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Experience from Hell at KSL

M

mikey1786

Valued member
My ordeal started back in 2014. I was 27 and knew very little about the hair transplant industry. I'm a big football fan and had seen the advertising campaigns involving several Scottish premiership players and decided to book a consultation with KSL. I spoke with Simon Lindsay over the phone and arranged to come down for a free consultation. During my consultation I was promised 100% full reconstruction of my hair with Guaranteed results. I was given the sales pitch which I understand is not uncommon for this kind of business.

I was quoted £8000 for my Transplant procedure with the agreement I would pay £3000 upfront and the rest on an arranged finance agreement. At this time I was 27 years old and worked as firefighter. Now although job satisfaction is high unfortunately you cant take that to the bank therefore I have never been in a position where I have had disposable income for something like this. However in this instance I was willing to use any savings I had and borrow from my parents in order to have the dream of getting my hair back again as was described by Mr Lindsay.

I paid my £3000 on the Friday and set about booking a date for my Transplant operation. I was given a date a couple weeks away and arranged for time off and other provisions for my recovery. This is where things started to downhill...

The night before my operation I was sitting with my bag packed, clothes laid out and a real feeling of excitement. Then I received a phone call from Mr Lindsay. He explained that upon reviewing my pre op pictures the surgeon who would be doing my operation had informed him that it would not be possible to obtain a full coverage in one operation. Mr Lindsay said that in order to do this in one operation I would be required to attend the clinic on a weekly basis for approx. 6 months and use their laser therapy machine which would increase density of my existing hair and enable me to have one successful operation rather than two.

I didn't know any better and therefore agreed to this. I travelled from Edinburgh to Glasgow on a weekly basis for a year before I was told that I was now ready for my transplant.

I once again booked in a date and time and arranged for time off work in order to allow recovery. I attended the clinic in March 2015 to receive my first transplant from KSL. The surgeon was Dr fransico m berrios merino. He and his team were Spanish and didn't speak any English. I have since learned that he was not licensed to perform surgery in the uk. I endured a gruelling 8 hour operation and left with the understanding that this was me now on the road to having my hair back.

I immediately noticed when I got home and looked in the mirror that there were still large areas untouched and there seemed to be random sporadic bits of my scalp which had a couple of hairs transplanted into them. I questioned this at my post op review a couple days later and was told this was normal and the surgeon was very satisfied with how the operation went. I struggled to see how this would be the case as I was quite far on in my hair loss rather than just the crown or temples but as far as I was aware I was talking to the experts.

As you can probably gather my results were embarrassingly bad. I would not be over exaggerating if I was to say you would never have known that I had ever had any form of hair transplant after this surgery.

I continued to attend the clinic and they accepted that the quality of transplant I had received was nowhere near acceptable. I was told this would be rectified by transplant number 2 which would be done by a different surgeon as they were no longer using the surgeon that done my previous transplant.

On 3rd February 2016 I went in for my second transplant this time with a surgeon called Vikas Kunnure. He immediately asked me would I prefer coverage in the front or the back of the head as it was clearly not possible to do both. I started to panic as this was not what I was expecting or had been told. I asked to speak with Andrew Dingwall and he explained that Vikas had made a mistake and that I would get a satisfactory result from this operation. Reassured I went ahead with the transplant. At this point I was surprised to see Lauren who worked at reception in the clinic and had informed me before that she was a hair stylist in scrubs forming part of the surgical team. She would be the one implanting the follicles back into my scalp.

Once again the results were nothing short of disgraceful. I have also been left with horrendous scarring to the back of my head, permanent nerve damage and a loss of self confidence. I have since been for a independent review at another Clinic in Glasgow who confirmed that the quality of work that I received was "very, very poor". They explained that the grafts had not even been separated and the scarring was due to the size of the punch used. They explained that this was totally unnecessary!

Visiting KSL was one of the worst decisions I have ever made.

What they have done to myself and others is nothing short of disgraceful.

I am currently in the process of taking KSL and several individuals involved with the company to court where hopefully they will be held accountable for their actions.

Regards

Mikey
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Mikey.
Thanks for sharing your story with us. It's sad to read this type of work being done in this modern age of hair restoration. To have all your hopes destroyed this way is terrible.
Did the secondary clinic you consulted with say if you had enough donor to have repair work?
Also, any chance we could see some pictures of the damage they've caused you.
I hope you do find some resolve, anything I can do to help I will.
All the best.
Bm.
 
9

92AZ

Valued member
Hi mate

Sorry to hear about your experience, these guys need stopping and locking up. Can I just ask, with your second surgery, was it Vikas that carried it out? Only because I had mine done with UK Hair and was meant to have him as my surgeon but I ended up having another doctor. The clinic sent me a profile of Vikas and he seemed like one with a lot of experience and not the sort that would do a bad job.
 
J

JS

Valued member
Hi Mikey,

Sorry to hear about you experience, sad to say you are not alone and unfortunately one of the many done by KSL.

We have strength in numbers and we will fight this to the end.

Would be good to speak with you at some point and discuss your case against KSL.
 
W

wearthatcolour

member
The bloke in some of their marketing materials is wearing a rug as well
 
M

mikey1786

Valued member
Thanks for the replies guys.
Yeah, I`ll get some pics of the scarring to put up. I had msp on the top but deliberately left the scarring area untouched for the now as I want people and the court to see what these people have done to me.
The other clinic said they wouldn`t recommend another FUE transplant but ksl had Dr matee examine my head and he said there was still another 1000 grafts that could be extracted. I`m just glad I never took up the offer of a third with this lot.
Vikas did perform my second surgery. He was in and out the room throughout possibly overseeing another surgery in the room next door? The punch he used for extraction was too big apparently and this has caused the unnecessary scarring. The rest of the surgery was carried out by the receptionist and another unskilled tech
Unfortunately for Simon Lindsay and the ksl brand I won`t accept this and I will bring this all to an end!!!
 
9

92AZ

Valued member
From what I`ve read and heard about Vikas together with what I`ve seen and read about KSL I`m quite surprised Vikas works for KSL. I know most of the surgeons are usually self employed. Unless it was the equipment/staff which he was provided with that was substandard. I`m glad in that case that my surgeon was changed although I was a bit annoyed as Vikas was much more experienced. I really hope you are able to hit KSL hard, these guys surely have no conscience.
 
M

mikey1786

Valued member
Yeah I`ll put some up.This is what they`ve done to my donor area
 

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M

mikey1786

Valued member
Other side
 

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mikey1786

Valued member
I've Since had MSP done at Vinci and they`ve done a fantastic job of blending into my hair on top. The downside is I need to shave it every day. This whole experience has left me out of pocket and mentally drained. I plan on going back to get my scarring covered once my court action has come to a conclusion
 

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Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Mikey.
Thanks for adding some pictures.
Your donor has been over harvested in various places resulting in the moth eaten look. Looking at your end result it's not good. The Pigmentation is helping but it's not what you were guaranteed by this company.
Hopefully, a longer term solution can be sourced to provide a near as normal appearance.
All the best.

Bm.
 
don1966

don1966

Valued member
Hi Mikey,
so sorry to hear of this horror story you`ve been through, it is absolutely shocking of a clinic in this day and age to be putting work out like that and scaring people in this way. I hope you can get something resolved in Court and hopefully the donor hair you have left can give you decent coverage so you can move on from this.
 
bullitnut

bullitnut

4 awesome repairs with SMG
Bloody hell that scarring is horrendous...especially for this day and age. It's good that your a helping others by telling your story i for one truly appreciate it and i hope you get the resolve you deserve dude.
Glad the SMP has helped too....well done Vinci
 
M

mikey1786

Valued member
Guys
Just a wee update on my situation. Had a really positive FaceTime conversation. I`ve got an appointment for a consultation to see if there`s anything they can do. I`ve received a lot of help and support on here so far and I`m forever grateful for that. These situations are on the whole a very negative experience but by going through this I have met a lot of good people who are able to offer help and support.
Cheers
Mikey
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Mikey.
Fingers crossed they can help you out.
 
M

mikey1786

Valued member
Yeah, they`ve gone in with a punch that was unnecessarily big. They only care about the money these people. Couldn`t care about the patient or their end result. When you complain or comment on social media they block you. Lloyd Hume even commented on my google review saying he`d never heard of a patient with my name. Trying to make out I`m a fake review from a competitor...I have spoken to Lloyd on a number of occasions and listened to all his lies.
I will get justice against ksl and I`ll keep going no matter how long it takes. My complaints to Health improvement Scotland helped shut down the butcher shop in Glasgow and I intend on doing the same to the KSL brand!
 
scepticsausage

scepticsausage

member
They have ruined lots of lives and the celebrities who endorse them should be ashamed.
 
M

mikey1786

Valued member
Wasn`t sure whether to post this on this thread or start a new one as I`m effectively at the beginning of my new journey.

As strange as it sounds my experience from hell with ksl has introduced me to a lot of guys and I`ve made friends with people I`d have never met.

Had my consultation. The consultation itself was good and bad news...the good news is I still have some donor hair left to work with...the bad news is it`s just not enough to achieve the results I originally wanted 3 years ago. I was almost certain of this prior to my consultation but it was depressing to hear it again. As you can see from my pictures above my donor area at the back has been destroyed.

I spoke with the doctor, we devised a realistic plan to try and achieve a result that I`d be happy with. The team down there were fantastic. You are immediately put at ease and the doctor has a tremendous bedside manner when talking to clients which was reassuring for me having suffered at the hands of ksl. One of the reasons I wasn`t sure about posting in this category is that these ksl cowboys and Dr berrio and Dr kunnure do not deserve to share the same page let alone the same reply to a decent clinic. Night and day is an understatement!!!

This is only the beginning of my journey and I`ll keep the page updated with pictures and my progress.

Cheers

Mikey
 
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