MachoVato

Wish I knew this trick a month ago. Also, I believe if the transplant is a "repair" surgery, they can waive the VAT.

My only experience is with HLC and Bisanga. For harvesting, HLC uses manual punches and Bisanga uses motorized. I used to believe that manual extraction was better than motorized, but I don't share that opinion anymore. I have no preference now. For recipient area, HLC does stick and place. Bisanga uses pre-made incisions. My preference is for stick and place. Mainly because it is slower and a little less painful. Looking at your photos, I think HLC is a great option. They are very pro high-density, so they like to use more grafts. Your donor and beard looks strong so no worries there. As you probably know, HLC has about 5 doctors on site and they select the doctors during the hairline design/planning session. You can expect 2 different doctors to rotate on you over the 2 days. It's worth mentioning that HLC partners with Dr. Cole with a FUE Training Center (https://www.hairtransplant-trainingcenter.com/). Before selecting Bisanga, I requested a quote from De Freitas. This was 2 months ago and I still don't have an answer. My procedure with Bisanga was 2 weeks ago! haha Good luck!

Looks like your transplanted hairs are fine. You lost your native hair.

Dr Bicer does FUT. Not sure if she's the best FUT in Turkey, though.

Haha! Houston to Istanbul is about 12 hours. Better service. Better meals. Unlimited adult beverages. Nice TV screens. Full lay down sleeping? Especially after surgery, you'll want the privacy and comfort. A top tier doc in the US is at least $5-6/graft for FUE. You can spend about $3/graft @ HLC/Pekiner... $3.5 @ Ferreira/Pinto. If you are doing a large procedure, like 3000+, you'll save money by going to Europe. Fly business class... and if you're clever, arrive a week early into Istanbul and do some sight seeing. Istanbul is a wonderful city. You can stay at 5* hotels and eat like a king. Then fly to Ankara just for the surgery and then go home. Or fly into Lisbon for a short vacation and then fly to Porto for the surgery. Either way, you'd end up saving money, or at least breaking even, by going to Europe. Make it a damn adventure!

Roughly speaking... 3000 grafts at HLC or Pekiner @ 2.5 Euro/graft = $8800 USD. Business class Texas to Ankara is about $3,750. (Madrid and Portugal is cheaper) So maybe $12,500 USD total? That's big boy money, but that's how I did it when I went to HLC last year... and when I went to Brussels 2 weeks ago. Nothing better than sleeping in the laydown seats!

You can fly business class to Europe and get a *much* better clinic for less than that. And get a mini Euro vacation out of it! And yes, stay away from ARTAS.

This i didn't know. If I ever need (want) a third transplant, this option will be top of my list! Thanks!

It's probably a good idea to go with FUT at your age. Maybe a FUE for a second HT in 10 years or so? I can't imagine you'll be happy with 500 in the crown. I agree with the 1500 estimate. I had success with HLC. If you ask nicely, or allow them to use your photos in their social media (no face), they can offer you 2.5/graft, as they did with me. I know those lines on your photos are just quick sketches, but they are very off.

I was using this product. https://www.minoxidilmax.com/maxogen-x-topical-finasteride-8-minoxidil-retinoic-acid I've since stopped. Once my hair grew out, it became difficult to apply. It's a dropper and the liquid just gets all over the hair itself. Today, I'm back on oral finasteride. And when I was in Brussels, Dr. Bisanga arranged for me to get oral minoxidil. He prefers it to topical and that you need a special enzyme for topical minoxidil to work. Again, foam minoxidil is harder to apply with my new hair. So now I'm taking 5mg minoxidil & 0.5mg finasteride 3x/week. No real sides that I can tell, especially at these dosages.

The grafts are permanent after 7-10 days. To remove them would require tools. There are plenty of YouTube videos on how to soften your scabs... leave shampoo (or special scalp lotion) on for 5 minutes or so. Some scabs are more stubborn. No worries.

He was complimentary on their work. Under microscope, he said my left side was mostly singles and doubles. HLC took the "juicy" multis. Haha My sides have a bit of retrograde so I don't think it was ever my strong donor area. It doesn't make sense but when I grow out the sides it looks thinner. So I started to wear my sides shorter, a low fade, which hides it. You can see my last haircut here... (If you look hard enough, you can see that hair in the middle of that scar) https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/58303-fue-by-hlc-ankara-4261-grafts-nov-7-2020/?do=findComment&comment=597067 I don't think he needed to use my sides at all. He said I had good donor, but didn't give me a count.

Haha! It was good beer, for sure! I didn't get a chance to explore the city. I only had 3 nights. I was in full recovery so I just relaxed in the hotel. I owe Brussels a proper visit. I'll wait until Oktoberfest or something like that. There might be some beer festivals (most likely cancelled this year). Look them up!

No issues at all. The first week I clean with a bottle of ISO Betadine spray, no soap. Second week I use a special jojoba shampoo and I just use that on my whole head. Drying is easy, I pat dry and use a blow dryer. Ill keep it long for now, I actually look good in zoom calls. Once my native hair grows out, I'll cut the top to match. His instructions were to wait 14 days for exercise. I was in the gym on day 8. haha! But no cardio, low sweat. And I kept my head elevated. I am healing very fast. Nearly all scabs were gone by day 8. Donor area looks great. This is much better than with HLC... of course that was 4200 grafts, this time only 1500.

How about an update?! 😎

Thanks! At this level, I think you're in good hands. I would have been happy to return to HLC. My experience and results are that good to me. But really, Bisanga is something else. Keep him on your radar.

All the areas he worked on were shaved... crown, donor and temples. He didn't touch my hairline or frontal third. I look like a serial killer but I'm wearing a hat in the gym. Haha! I'll shave it once my hair grows out.

There are many threads on here of repair work. Look at Bisanga and Mwamba in Belgium. Or De Freitas in Spain. Start here... https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/search/?q=repair&quick=1&type=forums_topic&search_in=titles

I think most people would benefit from a second procedure. There are always some spots that don't grow as strong as expected. Besides, there's no way to know how it's really going to look when you shave your hair and draw lines on your scalp. It's hard to visualize the "grown out" look. A second procedure also give you the chance to make changes. Maybe you want to close your temples more. Or add to your temple peaks. Or a hairline that could use a little boost in density. I think it's smart to start more conservative.

Absolutely nothing wrong with HLC, I love my results! But for this session I was only interested in crown and temples. I hadn't seen many HLC results on these areas, especially temples. And I was really concerned about my donor. Since I'd be at 5,700 grafts total, I needed a doctor who could really protect that. In my research, Bisanga had beautiful examples of crown & temples and his donor management was perfect. I've always wanted to go to Bisanga but I couldn't afford him first time. He's about twice the price of HLC after VAT. For this smaller 1500 graft procedure, my options opened up. My top 2 doctors are Bisanga and De Freitas. I was able to consult, book, and complete the procedure with Bisanga *before* De Freitas even give me an online evaluation and quote. 😂 I still haven't received a quote. I did get a quote from HLC. Their first opening was in October, which was too late for me. Besides, I've been to Turkey a few times already. I've never been to Belgium. These two transplants have cost me about $20k USD. But if I had all 5700 grafts done at Bisanga, it would have cost me over $32k! There are so many people that have made poor decisions with their first (and sometimes second) transplant. I'm not one of them. I've made great choices. I my opinion, HLC is the best option at the 2.5 Euro price, especially for hairlines. To get better, the price jumps to 3.5-5 Euro.

Yes, this. Usually growth *begins* at the month 3 or 4 mark. So you are showing early goodness! Good news every week from here on out!

It's looks average. Kinda looks like retrograde at the nape of the neck, maybe? But still looks like you would be a candidate for a transplant, if that's your goal. Certinly good enough to rebuild your front end.

I agree that it's better than before. And yes, you should expect improvement over the next few months. But.... at the moment, it looks like you've traded one set of problems for another. If this were you final results (and it's not), everyone would be making recommendations for a second transplant of 500-1000 grafts to soften the hairline (implants look a but pluggy with odd angles in certain pics) and add the density you're looking for. Stay optimistic.

I'm not sure how I feel about the chain clinics. In this budge range for 4,500 grafts, look up FueCapilar in Turkey. Dr. Turan and Dr. Gur. Doctor led transplant, 1 patient per day. Good value.

It's just a selfie, guys. I think it looks pretty good for 7 months! I bet it would look better with longer hair. Good job!