Hi guys,

Great Forum!!

Just wanted to make a post to update the troops about my growth to date as well as my recent
second FUE session with the one and only Dr Feller.
I had my first procedure with Dr. Feller about a 10 months ago. While I still had most of my
hair I noticed that my hairline was thinning but wasn’t sure how to go about fixing it. Spex
and Dr. Feller’s assessment was that my hairline was not well defined and that it would need
to be thickened and lowered ever so slightly to fix it up. I opted for Dr Fellers FUE technique
as many of you know, because I wanted the option to be able to shave my hair in the future
and had heard nothing but great reviews about him on all the forums.

Dr. Feller took out about 1800 grafts during my first visit (which took 2 days by the way) and
planted them into my hairline and temples. There was no pain at all and I flew back to the UK
the next day with no problems. In brief, the growth was fantastic and I was very very satisfied,
but I caught the “hair greed” bug as Spex calls it and wanted more, like we all do. At first
Dr. Feller wouldn’t do it because he doesn’t do large FUE sessions anymore, but since I was
such an easy FUE patient (his words) he agreed to do it.

I flew back to the States a few weeks ago and had Dr. Feller fill between the old FUE grafts and even
lower the hairline a bit more. It worked out perfectly and we transplanted another 1400 grafts.
This time Dr. Feller did all the work in just ONE day which made life easier. Half of the grafts
were single hair grafts, the other half were mostly 2 hair grafts with a few 3 hair grafts
sprinkled in. Dr Feller was unbelievably meticulous in the hairline design just like before.

I am ever so grateful to Dr. Feller and his staff for doing such a great job on me. The day was
long and they were all very patient, but never did I get the sense they were rushing to try and finish.
As Dr Feller would say when I would ask him about the time he’d answer “we finish when we finish,
there’s no rushing in this office”. I think this doctor is a bit of a perfectionist.

I recommend Dr. Feller very highly. Unlike the doctors I visited in the UK ! Dr. Feller was
very forward, blunt, and not at all salesman like. He said what he would do,
and he simply did it. I am going to try to be at the Feller open house in London at the end of
January, so if anyone would like to meet with me I should be available. The last one was great
and it was great to meet so many guys with similar experiences.

Special thanks as well to Spex who i have liased with several times since my first op and he has
always been a pillar of support throughout my journey, thanks for everything mate!

Grow well everyone!!

Hairroot


My situation before




Here are some pictures of my situation immediately after my 1st session




My pictures at 10 months





I saw someone do this before to highlight the difference between before and after pics... It really helps see the clear difference!!




Here is a picture of my donor area which is amazing to be honest. There is no evidence of FUE work being done in this area. Several guys also examined it at the London Showcase in September and were all quite amazed!




This is a picture of me just before my recent 2nd FUE session with Dr Feller.


Immediately post op my 2nd session, 1400+ FUE










Look forward to meeting a few of you guys at the Openhouse in January!

Hairroot

Welcome Aboard! Glad your have formally joined our forum and chosen to share your hair transplant experience with us.

I must commend you on your richly documented post. Those are excellent pictures noting your experience. Some of them are quite explicit and will give prospective hair tranplantees a real look at what an FUE procedure entails.

You have certainly chosen a top rate surgeon. Dr.Feller is a highly regarded surgeon and poster on this forum. You could not have made a better choice.

The two surgeries to augment your hairline will certainly make a substantial difference in your appearance. You did not state your age, but you appear young and it seems like you still have a good head of hair and donor area, so you appear in good shape in the event your hair loss progresses.

Again welcome to our forum and looking forward to additional posts of your progress.

Thanks for the welcome. I intend to keep my experience well documented with pictures along the way.

I am 27 and do indeed have a great donor supply thankfully.

Thanks again for the warm welcome.
Hairroot

Hello hairroot,

These photos are not new to me...I've seen them before on another forum perhaps? I am pretty certain I remember seeing your case and being VERY impressed with the work done. In fact, I've never really been an advocate of FUE, because I still think Strip is superior in terms of numbers and growth percentages, HOWEVER, Dr. Feller has been doing some great work with FUE and your case definitely proves this. I hope that you'll stick around and continue to keep us updated on your progress.

Falc

Great to see you on here Hairroot.

Yes Falc, hairroot previously posted these pics a couple of weeks ago on another forum.

i like dr. feller's work. what was the density on each of those procedures and what does dr. feller charge for fue nowadays?

Hey Hairroot!!!! Glad to see you made it to the "Dark Side" LOL!!!!! J/K

I have viewed your pics on HLH, and I find your posting to be refreshing and helpful.

Great Job documenting your results!!!!!

Keep Up the good work!!!!!!!

Hey Spex, perhaps you can post Dr. Feller's view on FUE for some of the interested parties?

I think it will be very helpful and informative.

Cheers Mate!!!

nohairsux, Dr felller charges $10 a graft for 1 day FUE sessions - $8 for postage stamp sessions (200 grafts)

I think Hairroots hairline was planted at approx 50/55 from previous conversations

B Spot - Hey bud! I think i will let Dr Feller tell you his view on FUE mate as its best to hear it from the horses mouth.

Hi there Falcros, Bspot, nohairsucs

Thanks a lot. I am very happy with my results so far and the hair greed bug just took over hence my 2nd session with Dr Feller. I appreciate i am a very suitable FUE candidate fortunately thats why i have recieved such high numbers with FUE.

I will keep checking in and keep you well informed on my progress but for now i have got a number of months ahead of me until i see the signs of new growth

Take care and hope you all have a nice xmas


hairroot

I wish Feller still performed large FUE sessions...since that's the only surgery I'm really considering right now - with all of the physical demands on me to stay in shape, I couldn't be down for more than 7 days at the most.

Damn, I'm depressed about my hair situation...

Heres a recent quote from Dr Feller RE his FUE sessions:

"Since I just finished an FUE procedure of almost 1,000 grafts on a UK patient today I think it is safe to say that I don't have to limit myself to 800 FUE grafts per day.

Roger, there are patients out there whose scalp lend themselves incredibly well to FUE technique- and it is on these people that I have performed FUE megasessions. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine this before the fact. All of my patients on whom I've performed mega-session FUEs understood BEFORE hand that we may not be ABLE to do a megasession.

I turned you down for a megasession FUE in your case not because the case would be too big for me to handle physically, but because of your young age. If you lost enough hair to justify an FUE megasession at this stage, then you are probably headed toward more hairloss in the future that would require a strip procedure anyway. So what would be the point of performing an FUE on you now? There would be no point at all.

The main problem is the variability of patient physiology. While everyone is a candidate for large strip surgery, the same may not be said for large FUE surgery.

Let me state catagorically- I will do large FUE sessions IF and only IF the patient truly understands and accepts that I may stop an FUE case after the first 40 minutes if I feel the yields are too low. They must also accept and agree when booking for an FUE megasession (800 and up) to be CHARGED $4,000 for the day WHEATHER I SUCCEED or not. They have the option to switch to a strip procedure (at the normal fee of that size strip surgery) or they can go home.

All of my patients in the past year have agreed to these conditions. Thankfully, I have not failed on any of them, but it will happen one day.

No doctor can guarantee the success of an FUE without ever having worked on that patient before, especially if megasession FUE is the goal.

What some FUE doctors have done when they've found that FUE yields are low during extraction attempts is to simply switch to larger punches-as high as 1.2mm! This is a bait and switch tactic and I will have nothing to do with it at any price.

In my opinion, ANY procedure performed with a 1mm or higher punch diameter is NOT an FUE case, it is an old style plug case. Period. I will NOT switch to larger punches to achieve the number of grafts a patient desires because I would not be performing FUE on them anymore. This is unethical, immoral, and happens regularly I'm afraid.

I think it is far more fair to offer the patient the ability to switch to a strip at a normal strip price than to try to brute force an FUE out of a scalp that won't allow it.

So, for example, lets say a patient wants 1,000 FUE grafts. I charge $10 per graft-so the cost of the case would be $10,000. If everything goes well he is charged the $10,000 and that's the end of it. However, let's say the patient is not a good FUE candidate. If after making 300 genuine FUE attempts I find that I am only extracting 200 FUEs intact I will cancel the case and tell the patient that he now has a choice of switching to strip or just going home.
If the patient switches to strip he is only charged a grand total of $4,500 for the 1,000 strip grafts, and that's it. That's all he pays from start to finish.
If, however, the patient wants to go home, $6,000 is returned to him immediately and he goes home only having spent $4,000.

Why do I do this? Because if I put a day aside for a megasession FUE patient I can't risk losing that day just because the patient's scalp won't cooperate.

So, if there are those of you out there who want a megasession FUE procedure, you may have it. As long as I feel you are a candidate in the first place in terms of age and ability to reach a cosmetically significant goal, and you are willing to submit to my $4,000 condition as noted above.

Roger, unfortuantely, because of your age and stage of hairloss I couldn't even accept $4,000 just to attempt the procedure, because even if I were successful, the use of FUEs in your case would be inappropriate at this time. "

Dr. Feller

Spex (and anyone who is reading),

Thanks for the information Spex. And though what I'm going to say below regarding the below quote is not where we originally started on topic, I feel compelled to comment on this. Maybe I'm alone on this, but this statement is enough to stop someone like me (who's already pretty much "stripped" out) from getting FUE, at least with Dr. Feller.

quote:

They must also accept and agree when booking for an FUE megasession (800 and up) to be CHARGED $4,000 for the day WHEATHER I SUCCEED or not.

Firstly, before I continue, does the same fee apply for FUE NON-megasessions? At what point is there no fee for "succeeding or not"?

I'm glad this is being stated up front, but I disagree with it...I think since FUE is obviously inferior to strip in many ways (though I understand people do it for healing time and possibly less scarring), that FUE should be handled in an inferior way. Since most doctors for strip surgery guarantee every graft (though I'm not sure how many actually follow through with that), FUE should be handled the same way, possibly more experimental even, at lower costs. I understand of course that a doctor's time is valuable, but I could NEVER see paying a doctor $4000 if I was told after 40 minutes that the surgery would not be successful. Obviously as an INFORMED patient (since Dr. Feller informs patients of this upfront whic is good) I can easily make the decision to NEVER go for FUE, but that gives patients who have no more donor for strip, very few options.

Personally, I wasn't necessarily planning on doing FUE, but I was hoping to keep it in reserves as an option if I ever want more density. Being that I've already had 7550 strip grafts, I'm not going to have a lot left to do more if I feel I want it. So the option Dr. Feller gives to go to strip at normal price would not be feasible for everyone, but unfortunately, for someone like me, this basically rules out FUE as a possibility for me, because I wouldn't want to "risk" losing $4000.

Anyway...I'll be bold enough to ask Dr. Feller to reconsider this as a standard rule since going to strip isn't feasible to all patients. I'll also be bold enough to say that charging a fee whether successful or not appears unprofessional.

The following statement I'm about to say is far from a direct quote, but it was during a conversation I had with Dr. Hasson during my surgery. The statement was regarding BHT and it was something like: Since BHT has low yields and is very experimental, no doctor should be offering it unless for free. Now again, I'm going by my memory of a conversation during my surgery on 10/19/2006, but I agree with it. IMO, FUE should be handled similarly...since FUE has a much greater potential to fail than strip, there should be no fee associated with it for an unsuccessful surgery.

Now I do have to say that this post is in no way to bust on Dr. Feller. If you read many of my previous posts I've said what an excellent physician he is and actually recommended him to several people who were looking for "the best physician in their area". BUT, I do have some serious problems with ANYONE who wants money for a service not provided. I know...it depends on how you define service. If services provided aren't successful, then they really aren't services. In fact, they can be just as frustrating to the customer as they can be to the vendor (the one providing the service). Nobody would accept paying $1500 for a computer that simply doesn't work. They'd either replace it with another computer (an exchange) or get their money back (a refund).

Anyway, I think I made my point...even if people disagree with it. Comments are welcome.

Falc

quote:

Why do I do this? Because if I put a day aside for a megasession FUE patient I can't risk losing that day just because the patient's scalp won't cooperate.

One more thing and I intend no disrespect here but: I don't believe the good doctor should be offering this type of session if it really is a "risk losing the day". And maybe I'm being a prick here...but what does Dr. Feller really mean by losing the day? To me, that states "I don't want to risk losing a lot of money that I could be making if I didn't offer this session". So the solution should be...don't offer the session!

Anything that is somewhat experimental, IMO, should be worked on and enhanced on the doctor's own time to perfect the method...which means at no cost to the patient. If I want to learn more about something to increase my knowledge so I'm a better web programmer, I'm not going to charge one of my clients for my research. Additionally, if a client asks me for something, if I determine it won't work out (even if I thought it would originally), I'm not going to charge them for it. I'd lose clients that way.

But maybe I'm getting bent out of shape over nothing...if patients are willing to pay the $4000 fee even if it isn't successful, then that's their call. But I think most patients will say "yes" they are willing with the thought that a failure won't happen to them and that all will be successful. How many patients would really hand over $4000 with no yield and would be happy about it...or for that matter, even go back to the clinic?

Just some food for thought!

Falc

Falc,

I do not take what you wrote personally, but I do disagree with you on a few points. I also think there are a few things that you haven’t taken into account.

1. FUE procedures are no longer experimental. They are now a proven entity and have entered the mainstream of modern hair transplantation. Body hair FUE has NOT. The two are not comparable.

2. When FUE was experimental I DID do hundreds of them (thousands of FUE grafts) for free on volunteer patients. From 2002 to 2004 I never charged a dime for FUE until I had worked out a viable technique, designed and built customized FUE instrumentation, and had enough patient results to satisfy even the harshest critic that FUE was a successful adjunct to strip.

3. What I have learned from practicing FUE from 2002 to now is that NOT everybody is a candidate, and even fewer are candidates for FUE megasessions. Any doctor claiming that they can do FUE on everybody is doing one of two things: a. They are lying about the actual number of grafts they report
or
b. They are switching up to larger punches beyond .9mm in diameter which takes the procedure out of the FUE realm and into the old “plug” territory.

Since I refuse to do either of the above, I would rather tell the patient before
hand that they simply may not get the number of grafts desired.

4. I want to make it clear that I am an unabashed and unapologetic capitalist. I absolutely love performing surgery , but I am also in business to make money and I, like you, strive to work in the most efficient manner toward that end. This hardly means that money is “everything” to me. On the contrary, I have been donating my services for years and have a waiting list for my pro bono patients well into 2007. But I can’t afford to lose valuable days of surgery on a hit or miss procedure like megasession FUE, particularly when I know I could have scheduled sure-fire strip surgeries on those days. Yes, it IS about the money as such days like those can add up.
5. While I may not be able to perform a megasession FUE on a particular patient, it doesn’t mean they have thrown away $4,000. They always have the option to switch it to a strip procedure on that very day and apply every dollar of the $4,000 to the strip. In this scenario I make no money for attempting the FUE megasession.
6. I firmly believe that if I can’t perform a megasession FUE on a particular patient, then neither can any other doctor practicing FUE today and that patient should switch over to a strip procedure. If any FUE doctor out there cares to challenge me on that statement I await your invitation. There are a few high profile FUE doctors out there whom I’ve openly challenged to disclose their methods and results on these forums who haven’t answered these challenges. That should tell you all something.

Hairroot understood and agreed to the terms of my megasessions and it paid off for him.

You should also note that in only two cases have I failed to achieve the FUE megasession count. In both those cases the patient was switched to strip and actually SAVED money.

I do all of this not because I want to make money for doing little or nothing, but because I want to see the best results possible.

Dhuge- Since you’ve already had a strip procedure, there is really no reason for you to go for FUE. The whole point of FUE is to avoid a strip scar, since you’ve already got one from your first doctor you would simply do well to revise it and then get as many grafts as you possibly can in your next procedure. From your photos I would recommend at least 2,500 grafts if not more applied to just the hairline and top of your scalp.

Falc,
I do understand where you are coming from with your statement. Surely no one should be paying for a service not performed; however, it does seem to me unless I misunderstood things, that Dr. Feller is very upfront about the associated risks with this procedure and does give the office policy interms of fees. If the individual proceeds and agrees to the terms I think that it is their choice. There is definitely an inherent risk of paying $4000 for nothing, but they are aware of this and it ultimately becomes their choice.
It is my bet that most HT docs would rather do strip methods because they have perfected the procedure(not all ofcourse) and the results are much more predictable. It is the consumer who is putting the demand on the doctors to find "better" or "other" ways to get desired results. The fear of having a scar, recovery time, having someone notice, is what is pushing the drive for other techniques. (not the only reasons ofcourse)
Unfortunately the cosmetic industry is a Business and they have a great deal of overhead to contend with. Yes they can do very well financially but they do have the same concerns that every other business owner has. It is us that are demanding that they use the greatest technology and have several fully trained technicians and only perform 1 surgery per day. This is challenging for these physicians, Ill guarentee it! If it wasn't there would be a whole hell of a lot more coalition physicians. For Dr. Feller to "lose a day" is a justifiable statement as sad as it is. I own several businesses and I know where he is coming from. It is a sad truth but he needs to focus on his talent/technical and artistic skills but can never lose sight of the business side of it. We need these guys to continue to have high revenues so that they can continue to advance their skills to meet our demands.
Does this make sense? I'm sure that this will be debated somewhat and I know that there are several sides to it, but I wanted to give the side from strictly a business point of view.

Unabashed Capitalist......... LOL!
You crack me up Dr. Feller...... I

I seem to recall you throwing around the word libertine as well......

WELL,
Of course, Doc's want to make money, they are human after all! (MOST Doc's, that is )

Anyway, I am looking at 75,000 for Law School on top of the 25,000 I owe for undergrad, PLUS whatever it costs me live for the next few years. While I absolutely will do pro bono work(probably in the HT industry, LOL) I need to provide for my family as well. I would think that at the very least most Docs owe a minimum of 125K for school so making money is fine AND necessary.

As long as these terms for FUE are in writing and clearly expressed and explained to patients, I have no problem whatsoever with Dr. Fellers approach.

I would have a problem with a Doc who does a 1200 FUE case only to find that he/she needs a larger punch and the patient has follicules that tend to spread out at different angles under the skin. This same Doc then procedes with the full session, charges for it, and then crosses his fingers.

No, I like the fail-safe built into the program.

Everyone is NOT a candidate for FUE session, contrary to popular belief.

Anyway, just my take on it..... Glad that someone is at least offering some logical explanations on the potential drawbacks of FUE.

You guys keep doing what your doing......

Dr. Feller, STOP counting your money and read this!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!

Don't be ridiculous B, I have an accountant
Thanks for the post.
Dr F