My hair had always been my pride and joy, my lions mane! When i was younger i had the footballers curtains, the perm (yes the short perm!), the long hair then the spiky hair...pretty much everything bar the thug head (crew cut/buzz cut) and now my hair line was beggining to corrode back slowly like the white cliffs of dover!

I still loved the way my hair was styled, i took much care and attention and way too much time in the mirror making sure it looked spot on from all angles but now there was just less of it. This was around 7 years ago. A few years later there was even less on the head and more in the sink and shower base and it started to bother me. I did much research into propecia, laser therapy, laser helmets, oils, lotions and potions but none of them bar propecia had any real results. I looked more into propecia but didnt like the side effects and the main side of possibly losing my ability to get the 'good wood'!!! Id rather be bald than lose my little soldier and also i do want to start a family at some point and i read it wasnt good to be taking propecia at that time either due to the possibility of defomations in the fetus if the tablets were handled by the female. Decision made i needed to find an alternative method. I came across Saw Palmetto and liked the fact it blocked DHT slightly but not as aggressively as propecia and that it also helped with prostate health. Im now 36 at this point and its not a bad thing to start looking after your prostate. Anyway i took the plunge and got some doctors best saw palmetto 320mg from amazon. Once a day only, thats it. A couple of months later my hairdresser whom none the wiser said my hair looked and felt thicker and fuller so i was sold on it, i would carry on taking it!

A few years later now at 38 i was getting more comments from mates with general lad banter: slaphead, moonhead, forehead, let it go mate and accept its going......nice mates you see, we all have them! Hehe. We went golfing on our annual trip to portugal this year and they found a lock of hair on the floor in the airport and presented it to me as the solution to my problem!!! It was funny though and i too it on the chin...well i rested it on my forehead for fun!!! Now they had all let go of their hair years previously due to shocking attempts at hairstyles in the first place but amongst a night out with the boys in a group of 8-12 of us only 3/4 of us actually had semi-decent hair on our heads, the rest looked like a right said fred tribute act! The thug look was never going to cut it with me and besides they were tradesmen who could get away with that look on-site but my job was professional, i met clients regularly being an interior designer and the shaved head look wouldnt go down too well in my industry! I needed to make a more aggessive move towards stopping the rot!

2013: after much research on hair forums i decided that only an hair transplant was my savior. I looked at strip surgery then came across FUE, where they take individual follicals from the back/side of your head and plant them in the front....like a tree surgeon! I knew my hair was thick and grew fast in them areas so suspected that i would be a good candidate for FUE. I whittled my list own to Dr Basinga, Ferudini, Dr Koray Erdogan and Dr Lorenzo. I went on the forums for prices ( obviously i wasnt earning a footballers salary so cost was a big issue), for advice from patients of these and for the pitfalls etc. one thing stuck with me, there wasnt a decent surgeon in the UK offering FUE. There were plenty of the large medical groups offering it but when i looked deeper into them from clients i learnt that many had bought cheap and you know what that generally means....buy cheap, buy twice! The amount of people who needed repair work due to choosing the wrong surgeon/practice didnt make good reading! It looked like i was going to have to go abroad for my new mullet.

Dr Jose Lorenzo stood out for me as his results said it all and had all positive patient feedback as well 200 videos on youtube at his injerto capilar clinic in Madrid. The problem being he didnt need to take patients from outside of Spain, the man did all of his work manually and was in big demand so there was no chance id be getting an op from him even if i did speak 'broken' spanish. I did email him though and out of a stroke of luck i got a reply from a guy called Mick from the Farjo clinic in Manchester....i thought i was being spammed!!!! It turned out that Mick knew more than we all did on the forums and the fact that Dr Lorenzo was considering a stint in sunny Manchester (a piss take obviously as we all know it just rains up north all the time!). Anyway Mick stayed in contact for months letting me in on snippets of Dr Lorenzos pending introduction to the UK. It was an exciting time for me, i could possibly have my surgery done close to home afterall but the bitter sweet part would be cost for sure. He was bound to be charging more working at the Farjo clinic as the prices were in pounds not euros but i would have a consult anyway to decide for myself. Like i said...buy cheap, buy twice!

I had a consult with Lorenzo in April of 2013, in fact i was one of his first consults at the manchester clinic. Being an interior designer i was very impressed with the Farjo clinics newly fitted out location on Quay Street. Very slick, glass walls, smoked glass meeting rooms and a very welcoming atmosphere. Mick greeted me and we shared some stories and jokes, you instantly feel at ease with Mick like youve known him forever! I was now waiting to see Dr Lorenzo and getting nervous. Would i be a suitable candidate, what was he like...how much would all of this cost me!!! Anyway i was taken in to see him and his persona instantly made me like him. I used a bit of spanish when greeting him and he said with a smile 'so how would you like to do this? In Spanish or English'...i opted for the latter!:-)

I was told during the consult that i had great donor hair, very thick and 85% coverage meaning i would get great results if i chose to go with FUE. Never once did they pressure me into signing on the dotted line. I was also told i have around 12000 potential donor follicals meaning any future hair loss wasnt a problem. He drew on an hairline and calculated around 2700 grafts would do the trick, make me happy again of my hairline, stop the forehead jokes forever...well with my pals probably not!:-). It would be a semi-conservative approach and be age specific i.e not make me look like a 38 year old with an 18 year olds hairline! He also said that the Saw Palmetto must be doing the trick of holding back future hair loss and to continue on this and not needing to use propecia. I felt good that my tireless research into none avasive meds had paid off! I left knowing i had met a man who knew his shizzle...an expert in his field whom i felt totally confident in to do my surgery!

Over the next 6-10 months i started saving, i had got my costs in from mick and yes it is correct that its £6 for the first 1000 then £4 for the rest (mick correct me if im wrong) so you do the maths on 2700 follicals. Over this time period i still had Dr. Koray Erdogan on my mind from istanbul. I had researched him thoroughly and heard he was friends with Dr. Lorenzo and they shared tips, techniques as they are both manual FUE surgeons using the finest needles possible. I loved istanbul anyway after visiting a few years prior on holiday and knew that he had a brand spanking new clinic out there so contacted Denny on this site for a consultation. He's the UK agent for DR. Koray Erdogan. I sent him pics and my findings from Dr. Lorenzos consult too and he pretty much said the same but the costs were cheaper, some 4k cheaper! Now this threw a spanner in the works as 4k is 4k when you dont have it so i deliberated for a couple of months more. It wasnt until early Jan 2014 that things took shape, literally! i contacted Mick again at Farjo and asked him if he could move on his prices. I knew Dr. Lorenzo was keeping busy there with international clients and celebrities/sportsmen from Greece, the USA, Australia and Dubai etc but thought id see if a discount could be applied to get closer to Dr. Erdogan costings. Mick called me with a proposition....

He couldnt apply a discount as such an he never said dont go with Dr. Erdogan, in fact he said hes a very good surgeon and hes heard great feedback about him, nothing negative. That i liked, Mick was a man of honesty not trying to slag someone else off for his own clinics benefti and ultimately his own pockett. What he did tell me was that they had a cancellation from an overseas client who was due for surgery the next tuesday, 5 days later! I could have his slot and in return for it beeing such short notice i would be looked after on the costings. I wont go into this anymore so please dont ask but it was a bit of you scratch my back and ill scratch yours. We're both helping each other out here. The panic of it all became immense, shit here i was with my opportunity of a lifetime staring down at me only 5 days away and im still delibrating! The money is in the bank due to my recent house sale and savings and im still pondering, what is my problem? Will i ever go through with this. Anyway time was of importance so i had the day to think hard. I weighed up the cost, the effect on my time out of work and expense of travelling to turkey, the worry of going through passport control with a bruised and bloody bald head and more importantly i have this man, Dr Lorenzo on my doorstep and if anything went wrong, i needed aftercare, questions answered it was all only a stones throw away! My girfriend sealed the deal when she said its a no-brainer, a few grand is nothing if youre in post-op pain and need to see your surgeon who is now hundreds of miles away...go for peace of mind and with the guy whom you always wanted to do it from the start. He was now in manchester and this was fate which i do believe in lots! I picked up the phone with Mick and the deposit was paid there and then.....now there was no going back!!!