Odysseus

I have the pre-op pictures. I haven't requested the post-op pictures. Before I post anything, I'll have to edit my face out, since I prefer to remain anonymous. Honestly, though, my case isn't the best one to showcase their work. I have the same hairline I had before and I had diffuse thinning before, so at a #1 guard I look similar to what I would have looked like at a #1 guard before. I absolutely have fuller coverage, but it isn't like those dramatic changes of guys filling in slick baldness on some part of their scalp. I think I will probably just wait until my 1-year anniversary and post the final results then. One thing I can tell you that has been a surprise is just how different beard hair feels growing out of the scalp. It is much stiffer and pricklier than my scalp hair. But it looks perfectly natural (at least it does at a #1 guard). So far, I am very satisfied with my results.

Thanks, Bandit. And you might be right that the anesthesia was starting to be less effective at the end. I definitely noticed that it didn't last long at all in the crown area. I wondered if there was a physical reason for that - something about the crown area itself - but it might be because that was the last area worked on over the three days. As for my results and growth, everything seems to be going very well. I'm 36 days out from the last day of my procedure and I don't think I have begun to shed much, if at all. It's hard to tell because I had diffuse thinning - so some hair is going to be up there regardless - and I'm keeping my hair shaved to a #1 guard because I'm having SMP done in my donor area. But, honestly, I have discovered that I really like the #1 guard look with my beard! I'm going to go for a Graham McTavish look, but with buzzed hair. Speaking of my beard, I can't tell any difference whatsoever in how it looks despite the fact that they pulled 2143 grafts from it. That's a relief because I like my beard. 😅 My final hair graft numbers were 767 scalp grafts on day 1 1623 scalp grafts on day 2 2141 beard grafts on day 3 TOTAL - 4531 grafts Those combined with my approximately 1500 grafts from previous surgeries should give me very good coverage...especially taking into account the way my hair color and skin tone work in my favor. And I think the SMP will do a good job covering my scars and giving me the illusion of more density back there...I hope. Add to that the fact that I take 5 mg of oral minoxidil per day and I have good reason to hope my hair journey is behind me until someone actually comes up with a cure or hair multiplication gets figured out. I'm sure I'll post photos eventually, but I'm finding that I take really bad, unhelpful photos when trying to photograph my own head. 😄

I've been thinking overnight about the fact that the exact same thing that happened to me (continuing to operate without anesthesia) happened to @maintaining. When I gave Eugenix the high score I did on Google, it was because I thought what happened to me was a very bad one-time event. I didn't think it was fair to the founders to hurt their clinic with a bad review because of the one-time actions of two idiots. Now that I know it happened to @maintaining, too, (down to the "Oh, pain?" and yet continuing) I think it's fair to assume it's happening more often than I thought. And frankly, the person I talked to from Eugenix yesterday didn't come across as shocked and regretful about what happened. He came across as someone doing monotone damage control because of this forum while giving me the minimum possible assurance that the account of my "discomfort" would be "passed on to management." Given all of that, my conscience just won't let me leave my Google review at 4 stars. Not even close. I think potential patients deserve to know that being operated on without local anesthesia is something they might encounter at Eugenix. If they then choose to roll the dice, that's on them. Most of the time they'll probably be fine and will be thrilled with the clinic. But they might be the unlucky one... I don't think anyone can accuse me of being unfair to Eugenix. I went to the clinic in very high spirits (as my posts here show) and was very friendly to everyone - even those who consistently weren't very friendly to me. Other than one moment at the end of the third day when I yelled out "Mother f***!" when they caused me a particularly severe amount of pain, I kept my temper throughout the last 30 - 45 minutes of pain. And after the procedure was done on that third day and I was preparing to return to the hotel, I was still cordial with the team that had just essentially tortured me (that was made easier by the simple fact that, because of the gauze over my eyes, I didn't know what the two techs looked like who had tortured me). I was also very friendly to the after-care team over the week that followed (after all, it wasn't their fault). Eugenix claims to have video of my entire 3-day procedure, so a review of that footage will show them how friendly I was. And, of course, I even gave them a 4-star review! Clearly, I don't have any desire to hurt the Eugenix clinic. But my review needs to reflect what really happened, so I will have to change it. Maybe if the person I spoke to yesterday had seemed more shocked and upset and had vowed to find out who the techs were and where the anesthesia nurse went, my conscience would have let me leave the review as it is. Maybe. But that didn't happen and, if it happens now (after I have written this post on this site), I just won't be able to believe it. It will just seem like more concern about protecting their reputation, not sincere shock and regret that this sort of thing is happening in their clinic. If they had felt that shock and regret, they would have said it yesterday. I'm disappointed in Eugenix. Not only because of what happened, but because of the way they responded when it was brought to their attention. Sadly, my conclusion is that I cannot recommend that people go to Eugenix. Having skilled doctors isn't enough. Competent, caring techs who are held accountable for their actions is also required. And when a patient is tortured by the employees of the clinic, the clinic needs to come up with something better than "I'll pass it on to management." If what happened to me and @maintaining had happened at a clinic in the US, they would be open to a lawsuit - and the video footage that the clinic has would be all the evidence needed to win it.

I wish communication would have been better. It would have put me much more at ease to have been told I was being worked on by a guy who was an expert vs. someone who was learning the ropes by practicing on me. 😅 The language barrier was occasionally an issue, definitely. This was obviously one of those times.

Considering that Maintaining says he had the exact same excruciating experience I did, it does suggest they need to do an internal review to figure out why this is happening and what they need to do to stop it today. - Was he worked on by the same techs I was? If so, they need to be fired. - Was the anesthesia nurse who worked on him the same one who worked on me? If so, why is she leaving before procedures are done? Like I said in my review, no matter how skilled the doctors are at any clinic (and they seem to be very skilled at Eugenix), patients aren't going to come if they think they are signing up to be tortured.

I stated clearly on the first day that I wasn't interested in being recorded or photographed for use in any marketing. They said that was no problem, so I am trusting them to keep their word and keep my photos private.

Thanks. I got a call this morning "out of the blue" apologizing and saying they would look into what happened, so they must monitor this site.

I'm really disappointed to hear that you experienced the same thing I did. If I had known that, I would probably have given them a lower score when I reviewed them. I assumed what I experienced was just a very unfortunate one-off event. Now I have to wonder how often it is happening. "it felt like they were pulling my scalp off with tiny hooks." Yes. When the Eugenix rep called me in response to posting my review, he kept referring to my "discomfort" as he apologized. "Discomfort" is nowhere close to a strong enough word. However, he promised that management would be made aware of what happened and would investigate it. I wish I had insisted that they call Dr Das, as you did. I guess I kept thinking the anesthesia nurse would be back any second... I also couldn't really believe that they were continuing to work despite my repeatedly saying I was in pain. "they are expanding too quickly" One thing I can say for sure is that a model like they are using only works if the tech team can be trusted to do the right things without the constant supervision of a doctor. The team(s) that worked on you and me obviously can't be. Like you, I have no reason to think my results won't be great. Currently I am very happy with things. I'm a month out and I don't think I have even started to shed yet.

For those who have already read my account above, I want to let you know that I added this to the section about having trainee doctors work on patients: "EDIT: In response to the posting of this review here on the Hair Restoration Network, I received a call from a representative from the clinic. He assured me that it was a miscommunication and that the person working on me was not a doctor in training, but was instead another tech. He assured me that Eugenix does not allow trainee doctors to work on patients in such a way and offered to show me the video. Since the doctors wear different colored uniforms than the techs, I could be shown that the person was not a trainee doctor as I had been told. I said that was not necessary, that I believed him and would update my review here to reflect this new information. That said, I'm not sure why a tech (an older man than the rest of the techs, and someone with a much different demeanor) suddenly joined the team that was working on me, but perhaps he is particularly good at beard extractions and that was why they only brought him in for that part and then he immediately left."

I had my procedures on March 4 – 6. While I had originally planned to give a detailed summary of events as many others have done, I have decided to go a different route. Every day after the final procedure the after-care team would apply slight pressure for me to review the clinic on Google. I told them I didn’t intend to write the review until I was completely done. Since I was staying an additional 7 days so I could have them treat the donor area daily and do my first head wash, that meant I would submit the review on that final day. That didn’t stop them from applying good-natured pressure every day to write it early, but I stuck to my original plan. And honestly, it is lucky for the clinic that I did. My early drafts and thoughts were much, much, much worse than what I ultimately decided to write. When I went to submit this final version on Google, I discovered it doesn’t allow long detailed reviews. So, I simply submitted a couple of lines of praise for the clinic and gave them four stars. I have no doubt that some people, when they read my account of what happened to me at the end of the third day, will be very confused about how I could possibly give them 4 stars. I think I explain that at the end of the review, though. I sent the full review to the after-care team and suggested they show it to management so that nothing like what happened to me will happen to anyone else. By the way, although they thanked me for the review, no one from the clinic ever contacted me and apologized for what happened, asked for more details (though none are necessary, I suppose), or attempted to explain how what happened could have happened. That makes me wonder if anyone actually read the review. Perhaps since it is so long they simply took the four stars and moved on to the next patient. Here is that review: ~~~~~~~~ I believe that Dr. Pradeep Sethi and Dr. Arika Bansal have gone to great lengths to build a world class clinic that offers patients the highest quality hair transplant experience possible. I also think that Dr Das, my doctor, is very skilled, a genuinely nice person, and I enjoyed talking with her. And finally, there are many people working at Eugenix who are absolutely great people and I am happy that I got to meet them. If you had told me on day 1 or 2 of my 3-day Eugenix procedure that I would be writing anything except a 5-star review of the clinic, I would have said you had me confused with someone else. But, if I am going to write a review, I have to review my whole experience. One of those experiences was not good. I'll get to that. But first the positives: - Dr Das is highly skilled at every aspect of her job, she is careful to balance the maximum amount of hair she can move without thinning out the donor area too much (a particular concern in my case), and she is very friendly and a pleasure to talk to - The clinic offers very high-quality hair transplants at prices that are within the reach of most people - The clinic operating room techs work well together to quickly implant thousands of grafts in a relatively short period of time (it still takes several hours, but that is unavoidable) - The clinic tries to make the patient comfortable during the procedure by allowing him to choose the type of music that is playing - The clinic makes the hotel reservations for the patient and pays the first two nights. The hotel picks the patient up from the airport and drops him off there at the end of his stay. - The clinic arranges for a driver to take the patient back and forth from the hotel to the clinic. (But don't put too much faith in the time of day they say they will pick you up. It could be over an hour later) - The clinic founders have obviously carefully considered how to help the patient through recovery. The clinic allows you to come to the clinic every day after the procedure to have the donor area cleaned until the 7th day, at which point they give the patient his first post-procedure hair wash. They also send daily email and WhatsApp messages and automated phone calls walking the patient through their recovery process. The clinic also prescribes a set of medicines and a probiotic to take during the week following the procedure. - There are some very nice and friendly people at Eugenix. Particularly, the patient liaison assigned to me, most of the operating room techs (one named Samya stands out as particularly friendly, which is why I know his name), the drivers, the members of the aftercare team, and the anesthesia nurse who worked on me the first day. She, especially, will be someone I remember both because of her skill and because of her great personality. I tried to find out her name to include in this review, but the aftercare team wouldn't give it. They preferred I just praise the operating team as a whole, not individuals. I understand why they would want that, but the operating team as a whole doesn't deserve praise. Again, I'll explain why later. So that I don't paint too rosy a picture, I have to admit that I didn't find a couple of the operating room techs very friendly even though I tried to be friendly to them. They weren't rude, they just weren't smiling and friendly and they acted more like they were guiding cattle than assisting a patient. "Sit there. Put this on", in a monotone voice and a deadpan look. That kind of thing. Not a big deal, though. On the whole, the Eugenix crew was very nice. SUGGESTIONS There are a couple of things I would advise the clinic to do to improve things: 1. How to handle trainee doctors: The package I paid for was for Dr Das and her trained team members to handle my procedure. However, on the third day, suddenly (keep in mind, I had gauze over my eyes, so I was essentially blindfolded) I could tell that there was someone new working on me. I later asked if it was a trainee doctor and that was confirmed. I was never asked if a doctor in training could practice on me. I would suggest that, if the clinic is going to use patients to train its new doctors (and, of course, they have to), they need to get the patient's permission, a senior doctor should supervise, they should only use patients with plenty of donor hair (unlike me), and they probably should offer some kind of discount to make it worth the patient's risk. Even if they had done all of this in my case, however, I still would have refused. I don't have enough donor hair to gamble on a doctor in training. EDIT: In response to the posting of this review here on the Hair Restoration Network, I received a call from a representative from the clinic. He assured me that it was a miscommunication and that the person working on me was not a doctor in training, but was instead another tech. He assured me that Eugenix does not allow trainee doctors to work on patients in such a way and offered to show me the video. Since the doctors wear different colored uniforms than the techs, I could be shown that the person was not a trainee doctor as I had been told. I said that was not necessary, that I believed him and would update my review here to reflect this new information. That said, I'm not sure why a tech (an older man than the rest of the techs, and someone with a much different demeanor) suddenly joined the team that was working on me, but perhaps he is particularly good at beard extractions and that was why they only brought him in for that part and then he immediately left. 2. Pain management: The nurse who administered my local anesthetic on the first day (the one I mentioned above) was the best I have ever encountered. She was absolutely incredible. It was almost painless. Unfortunately, my experience with the nurse who administered my local anesthetic on the 2nd and 3rd days was very different. The amount of pain I felt every time she injected me was high- especially when compared to the mere momentary discomfort I felt when the first nurse had injected me. If the second anesthesia nurse had caused that kind of pain only when injecting the face and neck for my beard hair extraction, that might be understandable. Those are more sensitive areas. But my second day procedure just required scalp injections like had been done almost painlessly by the other nurse on the first day. Now, to be clear, I am NOT suggesting the second anesthesia nurse is at any fault. I'm sure she was doing her best. My suggestion is that the clinic find out what the first nurse is doing differently and train everyone on that technique. There shouldn't be such a big a difference in the amount of pain a patient feels depending on who is working on him. As I endured days 2 and 3, I couldn't help but wonder how much better my Eugenix experience would have been if they had assigned the first nurse to me all three days. 3. The anesthesia kept wearing off fairly quickly on day 3 for some reason, especially in the crown of my head (where it seemed to only last a few minutes for some reason). I don't blame the nurse for this. The issue that I think needs to be addressed is that my saying "I can feel pain" so frequently was a source of frustration for a couple of the male techs working on me. They seemed to resent that my pain was slowing things down. In my past, other HT doctors have commented on my high pain tolerance and described me as stoic when getting shots into my scalp. I'm not the type to speak up at the first hint of pain. One or two (again, I was blindfolded) of the clinic's operating room techs pretty clearly thought the opposite, that I was exaggerating the amount of pain I was in or wasn't being "tough" enough. My suggestion is that it be made clear to them that the last thing a patient feeling pain should have to deal with is someone suggesting they're exaggerating. THE BAD EXPERIENCE And now, the part of this review that I have dreaded writing... By FAR the worst thing that happened at Eugenix happened at the end of the 3rd day. For about the last 30-45 minutes (it felt longer), the techs worked on the crown of my head with NO local anesthetic. It had worn off and I told them repeatedly that I was in a lot of pain. They just said "Oh, pain?", paused for about 15 seconds, then kept working. Occasionally they would spray cool water on the area. Once I even yelled out in pain and they said "Sorry!", paused for about 15 seconds, and resumed. I couldn't understand why no one was giving me any local anesthesia. I don't know where the anesthesia nurse had gone. She disappeared sometime early in my last hour and I never saw her again. I have NEVER, in a medical setting, endured the kind of pain that those techs put me through. I have also never encountered medical professionals who apparently couldn't care less that they were causing so much pain when it could have been stopped with a shot. And there was nothing I could do in that situation but endure it. What could I do, stop the procedure and let them throw away my grafts? So I just had to sit there as they pushed and twisted what felt like the world's largest gauge needles slowly in and out of the crown of my head over and over and over. The intense burning and throbbing lasted long after the procedure. In fact, today is the 7th day since my procedure and it is the first day that I don't feel a slight reminder in the crown of my head. I have never had any kind of medical procedure that felt so much like intentional cruelty. I don't believe for a second that those techs would have ignored my pain and kept working if Drs. Sethi, Bansal, or Das had been in the room. And I know those doctors would never have allowed it to continue. Not only because they are, I believe, decent and empathetic people who wouldn't inflict unnecessary pain on a patient, but also because they would know that no matter how skilled the doctors are at any clinic, patients aren't going to come if they think they are signing up to be tortured. I think Eugenix needs to identify who the two techs were (neither of them was Samya because I could see him under my gauze as they handed him the used insertion "needles") and decide whether they are people who should be working in the medical field. I obviously have my opinion on that. I also think the clinic needs to find out where the Day 3 anesthesia nurse went and why she left me before my procedure was done. SUMMARY OF MY OPINION OF EUGENIX I honestly believe what happened to me in that last hour was an aberration, a one-time event that I unfortunately experienced. I'm sure when the doctors read about it, they will be shocked and ensure it never happens to anyone else. I have read dozens of in-depth reviews written by extremely satisfied former patients and I have seen those patients return to Eugenix over and over for more work....because Eugenix IS a world class clinic. So, despite what happened to me at the very end of my procedure, I am nevertheless giving Eugenix a positive rating (4 stars). I am doing that because people read reviews to try to decide whether a place is a good option for them. I sincerely believe that people who go to Eugenix will be very satisfied with their experience and results. If someone asked me if they should go to Eugenix, I would say yes without hesitation. ~~~~~~~~

I'll be leaving for Eugenix in a little over a week. I can't wait! My only real anxiety is related to the travel. The furthest I have ever flown is about 8 hours. My total flight time from the US to India is about 21 hours, so over 2.5 times longer. I'm looking for travel advice from you veterans! 1. What do I need to make sure I have in my carry-on and personal item bag? I don't plan to check a bag, by the way. 2. What can I do to make the flight as comfortable as possible? I have already chosen my preferred seats, so what else? 3. What do you recommend that I bring to pass the time? I have heard to download movies onto my laptop. Does the seat have some way to plug in my laptop? My battery won't last 10 hours if I am watching video. (This is probably a dumb question, but... 🤷‍♂️ 😅) 4. What do I need to do to prepare for India specifically? Anything? 5. Will I have any issues using my credit card? I have notified my bank of my trip, so they shouldn't give me problems. 6. Do I need to pull INR out of an ATM as soon as I get there? If so, how much? I don't intend to do any sightseeing. My plan is to hang out in my room and work and heal. 7. For you Eugenix veterans, do you have any tips to help me find my ride to the hotel quickly and easily? Is there a question that I should have asked and didn't? 🤔 Thanks!

It's amazing how many grafts they can find as long as a person is willing to wait a year and go back. I don't really understand how it works like that, but I'm glad it does. It means my 5500 procedure that is coming up will probably not be my last procedure unless I want it to be.

Your opening post said, "He adviced not to implant 300 grafts, but just 50 to see if it will grow. But i still had to pay the full price, so i was like: i am not gonna pay full price for just 50 grafts, so lets do 150 grafts instead. During the surgery the doctor took around 50 grafts from my right side and 100 grafts from the left side." In your second post you wrote, "Like i said, initial plan was to implant 300, but at surgery date we decided to implant 150." So you told us that, in exchange for "the full price", you said, "lets do 150 grafts" - and then you confirmed "we decided to implant 150" - and you even describe where the 150 came from. You clearly gave the false impression that you received 150 grafts for "the full price." But the reality was that you got twice as many grafts...a fact that we wouldn't know until BHR revealed it. And yet, you want to act like failing to mention that you got twice as many grafts as you told us you got is a minor detail. 🙄 And anyone who reads your opening posts will easily see that your two main gripes were 1. You couldn't get the 300 grafts you expected to get - even though you did get them, but 150 of them went into your donor area. I think most of us could at least understand the disappointment you felt...until you then started saying your hairline wasn't that bad to begin with! WTH? 🤨 2. The areas on the side of your head have been horribly thinned out and look much worse than they did before - which isn't true and they will likely look even better when you give your hair time to recover and grow back in (as everyone has told you). So your hairline is fine and your sides will be fine...but you're still mad at @BHRClinic. 🤷‍♂️ Your complaint about how you were treated at the clinic was almost an afterthought compared to your complaints about your thinned donor area. And that complaint about how you were treated is something we can't judge objectively like we can your photos. We have to decide if you seem like someone whose perceptions can be trusted. Thankfully, you have given us examples of you forming such perceptions right here in this thread. What we have seen is a guy who is way too quick to unjustly accuse someone of wrongdoing. If they're wise, every reputable HT clinic will refuse you as a patient. You're going to find fault with them no matter what. I've said what I have to say and will ignore this thread starting now. It is a waste of time.

You have been and continue to be completely unreasonable about BHR. When you wrote the opening post, it was way too soon for you to make an informed judgment about whether BHR did a good job or not...and it still is. Over and over the knowledgeable people on this forum have patiently told you that and you have ignored them. Furthermore, the way you initially told your story you gave the impression that BHR only gave you 150 grafts. Only later did it come out (thanks to BHR's post) that they gave you twice that many. That's a weird thing to fail to mention. You were also lightning quick to accuse @Melvin- Admin of being unethical and shilling for the clinics when all he was trying to do is be fair and reasonable to both BHR and you. As the site's admin, that's his responsibility. You owe him an apology. The only value this thread brings to this forum is that it shows an example of an unreasonable review of a clinic.

@patronovski What is the name of the clinic that did the bad work that you asked BHR to repair?