Botched Transplant

[jman91]

Ok, at the risk of sounding very naive, I have got ask is it really that hard to fix a bad transplant?

When spencer says to be cautious etc of getting a ht as it may not turn out right made me go through a load pictures of fail transplants and it left me thinking could you not just get the hair lazered off if it looked bad? or even just wax the transplanted hairs like people wax their body hairs of on a regular basis?

[FlightTL]

I think Spencer's main point(Not 100% sure about this), is that once your cut, you're cut...

[aim4hair]

Ok, at the risk of sounding very naive, I have got ask is it really that hard to fix a bad transplant?

When spencer says to be cautious etc of getting a ht as it may not turn out right made me go through a load pictures of fail transplants and it left me thinking could you not just get the hair lazered off if it looked bad? or even just wax the transplanted hairs like people wax their body hairs of on a regular basis?

Before HT, specially strip which is still called the "gold standard" by many ppl, you have the option to shave your head which still looks much better than typical horseshoes or comb over but once you cut there is no turning back even if you lazer or wax the transplanted hair what you gonna do about the scar on the back of your head ? U'll end up stuck with the horseshoes look just to cover the scar.

[ejj]

botched transplants are more common than people realise . Part of the problem is some patients feel intimidated if they get a botched result , very few post and those that do get others banging on about there great transplant with the same Dr, which is totally irrelevent to the person with the botch job !! , this combined with Dr using legal means to silence patients makes it hard to find who is less likely to botch your head than others

I think your view on repair is massively misguided , if only you could shave it off and forget about it , that for many would be a luxury , in fact the only way you could pull that off would be with a fue session with a small manual extraction punch in the hands of a great Dr , and grafted 2 inches or so behind the hairline into the frontal forelock , for many fue with the wrong size punch is just as damaging as poor strip scars , you have to take into account the cost of several repairs, and if your lucky enough to have the donor available, just to get back to the position you were in before you started down the transplant route

hope this helps

ejj

[jman91]

botched transplants are more common than people realise . Part of the problem is some patients feel intimidated if they get a botched result , very few post and those that do get others banging on about there great transplant with the same Dr, which is totally irrelevent to the person with the botch job !! , this combined with Dr using legal means to silence patients makes it hard to find who is less likely to botch your head than others
ejj

That's really interesting you should say that. I was thinking that there has to more going on then what you're lead to believe. From the looks of it IAHRS patients are happy with the result 99% of the time. But what gets me is the fact that Spencer himself refuses to get a transplant out of fear something could go wrong, even though with his knowledge and respect in the industry he could find the most skilled physician and they would do their best work on him, probably for free.

There must be a much higher risk of stuff going wrong if he doesn't want to because he surely knows he could easily be resorted to a NW1 with great coverage if he got a ht, so it says a lot that he refuses temptation and refuses to get one just in case something goes wrong.

Maybe it's for legal reasons he cant talk more about the dangers of HT's and go into detail about what could go wrong. I also think its a possibility that IAHRS doctors sometimes mess up and spencer, although not hiding this maliciously, doesnt want to specifically make a point that these doctors do bad work once in a while as people might interpret it the wrong way and think the IAHRS isn't trusted.

[gutted]

That's really interesting you should say that. I was thinking that there has to more going on then what you're lead to believe. From the looks of it IAHRS patients are happy with the result 99% of the time. But what gets me is the fact that Spencer himself refuses to get a transplant out of fear something could go wrong, even though with his knowledge and respect in the industry he could find the most skilled physician and they would do their best work on him, probably for free.

There must be a much higher risk of stuff going wrong if he doesn't want to because he surely knows he could easily be resorted to a NW1 with great coverage if he got a ht, so it says a lot that he refuses temptation and refuses to get one just in case something goes wrong.

Maybe it's for legal reasons he cant talk more about the dangers of HT's and go into detail about what could go wrong. I also think its a possibility that IAHRS doctors sometimes mess up and spencer, although not hiding this maliciously, doesnt want to specifically make a point that these doctors do bad work once in a while as people might interpret it the wrong way and think the IAHRS isn't trusted.

some people find it too invasive...

[AGL]

Spencer cautions and makes ppl aware that even if you go to the best of the best there is always a risk, although less of one when you use an IAHRS. If you have that fear then you are likely not ready for one. Consider a system first and see how you feel or if it can buy you some time. There are a lot of things in the works and if you can buy yourself some time you my never need to worry about being cut. Personally, I couldnt wait because I wanted to enjoy hair now when I'm younger and was welling to take the risk. Again there are also no gaurentees that these future treatments will come to forition. I didn't get a botch job, but definitely not the best job either. I learned a lot after finding this site and have made what I beleive are more informed decisions about my upcoming second procedure which is a bit of a fix job and working further back.
As for Spencer not getting an HT, I don't beleive it has anything to do with what was mentioned above. I think it has more to do with risk and benefit based on where he's at with hair loss and age. He's probably concern of shock loss and more so, he's 47 and has a pretty decent amount of hair. If I had what he had I'd be satisfied instead of greedy and taking a risk. Just my thoughts.

[PayDay]

I think Spencer is just comfortable with himself at this point of his life. His hair looks really good and he doesn't seem to mind using dermmatch to cover the back. He won the battle as far as I'm concerned on couple of fronts. He was able to save a good amount of hair and he has the guts to tell the world that he wears makeup on his head and somehow he is even able to look cool doing it.

He's always been the first to say to hold off surgery for as long as you can and if you can't deal with a possible bad outcome, not to have it at all. He also says all the time that even IAHRS surgeons have unhappy patients.

It's no secret that he thinks HT surgery is a big step that has to be fully thought through before having it.

[win200]

I'm curious about what exactly a "botched job" constitutes--poor growth? Bad placement? I'm 11 weeks from my surgery, and going through all the usual anxiety. I know that there are unhappy patients, but I'm not clear on what type of outcomes they're getting that leave them unhappy.

[ejj]

being left with a donor area that looks like " freddy krueger , on an off day " extracted the strip left me unhappy

regards

ejj

[DAVE52]

.... but I'm not clear on what type of outcomes they're getting that leave them unhappy.

Density not what they had expected / hoped for. People expecting the same density as when they were a teenager

Hairline too low , too high , not natural looking....looks like an obvious HT

Scar is bigger than expected ( or bigger than they were told it was going to be ) such that if they are not happy with the whole HT thing they can't buzz it down because now they have this really big happy face scar on the back of their head

When further hairloss occurs which unless they can handle it means they need to back for another HT to fill in what they've lost since the first HT . This most probably will happen since hairloss continues as we age

[win200]

Density not what they had expected / hoped for. People expecting the same density as when they were a teenager

Hairline too low , too high , not natural looking....looks like an obvious HT

Scar is bigger than expected ( or bigger than they were told it was going to be ) such that if they are not happy with the whole HT thing they can't buzz it down because now they have this really big happy face scar on the back of their head

When further hairloss occurs which unless they can handle it means they need to back for another HT to fill in what they've lost since the first HT . This most probably will happen since hairloss continues as we age

It seems like many of these things aren't "botched" in the sense that the surgeon screwed up, but unrealistic expectations on the patient's part that weren't met--i.e., the scar, full density, etc. Most of my worries are about shock loss (ending up worse off than when I started, or triggering a huge persistent shed) or many/most of the grafts never growing.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

Several people make some really good points here. FlightTL and Aim4hair specifically really make some good points. FlightTL is right when he quotes Spencer in saying that "once you're cut, you're cut". As much as I despise hair loss, I don't want to be a prisoner to having to worry about covering up a scar on the back of my head for the rest of my life. I mean, if an FUT transplant were to guarantee me a full head of hair, I would be more willing to deal with the scar. But a person cannot be guaranteed anything close to a full head of hair with FUT; it's just not mathematically possible with regards to the amount of donor hair a doctor can extract and the amount of hair needed to give a balding person a full head of hair. Aim4hair, you're totally right that some people call FUT a "gold standard". I personally think that's an absolute joke. How can some one call FUT a "gold standard" when it only appeals to a small fraction of the hair loss population (maybe 5-10% of hair loss sufferers get FUT transplants) and possesses such limitations and drawbacks, such as the inability to create anything close to a full head of hair and the permanent scarring. We really need much better options that appeal to the majority of the hair loss population and do not possess the limitations of FUT.

I do not blame Spencer for not getting a hair transplant at all. It's really a wonder and almost a miracle that he saved so much hair throughout the years, especially when he says that he first noticed hair loss, there was really nothing available. His hair really does look great and I don't think it would be worth it for him to undergo the expense, trials, and tribulations to go through a hair transplant just to maybe address a small bald/balding area on the back of his head. Plus, his girlfriend (wife?) seems to be very cool with his hair the way it is now. Anyway, I think he created the IAHRS not so much to advocate that people should get hair transplant, but more to promote safety within the industry. He probably saw people getting butchered and disfigured left and right by unethical hair transplant doctors and he wanted to create a reputable organization of doctors that he knew would not screw people over and intentionally disfigure them. It seems to me that his message was never: "I want to encourage you to get a hair transplant with an IAHRS doctor". Instead, his message seems to be: "If you have your heart set on getting a hair transplant, here is a list of doctors (IAHRS) who are ethical and will not butcher or disfigure you".