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Been a busy time but happy with the results so far and no regrets getting the procedure done. Will give more of a comprehensive update with photos soon ..

Planning to update over the next week....

Give it time before you will know if you will be a rare case of patient that will hold onto the original transplanted hair. Fwiw I was a late 'shedder' and kept the majority into the second month. My hair bagan to noticeably shed around the 1.5month mark. I suppose that means I will have to wait a bit longer for the new growth cycle to begin.

I'll be posting some updated photos soon. Presently at 2.5months (Day 75) post procedure. I can advise that there has been quite a bit of shedding since my last photos which was to be expected. I am now in a holding pattern to wait for the shedding phase to change into the growth phase. I expect and am maybe a few weeks to a month before this happens. I am happy with the hairline design I got and will wait until further down track before giving some feedback on how natural it will look.

Here are some pics post op at 4 weeks (29th day post op). I am entering the 'ugly duckling' stage for sure. As of today at the 5th week and 4 day mark (39 days) and the look is worse than the 4 week pics. Still I don't have much of a problem sucking it up knowing that it is a normal transitional stage. It seems there are still quite a few grafts still in there from the transplant. Some shedding has taken place and difficult to quantify what I have shed. Still some redness and the contrast against my fair skin does make it obvious that something unusual has occured at my hairline. Still, I have been able to get away without people at work accepting it for anything else than too much sun and a really bad haircut. Not sure if I have some shock loss with my native hair in the front 1/3 behind the recipient area but there is some thinning in any case and it is not growing in like the crown area after my head shave before the procedure. If that does not grow back to an acceptable level then I may be up for another procedure to address the area. On the positive side it looks like the crown is not an issue at this time. I will update photos at the 2 month mark which will be in a couple of weeks.

The bronzer is just for the face up to the hair line which has redness. Creates less of a contract between the reddish new hairline and my normal pale skin. I am less careful about the new grafts since I am 3 weeks post as I understand they are now permanent. By less careful I mean like wearing caps, sleeping on the grafts, lightly massaging shampoo into the recipient area etc.... Once I am through the worst of the redness I don't care how I look while I wait for new hair to sprout! You will probably have higher yield, if you need it, by having FUT and possibly FUE later than just FUE harvesting. Again, this is highly individual depending on extent of loss and donor area. Happy healing!

Nice result and look forward to seeing how it develops. I had a FUE procedure 3 weeks ago focusing on hairline and temples. I shaved my head for the procedure and kind of regret that now seeing that most of the transplanted hair was forward of my pre-op hairline. The recipient area is red and contrasts against my native hair. I am back at work tomorrow and a bit nervous about the looks I will receive. I have been practicing on cover up method such as bronzer etc... but I think it will still be pretty obvious. Any further hairline work I will definitely not shave down. Good luck and looking great so far.

I don't know exactly but I do remember Dr Bhatti commenting that I had 'plenty' left. Hopefully another 2500-3000 easily?

Sure. Here are pics post op 2 days (after donor dressing removed) and 7 days post op.

I don't have the numbers and did not ask for them at the time of the surgery. My brief was for 'density and naturalness' for the hairline. I was given the option to view my graphs after the extraction in the petri dishes in the refrigerator. I did not feel the need to count the graphs and trusted the clinic on the number they advised me that they harvested. My estimate pre-surgery was 3000 based just on my photos that I sent in but turned out I needed less than this. If you can get a face to face consultation you will likely get a better estimate of the graphs required but I would not expect much variation from the original quote as long as the pictures you provide do give a good representation of your hair loss. The clinic does the hair shaving and I was given the option of full shave (not down to the scalp but very short indeed - No.1) or a partial shave i.e donor area for graft extraction. I had decided prior to the surgery to go for full shave. My native hair is now growing back fairly quickly and having a good amount of time off work means that I will return with a short hair cut but not a totally shaved look. I am happy with that decision to fully shave my head but it was optional in my case.

Hi Jayukdht , My hairline was lowered a little bit and I went for a small widows peak. It is slightly above the lowest level that I could go for a mature hairline which is approx the 1/3 ratio distance from tip of the nose to the eyebrows. I am happy with this and it frames my face. Of course I have to wait for the results to see the outcome, so everything at the moment is only about the procedure itself. My before pictures show a lot of 'bushy' hair and this is covering a lot of thinning. I did not have a haircut for many months as a method to prepare for coming back to work with very short hair. Hopefully this will help disguise my procedure. I had 2187 grafts in the end. I am not worried about losing more hair from my front immediately but I do know that I will happen and that I will have to address the mid front 1/3 likely over the next year or two. A second procedure should be a lot easier than this one since it is more filling rather than hairline design. Although for a next procedure I can also touch up any areas in the 1st transplant if required. The next procedure will also be done to also blend with the crown area so if I decide to stop at that point any further loss (at the crown) will no make my hair look overly unnatural. I was offered Finasteride and Minoxidil but only took them up on the Minoxidil. I am debating whether to use the Minoxidil or not. It is a personal choice to take medications for hair loss. Some people have no issue and some are totally against it. I am however taking various supplements such as Biotin, Curcumin, Vit D etc .... to see if that will help protect my native hair. Your pics don't seem too much worse that mine. Maybe you would be looking at 3500-4000 for an overall result. This would likely be best spread over 2 days as it would be close to the limit of a single mega session. Alternatively you could do it is stages with a reasonable break between procedures. In any case take the advice of you Doctor.

Hello All, I had a FUE procedure done very recently with Dr Bhatti on 12 March at his clinic (Darling Bubs) in Chandigarh, India. During my research into hair loss and my subsequent decision to undergo a Hair Transplant (HT) I used this forum extensively to become familiar with HT procedures some of the surgeons who specialise in HT's. I would like to share my experience with Dr Bhatti with the forum and anybody considering HT with his clinic. About Me I am a 45yo male living in NZ and have been suffering hair loss since my late teens/early twenties. My primary area of harr loss has been in the temple region and this has steadily got worse as I have got older. I have some pre-op pictures, but in those pictures I had grown my hair out leading up to the surgery in order to better camouflage the fact that I had HT to my friends and colleagues. I remember many years ago (10years +) frantically trying the pharmaceutical approach using topical & oral medications (Minoxidil, Zix (before it was known as Zix), Proscar tablets (1/4 tab before Propecia was marketed). Unfortunately, even as an early adopter of these therapy's I did not perceive any noticeable results (growth). Maybe it slowed the progression at that time, I don't know but decided to move on after a certain amount of time persisting. The state of HT surgery back then was certainly very inferior to what it is today and FUE was not a viable option. As result I did not consider having a HT back then. Skip forward 15 years and in 2012 after slow but gradual progression on my hair loss I decided to revisit the issue and did extensive research on what the current state of play was in regard to current treatment options for my hair loss. It seems like the usual topical and oral medications (Minoxidil/Propecia) were still at the forefront from a pharmaceutical approach but HT seemed to have made some significant advances. The pharmaceutical approach I knew was not going to be for me. That left hair transplants and I read up as much as I could about FUT and FUE such as pro's/con's, cost, the art of the procedure, post op, surgeons work etc.... What I did find out was that FUE was a new possibility for me but I discounted FUT primarily on the basis of the scar. I do like to have short back and sides from time to time and FUE it seems I could still achieve a relatively short back cut. If it was only FUT, then I may have considered to have surgery and live with longer hair at the back. FUT does have some other pro's but in my situation FUE was a clear winner. I have been camouflaging my temple hair loss for some time and it was getting more and more difficult. To be honest I think I was only fooling myself half the time that I was effectively camouflaging but people are not going to be so direct and tell you that. I had phobia of the wind and water which could/would disturb my illusion. Some days I would have better hair coverage than others and I did not enjoy having my photo taken or going for a haircut. I would joke about my hair loss to my hairdresser about my temple loss and quickly forget a haircut experience asap. Maybe I should have just gone for a number 1 or 2 and be done with it ...... Anyhow after a number of months researching I made a decision that if I did proceed for a HT that I would focus on a FUE procedure only. Selecting my Surgeon This is obviously the most important decision as you are putting your faith in someone else's hands for a desired outcome. There is an increasing number of surgeons now offering FUE and actively supporting this proceedure on par or over FUT. This is pleasing to see but does give patients more options which can make choosing more difficult. Also, being geographically challenged I did not have the opportunity to have a face to face consultation, hence a bit more leap of faith. I did see 4 categories of Doctors in a simplistic set of 4 groups:- 1/ 'Good' Doctor / Higher Prices 2/ 'Good' Doctor / Lower prices 3/ 'Bad' Doctor / High Prices 4/ 'Bad' Doctor / Lower Prices I wont explain what I mean by 'Good' and 'Bad' Doctors but hopefully you will understand what I am getting at here in the broad sense andwe could all start to subjectively put surgeons in each of these categories. Naturally I first ruled out the Doctors that I subjectively considered 'Bad'. That left 'Good' Doctors with a price factor difference. Now while I would like to not have price become a factor in my decision and just go with one of the most renowned surgeons, this was not a option for me. Budget constraints had to be a large part of the equation. There are many excellent surgeons out there that I would not hesitate to go to but some of their costs for me made them completely out of reach. That left me looking for a 'Good' Doctor with prices with prices at the lower end of the range (option 2). Prices would include everything not just the procedure i.e airfares, hotel etc... I began looking for a surgeon in Asia, India, Middle East and Europe as these tend to be areas where costs tend to be lower. Surgeon experience at FUE procedure was an essential criteria and if I did not find or feel that I could get a competent and experienced surgeon overall then I would would prefer not to do a HT at all and just go ahead and shave my head! Messing up such a procedure could easily send me backwards from my starting point and I have read some horror stories and the need for expensive redo's with another surgeon (generally in the Good Doctor / High Cost category). To cut a long story short , after my extensive research I found that Dr Bhatti met most if not all of my criteria. I liked the fact that he was dedicated exclusively to FUE and is very experienced in the FUE technique having been doing this for a number of years now. He is also involved with training other surgeons on the FUE method (Actually, there was another Doctor present at my surgery observing the procedure for training purposes and Dr Bhatti was explaining various aspects of what he was doing.) I contacted Darling Buds and sent through some pictures. I was assessed as a NW3 and estimate number of grafts of 3000. was given. I was provided with the graft cost and no hard sales tactics were used. I thought about the other doctors I had short listed and the research I had done and made a decision to proceed with Dr Bhatti. I then made plans to fit in the surgery according to the available dates at Darling Buds as well as leave from work, personal schedule etc... I was able to get a slot on 12 March, 2013. Travelling to Chandigarh (Darling Buds) I had never been to India before but I have traveled extensively around Asia and also lived in South East Asia for a couple of years just recently so I was not too bothered on what I expected on a trip to India. Chandigarh is about 260km North of Dehli and is considered to be a small city by India standards. The most popular gateway for travelling to Chandigarh is via Dehli and I arrived in Dehli late Saturday night before my procedure on the following Tuesday 12 March. In advance I had personally arranged for a couple of nights at a Dehli airport hotel which would enable me to have Sunday free to do a bit of sightseeing. On Monday I flew from Dehli to Chandigarh which is a cheap flight (around US$60) and short duration - only 45mins. I arrived in Chandigarh and stayed at the Altius Hotel (recommended by others) which is nearby the clinic and not far from the airport. The hotel was very nice with modern rooms and amenities. The staff were very friendly and helpful. I love Indian food and felt I was in heaven with every meal that I was able to enjoy at the hotel. Of course they had the usual western menu options but I was in India and since I love Indian food I preferred the authentic stuff knowing that I could always have the western food choices when I am at home. Update 1: Dr Bhatti now offers clients an option of picking them up from Dehli airport and taking them direct to Chandigarh. On the trip from Dehli to Chandigarh there would be information on the procedure prior to meeting the Doctor. The service would be charged at cost as 'added value' to the procedure itself. Personally if this was available to me I would have taken this option as it would have avoided having to find a hotel in Dehli and I prefer Chandigarh which is a much nicer (and smaller) city than Dehli. It also simplifies the whole getting to the clinic process as all you have to do is get yourself to Dehli International airport. Update 2: Darling Buds are moving to a new clinic which will be close to the city center. This was supposed to happen the week after my surgery, but with some building delays this will have a few weeks later. As I understand they will have larger premises with more operating theaters and newer facilities. The new clinic is in the city area (sector 17) so will be more convenient to shops and a number of good hotels and restaurants in that area. Day of the Procedure We started proceedings at 07:30am on Tuesday 12 March at the Darling Buds Clinic. There was no issue to get there from the hotel by taxi (booked by hotel)and it was only 2.5km away costing a few dollars. I immediately had a consult with Dr Bhatti and it was very good to meet him in person after reading a lot about him and his clinic in advance as well as the few emails. He is a intelligent well spoken and mannered guy and I immediately felt very comfortable and confident in his hands. I was armed with lots of questions about technique and the procedure and the results I wanted to achieve. My questions were well answered well and that added further to feeling comfortable in his hands. I had more questions that were very detailed orientated (testing for response) but at that point I decided to shut up and get on with it since I was feeling very comfortable with him. When it came to my hair examination and drawing of my hair line I allowed Dr Bhatti to show me what he thought my hairline should look like rather than me telling him 'this is what I want'. To my surprise his hair line was about 90% of what I had envisioned and in some respects and improvement on what I had thought about. We discussed this for a few more minutes and made a few minor tweaks deciding on my future hair line. He is not rushed and willing to take his time to answer any and all of my questions. This initial meeting was a relief before the procedure taking away and last preconceived doubts that I had in my mind. It was then time to get the procedure under wayabout 45min - and hour after this. I was suitably prepared for surgery by his staff which included a blood test for infectious diseases as well as my blood chemistry (clotting time etc...). About 15min later I was ready for surgery in my surgical gown. The operating theater was modern and importantly clean. What I did notice was that it was the particular care toward ensuring everything was sterilised. First up was the extraction of grafts from the donor area. I had the back of my head numbed which was quite tolerable. I don't have any issues with needles (as long as I don't see them going in!) and the Dr would tap on my head while inserting the needles which was a great distraction during this process. Once numbed up I did not feel a thing and the harvesting of the grafts by Dr Bhatti began. One funny thing during this process was the announcing of my blood test results which had come back from the lab. Dr Bhatti said he had some 'good news' for me .... You don't t have Aids, Hepatitis etc... phew! (fyg I received a hard copy of the blood test later). The doner extraction process took up to a couple of hours tops after which I was able to see my grafts sitting in the petri dishes inside the refrigerator ready for transplant. At that point we stopped for a short break and I had some breakfast (brunch) before proceeding onto the making of the slits by Dr Bhatti himself. Back to numbing of the head again, this time the recipient area, for the slits to receive the implanted grafts. There was no discomfort during this process at all and not sure exactly how long this took but it did not seem to take that long. After the slits were made his technicians (two lovely girls) took over the process of implanting all those grafts into the slits made by Dr Bhatti. Dr Bhatti gave them a briefing on placement and was overseeing the implant process by periodically checking the process as it went along. I found out that the technicians had been with Dr Bhatti for many years and as a result they were very experienced at implanting grafts. Young good eyes and a steady hand! What was pleasing to know was that I didn't get someone on their first day or a trainee! HT is a team effort since Doctors do not do every step and having a good team is essential to the outcome with the results as good as the weakest link. There was a good atmosphere in the operating theater during the whole procedure with some jokes and good stories that took the edge off the whole procedure and made it a lot more relaxed. This is a team that works well together in a positive and happy environment. We stopped for a quick lunch mid afternoon where I had a nice curry (yum) and then proceeded to get back into the rest of the implant session which took up most of the afternoon. I had requested to have some grafts to create some small sideburns. For some reason I was not blessed with much hair at all in this region, while the beard hair around my chin and mouth is plenty dense. Great for a goatee but not for any side burns. I think it is good to have the ability to have some sideburns if going for longer hair. In any case to create some small sideburns we needed a few more grafts which were taken from the donor area and immediately planted. It was around 75-100 grafts per side and I figure if I want to extend them or fill them out more then I can do that in the future, but for now it would be nice to have some where there was practically none. All up I think we finished around 5pm. It was a long procedure but to be expected when you are dealing with individual plantation of a hair graft in the thousands. I was cleaned up, donor area dressed and given all the necessary medications, sprays and instructions over the next 24hrs. A taxi was arranged and I went back to the hotel to recover. After the procedure The following day I went into the clinic at 9am and where my dressing on the donor area was changed and I had a light shampoo of the transplant area and was shown how to do this myself going forward. We went through all the post op instructions again and I was given all the additional supplies and written instructions on post op care over the coming weeks. I had some further chats with Dr Bhatti about the result and other topics and he was kind enough to oblige me for some photos with him and his staff before I said my farewells and left. I stayed in Chandigarh for another 4 days post op. Not knowing what to expect I wanted to spend a few days recovering before facing a long International flight and being close to the clinic should I need to return for any reason. Being my first HT I was dead scared about losing a graft due to knocking my head or washing too aggressively or even breathing! Over the next few days as scabbing started to form I felt more reassured that the grafts were progressively locking into place and less fragile than immediately post op. I followed the post op instructions and by day 2 post op I was doing some sightseeing of Chandigarh. Flying Home I was a bit nervous about my flight back home (not to lose any grafts and negotiating security) and a bit self conscious about the hair transplant since the sideburns that I had done were not covered by the cap. Looking back on it now the whole trip back home was uneventful and while I am sure I did get a few looks due to my healing side burns it was no problem really. I did have to remove my cap at some security checkpoints but a quick explanation, from which they could see what I had done anyhow, became a non event. People are focused on themselves getting through security and a brief moment when you take off you hat goes unnoticed by everyone except the security officer. I even had one security officer ask me details about my transplant and proceed to take notes. I have some more time from work to heal further and allow my hair to grow out as much as it can before heading back to the office. I am now at the stage where I crusts should be coming off over the next few days. So far the healing process has been easier than expected and it is only the cosmetic element that is holding me back from getting back into my full normal routine. I got back into exercising 5 days post op with no restrictions. Once the scabs are off I expect that I will be back into my normal routine and then go through the process of waiting for results of the coming months. I am not looking forward to shedding the grafts and going back to pre HT state but with a lot less hair but hopefully it will be all worth it when the hair grows in in 5-6 months. While I do not have results of the outcome yet I can say that my experience with Dr Bhatti and Darling Buds was a very positive one for me and I am very pleased to have chosen them. I have some pics attached (last 3 pics are 7 days post op) and please feel free to send me a direct message and if there is anyone local who would like to catch up for a discussion about HT then I would certainly consider such a request. I will update with more photo's in due course.