Hello dear group members,

Wish this new year brings smile on your faces by miraculously filling your scalp with all the hair you had 10-15 years back! Or at least that's what I would like to have this year

So after much deliberation and researching through this site, I decided to go for HT. My heartfelt thanks to Bill and admins of this website who have done wonderful job of providing a platform to share experiences and to the forum members who are actually sharing their experiences. This helped me decide to go for HT.

A bit about myself- I am about 32 years , Male , Indian living in Australia. My hairfall started about 10-12 years back and worsened over years. I went through the usual phase of denial- growing long hair- trying quick medications- loss of confidence- until one fine day I woke up and decided to do something about it. After researching a lot I decided to go with Dr. Radha. Prior to that I had sent email queries to some of the doctors listed here in APAC region. I had sent my photographs as well. All of them confirmed that I am a candidate for HT and would require around 3000 grafts to cover my balding area. I decided to go with Dr Radha for reasons below -

1. I read about experience of her patients which looked largely positive

2. The photographs looked very promising

3.The fact that she does all surgeries herself and is present throughout the session ( just one surgery per day)

4. Very patient with all my queries through emails and phone calls

5. Honest answers and no false promises

6. Cost

Because of reason # 3 I was not able to finalize my surgery date with her. She has just one slot per day. I was disappointed when she said I had to book atleast a month in advance. (By that time I had already booked my India trip for 3 weeks. Reason- expensive flight tickets so as soon as I spotted a deal I went for it) She wished me good luck and asked me to confirm well in advance before flying down next time. However, just a week before my departure I got a call from clinic. A patient from Jordon had pushed his surgery date back and suddenly there was a slot open. I went for it.

Actual Experience-

Day-1

I flew to Vizag a day earlier to meet the doctor in person. As someone mentioned in one of the posts earlier, the clicnic is in a small city called Vizag and the building doesn't look like hospital at all from outside. You could easily miss the building. Its a commercial building that definitely needs a fresh paint and some repairs at the exterior. I must admit I got bit hesitant there.

However, my perception soon changed after I met her in person. She was very calm, answered all my questions, discussed options with me and gave me realistic view of what might happen. The staff was extremely helpful. They booked me into a nearby hotel, negotiated rates for me, helped me find transport and provided all general information. I was asked to come by 8.30 on the morning next day for surgery.

Day 0

I arrived at 8.30 after having a light breakfast (no coffee/ tea). They had my blood tested. I was given a glass of juice before starting. The doctor again drew harline and after confirmation started the surgery. Local anesthesia was given ( I suppose couple of injections at the back) and the strip was removed. The doctor had told me that my density and hair quality is average and also that laxity is really not great (was very disappointed to hear that. I always thought I had great hair at the back. But I guess I have to live with this harsh reality! ). She said she would try to extract 3000 grafts and anything above that would be a bonus. She extracted a strip of abt 26-27 cm. There was a team of about 8 people who had started working under microscope to separate the grafts. More disappointing news was in store for me. Halfway through this dissection process the doctor told me that I have more single hair roots than double per graft. Generally around 70% of grafts have double roots , 15-20% have single roots and remaining are 3 or more than that. At one point of time she admitted that this was not looking very promising and was worried that this might not be giving expected final result. As it turned out, the final count of grafts was around 3950 of which around 50% were single, 48% double. She told me that she could work with this as more grafts could be extracted. She said other option that she was considering was to fill frontal region with as much density as possible and then if grafts remain then put those in crown area. Since we could get more grafts, she said she would be using single grafts to fill temple and frontal region and double grafts would be planted in crown area. I have had my lunch in the meanwhile and was ready for next session.

The actaul transplant was not much of a trouble. Again couple of injections in the scalp and by 6 PM I was on my way back to hotel. Through out the session the doctor was talking to me and explaining what she was doing and why was she doing it.

I was given pain killers and antibiotics, a head band to wear for next 3 days. The night was very rough. Despite taking pain killers I could not sleep. I was having splitting headache and felt like my head was on fire.

Day+1

I went to the clinic in the morning for post op check up. The doctor said things look fine. I was given a hair wash and was asked to use baby shampoo for next 15 days ( wash twice daily, very gentle patting on recipient area). No other medicines were prescribed. I asked if I could use Minoxidil and Finastride and she said yes. However, she asked me to start using after a month. The pain had subsided considerably by then. I left the city on the same day. She wrote me a reference letter for suture removal. ( Was scheduled to fly back in next couple of days).

Day +9

As I type this out, I am back in Australia, got my sutures removed here. The doc who removed it told me the work looks definitely better than previous HT patients who had come to him to remove sutures. Greyish white crusts are now forming at the hair roots at the recipient area. The doctor has told me to put olive oil overnight after 10 days. The scar is visible ( I had my head shaved) and I look like Frankenstein. So I am moving around with a headband. Trying times in summer!

I will soon be uploading some pictures. I can not upload now since my broadband connection is not active yet and I am using my phone to connect to internet. Needless to say, Telstra is ripping me off for every extra MB that I use.

All in all , I am very happy with Dr. Radha's work and her commitment. I believe she has done her best and now I hope for the best for me. Waiting game starts..