In early 2019, I was a workaholic NW3/4 full time student and full time work. I consulted with a local surgeon Steven Paul Holt of Holt Hair Restoration in Grand Rapids. He initially recommended 1200 grafts FUT. Dr. Holt said that FUT was the gold standard and that 75% of procedures are still FUT. He also said it would work better since I had dark hair. When asked how low I wanted the hairline: conservative, moderate or aggressive, I said moderate. He is board certified by ABHRS and license was in good standing.
Had the procedure in April 2019. Procedure took about 6 hours. They provided lunch. Afterwards they bandaged my head, gave me a surgical cap and had me drive to a pharmacy to pick up prescriptions that they called in.
Every thing seemed to be going smoothly but it was very clear something was off, there were not enough grafts. Dr. Holt told me all I needed was the 1400 and wouldn’t go any higher. He stated he was doing maximum density.
Nonetheless, I held on to hope until after 12 months but it dawned on me I was now a repair patient.
In my post op consultations with Dr. Holt, I complained that it looked fake and bad. He told me it looked “patchy” but nobody could tell I had an HT and technically I don’t need another one. I kept going on how it’s not what I expected and he said " okay, okay you need one. I can do 700 - 1000 more grafts". I was stunned again because this still seemed so low.
Dr. Holt wanted to do another FUT, saying that it’ll look better with my dark brown hair and that FUE would look moth eaten. When I complained about the scar, how it was itchy and more sensitive than I expected he countered that “FUE looks like you got shot in the back of the head with a shotgun”. For whatever reason he does not like to do manual punch FUE cases greater than 500 grafts and would turn to the ARTAS machine (which is really controversial).
The first 2 photos are pre-op, the next two are immediate post op, and the rest of the photos are from the 12 month follow up.
Please let me know your thoughts. I just wanted to post the outcome here. I’ve had a second procedure with a different doctor about 4 months ago.
