» Thanks for the kind words Topcat. I do hope that I am wrong about H&W.
» Perhaps they are more ethical than I think. I have been burned and seen a
» lot of others who have been also so others please realize what I have gone
» through. I have nothing to hide and try to be as honest as I can. My
» only thoughts though are that if a clinic only offers strip then it can’t
» repair some of the most severe disfiguring cases. I wish the topcats &
» Zaydens of this world & all others who have been burned by this industry
» the best in their repair courses. I also do not not Jotronic so I can only
» hope that he will guide these young men in the right direction. Hair
» Transplants are something that a person will live with forever so please,
» please use caution when deciding upon this surgery. Best to all!!
Diamond,
I appreciate your time to explain your history. You said that you don’t know me so let me introduce you to my history. It is not as long as yours but it is there just the same.
In 1992 I was suckered into not one but two mini-graft procedures by Dr. Richard Norris in Knoxville, Tn. I was a 22 years old and had no desire for a hair transplant (NW2 to NW2A, thinning crown) but I was there to lend support to my best friend who’s loss was more noticeable than my own. We both wound up in the chair (after the doc scared me to death about hair loss) where the doctor did most of the work himself with his wife and daughter assisting. My hair loss continued for the next nine years till I was beyond a NW6 but not quite a NW7. The only hair on my head that was noticeable were 300 mini-grafts that made up my hairline and the frontal half. I also had two wide donor scars stacked one over the other.
No one would ever look me in the eye because they were always looking at my hairline. There were 47 grafts making up my frontal hairline, from one temple all the way around to the other temple, with each graft consisting of no less than 10 hairs each with some having 15 to 20 hairs. I was never in a job that I could wear a hat so I simply learned to deal with it. After my divorce in late 2001 I had to do something to make myself look normal for the dating scene. Not good, not fantastic. Just normal. Enter Dr. Wong and H&W.
My first surgery with Dr. Wong was not performed with any plans for more work afterward. Dr. Wong pulled 2406 grafts from my donor area along with BOTH donor scars. This was in March 2002 where the largest virgin scalp sessions barely scratched the 2500 graft mark much less any higher. This was attributed to what Dr. Wong referred to as my “mutant” laxity. This was the time frame that “Jotronic” was born.
I created a website with my free Yahoo account to show my family that I was in good hands and that I wasn’t getting hacked up like I did before. I then showed a few guys on another forum some of my photos on my site. I included photos of my grafts being dissected, my grafts being placed and my procedure in general. NO ONE had EVER done this before. I then started showing my immediate post-op shots, my day 1, day 2, week 1, week 2, month 3, month 4 progress and so on. I documented my thoughts, my feelings, and what my hair looked like at various stages and in various locales in close to real time. I did not know what my result would truly be like but I was documenting it anyway. My site eventually evolved into it’s current iteration, Hair Transplant Mentor.com. I and one other patient of Dr. Hasson’s (Futzyhead) were the first patients to do this. I did this to show others what surgery is actually like and what to expect. I did this because no where else on the internet could this be found and I was contributing what I could to educate others.
Eventually hair greed set in since the first procedure turned out so well so I went in for #2 and continued my documentation. Shortly afterward I started working for H&W on SALARY not commission because I didn’t want anyone thinking that by having surgery my pockets would be lined just that much more.
Had I not been to Dr. Wong I would be more vocal about the evils of strip surgery than you or anyone else. I would have gone down the FUE route and who knows how I would have turned out but I can assure you this much. I would not have nearly the coverage I do now. No way, no how. I actually wanted to shave my head before anymore surgery but the one thing that stopped me was the graft work. Sure, I had two donor scars but the graft work, as shaved little stubbles, would have been far more difficult to explain.
So I’ve never worked for a clinic that did the old style work and have never tried to convince someone that plug work looks natural when obviously it didn’t. I was only a patient of one such clinic but now I am a patient of and work for a clinic that does some of the best work on the planet. The thing that separates us from your insulting MHR 1990 video reference is that our videos are publicly available, show more detail than any other clinic in the business, and are shot in HD with weekly updates. Oh, and we aren’t MHR, which should count for something:)
We want people to see as much detail as possible. No one on any forum can point to a single clinic that has more video results than we do, with as much detail in the comb throughs (showing the hair exiting the scalp), shot in HD and showing the donor scars and all angles of the result. We have over 100 such videos with new ones added weekly. We don’t hide behind bad lighting and funky angles. We don’t wet the hair in before photos and show dry hair in after photos. We don’t use blurry video screenshots. Did you know that I started a personal crusade several years ago to teach patients about how clinics trick them with photos? Flash photography makes hairlines looks twice as thick as reality. It also softens harsh coarse hairs in the hairline and completely misrepresents the truth. There are dozens of posts by me talking about this important yet somehow ignored topic. I have preached about this and encouraged other clinics to stop doing this. Some have listened but most have not.
Are we perfect? Of course not, but neither is anyone else but to reference us as outdated and obsolete is hardly fair much less accurate. The patients that come to us are not looking to shave their heads. They are looking for hair, be it densely packed, to cover a large area, to recreate the crown whorl or all of the above and they want it to look and behave naturally. The ones that do want to shave their heads, or admit that it is a possibility are thanked for their time and politely declined surgery. The notion that we are a mill because it isn’t one doctor doing all of the work is ridiculous. No one doctor can deliver the transformations that a highly skilled team can deliver. No one doctor can transform a high NW into a low Norwood in one session.
What you will not get from me are claims of no scarring. What you will not get from me is a smoke and mirrors show with blurry photos, poor lighting or photos taken from ten feet away claiming how good we are and how hard we work. You will not get a line saying that your results will look just like anyone else’s. You will not get a sob story to tear at your heart strings when I post a hard luck repair case.
What you WILL get from me are results from my clinic because that is what matters. The photos will be clear. The photos will be large. I will then post a high definition video showing even more details. I will show you as much of the result as the patient allows. I will answer questions about what we do honestly and without marketing BS designed to show you what good guys we are and how easy it is to talk to us. We are nice people but that is not what matters. The results are what matters.
So there is my history and who I am with regards to this field. I’m a patient first and am waiting patiently for my little soldiers to pop through from my latest HT with Dr. Wong just over two months ago. Oh, and my donor scar (singular)? I’m not going to shave my head for you but I can go shorter than one would think after 9360 grafts in four surgeries because Dr. Wong has done a solid job for me.
So, I wish you the best in your repair and truly hope that you get what you are looking for. I mean this too. I’ve seen Dr. Woods do solid work, online and in person, so I expect nothing less for you. But please, don’t jump into my threads with posts saying how strip sucks and it should be banned and how it is outdated and obsolete. It may be your opinion from your history (which is understandable) but just because we perform strip does not mean we do what everyone else does. Our history proves this.
