Dr Cole, Acell, PRP... advice please???

[sscobra]

Hello Everyone! I haven't been on this site for awhile now, but I am now ready for a HT. I am strongly considering Dr. Cole's CIT with Acell PRP. I am 31 now and been dealing with hair loss for 10 years. I have tried everything from laser therapy, shampoos, minoxidil, propecia(now on avodart .5mg for 5 years). It seems like i was keeping my hair for awhile but my receding hairline along with general thinning on top is affecting my life way more than i can handle. I am not bald yet but I need to to do something now. Does anyone have any advice on Dr cole? Acell Prp? I want to have a HT early 2014? And I have been researching for the past 5 years so i am not new to HT idea. Just want to be sure I choose the best dr for me...Thanks for reading!!
-Shaun

[John P. Cole, MD]

I know a little about the guy. What would you like to know?

He loves what he does. He's passionate about treating hair loss. He's demoralized when he fails to meet expectations. He's just a regular guy, but he wants you to have a better life because you gave him the opportunity to make your life better. Now here are some negatives. He is brutally honest. If you are not a good candidate for surgery, he will tell you. If you want to do something that is not a good idea, he will let you know. Then again, he is malleable. If he does not like your idea at first, he will think about it. He might change his mind and feel like you have a better idea.

Well, i've probably said too much already. Best for you to look at all of the doctors and then make up your mind. Give the guy a call if you want too. He's from the southern USA and pretty personable. A lot of patients wind up staying at his house when they want to save money. His door is always open to guys with hair loss provided that they don't mind his hunting dog puppies. They might lick you to death.

[Artista]

Great response Dr Cole!!

[chicago99]

Dr. Cole is the best by a large margin. I spent a year doing research on hair transplant docs. I flew across the country visiting various doctors, which was tough on me because of the expense. I met with Dr. Cole in July. He truly cares about his patiients. Dr. Cole is doing my scar revision next month. I would not go to anyone else.

[chicago99]

I meant to say I'm getting scar repair by Dr. Cole. He's my last hope.

[northeastguy]

I meant to say I'm getting scar repair by Dr. Cole. He's my last hope.

Chicago.... in my opinion and experience, you couldn't be in better hands. your research served you well. Best of luck and keep us posted on your progress.

[sscobra]

Thanks to every one for their responses. Sounds like Dr cole is the right choice...as i felt all along. Thank you Dr cole for your response. I may have to take you up on your offer!! I would like to talk to you via telephone soon. I do have some questions for you. Thanks again.

[John P. Cole, MD]

How can PRP help? It may not! Then again it can make substantial differences that may be objectively measured and followed over time.

The benefits of PRP decrease over time. The maximal benefit is at about 8 months. One may repeat PRP at 8 months or 12 months. The second treatment may benefit you. The second treatment may no benefit you. The third treatment may benefit you. When it benefits you, it is often substantial enough that some repeat it every 6 months.

This whole process bothers me because it involves money, travel, and a procedure. I'd prefer a mail order process that works consistently. We don't have this. We do have medications that don't always work. Those same medications offer potential side effects that your own platelet rich plasma does not bring to the table.

do what is in your budget while we work out the details. if you insist on PRP, let us see if we can do one for free.

Now, regarding my bedside manner. Look, I did not come for a family with a whole bunch of money. I worked for everything I have every obtained in life. I look at every patient the same way, which is the way I would want to be treated. At one point in my life, I was a leading authority on strip surgery. I could tell you right off what we could do and what we could not do. Then in 2003, patient demand changed me from a strip surgeon to a FUE surgeon. I did not want to change at first, but patient demand compelled this change. No one else was offering it on a full time basis in North America or Europe. Rob Jones, Ray Woods, and Alan Feller offered it, but only Ray Woods offered it full time. That left me to offer it full time in the remainder of the world. I figured it out and then I did. I taught most of the European physicians one way or the other, which means i taught them or someone i taught passed this education along.

Anyway, i catch some beside manner stuff. What it all boils down to is a desire to live up to your expectations. If I cannot do this, I will let you know. At the end of any procedure, my goal is to meet your expectations. When i cannot meet them, I will let you know. I will never place this burden on you. It is a burden i wear myself. If i faIl to meet expectations, i wear the burden more. I guess the real question is how long i bear this burden? Well perhaps not long enough because i need to still make this up to you. I have to meet your expectations. Now, i can also do things in between these options or combinations of these options. Most repair guys paint you in a corner. I do not. i give you freedom to live the life you want. Can i do this? Yes! It often takes more than one procedure, but no one else can do what I do by employing these multiple options. In time they will, but these sorts of procedures take a certain resolve to succeed while pushing the envelope. It takes a decade often for physicians to accept such out of the box thinking. So it lead us to a degree of ****iness. Yes, i have this and i believe i can succeed. I will also tell you that in body hair and repair cases that i can't predict the outcome. I do believe that i will succeed when others will fail often because i know what needs to be done and i know how to get there. Failure is generally because the skin has been poisoned by prior bad hair transplant work. This is the ultimately opponent. Bad work poisons the scalp. That is the ultimate deterrent in hair transplant success.

In the past, what i've heard is that i'm overly confident or too self assured. Well, I am. I do my best to deliver. Repair work is a terrible thing. Few can resolve it well. It often takes many procedures to get it right. IT takes a certain skill set to do it properly. When you can do it and no one else seems to get it from the very beginning, I don't know if it is a degree of confidence or a degree of feeling that if I don't do it, someone is going to screw it up and then my job will be more difficult.

Let me tell you about my patient today. He had plugs done from 1983 to 1985. He looks like a plug hair transplant. His goal is to look more natural. he does not know his options. what do I do?

My options are many. I can take out each follicular unit one at a time and make him a normal bald guy. I can add hair to his plugs and below his plugs and step back to look at the problem in 12 months. If the area still looks plugy i can add more grafts or thin the plugs. I can break up the plugs now to make them look more natural and maintain his hair coverage. At the end of the day, it boils down to whether he wants more hair and more natural or weather he wants less hair and more natural or does he want something in-between. Now, who do i know that can solve this problem with the highest degree of success. Well, if more physicians had jumped on FUE back in 2003, I could give you one or two. The problem is that they did not jump on board. They abandoned ship. This leaves us with a handful of physicians who might be optimally positioned to help this patient. Who are they? Well, some do 5 to 10 cases a month and in about a decade they might catch up to where i was 7 to 8 years ago. The problem is that they, nor no one else can catch up to where I am at this point. Malcolm Gladwell suggested in his book, Outliers, that it takes 10,000 hours of experience to become really good at anything. Anyone who does strip surgery 1/2 to 3/4 of the time will require more than a decade to catch up with me. It just not will not happen. No one is going to be better than I am for one simple reason. I have more surgery time (and i'm really, really good at what I do) than anyone in the world. Furthermore, unless i stop working tomorrow, no one can every catch up to me. It's simple. I'm the best there will ever be until I die. That's not a poor beside manner. It's an honest fact.

[jetfan11]

Cobra,

I can vouch for Cole's honesty. I have 5 to 11mm strip scar and not much donor left. He was honest that a revision might be better first. Top of my head isnt great either and I want to fix that and he said fix your scar first then worry about top. Both recomendations were honest and in MY best interest not his.

I still may just graft the scar without a revision because a revision scares daylights out of me. But my point is other clinics I saw just said do another strip surgery and you'll be good to go. I think that rec is a function of them not caring about my outcome and not having skill to pull of what needs to be done.

Not to mention Cole answers all my annoying redundant emails all the time!

[John P. Cole, MD]

I wish that somewhere one could accumulate every idea about every possible situation by every doctor. No one has to date. A ton of repair patients have come to me over the years with single ideas. Here is how Dr. so and so wants to do it. I ask them, "is this how you want to do it"? often it is not. Most of the other time, other options exist. in repair surgery, single options are for only the most limited and closed minds. There are always many solutions.

Ok, enough of bantering. What to do? Well, if you revise a scar that was already done well, you will probably wind up with the same width. If you do a better job of revising a scar, it will probably be 1/2 the width. Bad scars don't disappear in my experience with scar revisions.

Here is the better solution. Do what you can afford in the hands of a good doctor. Don't be afraid to ask for a better deal when you need it to either add more hair or revise a problem. Like I've said, I was not born wealthy. I was just born good at what I do and thankfully so. If you need a financial break, you need to ask. I can't say when it will happen for you, but it will happen. God has blessed me with the capacity to give back. Please let me know how you fit in this equation.

God bless. i have to catch a plane to Japan in the morning to do some teaching on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I will be back on duty on Tuesday.