FolliclesDontDie said:
My understanding is that the best are in Canada Hanson & Wong.
I recently had a strip surgery with Dr. Seager and let me assure you that the entire staff is absolutely top notch, and the results I have seen from the clinic and expect to receive on my own head are simply amazing. Everyone there who has anything to do with touching your head or discussing and dispensing pre and post-op medications is an MD, qualified surgical assistant, or qualified nurse. Any issues about medications that do not fall under the "standard" medications are immediately referred to Dr. Seager or Dr. Simmons. The staff that I spoke to have been with the clinic for many years, and it was very clear to me that they are very, very good at what they do. Side note for those of you wondering - during the surgery, the planters specifically request "single hair FUs" for the hairline. It's kind of interesting to hear it happen after reading about it on the forums so much.
There is no doubt that H&W do outstanding work as well. The question of "best" is entirely subjective. What I can say with 100% honesty is that I had absolutely minimal discomfort during my procedure and I have had a rather uneventful recovery period as well (some "pinching" from the staples and I do have swelling ... not a problem because I specifically made plans to disappear for a couple of weeks), and that's about all you can hope for. My surgery was just under 2,900 FU's (approximately 6,600 hairs), and I really think I'm going to be thrilled in a few months. After considerable research I concluded that I favour the stick-and-place method used at the Seager clinic. H&W have achieved remarkable results with their lateral slit technique as well, so the choice is up to the patient. We are lucky to have these surgeons constantly raising the bar and providing such outstanding results.
About FUE vs. strip - FUE costs way too much for me to get the results of a strip megasession. One of the other main reasons I went with Dr. Seager is his commitment to minimal donor scarring and the preservation of donor hair. I have absolutely no intention of ever shaving my head, and I fully expect that my scar will be 1-2 mm wide at most, but the hair is more than worth it. Besides that, I have two other reservations about FUE. The first is that I'm not convinced the yield from FUE extraction matches that of strip. Strip dissection is done under the microscope (at the top clinics of course), whereas FUE is more "blind". I believe you get more optimum grafts from microscopic dissection, albeit with the penalty of a scar. Second, I expect I will have at least one more surgery of approximately 2,500 to 2,800 FU, and I can't help but think that if I extracted close to 5,800 FUs using FUE I would have one hell of a moth-eaten donor area.
