mtb

My bro isn’t the type to post on a forum for hair loss but I’ll share some photos of him and share his story. I would just keep sending messages on WhatsApp, email and calling the clinic. Gotta be persistent unfortunately. I think you’ll be pleased. Please dm me if you want to chat further. I may have some helpful suggestions. Yes, it’s a level of detail I didn’t see at other clinics. Not that they’re wrong, I just appreciated this very detailed approach. Sure I’ll post a hair system photo below. Plus the plane on the way there and what I’m looking like now. I honestly don’t even remember what it’s like to have hair on top of my head. It was just so far beyond possible in my mind Instopped thinking about it 5-6 years ago. NW6 for the last 10-12 years. I mean I had the fake hair, which was fine for a time. But to have real hair there is just wild.

Maybe my camera angles weren't great. More to come on my 1-month photos next week. He may have the FU break down. I didn't ask him for them. As far as splitting in the scalp or not I have no idea. Thanks for the pics @HugoX. Makes me feel a little more normal about the shock loss.

Here are some subpar photos taken at 20 days from the procedure. I have shock loss in the donor area which the doctor said is very common. He said it may take two to four months to recover. Also, my recipient hair hasn’t fallen out yet. It continues to grow. I will take my 1 month phots with the yellow background and flash next week for the doctor. I‘ll post them here as well.

Yeah his rooms will be done by the time you go for procedure. Also, there are some nice little hotels within walking distance as well. No idea if there will be a cheaper option in the future. I think the only way that happens is if there is massive competition in the market and at this point there are only a couple other clinics that can do high norwood FUE only. I was quoted at 4 euro per graft and he honored that. Em is a norwood 1 so I think he's going to be okay for many years. ha.

I had the procedure at his new clinic. It is very modern and nice. Built specifically as a hair transplant clinic. His hotel room onsite won't be ready for a few months apparently. He does everything himself in the procedure. He marks you everywhere, washes your head, takes a lots of pictures, cuts your hair to the appropriate length, administers anesthetic, administers PRP, makes every extraction, does every implantation. He has nurses that do the counting and sorting of grafts. Also his nurses load and hand him the implanter pens. He also has a nurse who does a blood draw for PRP. I'm sure there are great techs in the industry but that wasn't a risk I wanted to take. I wouldn't know any of the techs, how long they had worked there, how good they were, etc. Felt more comfortable having Dr. Zarev do everything. I paid a lot more than a place that has techs do everything but for me it made sense. I only had one shot at this as a super high Norwood.

Oh man, the FUT vs. FUE debate. There are a million opinions on that. I'd say to do your own research and make the choice you feel most comfortable with. Pros and cons to both. As I referenced in an earlier post on this thread I felt more comfortable with FUE in light of the risks. If Dr. Zarev can consistently get 10,000 - 14,000 scalp grafts from FUE his services will always be in demand. It's great that there are multiple quality options in this day and age.

I mean Eugenix and Pitella are the ones that come to mind if you’re a slick bald NW6 and don’t want FUT. Others on this forum might have helpful suggestions. My bro is going to Pitella in a few months.

Yeah very interesting. Different clinics with different methodologies. Zarev seemed to make the most sense to me but it's hard to argue with H&W. They're one of the most elite in the world. Hope you get an awesome result! @MaximusEastwood I feel comfortable about how Dr. Zarev handled it. Seemed very calculated and deliberate. @asterix0 I'll be happy to ask him about being on the podcast when I send my next update photos. He's insanely busy. Like multiple nights a week working til 11pm and Saturday, it's pretty wild. My next surgery is in Octoberish. Still waiting for him to give me a firm date. @Melvin- Moderator Thanks, man. Feeling very good about it. Wish there was a way to fast forward the next 3 months. lol @Big Rome

Yeah, I believe some of that is due to my difficult scalp conditions. I probably had bit more blood that than the typical Dr. Zarev patient. And yes, a great looking donor area was on of the several reasons that I chose Dr. Zarev. @JoDimaggio22 Yes, I'm not sure how he does it but I'm hoping my difficult scalp will still yield a minimally scared donor area. Yea, he said it's possible that I might not be interested in the second surgery. Another leading clinic offered a surgery of 5,900 grafts and thought I'd be happy with that. So maybe my 8,300 will be enough. He does go outside of what some consider to be "the safe donor area". There are several reasons I was okay with that: - My balding has been fairly stable for 10 years so lower risk of my NW getting all the way to 7, of course not guaranteed - I can tolerate oral finasteride and respond well to it which will greatly slow down my possible progression to NW7, of course not guaranteed - No one in my extended family is a NW7, of course that's only a slight indicator and not a guarantee that I won't - I still have 4k grafts in reserve from my scalp with Dr. Zarev if I start to head toward a NW7 - I have a pretty thick beard and can likely get 2k-3k grafts from it if need be - NW7 is only achieved by 7% of the population so lower probability that I'll get there - I'm also okay with SMP to add the illusion of coverage/density - Dr. Zarev says in extreme cases he can take up to 70%-80% of scalp grafts for very advanced Norwoods (so an additional 1.5k to 2k grafts for me), however this does require the patient to keep donor areas very short which I saw as an acceptable option. (Euro dudes seemingly all have the skin fade so it definitely works there. Not as popular in North America but I'll have to be the start of the trend here. ha!) So yes, we went outside the safe donor area but there are options to fight further progression of hair loss. He thought I would be fine. And there is always that risk of further loss but it was a risk I was okay taking. Some may not be comfortable with that.

No beard grafts yet. Dr Zarev prefers to use scalp hair first. Once that’s depleted he’ll use beard hair. But he thinks scalp is all I’ll need. He says in many instances the beard hair has too different a texture/color than the scalp hair. Also, he noted that beard hair typically grays before scalp hair so it looks unnatural. Personally I’m open to beard grafts. If it comes to that I’ll be happy to have them. Would rather have hair I have to color on top of my head then not enough hair for good coverage and density.

He also said I have the second most difficult scalp he's ever worked with. It soft but tough, if that makes sense. That made it very challenging for him to have the hair leave the implanter pen and stay in my scalp.

Yeah, I would have been at about 7k if he didn't lower the hairline. And yes, we have different characteristics. I have thinner hair but he says because I'm slightly lighter colored hair the contrast with my skin tone will be less. And yeah, no curl at all. So I'll still get a solid result just maybe not quite as profound as yours.

Thanks Gatsby. You're documentation of your journey has been very helpful for me and for many others on this forum. Thank you for your contributions. Yeah man, the level of detail is excruciating but Dr. Zarev really seems like he's having the best time doing it. Yeah, it's tough to wait so long. I think Dr. Zarev is one of the very best but there are other clinics that provide great results and can get you in sooner. My brother is going to a different clinic specializing in high Norwood because he doesn't want to wait until 2025. However, Dr. Zarev plans on training new surgeons in his techniques and equipment in the next few years. I'd say to be consistent in your messaging with them. They have more office staff now so that should be getting better. You caught me. I'm actually Romanian bot designed to spam this server. Busted. 😆

Hello everyone. Back in my home country now after my trip to see Dr. Zarev. All-in-all the experience was quite pleasant (of course, final result will tell how successful). I had 8,321 grafts in my procedure. I'm meant to go back in October for another ~2,000 grafts for added density. I had the procedure on 16 and 17th of January. They were absolute marathon days. Dr. Zarev and his nurses/techs are very hard working. I was asked to come in the Saturday before for bloodwork and to talk about the general plan of the procedure. The Monday I showed up at 8 am and we talked further about expectations, hairline (got him to lower it about 1 cm), the surgical plan, and then did more measurements and markings. You leave those meetings with confidence in Dr. Zarev and abilities. The surgery began at about 11am and I have to say it was doozy. 6 straight hours of lying perfectly still while he extracted each graft one by one. The only painful part was the administration of the local anesthetic. After that it was just a challenge to lie perfectly still for two 3 hours stretches, one on my stomach and one on my left side. We took a 1.5 hour breaks for his nurses to sort the grafts. Then we went in for another 6 hours for the implantation. We didn't leave his office until 1:30am. All of the extractions that day were taken from the right side of my scalp and placed into the back half of the recipient area. The second day we started late so everyone could get some sleep. The surgery started at 11am again and we did not finish this surgical day until 3am. The extractions were taken from the left side of my donor area and placed into the front and mid scalp. The first couple nights I had to be careful when sleeping or there would be some slight pain. But overall, the whole things was pretty painless. I swelled up ALOT in my face. One eye closed and the second closed after the first eye had opened back up. I was staying with a friend in Bulgaria who helped with that part. That amount of swelling probably isn't common. And really, if you're just leaving a hotel to go to the airport it's not that big of a deal. I did go back at the 7 day mark for final inspection and he said that I was healing perfectly. He told me to continue my meds til they were gone and to then begin his min/fin topical solution. I was also given the fabled yellow screen and told to send him pictures on a monthly basis. There were shampoos he recommended and a supplement gave me to start taking. Overall I'm happy with things. I came from over a decade of a hair system and was used to a super low and unnaturally aggressive hairline. I was worried when he had it drawn higher initially. As I mentioned he did lower it some. He also said that we could lower it further in the second procedure. As time goes on I'm getting used to the higher, more age appropriate hairline, so I may choose to use all of the grafts of the second procedure in my existing recipient area for density. After the second procedure he reckons I should have a final 2,000 grafts in reserve for future balding. He says my parietal humps will likely be gone in the next 5 years. Now to sit in dread as my hair that I have been enjoying the last two weeks dies off and begins to grow anew. The ugly duckling phase....

I just had my procedure with Dr Zarev. I am one who does not have as good of characteristics as Hugo. I have thinner, straighter hair than him and some blonde hairs as well, which won't provide as much contrast. However, Dr. Zarev is confident we will get a good result. I'll post a follow up on my review thread once I have gotten the pictures from his clinic. Regarding your initial post I have not seen any Turkish clinic that will get you the result that Dr. Zarev can. I chose him because I believe he is the best in the world and scalp-hair only FUE for high norwoods. All the Turkish clinics I talked to wanted to do like 5k grafts which is just never going to be enough to cover a slick bald NW6 like you or I. However, if you're open to using beard hairs or doing an FUT in conjunction with your FUE then Dr. Pitella, Eugenix, and Hasson and Wong are excellent choices in my opinion.

Funniest name on the forum. Sure I'll drop updates here.

Yes, I wanted to see results on her badly and was shocked there was only @HugoX. He did have a great review however. I'll be sure to share my experience. Thanks, I'll be excited to share Thx! Yes, very thorough. Made the other clinics seem lazy by comparison.

I don't know what the current waitlist is. I heard like 2 years for consult and 3 years for surgery. Yeah, I'll for sure document things along the way here. The initial plan is ~10,400 I believe. Across two procedures. And he calculated another 1,500 in reserve after that. I contacted him in April/May of 2021. Then followed up quite often with all the numbers on his website. Calls and Whatsapp messages and emails. Consult was Dec of 2021. 13 months between consult and procedure. I think I got in right before the demand went absolutely nuts.

He said I'm average (I think that's what I remember, it's been a years and I should have taken notes). Slightly higher than average hairs per graft but slightly lower than average hair shaft thickness. He can uses body hair but doesn't usually prefer to until all of the scalp donor is depleted. He talked about the difference in characteristics between scalp and beard. He showed me a pt who had beard to scalp transplant else where and the beard hairs went grey much earlier than the scalp hair and it looked a little off.

I enjoy giving back to this community that helped me so much in my decision making process. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. However, I do seem to be answering the same questions repeatedly. These are FAQs. If you're question isn't answered here please read the thread and it's likely answered there. Price: I paid 4 euro/graft. Current pricing is 5 euro/graft. Treatments: Dr recommend 5% minox and .1mg topical finasteride. I take .5mg orally of my own accord as well. Wait times: 2+ years but there is a cancellations list. Call the clinic for a better answer. How to contact: Call the numbers on his website. Safe zone: Yes, he has a larger extraction zone that any other doctor. Read the thread to find out more. Beard hair: He only uses as a very last resort I’d like to share my experience with Dr. Zarev from Bulgaria. My procedure will take place in just a couple of weeks. I have spent the last 2 years doing extensive research on surgeons and after consulting with many top physicians in the world I feel that Dr. Zarev is the best surgeon in the world for FUE-scalp-only procedures for Norwood 6’s and 7’s. My journey through hair loss has been a long one. I started receding and thinning at age 18. I reached advance Norwood 5 status by about 27/28 years old. At that point I was about to take a blade to my scalp and move on with my life but happened upon a mail order hair system company and thought I’d give it a shot as a last ditch effort. Things worked out pretty well. Enough to keep me with hair until age 38 when I discovered clinics like Eugenix, Hasson and Wong, and others. At this point I have been a full blown NW6 for about 10 years now. To that point I had been told and assumed there would never be enough grafts to be extracted to cover my balding areas and have it look decent. However, there had been significant advancements in FUE procedures. I did consults with Drs Cooley, Shapiro, Keene, C***, H&W, ASMED, Eugenix, Civas, FUE Capilar. All of them were impressive. I’m sure I would have a great shot at a positive result with any of them. But as my very last stop I decided to chat with Dr. Zarev. He only would give a consultation in person, so I flew to Bulgaria to be examined by him. I was absolutely impressed by the level of detailed analysis he performed in his consultation. The first step was a discussion of him asking questions about my history and my goals. This was extensive and I could tell he was very knowledgeable on the topics we discussed. The second step was his showing me many before/afters of patients with cases very similar to mine both in terms of donor and recipient area needs. He also showed me pictures of patients who were spectacular transformations, far greater that what I was in need of. The third step was the detailed analysis of my scalp: Many microcamera pictures, traditional camera pictures, hair line design, calculations for each part of my scalp, calculations for densities and so on. It was a very thorough consultation and I felt very confident in his abilities. I felt a little hesitation because there were not many personal accounts of his patients. But a big thanks to @Hugo for sharing his journey. Also, I found four other guys who had excellent results with Dr. Zarev. They shared their experiences with me and I found that very helpful. Two were Bulgarian and one was Greek so not likely that they’d ever end up on this forum or any other English language forum. I also felt good that others in the greater transplant community had very positive things to say about Dr. Zarev. Matt Dominance, JT, etc. I’m scheduled to have 6,000 grafts in my first procedure and an additional 4,000 in another procedure 9 months from now. I’m looking forward to the journey and just wanted to say thanks to everyone on this forum who has been so helpful along my journey. I’ll be sure to post updates along the way.

I’ll answer you in dm so as not to derail this thread

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I think the reason he’s touted is because he’s the only high, Norwood FUE-only doc getting full coverage and the illusion of full density. I agree the physicians you named have great results. But of all their photos I haven’t seen slick bald Norwood sixes with full coverage from fue-only and perfect looking donor areas. Just Zarev. If you’re a NW4 and below any of the guys you named would be awesome. My procedure is set for early next year. I trust him. And I know this means nothing to anyone here since it’s my personal experience but in the consultation he shows many many examples more of NW6 patients with perfect post op donor areas. I wish he had a better online presence with that stuff. So to answer the OP I say Zarev.

My surgery is scheduled for January. Waiting an extra 18 months to go with him instead of my second choice will hopefully be worth it.

I was one of the ones who posted that Zarev goes in great depth during his consults. I had a unique case so that is why he spent more time with me. I don't want to set improper expectations for his consults. They may be shorter for other people. But yes, you will leave there feeling very confident about his abilities and his plan for your case.