HashMan

Freitas is a better choice than Bisanga? Really? I was under the impression that Bisanga was the best in Europe. There's more results from him here and he seems to be alot more talked about than Freitas (using the search function here), and I see more people recommending Bisanga. What do you base this on? If you're right then that would make things so much easier for me! (I'm still worried about the fact that techs do the extraction at Freitas. A botched head can be fixed, but a botched donor area is permanent, no?)

That's good to know, any idea how long you would need to be on them before you can do the procedure? (I guess I could ask them in the email) They haven't given me a date since I haven't accepted yet. The mail had this in it though: "This budget will be valid for 3 months from the moment you receive it." So I think that means I have 3 months to decide. I figured I'll make a decision between Freitas and Bisanga before actually giving them an answer and that's what I'm stuck on. I've also not found any overharvested donor areas from Freitas, that is really good yeah! I just really assumed the doctor would do the entire procedure so reading about techs had me worried.

I would like some help/advice. I've narrowed my choices down between Dr Bisanga and Dr Freitas. I also considered Dr Zarev and Dr Couto, but they both seem unavailable due to high traffic of patients. (Dr Couto straight up said he's not accepting any new patients even for consultations). I just want to get this done, and not wait any longer for an unknown period of time, so I decided to not go for Zarev/Couto. Dr Freitas gave me the following quote: "Dr. De Freitas has personally assessed your photos and determined that in your case the surgical strategy will consist of repopulating the frontal area, the mis scalp and the receding hairline, with an extraction of 3.000 follicles (6.000 hairs approx.)" They will use the FUE method, it will take 2 days and the cost is 8500 euro, which is within my budget. The only thing I was surprised by was they said that I need to follow a treatment before the operation which consists of taking "vitamins or baldness stabilizing medications". I understand I need to take medication after the procedure, but before? Isn't it enough that I'm on Finasteride? Dr Bisanga said he needs to see me personally, and the consultation costs 100€. Including the cost of the flight as well as the trip from and to the airport, that would be around 200€ just for a consultation. That seems expensive when I don't even know what the cost of the actual surgery is going to be, if I don't end up going with Bisanga then that's alot of money down the drain. I don't understand why Bisanga wants to examine me personally when literally all other doctors I've contacted have given me an online consultation? I get that it's more accurate in person, but isn't the point of an online consultation to be an estimate? I wish he would just give me an estimate and I'd honestly go for it, even if when I'm there he says I need alot more grafts than he had thought, you know? So anyway, I would love some advice here.. To my understanding Dr Freitas is a very good doctor but when comparing him to Dr Bisanga, does he still hold up? Right now, Freitas seems like the easy choice. I just have to accept, get a date, and eventually go for it. Whereas Bisanga is the hard choice, because I have to plan a trip for a consultation, and then see if he's reasonably priced to even make a decision. Should I go for Dr Freitas or Dr Bisanga? I'm very overwhelmed after doing so much research for weeks on so many different doctors that you guys have mentioned, as well as the ones recommended by this site. Anything you can do to help me make a decision would be very much appreciated! I don't want to end up regretting my choice.. PS. According to this, techs do the implanting at Bisanga and extracting at Freitas. Is that something to worry about? I thought these were doctor-only clinics so that has me a bit worried. Is there a risk of mistakes/scars?

Thank you! Alright, that is understandable but not a problem because I'm very patient. I'll contact them both and hope for the best.

Does anyone know how to get in contact with Dr Couto and/or Dr Zarev for a consultation? Dr Zarev has a website but the link to the consultation form is broken. I couldn't find anything for Dr Couto, closest I got was this link: But it says the price is 3$ per graft and that seems highly unlikely, I imagine he's alot more expensive than that. Either way, there's no number or email.

I appreciate you so much, thanks for taking the time to answer! I've sent in consultation forms to the doctors you mentioned, and I'll check out those forums as well. You're making me realize how shallow my previous research has been. The plan was to fix my hairline and midscalp on the first surgery, and leave the crown for the future if it worsens. But maybe I'll just do the front and leave both the midscalp and crown for later on and see what medication does for those areas (although honestly I'm hoping Finasteride and no other meds will be enough to pump the breaks for now). So only the front means higher survival rate due to less grafts, which also means less money so I might be able to get it done sooner rather than later.. assuming the wait time for the clinics isn't too long.

I really appreciate your thorough response, thank you. I'm definitely not locked on HLC, they just seemed like the best option in Turkey which happened to be the only country I did research on. I absolutely don't mind saving up for a better clinic, although not too much because I want to start this process as soon as possible. I will contact those clinics! I have some follow up questions if that's ok. So if I go for one of those 5/5 doctors (Zarev/Couto/Lorenzo/Bisanga).. am I then 100% guaranteed to have a successful & satisfying outcome? Do they give free touch-ups, PRP treatments, 1-year followup, etc? Or is it just the transplant and goodbye? And what about the 4.5 doctors? Is there a risk of catastrophic irreversible failure? Thing is, if something went wrong, I'd be thinking about how to fix my hair rather than how to get a refund, you know? "We messed up, here's your money back but enjoy your ruined head" is actually something that really scares me... When you say 5000 grafts, do you mean both for the hairline and the crown - assuming I go full Norwood 4? Or do you mean 5000 grafts just from how my hair looks today? If I stay on Finasteride, will that stop me from going full Norwood 4 (or whichever one in the scale I'm destined for, I get that you just made an estimate), or just slow down the process? Should I be on anything else? My plan was to just stay on Finasteride and nothing else until I'm like 70 or something, in hopes that I won't lose any more hair. Finally, a stupid question: can I revive dead haircells through sheer willpower? I noticed while my hair was thinning and hairline was receding, there were 5 single hairs surrounded by baldness. After three of them fell off, I started actively thinking "don't fall off", "you two will survive", etc. every night by the mirror and those two hairs are still with me. Has that really helped, or was it just the finasteride kicking in? If it helped, can I just pick a random bald spot and go "hairs that were in this spot, you will start growing again!" over and over every night? (again, probably a very stupid question lol)

Thank you for your replies. My problem with doing research is I have trouble narrowing down my options, even if I only have two choices I'll sit on them for months just trying to decide. I've been stuck on "either HLC or Bicer" since February, unable to make a decision. I just wish I could have a clinic I could go to right now and be done with it, you know? But I'm afraid of not getting good results.. So I've always assumed Turkey is the best place to go to, and that HLC are the best, but if that's not the case then where else? Who would be the absolute best doctor/clinic for that price range? I'm not interested in mediocre or risky clinics, I would love some recommendations on the best ones under 10k euro. And the fewer options I have the less I will stress out trying to decide where to go! Here's pictures from last week. In the fourth picture where I've raised my eyebrows, you can see where the forehead ends and my old hairline was (red part). I know they don't go down to what my hairline used to be, but I'd like to go as close to that as possible. How many grafts would you say that is? (I'm currently not interested in the crown area). Also I've been on Fin since October 23rd 2021 and I plan to stay on it indefinitely.

So after hesitating for months, I've recently started doing research and narrowed my options down to HLC and Dr Bicer. After consulting with them both, HLC has quoted 3200-3600 grafts and Bicer won't give me an estimate (they say my hair looks like it's thinning and that I should monitor my hair loss, I've told them I've been on Finasteride for 6 months and it's no longer thinning but they didn't care). Thus, I've ruled out Bicer. So I've decided on HLC.. assuming they're the best out there. But reading around I noticed some people say that they're very good but they're not exactly the best. With a budget of 10,000 euro, would it be wise to go to HLC (2.5 euro/graft) or is there a better clinic? Preferably in Europe but doesn't have to be. Also, I have a seperate question. I've gone to two clinics in person here in Sweden, one of them said I needed 3500 grafts and the other said I needed 2500 grafts. I don't understand why there's such a difference? Their prices are similar, but 1000 graft difference seems very strange to me?