Hey everyone, I wanted to reach out and share my experience and results from HMR in Tijuana with Dr Jorge Cortez. I'm hoping to get some advice as well. For background, I've had a receded hairline since college but it was never bad enough that I thought much about it until the last couple of years. I worked from home through the peaks of COVID and when things started to get back to normal, I saw some pictures of myself and how much my hair had receded during those two years and wanted to find a fix. After seeing patient results on here and reddit, I landed on Dr Cortez at HMR based on the results I saw and the cost ($2.30/graft). I live in California, so it was also pretty convenient.
Overall, the experience was good and the grafts have grown in great. The staff is very friendly and the procedure itself went very smoothly. They've consistently followed up and have been easy to communicate with throughout the process. In hindsight, my only complaint is that I wish that I would have spent more time with the Dr on confirming that the hairline was exactly what I wanted. I know that many people here may think that I'm obsessing about it or that I should just be happy with the results, but the hairline is very straight and appears unnatural. Another concern, similar to experience @Greenlantern2020 had, my hair can now only be styled to the right. I can live with this, but it's something that I wish I would have known to discuss with the Dr ahead of time. I had a virtual consult with the office today to discuss my concerns and they seemed very amenable to working with me to get my desired result.
Their suggestion is to add another ~300 grafts to the hairline to create a slight widow's peak and a more zig-zaggy hairline to provide a more natural appearance. They also suggested working to round the corners out more but did not suggest removing any grafts. I'm also planning to meet with them in person soon, to get a better idea of their suggestions. Lastly, I'm also planning to have some virtual consultations with other US based physicians such as Dr Pak, Dr Mohebi, and Dr Nadimi. The only downside is that they each charge $200 so I may just pick 1-2 max. I'd love to hear the forum's thoughts or suggestions. To be clear, I'm planning on doing something to fix this - just not sure my exact game plan yet.
For those considering HMR - this seems to be a clinic that does great work but be very prepared with a game plan for your hairline and styling. Otherwise, I've noticed that many of their designs seem to be similar to mine.
Post Op, Immediately after Scab Removal
Post Op Donor Area
3 Months Post Op - Ugly ducking phase
~7 months out
~9.5 months out