WhamHair

ah ok..so you got your HT done at Eugenix?

Definitely not crazy about the various packages either.

In all fairness, she did not rush through the consultation. I basically had no more questions for her specifically that I could remember at that moment. But yes, if she is in and out of surgery rooms, then that is a red flag - so I am hoping more people that have gotten their HT done at Eugenix can weigh in on whether or not this happens with Dr Bansal.

I appreciate the clarification here. I wish they had worded it this way. Thanks so much. I am leaning towards starting on the prescription that Dr Pittella wrote for me in advance of which ever doctor I finally settle on for the HT.

I appreciate the input here. As you can probably guess, this post probably has a rather obvious undercurrent of validation-seeking from my side!

Thank you so much for the response. In all fairness, he did offer me a 6000 grafts route with a slightly higher hairline. This is still higher than the 4500 that Eugenix has proposed. As for his waiting list, it is more like 12-18 months at this point. I really would like to do this in 2024 so that's another factor that is nudging me towards Eugenix. I am curious to understand your view on why you would go with Dr Pittella instead. Please let me know whenever time permits. Thank you once again.

Hello All, A few months ago, I posted on this forum (here is a link to that post: https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/70120-revisiting-the-hair-transplant-questiondecision-after-coasting-along-for-over-a-decade-using-toppik/) for the first time after over a decade about revisiting the question of having a hair surgery. In the last 2 months I’ve had both an online consultation with Dr Pittella and an in-person consultation in Mumbai (I was there for a few weeks for Christmas) with Dr Arika Bansal from Eugenix. My consultation experience with them and their approaches are quite different. I would like to get my first hair transplant done this year. Dr Felipe has a LONG wait-list but is open to accommodating me at some point this year. Dr Bansal’s staff is optimistic that I can be accommodated this year. I am leaning towards the latter for the following reasons: A. Lower use of grafts (and hence lower cost). B. The fact that it is in a city and a neighborhood that I have a home in – which makes post-op help much easier for me and I won’t be on my own. That being said, I really like Dr Pittella. The consultation was as long as I wanted it to be. I felt like I was talking to someone that was both a professor and a friend at the same time – and his empathy and warmth radiated through every minute of the conversation. I have made a comparison between the two based on my consultations and their proposed approaches to the hair transplant. Here is the link to that: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1srQHlw4Ig9rf51-_HgCmU9TSeU5cIQd43UZHhwFLSJA/edit?usp=sharing The folks at Eugenix seem OK doing this WITHOUT my using Finasteride. The one nagging concern I have is that they have not suggested that I take any oral medication (e.g. Minoxidil) prior to the surgery. This is in stark contrast to what Dr Pittella suggested – where he figured getting on meds right away was the wise thing to do. I made the mistake of NOT asking about medication DURING my consultation with Dr Bansal and reached out about it later to their support staff and this is the response I received: “Pre-procedure, you don't have to start minoxidil as it is a vasodilator and might increase the oozing during the procedure.” I don’t know what to make of the above. For those of you that had your transplant done by Eugenix, did you hear something similar? If any of you found yourselves making a similar decision (i.e. Dr Pittella versus Eugenix), I would love to get your perspectives as I navigate this decision. Thank you in advance. I don't even know what I would do without this supportive community.

I have put together a summary of my assessment so far of Dr Pitella versus Eugenix (Mumbai, India) in the link below: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1srQHlw4Ig9rf51-_HgCmU9TSeU5cIQd43UZHhwFLSJA/edit?usp=sharing Would love some thoughts from those of you that have evaluated both options for a HT. Thank you in advance.

So there is no scenario in which he does nothing at all. He does the major portions in both scenarios but for the lower-cost scenario, the "less major" (not sure what that means) is done by a junior doctor. Scenario 1 costs $4 per graft while scenario 2 costs $3 per graft.

Just got done with my online consultation with Dr Pittella. What a pleasant guy!!! The level of detail he goes through is staggering. I do require 10,000 grafts and he seems reasonably confident in his ability to get them. The cost per graft depends on whether he does the whole surgery or if he does only the major parts while a junior doctor does the rest. I am also doing an in-person consultation with Dr Bansal at Eugenix later this month in Bombay. I'll have to make some type of decision by the end of this year. If you were in my position, would you do the higher cost per graft wherein Dr Pittella does the whole thing? A penny for your thoughts.

UPDATE: I have my online consultation scheduled with Dr Pitella this Wednesday. I obviously have a set of questions that I plan to ask. That being said, are there any questions that some of you wished you had asked during your online consultation that you wouldn't mind sharing? Please let me know. Thank you in advance.

This is good to know. Thank you so much for the reassuring response!

thanks so much. I am just worried that with such a large number of grafts taken from the scalp, I might not have enough for a future HT. Thoughts? Thanks once again.

Thanks so much for the prompt and helpful response. I definitely want to avoid oral finasteride altogether. Thanks for the reassuring assessment of beard area scars. I have to admit that when I was a lurker on this forum over a decade ago, beard hair transplants were NOT a thing so I was a bit taken aback by that suggestion. As for grafts, this is what they are proposing: Proposed Harvest from Scalp: 3500 Proposed Harvest from Beard: 700

So I heard back from both Dr Pitella’s clinic as well as from Eugenix. Both of them were prompt with their initial response. Dr Pitella’s clinic asked me to submit some information via a google form. It has been almost a week since I submitted that form but I have not heard back from them. I will follow up tomorrow for what it is worth. Eugenix has been calling almost regularly to set up a phone consultation after providing an estimate of grafts (extracted from both my scalp and beard) require for both my hairline and crown. I am still unsure as to how to view their eagerness. They indicated that there is a 2-month waiting list for the actual procedure to be done. This is far shorter than I had expected. My sense was that the waiting periods typically exceed 6 months – so this was a bit of a surprise (albeit a pleasant one). As for my concerns around the use of oral Finasteride, this was the response from Eugenix: “If you choose not to take finasteride in the future, we can still perform the surgery because we have observed that finasteride doesn't impact the final results (1 year) of hair transplant. However, it's important to note that finasteride can prevent further baldness and improve the longevity of transplanted hair. If you're considering alternatives, we recommend consulting our doctors through a video consultation to explore options like finasteride gel or minoxidil. Without finasteride, you may experience thinning in non-transplanted areas and, in the long term, even the transplanted area could become miniaturized. Our aim is to provide you with the knowledge and the intake of finasteride is solely your decision.” I appreciate them not being wedded to the idea of making the use of oral finasteride a pre-requisite for the surgery. In theory, I am not opposed to finasteride gel or minoxidil. I am wondering what the general take on that is here as a substitute for oral finasteride. Thoughts? For those of you that have you leveraged the beard area for transplants, were there any long term scars there? This was the response I received from Eugenix when I asked them about this: “There shouldn't be visible scar of the extraction as we C*** punches, which are sharp and result in small wounds, leading to faster healing. I am sharing you few examples below which can give you an over all idea of beard extraction.” They actually even sent me photos (attached) of what this would look like. I am wondering how close this is to a typical situation wherein the beard area is used for grafts. Any thoughts? Thank you all for your guidance as I navigate this somewhat scary path.

I just reached out to him with my photos. Let's see what emerges from the consultation. Will keep you all posted on how this pans out. Thank you so much!

Mumbai might be easier since the location is close to where my mom lives in that city. And yes, the frontal part/hairline is key. That still takes precedence over the rest. thanks so much!

This is great. You are the second person to mention this - so I will definitely check out Dr Pittella's work.

No worries. This is great regardless. Thanks so much!

I posted a link in my original post that included the list of recommended surgeons but she was not on there. Is there a separate list? Thanks so much for this.

This is such great input - and as you rightly said, this fits my situation. There used to be a doctor that was highly recommended on here that did the same. Her name is Dr Radha Rani. What happened to her?

thanks a ton for sharing this. Will definitely check this out!

Thank so much for the suggestion. Will spend some time looking at his work.

Not sure if this counts but I did take some homeopathic meds many years ago. Not sure what that does but I honestly didn't think I would have the hairline I do at this point. Cannot confirm if there is any correlation here at all.

I would rather spend more and do it properly given that the donor supply is finite. I have definitely factored in a long waiting list - which is why I am trying to lock down a strategy in the next couple of months. That way, I am not starting this process when it becomes urgent.