Dr. Charles Review

I owe this man SO much. He restored my sanity, peace of mind, and self-confidence.

By 25, my hair was so thin in the front that I honestly thought my days of being physically attractive were behind me. I was single, and I really thought I was going to die alone because I would never be able to win a girl over with my personality lol.

Dr. Charles gave me an estimate over Skype. It wasn’t the cheapest I found, but sometimes you get what you pay for. Dr. Charles is the best in the business. My hair felt like one of those things. I signed up for (I believe) it was 8,000 follicles using the ARTAS machine. I flew all the way down from Alabama, and Dr. Charles’ staff helped me coordinate everything.

Dr. Charles shaved my head before surgery and used an eyeliner pen to mark the semi circle he would be filling. He said his strategy was to focus on the front 3rd of my crown because that was most visible to people.

The surgery was long and quite painful at times, but I knew what I was signing up for. The machine was super cool and high tech. My anesthesia wore off a couple of times, and they had to give me a couple extra doses of local anesthetic. But I’m a big guy with reddish hair, so medicine seems to have less effect on me. Anyway, the robot was really cool. It was a very long and uncomfortable surgery, but the nurses were very friendly and did everything they could to make it better. Flying home, you’re quite uncomfortable and in a fair amount of pain. But you’re hopeful and excited, so it doesn’t matter.

A few weeks after I got home, I was studying my scars and found something a little disappointing. The shape he had filled on my head… the “semi-circle” was asymmetrical. On one side of my head, my hairline was a half inch higher at the edge where it connected to my sideburn. I found an eyeliner pen to mark what I was talking about and worked up the courage to text Dr. Charles some pictures.

I felt really bad complaining because he and the staff had been friendly and professional, but I had never spent so much money on anything in my entire life. I hated to feel disappointed with it. But Dr. Charles was great. He responded immediately that he would make it right. They bought me a second flight, covered my hotel room and meals, and fixed my hairline at at no additional cost.

The second time, he did not use the ARTAS machine and instead did it manually. He said ARTAS was really to protect against human arm fatigue during a really long surgery, and he was just doing a small patch this time so he wouldn’t get fatigued. Dr. Charles did express some annoyance that I had caused such a big stink over something he considered trivial. But I can and won’t complain because the results are what matter. He handled it. He made me promise to write this review one day, and I apologize that it’s taken me so long.

They warn you that it takes 9 months to a year before you really start to see results. Maybe after about 6 months (plus Propecia), I started to get thin little hairs visible. After a year, you could tell a huge difference. I had to learn how to style my hair a little differently. If I try to give it volume, you can see my scalp. But if I keep it long and flat and swoosh it to the side a little, I look just like I did when I was 22 years old.

And this is still true now that I’m 32. My hair looks GREAT. My friends and family are consistently amazed. Every single new person I tell about my surgery is absolutely shocked. No one would ever guess that I was visibly bald 7-8 years ago. I feel handsome again. I started dating again, and now I’m married with a 4 year old son. I can’t possibly explain what it feels like to go from hating what you’ve become in the mirror back to loving the way you look. It feels like I went backwards in a time machine and found the fountain of youth. It feels like I made a black magic deal with the devil or something. I try hard not to take it for granted after all this time because it is truly magical.