Last year I had a FUE of 1700 units done. My goal was to fill in the temples and the crown. I have attached before and after of the right temple, but only have after of the left temple but you can get an idea from the right side. The crown was thinning but not bald before. He also lowered my hairline very very slightly.
I researched 3 different doctors, the one I chose wasn't the cheapest, but talked the biggest game and was close to where I lived. He promised that the temples would be filled in and match the thickness of the rest of my hair. As you can see, the temples are very thin and sparse and look awful. Very hard to style and I basically just brush my hair forward to let the longer hair in the back partially cover them. It looks worse because previously I just looked like I lost my hair, now it looks like very odd because it doesn't match.
For the crown he promised a "CD sized" fill, but the area transplanted was only about the size of a mini disc, if that. There is some thickening and improvement, but once again not the thickness of the rest of the hair that was promised.
The hairline is also sparse and looks odd under my otherwise thick hair. The hairline is a little crooked and the grafts all the way into the right side are higher than the left, he said this is normal and he didn't want it too perfect because that would make it look fake.
This was done over a year ago, and I did follow up with him periodically and he would tell me most of the transplants stayed, so it wasn't an issue of them falling out. He was very pleased with the overall look at my 1 year follow up. When I expressed how dissatisfied I was he noted that basically he can only implant the hairs so close together due to the blood supply, if he implanted too many then the lack of blood supply would mean not all of them would stay. His solution was a 2nd transplant of 1200, and he gave me a very very small discount (I think it was 50 cents a graft) because I wasn't happy. Even with the additional 1200 grafts even then he didn't think he would achieve full thickness. Keep in mind that none of this was discussed prior to the grafts, I specifically asked if the new hair would match the old thickness and he said definitely yes. I asked if I would need any further grafts and he said only years from now when more of my hair (possibly) might fall out.
So I would like to ask the expertise here if this thinness is typical in a FUE procedure and if that is accurate about the hair needing to be not too close together. I've seen lots of marketing, and in their pictures the hair always looks thick and matches the rest of the hair. Did I get ripped off here? Well I can't say I got ripped off if most of the 1700 grafts stayed, but I just feel like there were some really big false promises made.
What do you guys think? Should I let him do an additional 1200 grafts, or should I just go to someone else to fix this? Should he be responsible for footing some of the bill, or is this just the way it is? It's disheartening to have to do another procedure as my job involves lots of contact with the public and it's very hard to take the time off to heal.
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