you receive

All the best
ej

[Alan1980]

The way your doing things is absolutely right Alan, the main priority now is that you get your money back at the least, to threaten about naming the clinic/surgeon at this stage might make things worse, but it does sound like the attitude of the surgeon and clinic manager has been very poor, especially leaving you waiting outside for them in the rain for an hour, and even asking you to bring cash?! Very strange... I actually think I've worked out who your surgeon is anyway, it isn't that hard... But I would never make any assumptions on here anyway and wouldn't voice my thoughts.
A previous poster was saying about harming reputations of surgeons and it being extortion if you did threaten to ever name them.... It all makes me wonder if there are plenty of people in your situation that we never get to hear about, because of nda's for settlement or people never tell their story, maybe some surgeons results aren't always what they are cracked up to be! I think the public should know the good and bad about all aspects of this industry,so we can all make good informed choices, and also think the clinic/surgeon should be named at some point if possible.. the surgeon wouldn't have minded if you had a great result and plastering your pic everywhere for publicity would he?! Surely works both ways, not trying to make this a big witch hunt!! But think people should know.. Please keep us posted with how you get on, and as I said earlier.. I wish you all the very best with it

Hello Matty, sorry for the late reply, I've been having one of my bad days today. This will be my first Christmas without my Dad, so I am not really looking forward to it ):

A friend of mine has just pointed out to me to me why the clinic manager insisted on cash Matty, I did not really think of it before, but it's pretty obvious to me now, but I will let people come to their own conclusions as to why, I want to try and remain professional and not push the boat out to far.

What is really baffling is the surgeon is IHARS certified, which means he must have a lot of successful transplants to his name. I think if I had my HT done in his exclusive London clinic things might of been done differently, instead of a remote unheard of clinic where he done my HT.
If I was to make an analogy of the situation it would be my surgeon does exclusive expensive Fue transplants at his London clinic by day, and cash in hand out of the way hair transplants in remote clinics by night. I am pretty sure half of the things that happened to me during my HT he would of done differently in his exclusive London clinic, although it would of probably been much more expensive. The London clinic probably has certain strict procedures and protocols that have to be adhered to, I don't think his London clinic would of left me in the waiting in the cold and rain for an hour.

There must be many people who have gone through what I am going though, but you never hear about it. Maybe a lot of people are scared to go public, or what happened to me, I was so stressed out and depressed a public and a court battle would be to much, but here I am.

I have emailed and text my surgeon directing them to this thread, but I yet to here anything back. It might actually get to the point where I will be naming my surgeon and clinic. I know that will probably mess up any chance of a refund, but I may be helping people avoid going through the hell I have been through.

Thank you for your kind words Matty, I will certainly keep everyone updated on my situation, everyone has been so incredible on The Bald Truth forums at giving advice and support. I am considering posting my story on another popular hair loss forum over the next few days. I will definitely be sticking around here to try and help other people with what I have learned from my long journey.

Alan.

[Mattyp1]

The way your doing things is absolutely right Alan, the main priority now is that you get your money back at the least, to threaten about naming the clinic/surgeon at this stage might make things worse, but it does sound like the attitude of the surgeon and clinic manager has been very poor, especially leaving you waiting outside for them in the rain for an hour, and even asking you to bring cash?! Very strange... I actually think I've worked out who your surgeon is anyway, it isn't that hard... But I would never make any assumptions on here anyway and wouldn't voice my thoughts.
A previous poster was saying about harming reputations of surgeons and it being extortion if you did threaten to ever name them.... It all makes me wonder if there are plenty of people in your situation that we never get to hear about, because of nda's for settlement or people never tell their story, maybe some surgeons results aren't always what they are cracked up to be! I think the public should know the good and bad about all aspects of this industry,so we can all make good informed choices, and also think the clinic/surgeon should be named at some point if possible.. the surgeon wouldn't have minded if you had a great result and plastering your pic everywhere for publicity would he?! Surely works both ways, not trying to make this a big witch hunt!! But think people should know.. Please keep us posted with how you get on, and as I said earlier.. I wish you all the very best with it

[Alan1980]

Fair points Payday , but he is only asking for what has already been promised .He's not looking to profit from this and there is nothing criminal about this at all .

I'm also sure Alan is wise enough to word any such communications to make the point without being explicit .

Indeed , I'm not privileged as to know what was in the terms and conditions of the contract were in this particular instance , but I'm sure there will be some form of recourse for both parties in the event of an alleged breach of contract .If there is no contract , common law will apply in relation to restitution / compensation .

Hello Suarez. If by to profit you mean to sue the surgeon for damages and loss of earnings, I have had this conversation with the surgeon already over the phone, and I was quite shocked when he brought up that he would be quite happy for me sue him as he was insured, in fact he welcomed it. I told my surgeon I did not want to go down that road, that I am not physically or mentally up for a long legal battle, I just wanted to put this all behind me and requested a refund so I could get my Dads money back for a failed procedure. That is when he said he would contact the clinic to find out how much to refund me and he would get back to me over the next few days. I have not heard anything since.

I personally believe I have the right to tell my story and even name the surgeon, as long as I do what PayDay has said, stick to the facts and I don't personally sully his name or directly attack him in any way, well that is what I have been told, so I am sticking to those rules.

Again thanks for your input Suarez.

[Alan1980]

I think all of the people on this thread have good intentions with their advice, but in the real world, you can not threaten to harm someone’s reputation for money. That’s called extortion, so you have to make sure that you do not threaten this surgeon or clinic. Keep doing what you’re doing and let them know that you are considering naming the surgeon and the clinic, without making any demands that can be viewed as extortion. So just be smart. use calm language, post only the facts You can let them know that you are considering naming them, because you are frustrated or something, but do not threaten them for money. Judging from your written story, it does seem that a full refund is in order, but be smart about it. I have read many extortion type posts on other forums, but many of them end in lawsuits against the patients and a lot of extra heartaches caused by ignorance of the law and other members egging posters on. Just continue to be smart about things. Contact the proper channels and if the doctor told you that you would get a refund, I’m sure they will eventually give you one. Like I said, they would be stupid not to, they have too much to lose.

Hello PayDay, I completely agree with you, I sent the surgeon an email today stating that I had told my story on these forums and I had with held his name.
I also told him the facts that I had mentioned in my story, but I know he is already aware of these facts. I even started my email off with " Hello Dr I hope you are well"

I have always been polite and I have never used bad or abusive language, in fact looking back in the past at previous emails and communication with him, including phone calls, It seems I was a bit of an apologist on his behalf towards myself, if that makes any sense, when maybe I should of been more upfront about my feelings. My emails have always been questions about my procedures, which I never get answers to.

I have said I am very frustrated, and that I am considering making a complaint about my procedure to the IAHRS.

I realize that it is best to stick to the facts and tell it exactly how it happened. I purposely did not give any personal opinions about the surgeon or the clinic in my story, because I believe just telling the facts of the events that happened is good enough, although I did state that making me wait 1 hour in the rain and cold was unprofessional.

I have read how Hair transplant patients have very little protection from the law when it comes to legal battles. I believe I may be half way through the battle with the fact my surgeon has admitted my HT was a failure and he did not know why. I have documented emails and texts to back up those claims.

I do not have any documented proof of an agreed refund though where he said he would contact the clinic, that was done verbally over the phone.

Thank you for your very valuable advice PayDay I will continue to try and conduct myself in a professional and calm manner.

Alan.