Yes, this Doctor is that good. Yes, this office is affordable. Read on.

Provider Review

• 1 Feb 2018

Yes, this a bit lengthy but this is a big decision, isn’t it? It’s probably worth a few minutes of your time before using limited resources. Remember, if you make a bad decision on this, you won’t get the money and donor hair back. Also, you definitely don’t want to be one of those people that tried to save a couple bucks with a dirt cheap procedure only to show up at a Professional’s office asking for help to fix the bad work. If you spend a little bit of time on YouTube looking at US Based FUE Doctors, you'll no doubt see Dr. Yates’ name come up. His office provides quite a bit of good content. Subscribe to his channel and spend the time watching the videos to answer some of your questions and get acclimated with his approach. One particular phrase of his that resonated with me was that "things should always make sense". If they don't make sense, it’s a big red flag. Also, his office is FUE only, because this is the approach to hair transplantation that makes the most sense to him. With Dr. Yates, I didn’t feel rushed at all during the initial consultation. I don’t live in Chicago, but I flew in from the Southwest in November. I intended to get some answers and get comfortable with the office. Both Scott and Dr. Yates took the time to answer any and all questions. I was shocked at how much more donor hair could be gathered using the manual FUE approach. This was significantly more than could be used by the ARTAS system. Both Scott and Dr. Yates have had the work done themselves and speak very candidly to it. If the people you speak to at the office were in a similar situation as you and now have impressive results, it’s probably a good sign. I ended up scheduling my procedure for end of December which happened to be the coldest week of the year. Based on the results alone, I can say I would have gone in much colder weather if that’s what it took. Also, I can say the procedure itself went very smooth. Approximately 3100 grafts repositioned. I already had about 2200 grafts done on my first procedure at another office. Even more impressive than the procedure, was the aftercare and recovery. After my first procedure I had intense redness in the recipient area for about 4 months. This looked like severe sunburn but without the peeling. If you have a job where you are in front of people almost all the time, this can be challenging if not impossible to conceal. With the procedure from Dr. Yates’ office, I had no redness at all. I mean nothing. In a week’s time, you couldn’t even tell that I had the procedure. This is much easier to work with than 4 months of redness. The shock loss of existing hair was kept to a minimum as well. As mentioned, this was my second hair transplant procedure, but my first with Dr. Yates office. My first procedure was done by the ARTAS system. Upon reviewing with my local doctor the limitations of the ARTAS for a second procedure, I began looking at other options. One of the limitations of the ARTAS is where the donor could be sourced from. If you have good donor all the way around the head, then all that hair could be used. Not just hair in the back of the head. Being a NW5 - NW6, I needed to maximize my available donor and use it wisely. This is why FUE just makes the most sense to me. At the end of the day, the goal is to reposition the available donor hair that you have in order to correct the top of the head. Strip procedures are slightly less expensive, but why would you want the scar, the longer healing time and only using a narrow strip of hair from the back of the head. With FUE, you have options and flexibility both before and after the procedure. What I mean by this is that a manual FUE approach can pull hair from any donor area. Not just the back of the head. The benefits of doing such are twofold. First, the donor hair can be gathered evenly from all available donor areas to maximize the available supply to transplant with. Second, this approach also creates a smooth even surface to the eye when looking at the donor area. In other words, you don’t see very dense untouched sides of the head and then start seeing a block toward the back where donor hair was pulled that is much lighter. The eye catches that contrast when you have short hair. This is also much more pronounced when the hair color is darker. Even with the sides and back of my head shaved down to the ½ guard, you can’t tell from up close that anything has been done in the donor area. Also with FUE, the recovery time is very short. After both my 1st and 2nd procedure, the donor area was healed in a week. Not the mention, no visible scar at all. As mentioned before, you’re working with a finite supply of donor hair to try and correct what can be a pretty significant problem. I would only trust this work to the experienced hands of a licensed MD whose approach you agree with and no one else. I know this has been a bit long, believe me it took much longer to write than for you to read. In closing I just wanted to say one thing, “don’t wait”. The worst thing you can do is sit on the fence or keep putting it off. There will never be a right time. Things happen. But the longer you put this off, the worse things are getting and the harder it gets to fix. Over the counter stuff (Minoxidil, Shampoos, etc) won’t fix male pattern baldness. Once the hair is gone, it’s gone. The OTC stuff helps slow the balding, but it won’t stop it. You have to have something to block the DHT conversion (Finasteride or similar) and then have a way to replace what’s already gone (the transplant). So do yourself a favor and start the ball rolling, you’ll be glad you did. I am every time I look in the mirror.