Please Help Me Choose A Strip Surgeon For First hair transplant On Virgin Scalp

[Hairbrain]

Thx HairBrain

Would you say Cooley is considered to be in the same elite level as H&W, Shapiro, Etc.? I have seen his name come up a couple times now.

I certainly believe Dr. Cooley is a very highly regarded surgeon as well, any surgeon that is part of the Project Repair speaks for itself. When I spoke of an elite class within the IAHRS I'm primarily giving reference to those doctors who have made a difference in the industry such as Dr Wong for the lateral slit technique or have mastered or are known for a specialty such as Dr. Konoir and his hairlines or the European/Turkish doctors known for their FUE. Beyond that I think to try and "rate" doctors is as futile as it is subjective. However with that said I think anyone considering a hair transplant should have their own short list based primarily on their needs, desires and only after directly communicating with those prospective doctors personally. Keep in mind there are no substitutes for consistent natural results and satisfied patients over time.

Thx HairBrain
Why did you choose Dr Wong over Hasson?

Finding the right doctor was a very personal decision for me. I took it on as almost a job and literally spent years waiting for the right opportunity, time, and doctor. I will not hijack your thread and go into detail as to my situation I will be sharing that in an upcoming thread. I was looking for a doctor that was experienced in repair work and large sessions. To make a long story short and what made me directly reach out to Dr. Wong was based not only on his history of successful repair work but in a single interview when he was asked what was the most rewarding part of his job. He stated when he sees a patient come in and in need of repair work who's been living under a hat or looking down at his feet for years and that person has the donor that it brought a smile to his face, he went on to say; because today if you have the donor we can repair just about anything. It only took one brief conversation with Dr Wong that my short list went from 3 to 1 (final result pending)............

[jcs87]

I certainly believe Dr. Cooley is a very highly regarded surgeon as well, any surgeon that is part of the Project Repair speaks for itself. When I spoke of an elite class within the IAHRS I'm primarily giving reference to those doctors who have made a difference in the industry such as Dr Wong for the lateral slit technique or have mastered or are known for a specialty such as Dr. Konoir and his hairlines or the European/Turkish doctors known for their FUE. Beyond that I think to try and "rate" doctors is as futile as it is subjective. However with that said I think anyone considering a hair transplant should have their own short list based primarily on their needs, desires and only after directly communicating with those prospective doctors personally. Keep in mind there are no substitutes for consistent natural results and satisfied patients over time.

I hadn't heard of Project Repair until you mentioned it, very interesting/compassionate. It looks like Cooley and Lupanzula are participating but I couldn't find a list of others - do you know who else is working with Joe on this?

I get what you're saying about elite IAHRS docs. It can be difficult and time consuming figuring out what each doc's reputation is so would you say this accurate (and what else would you add for each doc):

Wong - Lateral slit technique and all around excellent FUT surgeon
Shapiro - Excellent long term record - is he known more for FUE or FUT? Seems like he gets a lot of love for both.
Rahal - Hairlines and dense packing. All around excellent FUT surgeon.
Cooley - All around excellent FUT surgeon. I believe I also read somewhere that he was one of the originators of using PRP.
Gabel - All around excellent FUT surgeon
Konior - ?

I haven't done as much research on FUE surgeons. So far the names that I have in my head are: Bisanga, Lorenzo, Feriduni, and maybe Lupanzula and maybe Mwamba.

I'm also trying to gather more info on what seem to be the 2 top Turkish docs: Doganay and Erdogan (Erdogan sounds great and the price is right, but it also sounds like they run a bit of a factory operation over there and it's unclear to me how involved the doc is with my actual surgery).

Lastly, there are the big three Indian docs: Tejinder Bhatti, Kapil Dua, and Arvind Poswal. I never see anyone mentioning the Indian docs as being in the top tier elite conversation though...

Thoughts?

Finding the right doctor was a very personal decision for me. I took it on as almost a job and literally spent years waiting for the right opportunity, time, and doctor. I will not hijack your thread and go into detail as to my situation I will be sharing that in an upcoming thread. I was looking for a doctor that was experienced in repair work and large sessions. To make a long story short and what made me directly reach out to Dr. Wong was based not only on his history of successful repair work but in a single interview when he was asked what was the most rewarding part of his job. He stated when he sees a patient come in and in need of repair work who's been living under a hat or looking down at his feet for years and that person has the donor that it brought a smile to his face, he went on to say; because today if you have the donor we can repair just about anything. It only took one brief conversation with Dr Wong that my short list went from 3 to 1 (final result pending)............

Looking forward to the thread! I was going to ask who the other finalists on your list were but it sounds like we are in very different circumstances in terms of what we're looking for in a doc.

[Kojak]

My initial starting point for getting this short list was to cross-reference the recommended surgeon lists from IAHRS, American Hair Loss Association, Hair Transplant Network, and Bald Truth Talk. I figured that doctors that kept showing up on all of those lists were worth looking into.

As far as I can tell Dr Konior is only recommended on this site, none of the others - so that's why I was not aware of him when putting together my list. Is there any back story to why he isn't recommended on the other sites (pretty much all of the other elite docs I'm considering are recommended on each site). You mentioned that he has a 1-year wait list so is he simply making so much money that he doesn't feel the need to 'play the game'?

Dr. Konior is not just recommended on this site, he's mentioned on other forum sites as well. I just had a procedure with him and I'll tell you why I chose him. He does most of the work himself, which is nearly unheard of in this industry. I am not knocking the other doctors for using techs to place the grafts, I am simply saying I was willing to pay the extra $$ to have the piece of mind knowing that the doctor was doing most, if not all of the work. I've had 2 procedures and I can tell you the experiences were night and day. In my opinion, Dr. Konior has a wait list of a year because he is in high demand. He's certainly not going to be the cheapest option, but keep in mind you only have a limited donor supply to use and if you have a poor result from your first procedure you've wasted good grafts that are gone forever.

[jcs87]

Dr. Konior is not just recommended on this site, he's mentioned on other forum sites as well. I just had a procedure with him and I'll tell you why I chose him. He does most of the work himself, which is nearly unheard of in this industry. I am not knocking the other doctors for using techs to place the grafts, I am simply saying I was willing to pay the extra $$ to have the piece of mind knowing that the doctor was doing most, if not all of the work. I've had 2 procedures and I can tell you the experiences were night and day. In my opinion, Dr. Konior has a wait list of a year because he is in high demand. He's certainly not going to be the cheapest option, but keep in mind you only have a limited donor supply to use and if you have a poor result from your first procedure you've wasted good grafts that are gone forever.

Thanks Kojak, when I say "recommended" I am referring to the official list of recommended doctors for each forum, not just recommended in individual threads.

Glad to hear your experience with Konior went well though. Was this a repair job or just some supplemental work? Who was your first HT with?

[Kojak]

Thanks Kojak, when I say "recommended" I am referring to the official list of recommended doctors for each forum, not just recommended in individual threads.

Glad to hear your experience with Konior went well though. Was this a repair job or just some supplemental work? Who was your first HT with?

He's definitely recommended on the Hair Restoration Social Network as that's where I found his information. My first HT was all right and this HT was a supplement procedure, not a repair job. I don't want to name my first HT doctor as he is not a bad HT doctor. I think he's fine if you need a small transplant, but my loss required more grafts than what my first HT doctor provided. I took his advice and looking back I wish I would have just opted for a larger HT with one of the more well known doctors named on the forums. I can tell you that Dr. Konior just seemed to be in another class from my experience. There is an art to HT surgery and from looking at various results I felt Dr. K had a skill some of the other doctors did not possess.

[jcs87]

Gotcha, does Konior only do FUE or strip as well? What was the approximate cost per graft for your procedure? I've heard Konior is one of the most expensive docs in North America which is why I hadn't looked into him too much.

[Kojak]

Gotcha, does Konior only do FUE or strip as well? What was the approximate cost per graft for your procedure? I've heard Konior is one of the most expensive docs in North America which is why I hadn't looked into him too much.

He does both FUT and FUE, I had FUT but I can tell you that other people on the forums have commented that his FUE is as good as his FUT. I don't think I found a negative comment about his work on any of the forums I was on.

He's about 5.5 per graft, which is obviously higher than most of the other doctors. I sucked it up and spent the extra $$ because I was confident he did excellent work. He's a plastic surgeon, and as I said, he does the whole procedure himself so you're paying for his expertise, which in all the other places I consulted with, is handed off to technicians who place the grafts.

Just so people don't blow up this post, I do want to say that the other doctors you've mentioned are top notch and clearly their staff is skilled because the results, from what I've seen, are really good.

[robodoc]

Ron Shapiro IN Minneapolis is as good as any IMHO. He is reasonable and particular not to mention experienced. I was very happy with him. Others I tried were not so favorable.

[JoeTillman]

Can someone please point me to these excellent FUE results by Dr. Konior? I've read people talking about how great he is at FUE but I can't seem to find these results that people are talking about. I think when I took time to look at one point last year I found two.

[rbkoreaus]

OP who did who did you end up going with?

[rbkoreaus]

OP who did you end up going with?

[jcs87]

I ended up going with Dr Cooley

[rbkoreaus]

How was your experience? And would you recommend him?

[jcs87]

How was your experience? And would you recommend him?

I am only at the 2 month mark so it's too early to tell