I have followed this forum for a while without an account and it guided my choice of clinics towards Eugenix in Gurugram (New Delhi, India) where I had my surgery last week.
Quickly about myself I am 35. I knew I had widow’s peaks but it didn’t actually occur to me that I was balding until I was 28 and I saw a photo someone had taken of my crown and I was alarmed. Immediately I got on medication and in 7 years there has been only minor progression. My dermatologist says I’m a Norwood 3A with some possible retrograde alopecia on my sides.
Treatments I have tried and I think have prevented further loss and enhanced existing follicles:
Oral Dutasteride 0.5mg
Oral Finasteride 2.5mg
Oral Minoxidil 5mg
Topical Minoxidil 7%
Treatments I have tried and I really doubt do anything:
Biotin
Saw palmetto
Ketoconazole shampoo
Lasermax
Skin needling
Lumigan eye drops (Bimatoprost) - incidentally this works amazingly to lengthen my eye-lashes
Eugenix runs a professional operation. Administration staff are all friendly. They ask you to perform certain blood tests to determine your suitability for transplant (full blood count, diabetes screen, hepatitis, HIV, blood clotting factors). They check your blood pressure and pulse the day before surgery, as well as sensitivity testing for local anaesthetics. They extract your blood on the day, centrifuge it and seperate the PRP to inject into your recipient area.
I paid for the premium package where Dr. Bansal designed the hairline and performed the slits. However apart from this I don’t remember her actually being in the surgery room much supervising. So it did occur to me that maybe I could have gone for a cheaper package and had the same result.
The surgery itself was not stressful. They can give you Alprazolam if you are nervous. They let me play my own Spotify playlist over the speakers for 6 hours which was an amazing comfort. The anaesthesia is good, stings a bit going in, but you don’t feel the extraction or implantation, and I just let them know when I felt pain and they injected more lidocaine. Lunch is provided for you.
A lot of people kept walking in and out of the surgery room, taking things from the shelves or talking to the surgery staff. That was a bit weird and chaotic and I don’t think would happen in surgery in my country. Another frustrating thing was there were very few people who introduced themselves so basically I didn’t know who was operating on me or what their role was, technician or surgeon etc
Eugenix provides you with a private car to and from your hotel. The Premium Package includes 2 nights accomodation and they offered The Westin. I chose to stay at the cheaper Hilton which was just as easy to walk to. The after-care team was very good to me. For the next few days I came in and they dressed my wounds. They provide you with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory (my forehead swelled like The Elephant Man). You also have to use a saline spray every hour. Be warned the ABs are quite strong and I think are giving me diarrhoea.
Hope everything goes fine for me. I guess I’ll post an update when I start freaking out about the shedding and shock loss period. But I’m pretty confident Eugenix was the right choice.
Also I’m posting my photos here because I can have control over it, but I requested that Eugenix blur my face on their website.
Beau