2100 grafts with Dr Nader in Reynosa, Mexico

[phl318]

I was torn about writing a review, but I felt it was my duty to give back to this community after reading other people's reviews and experiences which helped me decide on who to go with. So I guess I'll start with the background story.

 

I've been slowly losing my hair for the last 10 years. I'm in my early 40s. My hairline was never great but I started noticing a lot of hair loss (on my pillow and bedsheets) many years ago and didn't think much of it because my hair still looked fine in my eyes. Finally about 5 years ago I started to get annoyed when I looked at pictures of myself thinking I combed my hair badly that day. Finally just in the last 3 years or so I accepted my hair just looked terrible and was mostly see-through. Every time I looked in the mirror I'd say "That doesn't look like me". It wore on me psychologically, it affected my confidence when meeting new people.

 

Luckily, I have a youngish looking face. Unluckily, I have a big fat head and my face gains fat easily when I gain weight, which I've done over the years. I simply do not have a head that fits well with a shaved look, if I did, I would have simply done that. We all get dealt different hands, so I decided I'm going to try to do something about it. At my age, it's now or never, if I waited another 5 years I might as well not have bothered, so I took the plunge.

 

I wanted to be extremely well-informed about my decision, as I only plan on doing this one time. I didn't want to spend >15,000 dollars. I wanted someone I could trust. I started scouring the internet and came across this site in particular, and his reviews were everything I was looking for. All of this pointed to Dr Nader.

 

I talked to my friends about it. They were supportive (although they all said it was unnecessary). I talked to my SO, she was not supportive. She was worried about my safety and it being a "waste of money" because she doesn't care about what my hair looks like. I assured her things would be fine and that I wanted to feel better about myself. Once she understood that she was fine with it.

 

Let me get one point out of the way up front when it comes to Dr Nader - I am a professional working in a professional environment and am over 40 years old with a good amount of experience dealing with people. Dr Nader is the absolutely most professional person I've dealt with in any single field in my entire life. Everything about him was top notch. He answered every question. He walked me through the entire process. He ensured I knew exactly what to expect every step of the way. He was always in the room with me the entire time. He even laughed at my stupid jokes. I have to admit I was still nervous when I walked into his office, and after our 30 minute conversation I was completely and totally at ease and excited to get started. Really, he is that good as far as professionalism.

 

Second important topic - getting in touch with him is a pain. I've heard others say this and I can attest it isn't easy. Many times in life I've learned that most things worth doing aren't easy, so I was OK with this. Give yourself time. Expect 4 months from the time you start to try to contact him. He's booked 3 months in advance. When my procedure was over I actually asked him about it and he said, essentially, he takes extreme pride in his work and he's not looking to expand just to make more money. He's happy with what he produces and he's happy with his situation. It made me respect him that much more.

 

Now on to the experience. I waited 3 months to see him. I booked my date, booked my flight to Texas, and booked my hotel room where they recommended. I flew in from the east coast so it was a 6 our trip for me. Got in at 11pm the night before, and checked into that 3 star hotel for 63 dollars a night. When they say 3 stars, they mean 3 stars, but I wasn't there to party, I was there to get my transplant and get home.

 

Mr Santos (his driver) picked me up exactly when he should have. We drive 25 minutes to the office, crossing the border very easily into Mexico. The city of Reynosa seems a bit sketchy, but I never felt in danger, as Mr Santos drove carefully and put me at ease. He walks me to the office which resembles a small strip mall, 2nd floor, gated. I fill out a medical questionairre, and Dr Nader comes out to get me to have a discussion in his office. I've described that experience above.

 

We start the procedure by changing clothes and getting my head shaved. At this point there's no turning back, so my slight panic when my head was being shaved quickly turned into acceptance. The entire procedure took about 7 hours from start to finish including lunch break. The best I can describe it as neutral at times, to slightly uncomfortable. I watched a few movies and that kept me distracted for some of the time. There was no real pain except for a few times when the needles were annoying when administering anesthesia. Sitting still in one position for over 20 minutes can be more tiring than you think, so I needed 2 breaks during the procedure. Once was during the extraction phase and once was during the implantation phase. The most uncomfortable part for me was the incision phase, as the sound made me feel like hearing fingers on a chalkboard. It wasn't painful, more just annoying.

 

After the procedure we went into his office, he gave me full instructions on how to care for my scalp and gave me my medications. He instructed me exactly what to do and when to do it and also told me to send him updates. I paid him cash (for the discount) and thanked him. Mr Santos was waiting for me, and off we went back into Mexico. There was a 20 minute line to get through the border check, I handed the guard my passport, informed him I had a hair transplant, he was extremely nice about it, and was back at my hotel safe and sound. I tipped Mr Santos (Dr Nader said it wasn't necessary, but at this point I was so happy I didn't care about handing him 30 bucks) and went back to my room. Went to get some food, watched TV, went to bed and was home by 5pm the next day. I was gone for 48 hours door to door (and I live thousands of miles away) and couldn't be more satisfied about my experience.

 

I'm going to post some pics, as it really seems people get annoyed here when there are none attached. I'll try to update at end of week 1 and end of week 2, then 4, then 8, then maybe every other month after that. Again, I feel it is my duty to do this so that the other lurkers reading these forums (like I did for years) can benefit. I have no incentive to do any of this, no one asked me to write a review and I'm surely not getting paid for this. I'm just extremely grateful for others before me who have posted their experiences and led me to Dr Nader.

 

 

Attached pictures are pre surgery, directly after surgery, and the day after. I will update as time goes on.

 

I wish all of you well, feel free to PM me with any questions.

[Legend007]

Looks like u had a good experience .. but why didn’t u get more grafts ? 2000 grafts is for a dense packed hairline .. His costs are cheap so why not do 3000 grafts for the amount of coverage u getting done ..

[phl318]

Good question. Firstly, I'm in my 40s and I've never had a great hairline. I didn't want to get overly aggressive and risk being a guy in his 40s with a 25 year olds hairline. Dr Nader agreed. He said if I ever needed a touch up, that could be done easily, but if I got overly aggressive and had more loss later in life, it'd be more difficult to fix. Also, my hair looks a lot worse in my pre surgery pics than in person, as the light shining above my head was pretty strong. So I had some hair to work with.

 

I'm happy with my decision with 2200 grafts. I'll never have movie star hair, that was never my goal. I just wanted the same type of hair I had 10 years ago, and I'll be ecstatic.

[Legend007]

U going to want more grafts when ur hair grows back .. because u are going to like ur hair transplant , n once u start likin ur hair again , u going to want to make it better because now u know it works .. I see u being happy about this one .. but later down the road going back for another transplant to get more density .. possibly another 2000 grafts to cover the same Area again.. u chose a good ethical doctor so u should have good results..

[phl318]

Possibly. Like I said I'm not looking to start a movie career, lol. I'll reassess the situation in 18 months when it all fully grows in. First things first, let's see how this turns out over the next few months.

[Legend007]

Yeah keep us updated at least monthly it’s interesrinf to see people’s progression

[aWidowsPeek]

Looks good and nice write-up but yeah you will want more grafts after that grows in. You don't need an aggressive hairline but you have a lot of space to fill in.

[phl318]

I'm assuming you just mean more density. Me and Dr Nader went over the fact that race plays a factor, Asians having less number of hairs but thicker in general. We can all judge the density a few months from now and I'll reassess.

[phegotgame14]

Looks good. Ill go see Dr Nader in about a month for 1500-2000 myself

[phl318]

Attached is my picture at day 7. Things are looking really good right now, hair seems to be growing nicely, I see no shock loss at this point (that I can tell), and the discoloration of my scalp isn't awful by any means. I've been taking Biotin that I've ordered off Amazon since day 2 and rubbing my head with Aloe gel every few hours. No other supplements or treatments at this point other than that, and obviously a few days of biotin is too early to see any change.

 

I may just be one of those people who heal well or has a certain skin tone that is conducive to looking good after a week. I've seen other people's pictures at a week that have looked better, but most have looked worse, and I was prepared to be disappointed at the 7 day mark, but I must say I'm pleased so far.

 

As for updates, I'll be updating once a week or when a significant change happens in either shock loss or color changes in terms of recipient area. I'm still wearing a hat when in public but at this rate I almost feel like I'll be able to forgo the hat within two weeks. We'll see.

[Cid]

Looks good phl318! I'm at 9 months after my ht with Nader.

[JakeXav]

Looks like u had a good experience .. but why didn’t u get more grafts ? 2000 grafts is for a dense packed hairline .. His costs are cheap so why not do 3000 grafts for the amount of coverage u getting done ..

 

I have scheduled my appointment with Dr. Nader for the 3rd week of March. I am also filling in the crown and receding hairline and was suggested by Brenda between 3,500-4,000 but am likely to pay the additional costs for 5,000 as I want to have thick hair.

[phl318]

I have scheduled my appointment with Dr. Nader for the 3rd week of March. I am also filling in the crown and receding hairline and was suggested by Brenda between 3,500-4,000 but am likely to pay the additional costs for 5,000 as I want to have thick hair.

 

5000, wow. Can you post a pic of your hair currently so I can compare?

 

Again, maybe my hair texture is different due to race but the difference between out number of grafts is huge.

[Dolph1969]

Very clean for day 7.

[JakeXav]

5000, wow. Can you post a pic of your hair currently so I can compare?

 

Again, maybe my hair texture is different due to race but the difference between out number of grafts is huge.

 

Hopefully these attach correctly. Brenda stated between 3.5-4 but I will pay extra for more.

[phl318]

Hopefully these attach correctly. Brenda stated between 3.5-4 but I will pay extra for more.

 

Thanks. It seems 5k grafts is a lot but your hair seems to be thinner than mine, as mine is naturally a little wavy. When you speak to Dr Nader I'm sure he'll give you his opinion and you can go from there. I wish you well, please keep us updated when you do your procedure.

[phl318]

Well, here is my hair 2 weeks after my procedure. Growing in pretty fast, I'm very pleased with the results. At this point I guess I'll update every 4 weeks or so. I really am very happy with my decision to get this done.

[pidds]

Any updates?

[phl318]

I'm sorry, I've been extremely busy lately. Here is my 1 month pic which I forgot to upload. My 2 month pic will be posted in 8 days. I'm very happy with the progress so far.

[pidds]

Looks great!

[phl318]

Well, here is my 2 month update, even though I'm a few days late. Things are progressing very very nicely. My friends are astonished at how good it looks, one of them rubbed my head last night as soon as he saw me and said "your hair is growing in nice!". Essentially everyone I know has commented on it, all positive. It really is a great experience so far. That first week or two was a little rough, but ever since then it's been great. And on top of that, I kind of really like having short hair, it's so low maintenance.

 

Here is two pics, one is in full overhead lighting, one is without. My hair actually looks much darker and fuller than it does with the light shining right above it, which is normal. I can't wait to see how it looks at the 6 month mark.

[phl318]

3 month update.  Not much to report except that my hair has reached a length where I have to "trim" it to even it out.  Some hairs are significantly longer than others (I can still see some hairs as almost stubble).  Also, I've grown so accustomed to having really short hair I think I prefer this hairstyle (so easy to manage).  For now I think I'm going to keep it this length.  I may change my mind and just grow it all out, but we'll see.

It is not as full as I'd like it, but it seems other people have that issue around month 3-5, and then around month 6 things get significantly better.  Still, I am very happy and it looks much better to me than it did before I had my procedure.

See ya next month.

 

 

Edited July 14, 2018 by phl318

[True]

12 minutes ago, phl318 said:

3 month update.  Not much to report except that my hair has reached a length where I have to "trim" it to even it out.  Some hairs are significantly longer than others (I can still see some hairs as almost stubble).  Also, I've grown so accustomed to having really short hair I think I prefer this hairstyle (so easy to manage).  For now I think I'm going to keep it this length.  I may change my mind and just grow it all out, but we'll see.

It is not as full as I'd like it, but it seems other people have that issue around month 3-5, and then around month 6 things get significantly better.  Still, I am very happy and it looks much better to me than it did before I had my procedure.

See ya next month.

 

 

Keep us posted, man!

[aWidowsPeek]

3 months is nothing. Growth will kick in around month 4 or 5 and get better up to the year mark. Waiting sucks but it is what it is. 

[phl318]

Attached is my 4 month mark picture.  I've noticed something interesting in the last few weeks, my hair has become significantly darker.  I'm trying my best to figure out if it's due to the hair becoming thicker or more growing in, and looking as closely as I can, I can't tell.  It's most likely some combination of both.  People have commented within the last 2 weeks that it looks even better lately.

 

I was slightly worried a month ago that maybe I wouldn't get as good results as other people, but this last month has changed that perspective.  It's just slowly getting better and better every week, even if my perception may not change until I notice it myself.  I would think at this stage it's almost like losing weight, you have to look at your old pants that are way too large for you to realize you've actually made a lot of progress, or run into someone you haven't seen for a while to comment on how much your appearance has changed.

 

I'm so optimistic for how things will look at month 12 and 18, much less 30-60 days from now.   I'll do my best to update every month with progress pics for the lurkers.