It's about time to post my review of the HDC clinic in Nicosia Cyprus, where I had my transplant done at the end of October.
About 3200 grafts.
All the pictures are at the end of this post.
First, it is important to clarify that I did research for almost six months!!! I checked countless clinics (I think over 50). I spoke and contacted over 700 people from Facebook hairtransplat groups. I contacted with anyone who tweeted something about a clinic and wanted to know everything. I asked people what they thought, were they satisfied ans etc. Many were nice and agreed to share from their experience. I talked to so many people because I didn't want to take any chances. From the one hand I didnt want to to pay chep prices and go to a hair milles like they gave on Turkey, and from the other hand not paying 4-5. euros per graft.
Finnaly I choose Hdc clinic in cyprus. small introduction about the clinic and the reason I choose it. Dr. John C*** worked in this clinic - an American doctor, the first to perform fue in Europe and who is considered one of the best known hairtranplent doctors in the world. The doctor who replaced Jhon C*** as the head doctor at HDC was his apprentice at the clinic and who would also become one of the best known doctors in the world - Dr. Bizenga from Belgium. After the departure of Dr. Bizenga, Dr. Maras (who was also an apprentice of Dr. C***), took the reins of the head doctor and he was the one who performed my hairtransplant. We will expand on him later.
From here begins nothing less than amazing experience I had with HDC. I discovered that it is no less than one big family.
At midnight at the airport, Yogin was waiting for me, a kind driver who later turned out to be married to Janet, one of the nurses who help with the transplant and sort the grafts (I told you - family 😊)
As mentioned, I arrived at midnight and from there we drove about 45 minutes to Nicosia to one of the HDC apartments. The clinic has many apartments for patients in the building that is opposite the clinic - just cross the road. The apartment is equipped with everything, huge kitchen (the size of an apartment in itself) with everything you need, living room, TV, etc.
I got up the next morning and showed up at 8:00 AM, full of excitement. First I will note that the clinic itself looks very modest - A 3 story building. They don't try to market themselves through a fancy clinic and they don't need to either. Anyone that goes there knows, that they doesn't need to be impressed by the design. I came to receive a premium hairtranplant at medium cost, so what interest me, is the doctor and the staff - where the clinic spares me with nothing.
Let's move on to the main part - first I had some photos taken by Janet (whom I told you about before) who is considered the "mother" of the clinic. She is also the one who takes care of everything you need at the apartment. After the pictures, she will move on to assist Dr. Maras with the transplant.
I guess there were all kinds of other procedural things that happened and I just forgot because of the excitement. After that is the meeting with Dr. Maras for discussing the hairline.
Again, I have to mention that he is an outstanding doctor with great hands, but more important also a lovely person. He project you with his calmness. Even when you drive him crazy with questions, he is always calm and patient.
we started talking and thinking about what can and should be done according to my age (43). After a conversation and several drawings and suggestions, we started the process.
The thing that everyone was scared me about was the injections. I don't know if I'm already used to pain due to surgeries I've had, but I must say that the injections didn't hurt at all. Just felt like a slight pinch. All the credit goes to whoever is responsible for the anesthetic injections in the head and somehow the only person whose name is lost from my memory. He kept asking me if everything was fine and if it was possible to continue the injections and every time I gave him the same answer "everything is fine, I can hardly feel it".
After the anesthetic injections, Dr. Maras begins the procedure of removing the grafts from the back of the head with the hair punching Machine. The grafts are transferred to for sorting/separating into singles by the nurses, Janet whom I told you about earlier, and the equally lovely Crystala.
After a short break when to order lunch, Dr. Maras begins to perform the procedure of opening the channels, and then the final step of inserting the grafts after they have been sorted and some of them have been separated into singles.
The only thing I had a problem with, was lying in all kinds of positions for many hours (since I have a lot of orthopedic problems this was the only part that was difficult for me) and at the same time the staff was very attentive when I asked to take breaks.
The whole procedure takes about 8-9 hours on the first day.
On the second day, the same procedure is repeated again.
As I mentioned before, I had about 3200 grafts tranplented, most of them singled, which means only about 1600 grafts were tranplented on average per day - which is about half of the amount implanted in other clinics, which shows the clinic's meticulousness and its perfectionism.
At the end of the second day, you do not fly home. They don't put you a bandage and send you home. You stay another 5 nights for supervision and for daily washing.
After 7 nights, on the day of the flight back to Israel, Janet removes the scabs, equips you with a return home kit and explains to you how you should behave in the coming month.
This is the end of the first part of my jorney. The pictures I attached is:
The first 4 pictures - before the hair tranplent.
The next 4 pictures - 4 days after.
The next 5 pictures - after 10 days.
The last 5 pictures - after 6 months.
