FUT with Dr Maneesh Sonthalia India, 4400 grafts

[shai]

I am a 42 year old male of Indian origin living in Perth Australia. I have hereditary baldness and have tried Minoxidil and Fianesteride. The former did nothing, the latter slowed down my balding almost to a halt over 9 years of use. Since October 2017 I have been researching, asking questions on forums, reading up as much as I can, to repair the damage that had happened before I started on Finaesteride. I am a Norwood 4 by my reckoning. This is my account and contribution to this forum through which I learnt so much. Hope this helps out others.

 

The first thing I did was make a list of "must haves" which my surgeon needs to demonstrate

 

1. Must be exclusively involved in hair transplants

2. Must be personally involved in every aspect of the procedure

3. The team involved must have at least 2-3 years of experience..No noob was touching my hair

4. The surgeon had to be a surgeon.. not a dermatologist not a GP

 

Next I shortlisted 5 surgeons all over India based on online reviews avoiding anyone who did not have any reviews and anyone who had too many negative reviews. Remember no doctor is going to have a 100% track record . I then sent them the following images online and initiated discussions

 

 

I asked every question to ensure my core needs were met and took a quote. This took a while as there were a fare few emails going back and forth. I realised that I would prefer a FUT procedure for my first hair transplant for a number of reasons which I will not get into but the most important being that I did not mind the scar and secondly I wanted to minimise the loss of harvested grafts . Anyway I shortlisted 2 surgeons and then finally I fixed onto Dr Maneesh Sonthalia in the city of Kolkata. Neither the city nor the Doctor has any prior reviews on this forum but I saw his reviews online and was pleasantly surprised by the number of positive reviews. 16 years experience doing transplants, core team does 15-20 transplants every month, excellent feedback ..so on paper everything was gold. I booked in a first meet on the 29th Jan followed by the operation on 30th Jan 2018 .. this was in the begining of Dec 2017

 

I booked a hotel about 5 minutes walk from the doctors chambers, bear in mind I had never met the man before so obviously I was on guard prior to my first meeting.

 

I walked into his chamber and felt like I had made a mistake. It looked like a completely unprofessional set up. People lounging around, making tele calls to potential clients, no doctor to be seen, I was about to bail but said I might as well meet the guy since I was there. And boy am I glad I did !! Talk about judging a book by its cover !! Doctor Sonthalia is not unprofessional, he is very personal treating his patients like family and that extends to his chambers. This took some getting used to for me since I am used to the anaesthetic business like approach of Doctors in Australia. I had a long chat with him. He worked with me on a design, explained the whys and hows , showed me past results of similar cases, took me through medical journals outlining FUT vs FUE (he wrongly or rightly is a big supporter of FUT). I was sold and settled for early start the next day.

 

30th Jan 2017, the operation happened. At the very onset let me say the blocker into the forehead is pretty painful but barring that no pain at all during and after the operation. There is a lot of writeups on this forum of the process of a FUT operation so I will not go into details but happy to answer questions if anyone has any. Dr Sonthalia did the actual harvesting. A team of 7 people including another doctor (part of his team) did the graft extraction. I was shown the design before starting. 4400 grafts were extracted, 42 were wasted ( I was told that there will be around 1% loss). The wasted grafts, and the extraction process was shown and explained. Lunch was from Dr Sonthalia's home, fantastic vegetarian fare for the whole team. The planting was done by 2 people rotating to prevent human error, supervised by Dr Sonthalia.

 

I had signed up for 4000 grafts and 400 were not charged for which later on having spoken to other patients I understand is always the case with Dr Sonthalia, free 10% grafts to cover for margin of error.

 

 

Post op med list was given which I had to purchase and doses explained. At the end of the operation the doctor would not let me walk back and insisted on dropping me off in his car to my hotel even though I told him I was feeling fine. For most of his local patients he insists that they come every other day for shampoo to the clinic which is a free service. Being a plastic surgeon he is a bit overly cautious about infections.. to the point of being anal !

 

It is 18 days now post surgery and I am back in Australia. Throughout this period Dr Sonthalia has been available on Whatsapp whenever I have had doubts or queries. I will be updating this thread with my results at every 3 months. If anyone has any questions I would be very happy to answer. I honestly could not have been happier with my choice of surgeon. To everyone else embarking on the journey, take your time and research and then research some more. Funnily the image links are not showing so attaching some

Edited February 19, 2018 by shai
Images not showing

[shai]

Wow this thread is not exactly setting things on fire is it :-) . Anyways just a small update got tired of looking like Joker from Batman so went and got a no 1 all around to see clearly where things are at. It is not yet 1 month and I was told by the doc to wait for a month before getting a haircut.Oh well. Anyways there is a lot of graft loss on the sides but I am hoping its just shock loss. Surprisingly a lot of the grafts have started growing, not sure if it is because of the finaesteride or maybe I will lose them as well. The scar doesnt look too bad for less than a month . Lets see what 3 months bring. Please feel free to comment.. negative or positive does not matter

[fortuneplant]

Hi shai. Looking good. Everything looks clean. It's now pretty much wait-and-see for the next three months or so.

 

I just hit my fourth month...also FUT. The first 3.5 months for me was easy, I hardly glanced at my head. Then the hair started to grow and now I can hardly NOT look at them every chance I get.

[shai]

Thanks bud ..yeah waiting is the hardest part of the whole exercise.

[shai]

2 Months ..95% of the grafts have fallen. There is some shock loss around the suture line. Thats the bad news..I reckon thats as bad as it goes..from here on fingers crossed it is all going to be good

[shai]

Some growth visible the scar is almost invisible. Looks like things are on track

[shai]

Not including the scar as there is nothing to see. The doctor is truly excellent in communication. Sent him the pics, he was touring in Rome, got a reply back in 5 minutes. Hope the end result justifies the whole thing . Its like watching paint dry at the moment

[voxman]

It looks like clean work and appears to be coming along nicely - the next couple of months will demonstrate how well your research paid off!

[Bill - Seemiller]

Shai

 

Congratulations on your recent hair transplant. I am not familiar with your surgeon however, I agree with the others who have said that the book looks nice and clean. And it looks like you have healed very nicely at about three months now. You will soon be experiencing growth… Likely in the next couple of months. I’m looking forward to seeing how your results turn out especially given that we have not seen much from this surgeon.

 

Please keep us posted with monthly photos.

 

Bill

[shai]

Yeah voxman, I really wish I was confident enough to say that things will be great..one never knows I guess. Anyways everything is crossed and the groundwork is in so I hope for the best. Thanks Bill , the surgeon is not as famous or as busy as others in this forum and that is one of the reasons I chose him. Time will tell whether I was wrong or right but things look ok so far..touchwood. Thanks for replying guys

[Rawkerboi]

Do keep us updated!

Interesting case with an unknown doctor!!

Hope your research are paid off well

[shai]

Yeah monthly updates dude. Tell you what that makes 2 of us hoping my research pays off :-D

[shai]

Site was down and I was busy ..anyways here goes middle of month 7..Cant say I am thrilled but I am not in tears either. Hopefully still some growth to come... The left side is much slower to grow.. comparison pics from the start of things 

[shai]

I must say that only now I realise how much of a difference lighting  makes, the volume and angle of it can make a big difference

[fmnt]

Hey Shai. Congratulations on your nice hair growth. Can you please share your latest picture. I think it's an year now when you did your surgery.And I am hopeful you will have nice full good hair growth. wanted to see your hair growth. Your review motivated me and I did the surgery in the same place where you did. Whatever you said I find it useful. Today I finished 1 month from my surgery. Also can you give tips and suggestions which might be helpful for me. 

Thanks

Edited December 20, 2018 by fmnt

[shai]

On 12/20/2018 at 10:33 AM, fmnt said:

Hey Shai. Congratulations on your nice hair growth. Can you please share your latest picture. I think it's an year now when you did your surgery.And I am hopeful you will have nice full good hair growth. wanted to see your hair growth. Your review motivated me and I did the surgery in the same place where you did. Whatever you said I find it useful. Today I finished 1 month from my surgery. Also can you give tips and suggestions which might be helpful for me. 

Thanks

Sorry bud didnt think anyone was interested. Here you go. TBH till I look at old pics I cannot even remember what it feels like to be balding. The crown is still lacking as you can see in the pics. I chose to not lower the hairline beyond what was already there and I am glad I did. Maybe in a few years I will do a FUE to the crown and add more thickness to the front. 

[fmnt]

I feel you look very good given your earlier photos you shared above. If I get this much hair like you after 10 months. I will be very much happy and satisfied. I just finished 1 month. Let's see how my results come. Fingers crossed. If you don't mind me asking Is it safe to consume the medicine for 10 months specially the Finpecia(Finasteride tablet)? I am worried about its side effects in the long run.

 

[shai]

Thanks bud, I cannot see any post from you so I am not sure what kind of procedure you underwent or with whom but I am sure you will get a good result, as long as you did you r research prior. Finaesteride can cause side effects in some people but you will experience them in the first month itself if you are one of the unfortunate ones. I have been on them for 10 years now with nil bad effect except the wallet seems lighter 🙂 . I also drank and smoked 3 days after transplant but obviously that is not something I would encourage !! For the most part if the harvesting and implant was done properly after the first 2 days not much can harm the implants, growth time varies from person to person, I am still getting some growth 

[fmnt]

I did from the same doctor and same procedure which you did too. Since I stay in Kolkata itself my job to find doctor became very easy. Only graft  count applied is more. Seeing your results and message I feel it will be positive for me as well. Let's see. Appreciate it for taking time and replying my messages. Thank you so much.

Edited December 21, 2018 by fmnt

[shai]

9 hours ago, fmnt said:

I did from the same doctor and same procedure which you did too. Since I stay in Kolkata itself my job to find doctor became very easy. Only graft  count applied is more. Seeing your results and message I feel it will be positive for me as well. Let's see. Appreciate it for taking time and replying my messages. Thank you so much.

Well everything else is grand but I am not so convinced about the number of grafts that he claims to implant. He is very experienced but still it is not logically possible to get the exact no of grafts on a harvest that he has agreed upon nor is it possible to always get 500 more than that number and throw it in  for free. If that is the case and there is no way to prove it , then honesty is an issue. Having said that ultimately what counts is the result. 

[fmnt]

Ha ha ha I asked the same question to the doctor how will I know that you have provided me X number of grafts? He said that you have to have trust in me. But you are correct what matters is result. Including you I have seen 3 more satisfied patients who did hair transplant from him. Seeing their before and after pics and now your result too it gives me good hope for myself too.

[Mohit_bald]

On 12/21/2018 at 10:59 AM, shai said:

Sorry bud didnt think anyone was interested. Here you go. TBH till I look at old pics I cannot even remember what it feels like to be balding. The crown is still lacking as you can see in the pics. I chose to not lower the hairline beyond what was already there and I am glad I did. Maybe in a few years I will do a FUE to the crown and add more thickness to the front. 

how much does it cost?

[shai]

To everyone asking the cost , I paid INR 40 per graft. I am certain I did not get the number of grafts I was charged for and that means I was duped. This doctor is a plastic surgeon with years of experience but he is greedy and that means you are paying more for what you can get elsewhere. I will end this thread by saying use someone else ..I still think at the time of writing this ..Feb 2019 that FUT is the way to go for the first transplant but I cannot recommend Dr Maneesh Sonthalia simply because he overcharges which is a pity because he is really good but then honesty is not easy in India. I am fortunate enough to not care much about the cost but I am sure there are others who do care and to them I would say look elsewhere. I should also mention that I was made to purchase drugs and Shampoo for a year from the doctors supplier supposedly at a discount which I now realise was a hoax. Having said all of this I must say that I am quite happy with my results and I did not go through an assembly line with 10 other people waiting 

Edited February 3, 2019 by shai

[Sumit010]

Its seems clinic didn't follow safety and hygienic concerns while doing the grafts detection.

[SG008]

Hi

Read this thread today and i actually also went through Hair Transplant for 5000 grafts with the same doctor. I am at 101 days today. I see a little bit growth going on but not too much yet. Wondering if you have any of your 3.5 months mark pictures to compare. I am also worried if i really got 5000 grafts or not. The clinic hygiene is in fact a concern.