dr. Sanusi Umar | $50k+ for failed 11k grafts. My donor is depleted!

[WreckedOne]

• 36y old. Was NW6 previously.
  
  
• Had two surgeries with dr. Sanusi Umar over the last 3 years. Despite not many reviews from his patients on HT forums, I thought I did a good research at the time.I saw pictures of one of his old patients that had same level of loss and later appeared to have full head of hair. Haven’t seen it from anybody else at the time. Also saw he was promoting himself as fixing bad transplants from other surgeons. Had money, and decided to travel from Europe to California to see him. Payed him over $50k for transplant (+ flights, accommdation, his medicine, etc). Overall spent over $70k on this. Wanted to do it right, avoid Turkey with mass transplants, etc. But what a mistake it turend out to be…
  
• In first procedure he aggressively transplanted 7600 grafts over 4 days (hair 2900, neck 590, beard: 4000, thigh: 140). Scalp redness for longer time (5/6+ months). After a year, I think maybe 15% successful grafts (and almost all beard hair fell out). He made hairline way too agressive reasoning that I will be transplanting lot of grafts. My forehead wrinkles touching the hairline. He put the strong hairs on the sides, which looks unnatural. Also hairline grafts appeared to stick much more then the rest, so it’s like having someone draw a circle on my scalp, and then being empty inside.
  
• He didn’t really understand why the growth is not good, and then he told me that it appears that some of his patients had condition called LPP (lichen planopilaris), and he wanted me to test for it. But he didn’t say I can test in Europe (he said he doesn’t trust doctors here), so year after first procedure I went again to see him, he did biopsy and it came with confirmed LPP. Then he asked me if I want to do 2nd procedure. And obviously travling half the world to see him expecting to have the 2nd procedure, I didn’t want to go back home just doing biopsy that I could have done in Europe as well. Terrible from him. Other doctors later told me, that he should have never asked me nor do the 2nd procedure, until LPP is calmed down. I don’t know at what state the LPP was at that moment, but like I said it was confirmed.
  So, did 3200 grafts over 3 days (only head hair) + fat injections. He didn’t charge for this procedure, as it was basically repair of the failed first one. Growth was better with this procedure (hard to say % wise how successful) but density remained big issue.
  

• Before 2nd procedure, me asking about grafts I have left, he told me I don’t have to worry and that I have many grafts which he can use. But I did worry rightly from where he will take additional grafts. After I asked him again about this he mentioned that he needs to take grafts from the beard (what’s left) and that I can think of doing light micropigmentation. After that I completely lost trust in dr. Umar, and stopped communicating with him. At that point he transplanted almost 11,000 grafts, with very low success rate and he wanted to do another from beard, knowing that almost all previous beard grafts fell off. It was just crazy.
  
• Also, before the procedures, he told me I will not need to take medicines like Finasteride, etc. Later on he put me on Minoxidil, Finasteride, and then switch Finasteride with Dutasteride. It affected me also mentally and physically (loss of sex drive, etc). After taking them as per instructions for over 1.5 years, I stopped after I lost trust with Umar.
  
• After doing new research, I consulted with top doctors (Pekiner, Mwamba, Bisanga, Zarev, etc). Unfortunately they confirmed my doubts. Almost all refused to do operation on me. Bisanga said Umar was too agressive with first op, and that they would never do that. Zarev refused and said good density couldn’t be achieved due to not enough grafts in donor area. Pekiner and Mwamba were willing to have live consultation at least, but I decided to consult and see well rated HT surgeon that was nearer first.
  
• Went for a live consultation with one surgeon where he confirmed that I have maybe 1000 grafts left. Without knowing at which doctor I went previously, he pointed many mistakes Umar made and said he was way too agressive, that he should have seen LPP immediately if there was one, and suspecting that he didn’t see it because there was no LPP before him, and that his aggressive approach with 7600 grafts over 4 days could have resulted in LPP in the first place, also that my hairline was done too low, unnatural, etc. And I agree with everything he said, as I was suspecting all of this. After he gave his opinion, only then I told him my 2 procedures were with Dr. Sanusi Umar, and he was shocked just looking at me for a few moments without saying word. He never saw his patients, but he knew him, and thought that he is top surgeon. He told me honestly that he thought at beginning that I went to cheap Turkish clinics, one of those surgeons that agriculture in the morning and surgery in the afternoon.
  
• I don’t even want to mention his pricey hair oil and vitamins he asks you to take. That oil you should put 2 per day and wear for hours, your scalp changes color, and you can’t go anywhere with that on your head… It’s ridicolous, and there was no difference once I stopped truting Umar and stopped taking also that oil some 10 months after second surgery.
  
• Summary: I thought I was going to the top hair transplant surgeon, traveling half the world to do the procedures, with overall cost going over $70k, and he wrecked me completely. It’s even worse than if I was bold. When I was bold I was just another bold dude, but now due to low density and stronger hair with more density on the harline it’s very visible and people notice immediately. It costed me and still does a lot of mental health, (avoidance of social gatherings, being self-conscious about this and constantly getting feedback from others in terms of eye looks at the hair, etc). I’ve let it grew longer few times only to see that density difference is just too grave and it looks much worse. I’m constantly trimming my hair with 0 clipper. But even when clipped to 0, it doesn’t look natural due to density difference. It went from having big expectations prior to the surgeries (as I thought I’m going to the top doctor and paying top money for great result), to going much below the baseline bold feeling, going through a lot of emotional pain due to all that.
  
• Did micropigmentation after that, but it didn’t help much really. It does look a bit better when clipped to 0, so I can at least be comfortable enough to go out without hat (I can’t stand the hats anymore at this point).
  
• Scheduled another procedure (with the surgeon I saw live) for February next year (he checked and no signs of LPP are visible now) to transplant remaining 1000 grafts to improve if possible at least a little bit. The plan is to laser off his hairline, and move my hairline less agressively so that it can look more natural. I don’t really have hope I will be able to grow hair looking normally, as it will still likely be too little density to be able to cover it normally. But at least then I will know I did everything I could, and if I can’t achieve normal look, will just keep clipping or shaving it until the rest of my life.
  
• Had to write down this and get it out! Be careful and do your research well! Avoid aggressive surgeons that are doing lot of grafts over short time and don’t have many patient reveiws on forums like this, no matter how good they appear or promote themselves!

Before the procedures:

11 months after 1st procedure with 7600 grafts:

3 months after 2nd procedure with fat injections and 3200 head grafts (total cca 11k grafts now) :

7 months after 2nd procedure:

13 months after 2nd HT and after micropigmentation (TODAY in daylight):

 

[Kelvino1987]

I’m really sorry to hear of this experience you’ve had, and the substantial amount of money you’ve paid. Looking at your pre-op pictures, your hair loss was at a stage where this Dr should have given you a mature hairline. I’ve not heard of him before. What involvement did he have in your surgery? Hairline design/incisions/graft extracts etc? Did he have technicians with him? And what involvement did they have?

I would hope that some of the transplanted hair could still be used, along with the approx 1000 grafts you have left. It might be tricky to give you full coverage, but maybe a mature hairline and mid-scalp area as a priority, if you don’t have enough for your crown. Maybe ask the surgeon if this is something they could offer?

I would also explore seeking money back from this surgeon. I hope you can get some closure at some point soon.

 

[WreckedOne]

I’m really sorry to hear of this experience you’ve had, and the substantial amount of money you’ve paid. Looking at your pre-op pictures, your hair loss was at a stage where this Dr should have given you a mature hairline. I’ve not heard of him before. What involvement did he have in your surgery? Hairline design/incisions/graft extracts etc? Did he have technicians with him? And what involvement did they have?

I would hope that some of the transplanted hair could still be used, along with the approx 1000 grafts you have left. It might be tricky to give you full coverage, but maybe a mature hairline and mid-scalp area as a priority, if you don’t have enough for your crown. Maybe ask the surgeon if this is something they could offer?

I would also explore seeking money back from this surgeon. I hope you can get some closure at some point soon.

He did the hairline design and graft extracts, I'm not sure about incisions, whether it was him or tehnician. But I know technician worked on transplants. But he was involved throughout the process. It's on him definitely, without the doubt.
BTW. He is selling his uGraft Zeus tool system to other hair surgeons, some which I saw in his clinics, telling me I'm in good hands and that Umar is good surgeon. I hope they see these pictures.

For my final 1000 grafts with other surgeon, that is the plan, to laser off the current hairline and make new mature one with focus on front/mid-scalp, so that when it grows it can cover the crown and part of mid scalp.
Unfortunately, new surgeon told we can't transplant already transplanted hair at the hairline (and would have to laser it off) because I would then have scars from the extractions at the previous hairline, and that would be even one level worse.

Even though he should give it back, I don't want to ask for it or engage with him, as no money can compensate the amount of emotional pain I had to endure and the way it affected me mentally (and to a good degree still does). In my worst nightmares I couldn't even imagine this type of result. I was going to the doctor who was promoting himself as fixing other bad transplants. He is even a dermatologist. I was paying top money, and was giving effort of going to another continent. In my head I did everything right. It was just not nowhere in my head that this would ever happen. I don't wish this experience to anybody, and with getting it off my chest, is reason why I shared this.

For other who are reading this and choosing their surgeon:

• Spend time doing your research, compare pictures and cases on forums.
• Choose doctors that did many transplants and have many good reviews from others.
• Go for live consultations to a few doctors at the top of your list, assess their approach and then decide on one.
• If somebody is proposing big number of grafts in short period of time, run away!!
• Be very wary of your donor area and your capacity! ask about it, ask about the plan. Don't take any BS comments on this, ask for specific numbers of grafts in donor area, how much will be transplanted, what will be left, what will be the plan with what's left, etc.
• If I had the privilege to do it all again, I would do max 1000-1500 graft with the well respected surgeon who did many transplants, see how that goes, and then repeat throughout few years, until enough coverage is achieved.
• Worst case, if one surgery doesn't go well, you will waste part of that 1000-1500 grafts, but will not be wrecking as if you had 7000-8000 grafts and waste 90% and no donor is left. You will be able to assess, go on further consultations with others, change surgeon, etc.

 

[robbieh]

That is terrible. I'm 48 nw7 and have just had my 2nd op. 1st op was 2000 graphs 6 months ago and from what you've shown overv 7000 should have been plenty!!!

 

[escar]

Hi mate, I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience. It's actually a big mistake to take an aggressive approach in cases of extensive baldness, and this is something I always explain to patients. Sometimes, it's necessary to have multiple procedures to achieve decent coverage and density.

I hope you can improve the situation with your next procedure. By the way, I have a question. Why does the surgeon say that if you extract the old grafts placed too low, it will leave scars? I had a similar procedure done myself, and after some time, the extractions healed. This is especially true when the grafts are a normal size, like in your case, and not large plugs, as in my case. Even in my situation, the scars eventually healed. I'm asking because I don't think you should waste grafts with laser if you can replace them. If this surgeon can't do it, I'm pretty sure there are others who can.