Londoner7

Alexandra the Drs assistant gave me a list of hotels they recommend nearby then I just chose one based on price and quality.

Thanks Portugal

Thanks John

I bought more saline solution off amazon I think it was like £6-7 for a litre with prime. It was called Baxter 0.9% sodium chloride my Dr confirmed it is fine it was the same as the label on the one the clinic gave me. I just did a few sprays until it started to run down my forehead and wiped the drips away.

Hello everyone, this forum has helped me a lot and so it is only right I give back by making my own report. I am 30 years old nw3 and had my hair transplant in Portugal with Dr Bruno Ferreira on November 25th 2020, I was originally due to have it done on 6 January 2020 but a family issue stopped my plans. A quick shout out to @LondonRamen for advising me he was still travelling for his op during the lockdown as I would have had to wait an extra 2 months and also lost my flight money as Tap air continued flying and had a 150euro fee per flight change. Also thanks to @Rolandas and @Portugal25 for advising me and helping with any questions I had. Travelling during the lockdown was a bit worrying as I did not know if I would be denied at the airport etc. but it actually turned out to be a good thing. Heathrow airport was so quiet and getting throw security was very fast. Coming home through Porto airport was even better as all shops were still open and security had no line at all and was also very quiet which was better for me with my red head 😄. Also the flight there and back was at most 50% capacity so had plenty of space. I stayed at the Solverde Apartments in a 1 bedroom suite my friend came with me and he had the sofa bed. it was a nice apartment with kitchen etc that we stocked up with snacks from the local supermarket, Wi-Fi was very fast and my friend brought his ps4 to play at night and had no issues. The day of the Op Breakfast starts at 7am at the hotel which I think is common but I had to be at the clinic for 7:30 so literally only had 15 minutes to eat, managed to have some scrambled eggs, bacon and a croissant. I got a taxi to the clinic and arrived at 7;25 to notice directly opposite is a very nice looking café and it was open, I was gutted I did not go there over my hotels breakfast. I went in to the clinic and had my own room for the day were I would eat lunch and leave my belongings. Dr Ferreira came to see me shortly after and is genuinely a very nice guy. We had a chat and signed some paperwork and then we went to take the pre-op photos, draw hairline and shave my head. Dr Bruno drew a general hairline as a starting point and then welcomed my input, he mentioned that one of my temples goes back more then the other but it is good not to have perfect symmetry in the hairline. I tweaked the hairline slightly and we agreed it was good. The original plan was to fill in the hairline with around 1500-1800 grafts and also add some density to my midscalp as in pictures it looked like it was losing density which a few other Drs also said but once shaved Dr Bruno said that actually it was not less dense it is just the angle the hair grows at which make it look more see through. The is a bump there on my head so the hair must go up with the bump I guess but I was happy to hear I was not thinning there after all. I think he ended up adding something like 10-15 grafts in a couple of gaps he said at most. The day was split in to 4 mini sessions of extraction and then implantation with the back then each side and then the last session was to extract a few more grafts. I ended up having 1998 grafts ( 5480 Hairs) with an average hair/graft ratio of 2.74. The end graft count was higher due to my lowering the hairline. We finished the day around 8pm and I was given my post op care pack and instructions for after care, by this point I was pretty tired. I got back to my hotel and sprayed my head with the saline spray a few times and went to sleep. A lot of triples and quads Post Op Day 1 Woke up a few times in the night and sprayed my head, and checked I had not scratched which thankfully I never. I went to the clinic to have my head wash before flying home, once there Dr Bruno commented that I had some fibrin building up on my grafts and advised me to spray saline more often around 15-20 minutes. It looked like large bloody scabs sort of that had built up whilst I slept. Dr Bruno washed off the fibrin using saline spray and It looked nice and clean once again as below. After this I sprayed all the time and never had this issue again. Day 1 + Once home I took it easy for the first few days and began washing my hair from day 4 and applying aloe Vera twice a day after washes. my scabs came off around day 7-8 and everything is looking good. I am now at day 17 and I've noticed over the last few days hair are slowly starting to shed 😥 I knew they would but hoped I'd be in the small percent that kept them all haha. Dr Bruno said he used a 0.8mm punch, he said my grafts were longer then average and he had to change his punch to once with more depth, I was going to book with Dr Pekiner before but worried about my surgery being aborted due to small grafts, seems I would have been fine in the end. He used the lion implanter pens and he said he was using a 0.62mm implanter for the single hair grafts in the hairline and a 0.8mm for the others. He explained to me that it depends on the size of your grafts and how many hair they contain to which size punch/pen he would use as everyone is different. My hair thickness was on average 48 microns which he said is about average but it is pretty fine. I take finasteride but not minoxidil. Day 2 after spraying saline Day 9 I think I have covered everything please ask any questions and I will update often. Thanks everyone

Looking wicked mate. I asked Dr Bruno about going back to gym to do weight lifting after 3 weeks and he said yes thats plenty of time.

Maybe the extra 5-10% of DHT in their system due to the lower dose is just enough to keep them above the threshold of too low DHT so they avoid the low libido, brain fog etc. Wont work for everyone but if 1mg leaves you with not enough DHT to function then getting that little bit extra still in your system for some will be enough, worth a try for anyone that cant handle the full dose rather then stop completely in my opinion.

When I wanted to reschedule my procedure due to the lockdown in England from tomorrow to December the earliest they had was 14 January. But peoples plans change and dates become available so there may be a chance if your timing is lucky, but i would think you are looking at January/February now.

Hi mate, No there isn’t, I'm currently in hotel and I have my procedure in the morning. Im not sure on the rules for different countries but as I understand it any European countries and a few others do not require a covid test before entry but others do and maybe they require quarantine. You can find the official guidance on the internet for Portugal. Hope that helps.

I was also considering to still go but i think most flights are going to be getting cancelled and i did not want to risk holding the date and then having to cancel on the same day if im denied or my flights get cancelled late. Also i would be coming back the day after surgery and i read that fue to less flights it may be delayed 1 or 2 days to get another flight but by then i will be swollen lol. Doo you need any paperwork for the medical exemption, i still have my tap air flights so maybe i could try still go if the dr has my date still, also in Portugal as we are coming from the UK i did not think we needed to do a corona test just the pre entry form?

Sorry Dude due to the lockdown in England for November I had to reschedule to January as travelling is banned. I will still post my experience but will be January now.

Hi, I am booked with Dr Ferreira end of November and will be posting my experience on here to help others like yourself.

I talk to them via WhatsApp, the number can be found on the website on the contact us page.

Hi PT#31 Any update of hows things are going? I am booked in for late November with Dr Ferreira myself. Thanks

Work looks good and donor looks untouched. Any chance you can give an overview of you experience of the surgery day as I am currently thinking about booking with this clinic too and it would help. Thanks