Berba11

If cost is an issue, from my own  research I'd be looking only at 3 very excellent options: Bicer, Demirsoy or one of the more affordable Eugenix packages that include Dr Arika's involvement.

Each of those clinics have loads and loads of patient testimony on here and other forums.

Really coming along now! Very exciting!

I assume the 3,500 FUT procedure is for the frontal third? If so, if you have a decent beard that can be tapped into later, you'd probably be in good shape for an FUE+BHT for the mid-scalp down the road. As long as the 3,500 are used fairly conservatively at the front (ie, hairline isn't too low) and you have realistic expectations, I imagine you could get very satisfactory coverage over 2 HT's without really having to worry about Finasteride - you don't have much more native hair to lose. 

Following with great interest! Good luck mate

I think the absolute first thing anyone needs to do is to make sure they're researching the correct stuff before even thinking about making a list of clinics. So:

- Understanding what a natural (non-transplanted) hairline looks like (irregularities, single hair grafts, direction of the grafts etc)

- Understanding how to recreate natural looking hairlines & what that requires a surgery to do/have/be able to do (microscopes, ability to dissect multi-grafts into singles if required, natural hairline design, creating irregularities)

- Donor area management

- Medical/topical interventions

- Understanding how long and complex HT surgery takes/is 

Once someone has gotten a firm grip on that stuff (and that's by no means an exhaustive list!), then that should automatically start to whittle down the list of eligible surgeries/clinics. Then I think it's definitely critical to get onto forums and start looking at unfiltered, non-selective (ie, the full truth!) patient journey threads and really look at results, levels of service, aftercare, comparable hair loss cases and so on.

Lastly I then think price & location. Location shouldn't be a factor - if you live down the road from Hasson & Wong then... Tremendous! But if you have to jump on a 9-hour direct flight to India because you want to go to Eugenix then that's also awesome. How many guys go to some bang average or even terrible HT clinic because it was sort of convenient and nearby? Price is a fact of life. If we could all afford Hasson & Wong or a top Belgian clinic we'd all go there. Finding an affordable option does require more careful research because the worst clinics on earth are also the cheapest ones. So price shouldn't be the *leading* factor, but it will inevitably be a factor.

Shaping up really nicely! Would be great to see the immediate post-op photos as well, @Abhinay Singh.

3,500 for the frontal third looks absolutely normal. Depending on who you're going to, maybe even less than that would also be fine I'd have thought. Different surgeons will do slightly differing amounts.

Not sure I'd even bother with the crown at this stage if I were you as it's nothing that some fibres couldn't resolve if it's really that bothersome. What I would be thinking about though is getting on finasteride and trying to preserve that area for as long as possible and fight future losses in the midscalp behind your newly transplanted hairs.

You've chosen a highly regarded clinic so you'll be in excellent hands.

Would also be keen to see an update, @FUE2020

Will be following! Good luck

Just to add to what others have already said... Looks very natural! You'd never know this was a HT in a million years.

Seems like a lot of grafts for the areas required! Definitely get some additional opinions from the surgeons mentioned by John.

- It doesn't look like 3,000 grafts from these photos. The photos the clinic took immediately post surgery (please say they took some!) should reveal a bit more.

- The hairline appears to lack any micro irregularities that are found in natural hairlines. Instead the hair*line* is an actual linear line.

- Possible multi graft hairs in the hairline instead of exclusively (or at the very least, overwhelmingly mostly!) single graft hairs.

There are three UK clinics recommended on this website that are very good clinics, and Dr Ed Ball in Portsmouth (not listed here) which is another excellent clinic. I have to ask, what was it that you found in your research that led you to *this* particular clinic? 

3 hours ago, rob7331 said:

This makes me laugh because I'm literally a fine blonde-haired caucasian, but I completely see where you're coming from. Keep an eye out for my progress thread starting in early December of this year. It'll be an eye opener for sure.

I'm tentatively booked in for late December, though am considering moving it forward to late Nov/early Dec. Where are you travelling from?

4 hours ago, follically challenged said:

I love Eugenix' hairlines but the videos they put up rarely show fine, blonde haired patients...

I've seen a few caucasian patients on the forum with good results, but even they seemed to have thicker grafts than i do.

So, unfortunately, until i see more results of blonde, finer-haired caucasian patients i won't really be able to consider going with them.

You have to bear in mind that although people from Europe or North America do indeed (as I will be) travel to India, most will go somewhere closer to home. So the sample of fine blonde haired patients that Eugenix deal with is probably very very small. 

23 hours ago, Patro1995 said:

Dont know what u say?

He's trying to say that you keep starting new threads every month asking the same thing. Try to keep updating your progress in *one single thread*. That way all the previous information can be seen by everyone in one place.

You've got a few gaps where possibly some grafts didn't take or you've had some shock loss or further recession on the pre-existing hairs (seeing as you're not on finasteride and are in your 20's when hair loss is typically at its most aggressive). It's not a major issue at this stage though, you may see some additional growth in those areas given you're in the stage where most of the growth is happening.

What I would say is that the hairline looks very straight, with few if any micro-irregularities which would help give it a more soft, natural look. There also appears to be multi graft hairs in the hairline, although unless you pull your hair back and get some good, high quality close ups of the hairline, it's hard to say for sure.

Hey @WS2020,

You've achieved a significant cosmetic difference from where you've started - no doubt about that! So do try to keep that at the forefront of your mind as you move forward.

The biggest difference between month 6 & 9 for me is the lighting. You've obviously covered a very large area with a fairly conservative number of grafts. I've been quoted around 2500 - 3000 grafts for a very similar amount of frontal recession to yours, but mine doesn't quite extend back to the mid-scalp as yours does.

You'll possibly need a second pass to achieve the desired density, which isn't uncommon. Like I said, you've come a long way - there's more good news than bad news here!

1 hour ago, keratin_matters said:

I'd heard from Dr Rassman that one should evaluate your donor capacity and create a 'masterplan' while being on meds. Most clinics just revert back with number grafts required now and not talk about your long term goals. That was my chain of thought when asking if more grafts can be extracted further in my life. 

Yea I completely understand why you'd ask - it's the right question to ask for sure! But you won't get any good answers from photos alone. Your scalp needs to be inspected in person, and that's probably why you only received a generic answer from Eugenix.

5 hours ago, JohnAC71 said:

I would be telling them sooner rather than later. They will know when you reveal your new hair anyway. Impossible to keep hidden for long. 

This, or take a short holiday somewhere cheap (could you visit close friends or family for a couple weeks?) in order to get through the most obvious phase of the HT (scabbing & so on). You don't really have many other options, and you can only start safely wearing a hat a week or two after the HT anyway (your surgeon will advise on this - each tend to suggest differing timeframes for hats, buzz cuts etc).

3 hours ago, keratin_matters said:

Yes, I'm delaying any decision about transplant for now. Will stick to the big 3 and add oral castor oil and stuff to see how it goes.

Sensible. Also, no one can tell you what your 'life time donor' amount is based on photos. It's need a proper in person inspection by a surgeon, plus, it will always be harder to say for sure when you're younger, as a lot can change very quickly when it comes to hair loss.

On 8/17/2021 at 6:16 AM, Mggm said:

@ADilI too have similar density to yours at 4month mark after my HT at eugenix. I think we should wait it out for another 2 months. Let's just hope for the best. 

@Mggm - do you have a thread of your own progress that we can see? If you haven't done one, it would be great if you started one!

@Luca456It would greatly help people see what has really gone on if you're able to upload high quality immediate pre & post op photos that the clinic themselves took. Do you have those photos/can you get them?

3 minutes ago, jim_hair said:

Yeah I agree, it would be a tough one but if I'm not satisfied / feel stolen from I can't not bring it up and try.  I don't think they'd have to admit fault to issue me a refund, they could just say they issued it to calm me down from posting horrific reviews about my experience with them or that I just wasn't satisfied (he's a crazy client lol).  My logic is would they rather give me 50% of my money back for one procedure or have a horrible review on every outlet and lose much more than that amount in lost clients moving forward.

Thanks for the advice.  I'll keep documenting it moving forward.  I have yet to have a single person say they think I received 2500 grafts.  Definitely gotta voice my complaint at an appropriate time in the future.

I think key to your receiving some kind of refund here will be seeking professional assessments on the number of grafts that have actually been extracted & implanted. I understand you've started this process already, which is good. You'll want all of this in writing from any surgeons that look over the graft count, and you'll also want any responses to your queries and challenges in writing from the surgery you went to. For example, if the clinic are telling you they put more than one graft into a single incision, you'll want that sort of thing in writing for sure!

7 minutes ago, jim_hair said:

Yeah I'm hoping the graft count is my only worry moving forward from this clinic and that I can get another one done without any corrective work for; cobblestones, pitting, overharvesting.  Some of my grafts seem to have very tiny pits and there's some irregularities in my scalps elevations, but I hear that subsides within a couple/few months.  Any experience with the scalp depressions "pits" and the time lapse of that healing process?

Not personally, but from a strictly healing perspective, you're in the very early stages, so any pits, redness, patchiness, lumps & bumps... Nothing to worry about this early in the day. It doesn't look as though you've been butchered or anything too severe like that. You've been sold way short of the grafts you were told you were having transplanted, and the hairline work doesn't look as though it's been refined with any in-built irregularities - looks a little straight & linear (whether this will be a problem in your case will require more time - it may turn out fine!), but these are easily corrected/not the worst problems you can run into with a HT. I do very much hope you can recover a chunk of the funds you put in though.

25 minutes ago, jim_hair said:

Hey @Berba11 , I arrived at 7:00am and was out of surgery at 4:00pm.  I'd say with taking the pre-op signatures, discussions, and pre-op photo shoot it took 1.5 hours to get started.  Then a 30 minute lunch break.  Wifi went down for 30 minutes so Neograft machine wasn't operable during that time.  So maybe 6.0 hours - 7.0 hours of operation time, making it about 8.64 to 10.8 seconds per graft if it was 2500.  I was in and out of it so not positive they operated that entire time though.  Also, they had 3-4 surgeries in entirety that day..  The proof is in the pudding they say though, if there's only 1200 scabs and a very similar number of punch marks, it's funny how they line up.  I can't come up with any explanation I believe on why there wouldn't be evidence that 2500 grafts were placed 3 days post op.  Whether that be scabs, hairs protruding where there aren't scabs, or any signature showing something was done..  Thanks for your comment the time-lapse is an interesting way to analyze this.  

Timings in that case sound about right, but as you say, the proof is in the pudding. At least the surgery doesn't sound as though it was rushed, which may stand you in good stead going forward.

The redness is something that some people experience worse than others, so don't worry about that too much at this stage.

You're seeing hairs start to sprout now, which is good. 4 months is usually the point at which hairs start to emerge, so just hang in there! You're on track!