Pyrat

I just hope it’s as good as yours Z.🙂

I actually traveled to India in March and was supposed to get the transplant done earlier. I was unable to do that due to the lockdown in India which started on the 24th. I have been in India since then and am finally able to do it.

There is no discount during the lockdown. Just added that since I’m getting it done during the lockdown. I believe international flights are still barred in India so you will not be able to fly in for the transplant till this lockdown is lifted.

I did read that aspirin, alcohol, smoking was not advised a week before the procedure. I will stop taking these right away. Thanks for the tip.

Hi @Johnboy71, Eugenix has 3 packages. The comprehensive is the middle of the bunch where Dr Arika does all the slits and the crucial steps of the hair transplant.

I had no idea that fish oil could cause bleeding. I went through the pre op instructions and did not see that written anywhere. Tagging @Abhinay Singh for help confirming this.

I have finally scheduled my transplantation at @Eugenix Hair Science for the 31st of May which is in 5 days. I will be sharing my experience in detail over here and tracking the progress on a biweekly basis after the first 2 weeks. Hopefully, this will help others in my situation understand the what the experience will involve. About Myself: I am 31 years old and have been gradually losing hair since I was around 19 – 20 years of age. Up till around 4 years ago, I could still fade my hair and it would look quite good even though it was receded quite a bit. I am now at a stage where I do need a hair transplant. Expectations: I am not trying to overly bring down my hairline or try to achieve how I looked 10 years ago. I am probably going to just bring down the front tip by 1 cm and the sides by around 2 to 2.5 cms. This should give me a mature hairline with more V shape than a U shape. Additionally, I want to leave enough grafts in the bank for future procedures as my hair loss is expected to slowly continue. Pre-operative preparations: Before booking my transplant at Eugenix, I consulted with a dermatologist. She examined my hair under magnification to confirm that I do not have folliculitis or diffused un-pattern Alopecia (thinning of the donor area). I have also been taking the following medication/Supplements: Vitamin D supplements (once a week for 4 weeks): My vitamin D levels are within normal range (This is a fat soluble vitamin and should not be taken unless you consult with a doctor). My dosage is just to give my body an extra push for the first 4 weeks and was deemed extremely safe by the doctor. Ferritin to bump up blood hemoglobin levels even though they are within the normal range. This dosage is also just to give an extra push for the first 4 weeks and was deemed safe by the doctor. B complex supplements: Been taking this for the past 4-6 months Fish oil supplements: Been taking this for the past 2+ years Finesteride for the last 2.5+ months, based on my initial consultation with the doctor and recommendation on this forumI will add MSM after my hair transplant once I can confirm it’s side effects and deem it safe for consumption Note: None of the above are necessary and should not matter too much in terms of end results. Research: I have been researching hair transplant clinics for the past 4 or 5 years and came very close to booking an appointment with Dr. Bhatti in 2016. After this, I was looking at Turkish clinics as al alternative and had a friend with very good results by Dr. Acar. Through my research, I eliminated turkey mainly because they seem to be doing too many transplants and it is very difficult to make sense of how some of the clinics can perform that many grafts in the time that they take to do them. It just felt a little risky. I checked and followed results from Realself, youtube and other online forums. Through the research, watching countless videos online and the patient results posted on HRN, I finally decided to go with Eugenix. I literally could not find a single bad result anywhere from them (Except one on HRN for someone who had quite bad shock loss) and the thing that struck me most is that Eugenix seems to be evolving and not just sticking to what is the norm. If you trace back to the first results that are on HRN, you will see that the technique that was used was FUE and the results themselves are great but not as impressive as we have come to expect from them in the past few years with the DHT technique. All my interactions with Dr. Arika, the Eugenix counselors and reading the patient experiences just made me feel like I could trust them with my procedure. Also, Dr. Arika and Dr. Sethi are AIIMS graduates. What you need to know is that AIIMS is probably the best medical institute in India. If you have grown up in India, you will know that it is extremely difficult to get into a medical college, let alone one that is as good as AIIMS. So basically, @Eugenix Hair Science had the qualifications, experience, outstanding results and seemed to be working consistently to keep getting even better. I really could not have asked for more. Appointment: My flight to Delhi lands on the 29th of May and my hair transplant is scheduled for the 31st of May. I opted for the comprehensive package based on the recommendation by the counselors and my procedure will be led by Dr. Arika. The transplantation is expected to involve around 2500 grafts. Special mention for @GabrielleN (Nelson) and @paddyirishman who has been super responsive and super helpful in addressing all my questions and making me comfortable with this whole procedure. Day of Arrival The flight landed about 15 minutes prior to the scheduled landing time on the 29th. I was able to get through the temperature checks fairly quickly and was picked up by Nelson (Counsellor) and Jaldhar (Driver) at the airport. The drive through Delhi to the clinic in Gurgaon was fairly short (30-40 minutes). Upon arrival at the clinic, I was asked to do a Covid test and my blood was taken for blood work. Post this, I was dropped off at the Hilton hotel. Eugenix usually accommodates it’s patients at the clinic itself but this was not available since the office staff were housed there in order to keep them safe and infection free during the Covid crisis. Surgery Day I was asked to be ready by 8 AM on the day of surgery and I preferred my surgery to start early since I wanted the surgery to be done earlier in the evening. I was picked up on time by Jaldhar and brought back to the clinic where Nelson was ready. We went into a room where I was requested to fill out a few forms, take a few medication and was tested to confirm that I was not allergic to Anesthesia. I was then asked to change into clothes that I would be wearing during the surgery. Post this, I was taken to the photography room where my head was photographed in a number of angles. The hairline was then drawn by Dr Arika and after a little it of tweaking, we had arrived at a conservative hairline which did not lower the hairline much but framed the face quite well. This was then photographed again, the head was partially trimmed in the recipient and donor areas and we proceeded to the operation room. I was first asked to lie down on my back while Dr Shishir administered the local anesthesia all over the recipient areas including the temple. I have always been weary and sensitive of needles and must say that the pricks were a little painful. Weirdly though, the pricks did not hurt much at the temples which is where I was warned it would hurt the most. Once it was confirmed that the area was numb, @Dr Arika Bansal went ahead and made the incisions. I was worried about shock loss due to transplanting grafts into areas that have existing hair and she allayed my fears saying that it should not happen since I was on Finasteride for over 3 months and that she would only make slits where there is quite some space between existing hair. Dr Arika works quite fast and she probably took a little over 30 to 40 minutes to make the 2500 slits in the frontal third of my head and the temples. The exact number of slits and how many were made in the temples are in the picture that I have attached. Once the slits were made, Dr Shishir proceeded to anesthetize the left side of the donor. Punching, extraction and implantation then started from this side of the donor, which was then followed up by the right side of the donor. Kabul, who is actually Dr Sethi’s brother performed all the punching using the motorized punch and moves quite quickly. All in all, around 800 grafts were extracted. The implantation takes longer than the extraction and went on around 1 hour longer after the extraction was completed. Once the extraction was completed, 2 technicians worked simultaneously on the implantation to minimize out of body time to maybe around 1 hour. During this 1 hour, there was no extraction taking place. I have to say that the technicians work like robots and seem to be very well trained in what they do. Throughout the whole procedure, they keep checking on you to confirm that you are not in pain and ask you if you require breaks. We then broke for lunch. The technicians and the doctor did tell me a couple of times that I have very good grafts (mota mota in Hindi which is fat fat) Post lunch, we were to focus on the back of the donor area from where majority of the grafts would be available. Dr Shishir anesthetized the back of the donor area, this was again followed by Kabul doing most of the punching while the technicians did the extractions, loading of grafts into implanters and implantation. The rest of the grafts were all extracted by around 5:15 PM while being simultaneously implanted. Again, due to the fact that the implantation takes longer than the extractions, the major portion of the implantations were not completed till around 7:40 PM. Post this, Dr Arika did the implantations of the temples and some portions of the hairlines. This took a lot longer than the rest of the implantations (for just 150 grafts) since Dr Arika wanted to place the grafts perfectly in the temples. Once these were placed, one of the technicians inserted them till the right depth. For the hairline and temples, the doubles and triples had to be split into singles since I did not have singles in the donor area. The entire transplant was completed at exactly 8:00 PM. Post this, the rest of the hair was trimmed and the transplanted area was cleaned and dressed up. I was quite concerned regarding the out of body time of the grafts during this second phase of the transplant since the grafts were out of the body for over 2.5 hours after the extractions were made. Dr. Arika and Dr. Sethi assured me that this will not be a problem and that my procedure went well. Dr. Arika and Dr. Shishir examined my grafts, assuring me that it looked good and that I should expect a great result. I thanked all the technicians as they had worked really hard and with a lot of focus throughout the day, after which we went into the photography room where I was again photographed in all the angles. I then changed back to my clothes, was briefed about the medication and then went out to get some fresh air. I met Dr Sethi at the gate and we just spoke for quite some time on all things related to life for a while. We joked around a bit and he examined my transplant and said it looked quite good. The counsellor kept reminding me to not bump my head anywhere. I was then taken back to the hotel and was in the hotel by around 9:45 or 10 PM. I had dinner and stayed up pretty much the whole night since I was worried that I would damage my grafts. I probably slept for around 2 hours, sitting up pretty much straight. Next Day and a note on Dr. Sethi The day after the surgery, I surprisingly felt good for someone who had just slept 2 hours. I had a late breakfast and was invited to lunch and dinner at Dr. Sethi’s house. I arrived at the clinic, met Dr. Sethi and was invited to his office. Dr Sethi is not your typical doctor. He still does perform surgeries but seems to be more focused on the spiritual aspects of life, meditation, helping the less fortunate and so on. I was gifted a book (same book that Steve Jobs gifted everyone at his funeral). We then went upstairs to Dr. Sethi’s house for lunch and had a very hearty meal. I then met his son, we played ping pong for a while at which Dr. Sethi is unfortunately not very good before returning back to the hotel. I also joined Dr. Sethi for dinner later that day at his house. The overall feeling you get in the end of the day is that the doctors are more your friends/extension of your family than somebody who’s just making holes in your head. It feels like they not only care about your surgery and how it goes, but also about your experience you have as a whole. They are very particular about making sure that their patients are fully taken care of during the surgery as well as after the surgery. This was my experience. Now, I need to be patient and wait for the most important and fundamental thing of it all, which is the FINAL RESULTS. Note: I had read from a poster somewhere that @Eugenix Hair Science makes their patients pay for the surgery before the surgery or asks them to pay for the additional grafts during the surgery. I just want to state that I was never forced or asked to pay. I was doing online transfers from USD to Indian rupees and had some difficulties. I was always told that I can make the payment for the surgery, after the surgery and at my convenience. Even for the medications, when it was late in the night and I wanted to pay, I was asked to just go to the hotel and take care of the payment later. I never felt like they were after your money, and valued your experience more.

Hi @Loadrunner, can you send us a quick update and maybe some more pictures of your progress in good lighting and some zoom.

This is crazy good. I don’t think you need fibers even now, let alone after 12 months. I’m not a Norwood 6 or 7 but would be very happy if my end results looked like this. Delighted I guess is the word.🙂

Very nice results again.

Thanks for the detailed updates @Zoomster. That’s good progress from your last update which was already quite good. The density seems to be more or less similar across the scalp, behind the hairline and based on everyone’s input should improve in the coming months. A lot of people wish they had your type of results and would be delighted at this stage. Maybe the bump In the plane actually improved blood supply or something and helped with the results.😁 You never know. Stay safe and healthy.

Thank you for the post. That was super detailed, specially the side by side comparisons between the 4th and 5th months. This has got to be one of the slightly slower results from Eugenix. The increased length of the hair does make it appear like there is more density, specially from the sides but it doesn’t look like even 40 percent of the grafts have taken hold and started growing. Hopefully the new hair that you talk about are slowly going to get longer and thicker. Did the doctor say if this was normal or what percentage of the patients take this long at their clinic. You also mentioned that the hairline and the temples were implanted on the second day even though the slits were made on the first day. Do you think that the areas that are showing slower growth are these areas where the slits were pre made the previous day. You also mentioned that the doubles and triples had to be split for the hairline and temples which could also be another reason. Just trying to reason out what could be the cause for the delay in growth.

@Looking for HT, it is the 22nd in India which is technically the correct 5 month mark because you were in the Indian timezone when you got it done.😁😁

It already looks quite good Paddy and will only get better. I cannot believe that you used just under 3600 grafts to achieve this. This should be a very good result. I’m hoping for pretty much the same whenever I get to get my procedure done.

@Looking for HT, we’re almost at the 5 month mark. Hoping for a little transformation in your pictures.

Hi @Abhinay Singh, can you tell us how many grafts were placed in the crown. It looks like the hairline didn’t need to be lowered much.

Understood. A lot more density to look forward to then. This should be another very good result from Eugenix.

Thanks for uploading these @Goldwing The pictures under direct sunlight still appear a little sparse but that looks like solid progress since your April 26 pictures. It appears like the rate of growth has accelerated in the last 2 or 3 weeks and since your 4 month update. Did the doctors say how much more density you can expect and were you on any medication prior to your procedure or have you been taking any medication since your procedure.

Thanks @Goldwing. I am following your thread now and will look forward to your pictures and updates.

This is ridiculously good @Abhinay Singh. What percentage of the patients at the clinic get these kinds of results and what percentage get the normal/satisfactory results and is there anything that the patient can do beforehand to ensure that he gets these type of results.

Looking good @paddyirishman. Have you cut your hair since your transplant or have you just let it all grow.

Hi @Goldwing, thank you for being so detailed and sharing your experience. From your pictures, I think you and I are exactly the same and I am waiting for the lockdown to end to schedule a transplant from Eugenix as well. I had a couple of questions for you, are you satisfied/happy with the growth so far and since your 4 month updates do you still see new growth happening. Also, did you experience any shock loss in the areas that the hair was transplanted or in the donor areas. Also, could you share your pictures of the donor area currently and maybe some more pictures of the transplanted areas with a little better lighting and closer to the camera.

I am not saying it’s not the clinic’s responsibility. The clinic should absolutely be responsible for what it’s employees do or how they behave. I completely stand by the patient here and think he should do whatever he feels is within his rights to be compensated for what’s been done to him. I’m not sure you get how forums work. It’s just a place where like minded individuals get together and discuss topics that interest them. It can be extremely valuable when used for the purposes that they were created for and serve. Unfortunately, there is nothing that they can do legally or punitively. The doctors that are recommended here are mostly recommended based on their results. Dr Bhatti’s results are consistently good with some bad results here and there. Removing him from the list will be a disservice to all the patients who would’ve otherwise gone to him and gotten a good transplant. You’re hurting them more than the Doctor or the clinic was the point that I was trying to make. And just to make it clear, I am not a former or future patient of Dr Bhatti.

@Melvin-Moderator has already expelled Shera from the forum. I am not sure what more he can do here. @Dr Tejinder Bhatti is a good doctor with mostly good results. While the way that this patient was treated is inexcusable, do you want to expel him from a list of recommended doctors and have others not be able to avail his services which are usually good results. I believe that the fair thing to do here is to let the patient take his course of action and keep this thread as a reference so potential patients in the future are aware of this before they elect to go with the doctor. That way we are helping them make an informed decision for which they would then be responsible.

Thank you for the detailed response @Dr Tejinder Bhatti.