mtb

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. 

2 hours ago, 5BetaReductase said:

Very eager to follow your journey OP. Please continue to update us.

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

17 hours ago, drawdownfx said:

Congrats on getting a date with him. I look forward to see your journey with a magician like Zarev!

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.

13 hours ago, Dillpickle123 said:

Very interested to see a zarev patient review they are really rare best of luck!

Thanks, I'll be excited to share

13 hours ago, Gatsby said:

All the best @mtb 👌

Thx!

43 minutes ago, asterix0 said:

Excellent consultation and how every clinic should do it. Analyze the whole donor area, calculate the densities, full transparency with the patient. Not just draw a hairline and let's jam pack it with as many grafts as possible. 

Yes, very thorough. Made the other clinics seem lazy by comparison.

2 hours ago, hairman22 said:

Thanks would you know what is his current waitlist from consult to surgery?

I don't know what the current waitlist is. I heard like 2 years for consult and 3 years for surgery. 

1 hour ago, WhereIsMyMind said:

Nice one of the very few who managed to contact with the master himself. Would love if you document your HT. Pretty sick he planned taking 9K out of your donor out of the bat. Doing his Zarev magic as usual. Good luck!

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. 

1 hour ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

How did you get such an early date?

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.

2 minutes ago, Marlo said:

 

How did you manage to book a surgery with Zarev? I've tried to contact the clinic but no response. He'sprobably booked out for years, but might as well get myself on the list hah.

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

25 minutes ago, RandoBrando517 said:

He got like 8-9 cases that he always shows. Def not a portfolio that would make him the best

👍

On 10/19/2022 at 9:11 PM, RandoBrando517 said:

Honestly don’t know y zarev is so hyped up he’s got like 10 results he recycles and only one review here I think Cuoto De Freitas Pinto Bisanga are better and have way more results 

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. 

1 hour ago, Corbyn said:

Did you do your HT with Dr Zarev in the end?

Did you consider Thailand clinics by any chance?

Yes, it's very expensive.

Did you go to him in the end for your HT?

Did you go to him in the end for your HT?

It's very costly. 

You only posted once and you have since disappeared. Whatever happened to you?

Did you do your HT with Dr Zarev in the end?

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. 

On 6/27/2022 at 9:41 PM, Fox243 said:

I have a pretty challenging case in that I’m a young extremely aggressive balder with potential retrograde and DUPA. I was wondering which doctors had an extremely thorough consultation, just to get an idea of what they think. I know Zarev for example has a multi hour consultation where he examines your scalp in extreme depth. 

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. 

On 6/7/2022 at 12:13 PM, HugoX said:

Here is a better summarization of approximately 1.5 years after 2 surgeries. 

This is just crazy. So happy for you, Hugo. I usually am fine waiting for my time with Dr. Zarev. Days and weeks go by and I don't even think about it and then I get an alert that Hugo has posted and I start getting antsy for my surgery date! ha. January can't come fast enough.

Random story. When I was in Bulgaria getting my consult with Dr Zarev I happened to fire up the ol Tinder account. Just last week some random Bulgarian women popped up in my feed and started messaging me. We got to chatting and she was asking why I had been in Bulgaria and why I’d be going back two times in the next 1.5 years. After we chatted for a while I let her know what I was planning with Dr Z and I remembered hearing that he had reviews on Bulgarian language forums and websites. I asked if she would look him up and tell me what she thought. ha. She looked him up and said In the country he has positive reviews. Nothing needle moving as far as reputation but it was nice to hear another little data point especially since his patients are 90+% Bulgarian so they’re not going to be on English language forums. I’m going to get her to send me some of the reviews but translated to English. Oh, and now I have dinner date setup for when I go back for my procedure. 😆

1 minute ago, TrustTheProcess said:

 So how long is the wait? How far out is he booked?

It was a 7 month wait for an in person consult. Then a 13 month wait for a procedure. Both of those times are probably going to be longer these days. 

On 4/21/2022 at 4:42 PM, JoDimaggio22 said:

I was just curious since I don’t live close if you could send him photos him get a garage and then do your in person with the idea of doing the procedure that day or the next days

"send him photos him get a garage"? I don't know what that means but he won't agree to do surgery until he sees you in person, but you'll have to consult with him on that, I don't want to put words into his mouth. Hugo may have more insight on that. I think he said he had a quick turnaround from his consult to his surgery time. 

4 hours ago, JoDimaggio22 said:

Did you meet him in person or going to and then do it?

I have been in person. That's how he said I'm average to slightly above average when taking into account hair per follicle, follicles per sq cm, hair color to scalp contract, curl, etc. It was a very thorough assessment.

3 hours ago, Gatsby said:

Congratulations mtb! Can I ask how does Dr Zarev perform surgery if the patient has poor donor and doesn't use beard grafts for his results?

That's the thing, the patient has to have the right donor area. He wouldn't do any real consult until he saw me in person, which I respect. He said I'm fairly average to slightly above average candidate. He said he wouldn't attempt a procedure if I didn't have good enough characteristics. I think beard hair can be a great option for those who have poor donor area. Hopefully I won't get to that point but you never know who will go full blown nw7

4 hours ago, Grouse said:

May I ask how you managed to get ahold of him? Enjoy what are sure to be some phenomenal results!

I reached out to his office in April of last year. Took a while to get a response. to be honest I think I got in before the demand for his services went crazy. Now I think it's difficult to get in with him. But worth the wait if you can. 

14 minutes ago, mrmane85 said:

That's exciting news! Do you have a planned surgery date? How many grafts are you both thinking for this surgery?

I need 10k-11k total. But it'll be broken into two procedures. 

1 hour ago, mrmane85 said:

Did you decide to go ahead with Dr Zarev @mtb?

Yes, I have decided to go with him. In the end it was between him and Eugenix, for me. I'd prefer not to have to use beard hair so Zarev was my guy. I also think Zarev has slightly better use of the donor and thicker recipient areas. Just one guy's opinion. I'm sure I would have been stoked with Eugenix. Do tons of research before making your decision. I consulted with about 12 top clinics before deciding. Now I'm playing the waiting game. 

On 3/28/2022 at 5:59 AM, Gatsby said:

I’ve heard a patient say on the Bald Truth that he flew from the US to see him in person for a consultation. Dr Zarev’s consultation lasted for three hours according to this potential patient. @NARMAK nothing wrong with wearing a wig. As you know I wore one for 25 years. 

That was me. I don't think that's common practice. Maybe anticipate like an hour or hour-and-a-half? There were some things specific to me that made it long. But regardless you'll leave feeling he's super knowledgeable and totally dedicated to giving you the best chance at success. 

On 3/25/2022 at 6:08 PM, BDK081522 said:

 

The game has changed. Awesome result, Hugo. Temples look just as thick as pre-first procedure. Can you tell much of a difference between the recipient area between first and second procedure in terms of thickness? May be too soon to tell. 
 

My scheduled procedure with Dr Z can’t come fast enough. 

21 hours ago, LMyR said:

I've had a consultation with dr. Zarev a couple of days ago.
I'll share my opinion of him, but have in mind that it was a long consultation (about a hour and a half) and some of the more technical stuff he said to me, I just didn't understand completely due to my lack of knowledge. 

So, the first thing as I said is that the consultation was long. He really takes time to listen to you and doesn't treat you just as a patient, but as a person. 
The questions that he first asks are - When did you first notice hair loss? What pattern of hair loss runs through your family? Are you taking something to prevent it (medications).
When it comes to medications, he says that the majority of his patients have some sort of side effects from finasteride and was surprised that I didn't have any. He doesn't say that they have severe side effects, but some (brain fog, etc.). Around 15% don't have.
He believes that, if he can make a good conservative opinion, meaning - analyzing your donor, your hair loss and making a worse case scenario (what NW you will end) - age is not that important. I was surprised from that as I know that other surgeons are cautious to transplant on young patients. 
I suggested, if it will be a good option to go FUT first, as I've heard that it can spare your donor hair, but for him FUT is an outdated way of doing the things. It usually ends up with poor growth and the current methods are so advanced, that FUT is not necessary anymore. 

After all the talking, he takes pictures of you from all angles and then watches you on a micro camera. He showed me pictures of very hard cases.
One of them was a NW6 with retrograde alopecia that he managed to repair. I think he said, that he managed to extract more grafts due to the patient wanting to shave their donor completely. (I'm not sure about that information. Perhaps there are some youtube videos of him, as he suggested that he has uploaded some of his patients).  

My case: He said that besides my receding hairline and family history of hair loss, he could take around 14 500 grafts from my donor currently. Those will be enough even for the worst case scenario (NW6), which he suggested as highly unlikely. 

From his experience, the best HT results are the ones who grow early (4-5 months) and typically a HT will look better after the first 1-2 years and it will worsen slightly after a few years. Also, he is clear that HT isn't a guarantee, meaning that you can't predict 100% how a human organism will react (especially, if done incorrectly).

If you want to contact him, perhaps e-mail is not the best option (he said, he has around 1200). There is a phone number when you type his name, but it probably is easier to get to him, if you are from Bulgaria. The waiting for a consultation is typically around 1 year, but they probably will call you earlier, as their schedule changes. Once you have the consultation, it becomes easier to get to him. You become their patient and he even gave me his phone number, as I have to send him my blood tests.

Note: This was a long consultation and the best way to understand his opinions/views is to actually meet him or watch some of his videos. I have tried to remember most of what he said to me, but there is a chance that I have misunderstood him on some topics. Take it with a grain of salt.

TLDR: From what I've seen from the opinions about him, he seems like the real deal. He was very friendly and informative about his views and how he does his work.
If you have a big budget and are a high NW, perhaps he will be a good option for you.
 

I met with him in mid-December and had the exact same experience in terms of the high level of detail, realistic expectations, and long-term planning. He spoke with me for nearly three hours. A very thorough assessment. I was impressed with him.