Sitries1

I think it was between 50 and 75 grafts each side

Hello all! I’ve used this forum as a means to carry out research for the past year or so on surgeons/results so I feel its only fair to now give something back and document my story which can hopefully help others in choosing their surgeon. It was a toss up between HLC in Turkey and Dr Ferreira in Portugal for me and having had communication with both I felt I would be in safer hands with Dr Ferreira - his professionalism and attention to detail stood out immediately and I felt more secure in the knowledge that it would be only him doing the whole procedure. I booked him up early 2021 and secured my date for December 7th and 8th 2021 (I now sit here writing this the following day after surgery). Return Flights were cheap to Portugal for this time of year and I booked a lovely apartment right in the centre of town which I managed to get a great discount on through air B and B as it’s out of season (I messaged the owner and asked if they bring the price down to get within my budget because I would be a single occupant and luckily for me they were happy to accommodate). I booked up to stay here for 8 days so I could relax and not be panicked about the whole thing. The 1st 2 days here I stocked up the apartment with all the food and water I would need for my stay in case I didn’t feel like roaming the streets post op. There is a famous farmers market here every Monday and I got some great fresh produce there (fruit, veg, bread, nuts etc). I ate out at a couple of seafood restaurants and had plenty of strolls along the beach. I have found the Portuguese people to be extremely friendly and welcoming. If you are coming to get surgery with Dr Ferreira I would highly recommend staying here in Espinho where the clinic is located (rather than commuting from Porto). Espinho is a city in name but really it’s just a small seaside town where everything is in walking distance and it has a lovely beach and plenty of shops and restaurants. I had my blood work and Covid test done at a local lab here in Espinho the day before my surgery (this was all booked up by Alexandra who is Dr Ferreira‘a PA). On the day of the surgery i got showered, ate breakfast and walked to Dr Ferreira’s medical facility which was a ten minute walk from my apartment. I arrived at 7.30 and was allocated a room where I was briefed by one of the nurses and got changed into the hospital garments. At 8am Dr Ferreira came in and ran me through the procedure and answered any questions/concerns I had. I told him that I wasn’t nervous about anything apart from the hairline design as I wanted it to be symmetrical and I wanted to get as much depth as possible. He said not to worry and that would all be agreed between us. So………Into the next room we went to take all the pre op photos and start designing the hairline. I had showed Dr Ferreira the type of hairline I wanted by showing him photos on my phone of other cases. Basically I wanted a windows peak style hairline with the centre to be accurate and the centre to be the lowest point and the sides to slope back up (I didn’t want a hair of instanbul style straight across hairline where the sides can end up lower than the centre if that makes sense!?). I also wanted him to thicken up the temporal points and bring them slightly forward if possible. Dr Ferreira took his time and was very diligent in the hairline design and he got the shape and style bang on pretty much 1st time. There were a coupe of minor tweaks and then more photos and we were good to go. Both days of surgery were set up the same way - morning session of extraction and implantation, lunch (which was delicious btw) then afternoon session of extraction and implantation (the only person that touched my head all day was Dr Ferreira other than wiping down my head before lunch and at the end of the day). The surgeries were pretty painless overall (the anaesthetic injections sting a little) and I found the hardest part laying in certain positions for long periods of time. Dr Ferreira and his team had a very good rapport with each other and we’re having a bit of banter during the surgery but everything seemed like clockwork as far as the procedure went. The nurses were very caring and accommodating and I can’t fault the experience at all. The 1st day he did one side of the hairline in full and completed the outline of the other side of the hairline and the 2nd day he completed the hairline, did the temporal points and then scattered out some grafts on the thinning areas on top. His analysis of my case was that I had good hair quality and less miniaturisation than the initial photos i sent him indicated. He had originally predicted that I would need 2500-3000 grafts and it ended up around the 2500 mark. It’s worth noting that I’m not taking Finasteride and do not intend to do so. Dr Ferreira said that the rate of my hairloss is fairly slow and that the level of miniaturisation was not high enough to suggest that Finasteride would be essential for me like in some cases. I know that In the future I will likely need a second procedure but I have plenty of donor area left for this so it’s not a problem. Originally I was going to wait for Dr Ferreira to send over the full set of photos pre and post op but he said that this could take a month or 2 to be distributed to me so I’ve taken some photos myself the best I can (before and after). Please also note that I had SMP about 18 months before surgery purely because I shaved my head during Covid and it looked so bad and thin and one side of my hairline was recessed much worse than the other and I wanted to level it out. The plan was to keep a shaved head through covid and in the lead up to surgery. overall marks out of ten for Dr Ferreira and my experience this far is 10/10. Now let the growing commence!!!!

How was the end result??

I’m not to sure what your concerns were over the symmetry of it. It looks bang on to me and symmetry is something that really bothers me - micro irregularities are good but I want mine to be symmetrical and the centre point to be centre of my head. I see way to many transplants that are lop sided and look awful IMO. I think I’m in safe hands with Dr Ferreira but I will outline my concerns to him about it before the hairline is designed.

Lol. I will be starting my own thread so you can see how I get on.

What an awesome result!!! I’m booked in with Dr Ferreira next week (Tuesday and Wednesday). If he produces a result like that for me I will be very very happy! And you are only 6.5 months in!!!

Redness varies from person to person depending on skin type. It’s nothing to do with the surgeon or method. A little redness for a while would not bother me in the slightest - it’s the end result that counts!

Pay for the fast track consultation as you will wait a good couple of months otherwise. They are very busy

Excellent result

Really good progress. This is where then magic happens and you should see weekly improvement

Have you thought about some SMP to the uneven nape/retrograde?? I’m thinking of getting some done at the back there to mimic a skin fade and lower the hairline at the neck line at the back after my transplant as I suffer slightly the same as you back there.

Looks like it’s coming on very well

Asmed is a hair mill unless you can get Erdogan to do the operation and I believe the waiting list for that is very long

Pekiner and HLC are way ahead of Bicer IMO (not saying she doesn’t do good work). professioanlism wise - Dr Ferreira seems to be streets ahead of HLC. I didn’t have any contact with Pekiner

Hi Gents following a good amount of research I have made my final decision and booked with Dr Ferreira for December of this year. I had HLC and Dr Ferreira tied at the top of my list based on my research but it came down to communication and aftercare in the end. I got the feeling Dr Ferreira actually cares more about his work rather than it just being a business. HLC have a tonne of great results online and were top of my list for a while - I had actually decided to pick them until the levels of communication let them down. Pros for HLC were - - Loads of immense results posted online dating back many years. - Great hairline designs and very dense packed. - lots of surgeons so the have specialists in all areas and can work on you in shifts so they don’t get tired. Cons for HLC were - - Poor communication. - Don’t seem very organised (I heard a story of a guy waiting 3 hours at the airport to get picked up). - Multiple surgeons so how do you know who your getting on the day? - I’ve seen reports of little to no aftercare so I would be concerned if the operation wasn’t a success and how a resolution could be sorted! - Their evaluation of my case was very poor in comparison to Dr Ferreira. It felt more like ‘well sort it out when you get here!’ Pro’s for Dr Ferreira - Very highly regarded surgeon in the industry - considered a star of the future. - Worked alongside one of to greats in Dr Lorenzo. - Some great results posted online and haven’t read a bad review on him. - Comes across as a down to earth genuine nice guy in his e mails. - Very professional evaluation of my case and streamlined booking procedure (very good assistant Alexandra who responds swiftly to e mails). Cons for Dr Ferreira - Not a large quantity of results And reviews online. - Doesnt have ten plus years of experience like some surgeons. - Slight concern he may not be as ambitious with dropping the hairline down as HLC would of been. Based on the above I feel I be Chosen wisely and roll on December!

Like others have said, your description of your case makes it sound much worse than it looks. Your donor and hair in general looks very strong. Looks like you done a tonne of research and chose wisely. Would you say that getting the microscope analysis was worth getting In the end or did most surgeons dismiss it and want to do their own analysis ?

Do you have any pictures of the beard???

Looks good mate but can I ask why you didn’t lower the hairline down to where you have a few of your original hairs there right at the front of the widows Peak? It’s not the ybyiur hairline looks high or anything with what’s been done but surely you would of wanted it as low as you could go? Or was it to do with graft preservation for future? Was it your choice to stay higher or Dr Ferreiras ?

Looking forward to following this one

Great professionalism from Eugenix to do the touch up for free. Looks like your going to get an amazing result!

Looks great! No strip scar?

That’s a hell of a job they did there. Wow. Can’t ever know see his scar

But how can try get thousands of hairs from a small strip of skin? That’s what I don’t get?

What I don’t understand about FUT is how do they get so many hairs out of a small strip of skin?? Why can’t they just extract the same strip of hairs using the FUE method and also take hairs from the other doner areas? That way you don’t have a huge scar ?

How comes you kept the long hair in the middle?? Must be pretty hard to pull that off in day to day life. Wouldn’t it of been better to shave it all off?