Hello, everybody.

This post is a long time coming and first and foremost I want to give an exxtra special thanks to Dr. Bhatti, his entire staff, and Dr. Bhatti's rep Mr. Baziz. Also I want to thank the entire city of Chandigarh for welcoming me as a foreigner and leaving me with a truly memorable experience. With that being said, let me give a little background on myself; I'm a 20 year old white male and a sufferrer of psoriasis. I've been losing my hair since I was 17 and, as you will see in the pictures, I was pretty much bald. Anybody who wants to complain about how I'm to young to go through with the procedure should save your fingers the energy, the real experts with MD's and years of practice all agree that I'm more than ideal for the procedure.

This website really helped me work up the confidence to go through with the procedure and the relentless hours and hours of time spent on here was time well spent. All the pateints who posted their results, I would like to personally thank you. Without a webiste like this, where I see real people with real results, I would be stuck whering a hat for the rest of my life. As you all know, each case is unique. For the most part, though, everybody is here for one reason. I spent so much time comparing my situation with others on this sight and their was no idenical match. I think my situation is exceptionally unique compared to others because A) I'm so young B) my psoriasis and C) the extent of my hair loss. I like to say there is good and bad to my personal hair loss. The bad is that I lost my hair at such a young age. The good is that I lost my hair at such a long age. What I mean by that is, yes, I'm young and it sucks that I have more scalp showing than 99.9% of kids my age but the flip side to that is, hey, because I'm so young I have the ability to get this taken care of now. After feeling sorry for myself for a while and thinking, "Why Me??" I came to realize that I would rather be in my situation than a guy in his late 20's/early 30's slowly losing the battle of baldness. Thinning hair, maybe rogaine, maybe fin, but we all know that just slows down the inevitable result. I had my hair taken away from me by age 19, which allows me to tackle the issue in the most aggresive manner possible (transplant) and fix the problem completely by my early 20's.

MY STORY: When I was 17 my psoriasis flared up pretty bad on my scalp. I was just a kid, didn't know the deal. This ultimately led to rapid hairloss. To all the geniuses out there saying "well, psoriasis doesn't lead to permanent hair loss" congratulations on your rudimentary knowledge of hair loss. While that may be true, people need to understand that the itching that came along with my condition is what did me in. I was my own worst enemy and I scratched until I bled. I ripped the hair follicles out of my scalp and made an already high hairline even worse. I was destined to be bald by 30 anyway, the psoriasis episodes just sped up the process - which, in retrospect, I am thankful for. So, at 18 I started Finasteride which didn't work that well for me. I was on and off the drug for about 18 months then just stopped cold turkey.Sometime during this period I started Biotin. When I first started fin I had the symptomatic sexual side effects so I stopped. Then I started again a few months later and the side effects weren't as apparent. As anyone who has taken fin then stopped knows, once you stop taking the drug, your hairloss falls off a cliff and the process is sped up tenfold. So when I decided to go cold turkey I thought it could be a positive thing because my hair will shrivel up to the point of my true donor area.

CHOOSING A DOCTOR: This is the hardest pre-op element on your way to hair-hood. Everybody has different goals and there are so many great docs out there. To be blunt, I didn't have a whole lot of money. Again, I'm only 20 years old. So, I originally though FUT would have to be my method by default. I live in NJ so I was thinking maybe Dr. Feller would be my guy or I'd take a trip up north to see Dr. Rahal. I toyed with the idea of traveling to India for Dr. Madhu or Dr. Path. Then, one day I came across Dr. Bhatti. I'm not sure how he slipped through the cracks, but I had not heard about him up until I saw one of his patients on this site. I looked up a few more patients, all had satisfactory results by any measure. So, I checked out his website. Ridiculous prices compared to top notch surgeons here in America. His website also had a 'live chat' icon on it. And, sure enough, as I typed a message 1am, I had a response in about 30 seconds. From there the rest is history. Dr. Bhatti's work speaks for itself. If I had the money, I may have chosen another surgeon. But I may have stuck with Dr. Bhatti anyway. I can count on my fingers how many surgeons are on par with Dr. Bhatti's skill level. And as far as getting the most for your money, I firmly believe that Dr. Bhatti is the best bang-for-your-buck hair transplant surgeon in the world.

BOOKING: Dr. Bhatti's rep was there to guide me from the second I sent him that message. Of course, he is paid to hype up Dr. Bhatti and say nothing but positives about him but I felt a sense of authenticity when chatting with him. A real genuine guy. He always responded promptly to my emails and was always available for phone conversations - which lasted close to an hour on several occasions. Also, the doctor himself always took time to respnd to my emails. I would send him an email before I went to bed and by the time I woke up I had a response. No matter how tedious or trivial or seemingly insignificant the question, Dr. Bhatti always fielded my email and shot me a response. What really got me about Dr. Bhatti and his team was the impeccable customer service. Initially, the one thing that stood in my way of finalizing my procedure was my psoriasis. As you'll see in the pictures, it is mostly relegated to the vertex/crown area but if you look close there is a little redness where my recipient area is. Dr. Bhatti advised me to seek out a professional opinion. A trip to Dr. Feller confirmed that the area should be a non-issue during procedure.

THE TRIP: I booked plane tickets 3 months in advance to save a few bucks. I booked through Orbitz, any of those online sites are fine but I like Orbitz' 3 day before/after matrix. Getting my visa was a seamless process, it's online now and takes 24-72 hours to process. Mine took 25 hours to process. The only thing I will say is that you need a major bank for your transaction to go through. I have TD Bank, which is regional to the East Coast. I had to borrow another card with a more paramount bank in order for the transaction to go through. My flight had to stops, the first in Brussels then Bombay before Chandigarh. I made a rookie mistake of saving a few bucks at the expense of an 11 hour layover. You read that right, my layover in Bombay, for there and back was 11 hours. It was as miserable as it sounds. Don't do it. Fly to Delhi and wait there or have Dr. Bhatti's driver pick you up from Delhi, which is always an option. (Oh, I almost forgot, David The Moderator I know you're reading this, Dr. Bhatti's driver Sachin says hi and hopes your growing is going good. Says you were a pleasure to drive). Once I arrived in Chandigarh, I was promptly taken to my hotel. The ride there was incredible, it's a lot to take in. They drive on the wrong side of the road there, so that in itself is an experience. I stayed in Hotel AB's, the cheaper option of the 2 hotels Dr. Bhatti recommends. I had no complaints. It came out to slightly under $30 a night and you get what you pay for, very basic room. The hot water and the wifi gave me problems but I wasn't there to take hot showers and surf the web. The positive about the hotel is that it's less than a 5 minute walk from the clinic. Any other hotel you stay at is a drive. I would recommend AB's if you're staying a night or two or if you're on a tight budget looking to save a few bucks. Otherwise, opt for the more expensive option.

THE PROCEDURE: Dr. Bhatti only does two procedures a day, a large case and a small case. I was the large case and Dr. Bhatti's driver came to my hotel 7:30am to walk me to the clinic. We were the first ones there, he opened the door himself. The clinic itself was in great shape. Nothing crazy to report about the condition; it looked just like any other doctor's office that I've been to in America. But that's a good thing, right? Dr. Bhatti and I discussed my goals, he drew my hairline and I had no complaints. I thought he was right on target. After that, they pumped me up with drugs and before I knew it the surgery was under way. I've never had surgery before so I was nervous and and anxious and excited going in. I felt a complete catharsis of emotion and my heart was racing. But the initial shock wore off after the drugs took effect. The only pain you feel is when Dr. Bhatti is injecting the anasthesia directly into your scalp. That lasts for about 5 minutes. After that, you're numb. I felt maybe a prick or two in the beginning but nothing after that. Surgery lasted all day. Dr. Bhatti did 100% of all extraction and slit making. During the graft placement, he checked in to make sure everything was running smooth every 30 minutes or so. The placement was done by 2 members of his staff. One girl told me she had 3 years experience, the other had 5 years. I said this before but it needs to be reiterated how friendly his staff is. For the most part, his staff is mostly comprised of cute girls, so that helps too. It's the little details that count. Honestly speaking, I can't even think of the tiniest miscue to complain about. Everything was dynamite. Once everything was said and done it was around 7:30pm. Most definitely an all-day affair. The grafts are extremely fragile. How fragile? I went to bend down for my shoes at the end of the day and the loose, damp gauze came off my head, knocking a few grafts out of place that were immediately sturdied. That fragile.

AFTER PROCEDURE: This part sucks more than anything else.Naturally, you're going to be exhausted after a day of being doped up and having thousands of holes poked in the back of your head. But the fun isn't over yet. You have to stay up all night and spray saline water on yourself every 20 minutes. I spent the whole night staring at my new self in the mirror with saline water in hand. The next day I went to the clinic bright and early. I was taught how to shampoo and given all different types of medications. Dr. Bhatti treated me as a guest and allowed me to hang out at the clinic all day. Most of you probably wouldn't be interested in doing that but I'm the type of person who likes to absorb everything. I experienced life as a patient the day before and saw life as a fly on the wall the next. I wasn't as high from the drugs so I gained a more coherent perspective on how Dr. Bhatti operates. Once again, no complaints. Everything is one step at a time and every patient is treated with an equally specialized regime. I got to meet a handful of Dr. Bhatti's patients that day and over the next couple days and nobody had a negative word to say about the guy.

THE CITY: This is the hair restoration network not the vacation experience network so I'll only touch on this briefly. Chandigarh is one of the nicest cities in India. Obviously, I have not personally been all over he country but every single Indian I met on my trip, whether it be in the airport, on the plane, or in Chandigarh all told me it is among the best places to live in India. It's not the top tourist attraction, but there are still places to see around the city. There are stray dogs everywhere and it may be impossible to find a good hamburger, but Chandigarh itself is mapped out from infrastructure inside and out. It is a planned city meaning people didn't just slowly emigrate over time to Chandigarh. The city was planned out and built then people came. Each section of the city is divided into a sector. Each sector has a designated market, housing, schools, ect. It's really incredible. I was nice enough to meet a man one day outside of his restaurant "Bhatura King," situated across the plaza from where Dr. Bhatti's clinic is. The man's father used to live in America and was nice enough to drive me around the city, showing me around. Not to sound cliche, but it was truly a life changing experience seeing the ins and outs of daily life around Chandigarh. Everybody was nice to me. One guy even stopped me in the street to take a picture with me, because I was an American dressed like an American (I had on basketball shorts and a Kobe Bryant jersey).

Overall, it was an eye opening experience and I would urge anyone to look into Dr. Bhatti as their potential surgeon. He's coming to Jersey in September, so keep an eye out. But, as we all know and realize, a hair tranplant is not about the experience. Ultimately, it is about the results. Everything else is secondary. But I'm confident in my successful growing because I went to a world class surgeon.