RODY94

So a little update: I'm almost 90% sure I'll be doing the procedure sometime in August. Had a very friendly email exchange with Dr. Konior and he really advised against anything more than 2-2.5k, and to focus mostly on the frontal region. I guess this is based on my age (26) and although the hairloss is stable with finastride now, it might take a turn over the course of the years. My #1 option right is Dr. Cortez in Tijuana, not as much patient reviews as the others but the work seems very good. His graft count was also 1.8-2k, which agrees with Dr. Konior's. Would love to hear from anyone who's been there, and what to expect. At $4.6k, it's not cheap but around the same <5k that I was hoping for. I'm from Canada, so Mexico is a much better destination than Turkey for me. I've also been in touch with Dr. Gur, Yaman and Bicer. Dr. Gur and Yaman have both suggested 3.5-4k grafts, which I believe might be too much. The communication with Dr. Bicer's been more difficult, and I haven't been getting consistent feedback from her employees. But she's also one that I'd be looking forward to hearing from. Thoughts on the shortlist I've generated? Lastly, I was thinking of doing SMP for my crown area which Dr. Konior said to not touch at this moment, but has significant scalp showing and thinning. Any thoughts on pre-transplant SMP? Should I consider doing the whole scalp, just to get that extra density before the transplant? I don't plan to lower my hairline that much, just reconstruct it and focus on frontal density. Would SMP pre-op be a good idea? Thanks everyone, glad I've found this forum.

I found this that looked decent: And this one, although this is a NW3 front with really thick hair: But now that you mentioned it, I really don't like the fact that they have so little <4k graft cases. The transplant the whole kitchen and living room on! Btw, any reasonably priced options in Mexico that stand out to people? If not going for Vera, Yaman or Bicer then I'd think there's no point in going to turkey at all, could save myself the money ang hit up Mexico (I'm from Canada).

Exactly my point! I've also seen lots of subpar 5k grafts, but hey seem quite decent at the <4k graft range. I'm getting some consults from Yaman and Bicer too ever since AEK rubbed me the wrong way. Your Yaman post really threw me off though, scary stuff for a low graft count too!

Thank you so so much Asterix, this is exactly the kind of argument and evidence I was begging for. I hadn't seen the botched donor thread yet, and I don't think a refund plus a short message on punch sizes is gonna cut it. Thanks for the information! Do you have similar cases for Vera as well? I'm mostly concerned with <4k graft cases and haven't found many poor results on Vera in that graft range. Could be due to the shady reviews, but they did get a european award for their work, so makes me think ...?

I'm trying to look through transparent glasses LOL I've only been looking at cases on this network and on reddit for different doctors (plus youtube). If there's a different source, please do let me know. I'm a grade 3-4 and honestly, it wouldn't have been this bad if I hadn't used kreatine for a long time. I stopped using it and started Fin and have had some extra growth and quite a stable density for the past 2 years now. I think of a it as a self inflicted bullet, although shedding is a norm now. All I would need is 1-2 bad results from clinics such as VERA, yaman or AEK with my range of grafts for me to reconsider lol. And honestly, I'm having a hard time finding those really subpar results. They're plentiful in the >4-4.5k graft range where obviously a double session probably 1-2 years apart should have been done instead of a single "mega-session". Never really understood the appeal of a mega-session, hmm maybe its the word mega LOL. But yeah, hope you guys can show me some baddies

Update on AEK. I had some whatsapp exchanges with their consultant Omar, and I was getting the wrong vibes. I liked the fact that they gave 3 different options of graft count, and suggested the more conservative option. He also mentioned that the doctor would only see 1-3 patients per day. However, when I asked about the role of the doctor he kept giving me a scripted answer of: The doctor and technicians work together to make the operation work. Would you ask your heart surgeon the name of their technicians and the person who does the sedation? Honestly, I was quite confused and offended by the answer and tried to poke and prong the real answer out of him, but he never said anything more. Never disclosed what the doctor would do, I even asked whether he would be making the incisions but no real response other than: Look what I've said before. He also wanted to make me decide on a date right then and there, which I found nonsensical. So yeah, Not sure about AEK right now.

@What is your agenda here See I think this statistical distribution you talk about is only present at the >4k graft cases. I've looked thorugh reddit, youtube and probably 4-5 cases per doctor on this site, and honestly, I haven't found a single bad procedure in the ~3k graft range from any of these guys (Vera, Yaman, Bicer, Bisanga, AEK ...). My thought is that these graft ranges are simpler cases and hence, don't require such refined donor management and etc. I won't argue the credentials of the top guys, but if you have a cold, you don't need to go to a heart specialist. And again, please correct me if I'm wrong on this. This has been my evaluation of the couple of cases of seen from all the doctors above. @Melvin- Moderator Interesting that you bring up the word surgery. I'm no stranger to it, believe me. I've probably had more of those than everyone else on this thread combined LOL. But I do understand your point, and I definitely wouldn't want to risk my health over a couple of dollars. I've just been thinking that for the cases of <4k grafts which I would also fall into, I can't see a significant difference between the lot, as it appears to be on the moderate difficulty side. Obviously, any place with subpar medical credentials is off the table right away, I'm not trying to get a head infection!

Aren't both Forum recommended? I'm also in touch with Dr. Rahal in toronto (quite convenient for me, right around the corner) to see what he says, and sent my consultation to the "top guys" as well like Bisanga, De Freitas, Feriduni and Bicer. I understand everyone here wants to sway you towards a more clinically correct decision, however I'm feeling that the forum is very dismissive of the more budget options. I've been researching this field for 5-6 months and have a decent idea of what constitutes a good procedure. Vera, AEK and Gur all have very good results, along with some bad ones. The bad results however tend to be those >4k graft single session extractions that produce unrealistic and "bad" hairlines and densities. They do a one site fits all procedure, and obviously special cases need special procedures. Having discussed with a lot of people on the forum and read stories and comments, I truthfully can't discern a noticable difference between the best of Vera, AEK, Yaman and etc. and the best of the top dogs (in this forum, this seems to be Bisanga and De Freitas). what I find striking is in the those higher norwood cases, where these top dogs (and correctly so) do 2-3 procedures 1-2 years apart and a mix of FUE and FUT. I could be very wrong in my assessment, and obviously would love to hear more from everyone. My digging for now, found little difference in the 3-4k graft cases between the Turkey boys and the top dogs, considering the 4x or sometimes 5x price difference.

Update: Had some chats with Dr. Gur, Dr. Yaman and AEK. From what i can tell, the prices are FAR better than what I have been seeing on the website. AEK seems very professional and "less markettingy" than any of the other ones I've talked to. He's also not afraid of proposing FUT, which I find very honest and interesting since I can always cover that scar up with micropigmentation. Thoughts on any of the above guys?

I mean could you help me understand the difference, or maybe give some pointers as to what you mean by refinement and quality? My conflict right now is I've seen (even on this forum) many cases where the person is satisfied with their results and had paid a presumably large sum of money, but I would not be pleased with said result. And cases where they paid a mediocre or even little amount of money and were not happy with their results, whereas I would find that result very pleasing. I have found this industry to be very subjective, and hence my questions about the differences.

Appreciate the input guys. It's not a matter of being able to afford it or not, rather than wanting to spend an absence amount of money for a difference that personally I cannot tell even after researching this topic for the past 4-5 months. I checked out Bisanga's youtube vidoes, and I notice that most of his clients are NW3 or bellow. The only results on Vera that I found really terrible and with bad density, were the NW5 and above guys, whom vera tries to transplant over 5-6k grafts in one session, which obviously is a recipe for disaster. My main question is, in the NW4 family, I honestly can't find results that are terrible from Vera, and I can't find enough results from Bisanga, Fereira and some of the others to feel confident in going there. I found AEK vey helpful in explaining things and his love for FUT, and pekiner seems to have seen a couple of NW4 in his life too. It would be great if you guys could show me what you mean by "imperfect' or "unatural" in a typical NW4 case from someone who's been to Vera and someone who's been to these other clinics. I will check out Dr. Gur and Turan, thanks champ. Always appreciate direct advice, keep it rolling!

Hey guys, 26 year old male from Canada, been on Finastride for ~2 years and I would place myself somewhere on the Norwood 4 scale (probably early NW4). Hairline loss at the front, density loss in the front 1/3-1/2 and in the crown. I was mostly using youtube to research where and what procedure to go for and I kept stumbling on this video of Amir (I can link it if needed, not sure about forum policies on links) where he went to Vera clinic and had a great experience. I have in touch with them, and although they seem quite pushy, they're also quite organized and have very good reviews on their costumer care. I was wondering if there is anyone here who's had unsatisfactory results with them, or someone who's been ecstatic with Vera and what they got? I spoke with my doctor in Canada as well, and even he suggested Turkey as a good place to go to for transplants as they have lots and lots of experience with the procedure. Caveat, we are good family friends with the doctor so I guess he felt comfortable mentioning this. I honestly can's fathom to pay more than 7-8k CAD for a procedure such as this. In my opinion, if the procedure would cost more than 7-8k, the alternatives become a lot more attractive e.g. SMP to deal with my density problem, hair fibers or even going super buzz mode! So for me who'd probably need somewhere between 3.5 - 4.5/5k grafts, paying more than 3 CAD per graft is a little unreasonable. I would really appreciate people's thoughts on this and please feel free to convince me otherwise, I would like to hear everyone's thoughts on both clinic choice, Drs and the whole price business. I understand the whole "it's for life" argument, but from the youtube videos I've seen, the difference between the vera clinic ones (Amir and others) and those of Dr. Bisanga, Pekiner, picer and the others are not heaven and earth. Thanks boiz!