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My fue repair at shapiro medical group

M

mars

Valued member
At the age of 21 naive as could be i made the first of two masssive mistakes in going to a poor clinic.I was a norwood 0 but i was starting to thin ever so slightly at my temples.I started off by using rogaine and of course a shed followed i didnt know this may happen and i thought my baldness was accelerating so i did a google search one day and it led me to a clinic,the web page looked great and the idea of no scars etc seemed like a godsend,i actually thought hair was being pulled with a tweezers and placed in a hole no bigger than the head of a needle on my hairline,i knew nothing about ht's or hairloss in general.The surgery lasted barely two hrs i had around 1000 hairs removed although i suspect alot less.I think about 100 hairs grew but it was all i needed and was unable to tell at the time only 100 hairs grew because i had so much native hair none the less and i was happy whilst being unaware of the massive white dotting on the back of my head,i didnt even look at the back of my head they said no scarring after all i took their word.

Fast forward two years and of course my temples kept thinning not alot but enough to make think the same again would fix it,i was only using rogaine liquid at the time,this next surgery was to have such a negative impact on my life that i completly changed as a person in the space of one week.The surgery again lasted around 2 hrs,the extractions this time were taken from a strip in the centre of my head,all 2 and 3 haired grafts,700 hairs in total.After a week i knew something was wrong the extracted area was not filling in and was severly overharvested so i decided to get a camera and take a photo of the back of my head for the first time,i was upset to see what dhi had done to me not just from the second surgery but the first one too,i had scarring everywhere,big punchs,extractions overlapping each other,odd strips of non harvested hair that created a major contrast to the extracted areas,it was prob the lowest point in my life thus far.Just when i thought things couldnt get any worse they did my hairline was dead straight with 2 and 3 haired graft at the front,pluggy,pitting,wirey looking hair,mis-directed and ALL my native hair was shocked lost and never grew back.I rang nick the dhi rep from london he promised to fix it and sent his 'best' doc to repair what had been done for free and i agreed.Thankfully i got the time and day wrong it was a lucky break.My sister said to me maybe that was a sign their are surely better clinics in america,america was the last place i wanted to go especially from the uk i knew i would prob have to go 2-3 times but soon enough i realised i better bite the bullet and go even if it meant cutting off communication with all my friends during my repair not socialising and the shame and worry of airport security etc..

So i started researching the states not knowing who was good or who was bad or who was who basically,i chatted with spex once dr feller doesnt do hairline punch outs,dr cole wouldnt answer my question on punch size these two docs were no help what so ever,umar replied but didnt trust him then one day i decided to ring shapiro medical group i was expecting more bullshit but i thought ive nothing to lose.

I spoke with matt for over an hour the man has the patience of saint i felt at ease talking to him he genuinely cared,i explained what i wanted done..grafts puched out of my hairline and put back to fill up the overharvesting areas,he ran it by doc and a plan was in action.I played devils advocate at this time and searched the web for unhappy patients of smg and found none except one who wanted more density,i knew i made the right choice with ron shapiro and couldnt wait to get my repair journey started.

In july last yr i headed to mn via amterdamn with delta airlines.Was not one bit nervous i knew i was in good hands.i had around 250 grafts extracted by tom (hairtech) who i must give a special shout out to,he did a first class job with the punch outs and is a huge asset to shapiro medical group imo,all my pitting was gone and left with no visable scarring,some grafts grew back which was going to happen.I had the 250 grafts placed back into my donor scarring and for such a small amount of grafts it made a huge difference it far exceeded my expectations,the areas where the grafts were placed improved by at least 75%,all in all the first surgery was an overwhelming success.

I returned 3.5 months later to have a small few punch outs for the ones that regrew around 50 or so and to graft the temples.The aim was to make me look natural again so around 800 grafts were placed and a slightly higher hairline than i wanted,the reason for the higher hairline was the vast majority of punch outs were at the front of the hairline,this area was also lasered and dr shapiro wanted to leave this area heal for a year and see if grafts regrew which they did so he was 100% right in everything he said and did.The result after one yr was very good 100% natural and around 90%+ yield i think possibly higher,considering i wasnt a virgin scalp and far from it the yield was excellent,again stage two was a success.

This year i have been living in vancouver so i decided to go back to smg to lower my hairline this was accomplished with 200 more grafts this was done by dr ron,my hairline looked good before it will look even better now,i was still bothered by my donor scarring in areas and i had another 200 grafts broke down into singles and doubles to attack the worst of the areas this was done by dr paul and the 200 grafts became 364 i think,it was the first time i met dr paul and he is just like his brother a gentleman and a caring and talented doctor,i would trust both equally.

In my surgerys with smg i felt i was treated very well nothing was ever rushed infact i was surprised at how slow and precise everything was they really do take their time to get everything spot on,i was most worried about my donor extractions especially after my experience with dhi but as i mentioned earlier tom does a first class job i cannot see scarring and believe me ive looked,they use harris's SAFE with a .8 or .9 punch,Matt has been their for me anytime i needed him prob burned his ear alot,had the pleasure of meeting janna too who is a very very nice person infact she is so nice she personally used her credit card to hold my room at the country inn & suits as i was late recieving a money transfer via western union i thought it was such a kind thing to do,what can i say about dr ron that hasnt been said a million times already on every forum he is a great doctor and a really decent person,all the techs are really nice people too..to date chosing smg is def up there with the best decisions i have made in my life,they are famous for along time for strip and soon they will be for fue when results like mine start growing out.
This forum has been a fountain of knowledge for me so i must thank bm for it and some stories like sparkys bullitnuts stingrays have helped me so im hoping this thread may help others like these have helped me.

I have some before during and after pics of my journey which i will upload when i am home next wk as half of them are on my computer at home,i will get these pics uploaded so bare with me on it,after all a picture paints a thousand words.
 
Sparky

Sparky

Valued member
Sounds like the same story as mine, although your donor looks better in the pics.
 
O

ORLHAIR

Member
Glad everything worked out so well for you Mars. You are so right about everyone at SMG......just a great group of people who are really talented at what they do.
 
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janna

janna

Valuable Member
Safe travels today Mars. Hope you were able to print off the graftcyte letter at the hotel. Let me know if you need any of the pics we took at Shapiro Medical. Be happy to send to you.
 
bullitnut

bullitnut

4 awesome repairs with SMG
mars wrote:
In my surgerys with smg i felt i was treated very well nothing was ever rushed infact i was surprised at how slow and precise everything was they really do take their time to get everything spot on,
This is what i like about SMG, they are perfectionists and take care to make sure every aspect of every surgery is spot on.

Thats one hell of a write up mate and your positive experience echoes my own and will help lots of people i'm sure.

I am so glad things are turning round for you after your DHI disaster.

Thanks so much for taking the time to let us all know about your experience.

Looking forward to seeing the pics dude;)

Warm wishes buddy.....bullit
 
M

mars

Valued member
Before
 

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mars

Valued member
Before
 

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mars

Valued member
Before donor area
 

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mars

Valued member
After hairline punch out session
 

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M

mars

Valued member
i had the 250 punch outs placed back in my donor scarring.
 

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M

mars

Valued member
Hairline grafting 3.5 months after punch out sessions.I also had another 50 or so grafts punched out underneath the grafted area in this pic.These were some of the grafts the grew back.
 

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M

mars

Valued member
Donor area repair at 6 months.pt 1
 

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M

mars

Valued member
bigmac...the mp are too high on my next pics can i send them to you to re-size,thanks.
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Mars,

Sorry for the late reply, yea send them to me and i`ll add them for you.

I`m pleased SMG were able to re plant the punch outs for you.

Take care.

Bm.
 
M

mars

Valued member
My pictures at 3 months post op.

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My pictures at 4 months post op

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M

mars

Valued member
I have no pics between 4 months and 12 months due to a broken camera,i have pics after my second procedeur of 260 grafts i think,i will upload them soon.

One thing i would like to note is the texture and characteristics etc of hair at the 4 month mark was exactly like my natural hair-it was soft smooth and grew dead straight it was perfect,around the 6 month in started to become more pigmented,coarser,kinked and kinda wirey..i wish it stayed the way it was at the 4 month mark and the hair that grew their after too of course,hopefully it will go back to this way,has anyone had this situation?i am a year post op now.thanks.
 
R

richfrog

Valued member
If you could put the pics of the 260 grafts would be nice to
 
M

mars

Valued member
second session
 

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