badhamatha

Here are a couple photos directly comparing my results before and after a year.

@JohnAC71 yeah for sure! If I do decide on going to a place in India for future work, I would consider Eugenix instead.

@Melvin-Moderator Here's a few photos of the donor. I got a skin-fade about 2 weeks ago.

Hey everyone, It's been over a year now so I thought I'd come back and check in with my final results from this transplant. Would I go back to Dr. Bhatti? No, I don't think my donor area was well managed and has visible scarring on it when i'm in between hair cuts. Luckily it's more noticeable to myself than others. I also think the density could have been a bit better for the "illusion" of a full head of hair. As you can see through a couple photo's that on the left temple, there's a thin patch of hair that had never really filled in (most likely because this area wasn't addressed during my surgery when it should have been). All the recent horror stories from Bhatti and his team on this forum have made me thankful that my result had turned out the way that it did. Overall I would say that I'm glad that I got it done as I do look a lot better than before. My own experience with the doctor/team was okay, as I didn't have any issues. I would say that I'm mostly happy with the way my hair looks albeit the donor area scarring and small patch on my left temple. I'm still on fin/min and lets hope I don't need to go for another one soon.

@arkaZ hey bro from my own understanding I dont think SMP can weaken your hairs but it is advised to do it before a procedure rather than SOON after the procedure in order to avoid damaging the new grafts from growing in. I posted my thread here on combining both because I've seen a few combination's posted by doctors but nothing recent and have not talked to anyone who's had it done on this forum. I would say that doing an HT is not a bad idea even if you have a family history of baldness because if you stick to the lifelong regiment of using the big three (fin/min/niz) it can help with stabilizing and slowing down hair loss. My father/uncles have gone bald and started losing their hair around the same time as me. When I look at pictures of their hair (when they started losing hair) and compare it to my own, they had about the same hair loss. However now that i've been on meds for about 2 years, my hair loss has not gotten worse. Now when I compare photos of myself now at 27 to photos of my dad at 27, his hair loss was much worse than mine. I'm glad I acted on staying on a regiment to prevent it from getting worse. I did end up getting a hair transplant due to the significant recession over the years I was not on medication but the remaining native hair has been around the same or gotten a little bit thicker in those areas. I started taking meds about a year before getting a hair transplant in order to see if I could regrow any significant amount of hair. The reality is that I might lose more hair in the future as the meds start losing their efficacy, but it would be at a much slower rate than it was for the others in my family. I'm okay with either getting a second procedure done in the future (which will be years down the line) or letting the crown area (Where i didn't get a transplant) get a little bit worse as I get older. The reality is, with a hair transplant now, I look closer to my age, feel more comfortable with my look and have masked any signs of baldness. I now have a better frame of my face and can have an actual presentable haircut as you can see with my post about my hair transplant.

Hey @arkaZ yeah i know 3 people who've done the SMP procedure but i find that its usually noticeable when done on its own. Out of the 3 procedures i've seen, 1 of them i think was a little botched/done way too thick around the hairline and the other 2 came out pretty good but theres a shine to both people's head thats noticeable because they dont have much native hair to blend in with it even when buzzed. However, for both of these people I would say that it isn't noticeable to someone who doesn't know about the procedure and does a great job at framing their faces and makes them look a lot younger. I was wondering about a combined procedure because i would think it would interesting to see how much thicker SMP could make a transplant look. I'll give your post a look at!

Here are a couple of photo's with better quality after giving myself a haircut the other day. I've enjoyed learning how to cut my own hair the last few months but because I'm still on that learning curve I end up making mistakes here and there. This time I did a real bad job of fading my own hair in the back so I'm reluctant on posting a photo of my donor area, I've also got some eczema on the back of my scalp right now that makes me a little self conscious about posting a photo. For my next update I'll try to get an actual barber to give me a haircut just so everyone can see how my donor area would look with a proper job done. I've started to get a lot of people recently start asking about where I've gotten my transplant done because the results are speaking for themselves. But anyways here are my almost 8 month photos.

hey @JohnAC71 Here are are few photos from today. I'll post a few better quality one's with the back of my camera in a couple days after a haircut.

For those of you wondering about my procedure and donor area. Here's a photo of me with my fade grown out for about two and a half weeks. I tried to get as a direct of a shot with as high res of a picture. It seems like the scarring would not be as noticeable if I go with a tapered hair style, and maybe the fade job I did on myself showed off some of that scarring more. I plan on giving myself another haircut in a couple days and I'll see how it looks with a lower fade this time. I'll also provide an update of the front of the hair, nearing my 8 month mark. If you look close enough you can see that little bit of a dip in the donor area but there isn't too much patchiness visible.

Hi everyone, I've heard of a few people on youtube/doctor's that some people combine both a hair transplant and FUE to have an illusion of a fuller head of hair, especially those with a lack of donor area/density. I'm wondering if anyone has done it here themselves or has any other useful links of individuals getting both procedures done? I have a few friends that are interested in doing hair restoration and would love to provide some examples of how both procedures can be combined to do so. Thanks everyone!

Looks great man! Judging from the number of grafts you got, your looking at a very dense well filled in result! Excited to see the 6 month and beyond photos

@JohnAC71 not sure to be honest. I think my barber would have done a better job at hiding it. I'm just learning how to cut my own hair due to quarantine/saving money, as you can see in this photo my fading skills are a little choppy haha. Here I think its a 2 faded into a 0 guard. An electric shave blended in at the bottom would have helped my case.

@MichaelD Thank you Michael! I just wanted to be fully transparent with everyone on here as to what my experience has been like. 🙂

Here is a photo of the donor area. As you can see in this photo that there is some scarring in the area, which I did expect (not trying to bail out my surgeon or anything) but it's nothing that a more grown out hair style could cover. I had also already suffered from scarring in that area from previously picking and scratching due to eczema/dermatitis as well as growing up with a top knot and having some traction alopecia in the front back and sides (which is why i required some temple work). If you look at the first photo I posted in this thread, the picture is from about a month of growing out my hair, if you look at the area under my ear it's already quite thin. All in all I'm okay with the scarring in the back (although I think it could be a bit better and less noticeable when shorter), but before giving myself a haircut it was pretty much unnoticeable and no one had mentioned a thing to me who didn't know I had gotten the work done.

Hi everyone, Here are my almost 7 month results after getting a haircut. I'm happier with the progress now that it looks like everything is filling out nicely. Excited to see what the coming months will show.

Here are a few more photos from today, hopefully the quality appears clearer.

I did also want to mention/acknowledge that I have read the last few big threads about Dr. Bhatti and some of the unprofessional/odd behavior of the Doctor and his reps on this forum. I made it pretty clear to Dr.Bhatti and his team that I have done my research regarding hair transplants, methods, expectations and results. I also made it known that I visited this forum as I showed that I wanted a result similar to another Bhatti poster himself (shoutout to @petroholic) and was looking for a similar result. I myself had a pretty good experience throughout my hair transplant and trip to India and there were no issues with communications (although I'm fluent in Punjabi/English/Hindi lol). I can answer any questions anyone has in regards to my experience. Cheers!

Hi everyone, back with an update. Below are my photos this morning taken after I had given myself a buzz cut. I prefer to keep my hair buzzed due to the lack of availability of barbers as well as the fact that It's so much easier to maintain. My apologies @KarmaPolice for not providing one sooner. Here are my almost 4 month photos. So far I'm happy with the progress, the dreaded phase of losing all the hair is gone and I'm starting to sprout more and more hair. The last few months toppik was one of my best friends but lately I haven't really felt the need to use it because the new hair has been sufficient enough to cover my receding areas. You can definitely still see the areas of my original hair loss if you look closely at my head. For the most part I'm pretty open about getting a hair transplant so other's in my life are aware that this is a possible option for them as well. A lot of people actually think that I've just buzzed my head rather than have gotten a hair transplant. Currently my routine is using/taking fin,min,biotin all once daily. I'll apply a light shampoo and a little bit of baby oil in the area of the hair transplant due to the doctors orders. I think around august I'll give growing my hair out a chance but for the summer months I'm loving this.

Here are some photos today on day 15 post op - shaved around the transplanted area to even everything out.

It's just quality of the photo. I went into work today and no one could tell that I had a procedure done, the current result is even quite natural. The hair in the back just happens to be longer as well.

Hey everyone, I thought I would share with everyone my hair transplant experience. Background: I started noticing my hair slowly thinning at 20-21 years old but I was fortunately lucky that it was going quite slow, I knew that I was going to lose my hair to a degree as most of the men in my family experience a degree of hair loss. For years I was in denial about my genetic hair loss and wrote it off as traction alopecia (As I sikh I had worn a top knot as a child up until my late teens), until my aunt had pointed out that my hair was thinning when i was around 24 years old , an innocent comment in her eyes but a freak out ensued. I had started looking on reddit about hair loss prevention methods and taking hundreds of photos of my head daily trying to justify that I was losing my hair. Eventually I accepted my fate and said that I would combat it however I could. I started "The big 3" - fin,min, and niz in combination of microneedling a little over a year ago (Age 25). Eventually my hair did get a little thicker and stopped falling out, my hair loss had stabilized and I still wasn't happy. I started looking at getting a hair transplant and seeing what the costs were. The expenses were out of my budget in North America so I had looked at doctors in India and Turkey. I had seen video's of Dr. Bhatti on youtube, seeing both Punjabi celebrities and hair transplant channels talk about his work. I later discovered him on forums and got to know that he was a trusted doctor and reading his FAQ's and transparency led me to contact Darling Buds for a consultation. Mind you, I did consult a few different doctors but being that I am of Indian descent I had reasoned that it would be a great excuse to visit my family and the motherland at the same time. I sent Darling Buds a message on Whatsapp and received a call from them hours later asking to provide my e-mail address and that the doctor would be in contact with me. The doctor specified that he would be in contact with me for the first 5 e-mails and afterwards his team would switch to speaking to me instead. Dr. Bhatti initially requested certain photos from angles in natural lighting and asked what kind of result I was wanting and expectations etc. After providing photo's, doctor Bhatti informed me that my procedure would require 2200-2500 grafts in the hairline, frontal scalp and temporal areas. I thanked the doctor and contemplated this decision for a few weeks, debriefed my girlfriend (Who did not care if I did this procedure or not) eventually deciding that I wanted to do this. I contacted the team about dates, hotels, and packages and eventually settled on everything. The communication of his team had exceeded my expectations and diminished my worries about going alone to India to have my head operated on. I was also provided instructions of do's and don'ts before a hair transplant (instructions about smoking, alcohol, medications etc.). Before the procedure: Dr. Bhatti's team had gotten my flight information and asked me to stay in touch with them a few days before my flight to ensure a smooth trip, I was sent a driver's phone number to stay in contact with. I messaged the driver upon arrival and there he was waiting at the gate with my name on it. I was provided water and snacks and taken to a nice hotel where everything was already booked for me to stay in. I was sent a message later in the morning that a driver would be coming around 10:30 and to be ready. The driver promptly picked me up and was taken to Dr. Bhatti's hospital. I was promptly offered a drink before meeting with Dr. Bhatti. Dr. Bhatti drew a hair line he recommended on my head and told me we would go from there. Needless to say I was happy with the hairline as it was lower than I had expected it. I let Dr. Bhatti know that he could move it up too if it would not be as dense, he insured me that he could do that but that I would have a great result regardless. He asked me to take photos and contemplate it over the night and that we could change the hairline If I so pleased. After the consultation a blood sample was taken and an ECG was performed. I was also provided further instructed by Shalini, the clinic's team lead on some pre care instructions and medications I needed to take the night before . The day of the operation: I was taken to the clinic/hospital in the morning where I was promptly changed, shaved and given anesthesia and provided a take out menu of a pizza place for lunch. Then Dr. Bhatti and his team performed the operation. I experienced minimal discomfort during the operation and was told to speak up about any pain if felt any. A lot of the details for me are a bit hazy because I was drifting in and out of sleep during the operation but after the extractions were done by Dr. Bhatti I had the pizza lunch and then the incisions were made and grafts were placed. I was then given some instructions for the night and some more medications to take. Post procedure: I was picked up by Dr. Bhatti' team again where the bandage on my donor area was removed and cleaned and Dr. Bhatti checked to see how everything looked once again. He then spoke to me about the operation and provided some tips/guidance himself and told me to keep in touch with him over the course of my recovery. I was then given a bunch of medications, shampoos, creams and lotions to utilized for the next few weeks as well as a FAQ booklet and written instructions of when to take meds and when to use each of the provided products. The great things was that the following days after the procedure I did have questions that my FAQ booklet could not answer and when I contacted the clinic via Whatsapp they answered my questions promptly. I ended up spending the next two weeks in India afterwards with my family without any issue. At day 14 the scabs were removed where there were some scabs with hair on it (Which is supposed to happen) and I am now left looking like I have a shaved head. All in all I would say that I'm pleased so far with the way thing's are looking and that this was the utmost professional experience. If anyone has any questions feel free to shoot me a message! I'll keep you guys updated throughout the year! Provided below are photos of my hair before the procedure, the hairline design, the day of the operation, and 2 weeks after the operation.