Hi,

I am a newbee on this site (or any other site) so be gentle.

I have been considering a HT for years & years but never had the guts or the money to consider it seriously.

I recently had a consultation with a Doctor that has in the main a good reputation, or so I thought, (I still think so) however I was unnerved when I found this board and found one guy claiming he was butchered by the same Doctor.

I am in my mid 50’s and close to a Norwood 5

I have a couple of questions that I would like independent advice on;

1) How severe is the anaesthetic?
2) I was told that the Doctor could do 2700 placements (can’t remember the actual term used) from one strip and it would involve approximately 3600 hairs, is this a fair assessment?
3) What is an average success rate %?
4) Do you need to take drugs after the HT?

Thanks

Hi kjgp,

With you being a newbie, you have a lot of research ahead of you. This forum is a great resource. If you read a patient getting "butchered" by the doctor you consulted with, you better keep looking. Make a list of top doctors you feel comfortable with and have a consult with them.

How severe is the anaesthetic? -- That depends on our pain tolerance level. Local anesthetic is administered to the back, side and front of your head (ring block) as a precursor to surgery.

2) I was told that the Doctor could do 2700 placements (can’t remember the actual term used) from one strip and it would involve approximately 3600 hairs, is this a fair assessment? -- If you were quoted 2700 grafts, your hair count should be more in line with receiving 5400 hairs. It sounds like that doctor plans on cutting all 3's and 4's down to just 1's and 2's. No, that is not a fair assessment.

3) What is an average success rate %? -- You should be able to get 100% success rate if your surgery is performed by a skilled physician.

4) Do you need to take drugs after the HT? -- You will be given meds for pain. Most patients need it for sure for the first night after surgery. Then clinics vary on whether you get meds to help control swelling and some also advise taking antibiotics.

I hope this helps and good luck with your research.

Great advice given to you by Janna.
Janna has covered it but you could pm the member who had a bad ht if you dont want to post names on here.
Good luck with your research

Janna, thanks for your response.

I have read many many good things on this board about my local Doctor, however there was the one guy who started out singing the Doctors praises then went to totally the opposite opinion.

The Doctor advised that wherever possible hairs would be left as natural 1's, 2's 3's or 4's.

I am in Australia so that kind of limits the favourable list of Doctors.

Thanks kjgp

Then you still need to reseach that particular doctor's work by seeing as many patients in person as possible. Expect many members on here to tell you not to let geography be a factor. You don't want to have any regrets.

The average follicular units are 2.2 hairs but some patients have less than the average. It's possible your donor hairs have a lot of 1's and 2's. Asian hairs tend to have strong, thick caliber strands of hairs, but they do not come in many grouping of 3's or 4's. If you're able to see that you do not have great density, then it is possible to yield a lower than average hair count. Sorry about that.

kjgp,

Welcome to our community.

Unfortunately, At this time, we do not recommend any physician in Australia that performs state of the art hair transplantation.

I believe you are alluding to Dr. Martinick who was once recommended on our online hair transplant community. Due to a recent patient posted experience and surgical photos (all details including her removal from our network can be found here), we no longer have faith in her ability to perform state of the art results. Her clinic has been invited to present evidence of her recent results for re-evaluation but to date has not done so.

I encourage you to continue to research and select a physician based on consistent quality results.

Based on what I know of geography (which isn't a lot), I believe the nearest first-rate clinic (Hasson and Wong) are probably closest to Australia. We also have a few first-rate clinics in Europe such as Dr. Devroye and Dr. Bessam and Nilofer Farjo.

You can find their physician profiles on our Coalition Physician Page.

Best wishes,

Falc

Thanks for all the info and the welcome.

Janna I have sent you a PM.

kjgp

Yup, I got it and I've sent a reply.