FUE transplat at Elite Hair Clinic - Sydney, Australia

[Rui]

Hey lads,

Have been following this forum for a while and it has helped me a lot so just want to return the favour.  I just had my hair transplant done at Elite Hair Clinic in Sydney – so it’s time to pay it forward to this forum and jot down my experience and hope it helps anyone - especially those based in Australia.

I’m from Melbourne and have been thinking about a HT for a few years now.  I’m 36 years old and of South East Asian origin, and have been having hair loss issues since my early 20’s.  I’ve been using finasteride and minoxidil which has helped me maintain a decent level of hair density and mitigate further hair loss.  However, my temporal arches have recessed quite significantly (in particular the right hand side) and there is some diffused thinning all throughout my hair.

I’m based in Melbourne so had consults with a couple clinics here. I also had a consult with Dr Arika Bansal of Eugenix Clinic in India which I was very keen to go to.  Unfortunately given the pandemic and the current situation in India, as well as Australia’s conservative border restrictions and lax vaccine rollout program – it wasn’t going to be anytime soon before I could go to India.   Giv

I then came across Elite Hair Clinic in Sydney via a facebook forum.  They focused on FUE and were priced significantly cheaper other clinics in Australia.  They quoted me $5k for 700-1,000 grafts.  I ended up having a video consult with Dr Freedman who runs the clinic.  I found him quite honest and reassuring.  He didn’t guarantee the results and actually admitted he recently had a patient who didn’t have the results he wanted.  However, he said they’ve been doing FUE for over 5 years and have honed their skills over that time and the significant majority of their clients have strong results. Also, their Google reviews – although limited – are very good.  In fact I reached out to a couple people on the Google Reviews who gave strong praise.  

In the end, I decided to go with Elite Hair Clinic in Sydney.  Despite the limited reviews, I appreciated their honesty and the fact they specialised in FUE.  Also, with the situation of currently working from home the majority of the week and coming into winter  –  I thought this was an ideal window of opportunity for me to get it.  I guess I also felt I was in a way putting my life on hold with waiting for this procedure….which was frustrating me.   

Finally, my thoughts are if the procedure doesn’t work as well as I hope, given the price and the fact I’m only using limited number of grafts and have a strong donor area – I can always go to Eugenix later when the world reopens.  And if it does work well – brilliant. So with all that – I decided to just go for it.

So I ended up flying to Sydney last Tuesday and arrived at the clinic on the morning of Thursday 20th May for the procedure.  I was introduced to the hair transplant technicians – Thelma, Diana and Emma.  They were all kind, lovely and reassuring which helped me to feel very comfortable on the day.  I then had my consult with Dr Freedman who drew out the triangles on my temporal arches where I’d be getting the hair transplant – the right triangle being larger than the left.  He suggested I’d only need around 600 grafts which I was surprised by.  I did ask if there was a possibility for more but he said that they would pack the space as much as they could – but given the limited space it was hard to put more in.  Also, he said he wanted to ensure the best chance of blood circulation to ensure the grafts are successful and grow.  Elite do have a base price I believe, so it will be $5k whether I have 600 or 1,000 grafts.  I wanted more, but yeah – ended up trusting his advice.

Prior to the procedure, I was given 2 codeine tablets to help with the pain.  It was decided that given the low number of grafts, they would make the incisions to my temporal arches first.  Dr Freedman then injected me with the anaesthetic to my arches – with the pain not being as bad as I was expecting.   Thelma then came in and performed the incisions to the arches with Dr Freedman overseeing.  With the anaesthetic kicking in, I couldn’t feel any sharp pain but could hear it happening.  This part probably took about 45 mins.

After which, I turned around on my stomach in the chair and they got to work on extracting the grafts from my donor area.  Dr Freedman came in and inserted the anaesthetic to the back of my head.  I found these injections to be much more painful than the ones in the temporal arches – but I survived   Thelma and Diana then got to work on extracting my donor follicles which was done by an automated pen.  Dr Freedman would come in and see the current situation and see how I was going or if there was any issues.  After this was done we then took a break for a quick lunch which was provided by the clinic.

After lunch, Diana and Emma got to work on inserting the follicles onto my temporal arches.  They mentioned that the follicles they extracted were quite thick and were generally ranging from 2 up to even 4 hairs per graft which should hopefully hold me in good stead.  It felt they were inserting the follicles for about 1.5-2 hours.  Because of the codeine, I was often quite drowsy so the time passed quick.  All in all, the procedure started about 10:30 and was finished up by about 15:30 – and around 550-600 grafts in total were inserted.  

I thought the hair technicians were great.  They were professional, courteous and very concentrated in their work.  I must admit, I thought the Doc would be more involved in doing the procedure – but he was there more to oversee the operation and I was still very happy with the work done by the technicians.  I  was a bit nervous to look into the mirror the first time post op – but I was very happy with what I saw.  I think it looks quite clean and if the hair line comes through like that I’ll be delighted.  I’m not aiming for massive density, but a good coverage where it’s not noticeable I have hair loss – and I’m confident I’ll get that.

After the procedure, I had a sit down with the Doc who gave me a goody bag and a quick run down of what to expect and what to do post procedure.  I was given a large loose fitting baseball cap to cover the work and then caught an uber back to the hotel.  At the hotel, I sprayed the provided saline every 20 mins and then took a couple codeine tablets before bed as advised – and I did feel the head throbbing before bed so was needed.  But I managed to sleep through the night with no issues.  I actually didn’t even bleed through the dressing which was a surprise.  

The following morning I removed the dressing at the back of the head which resulted in some bleeding from about 4 or 5 points in the donor area, but this stopped after about 20-30 mins with some cleaning.  The back of the head was quite tender when I was cleaning the blood.  My head was swollen – but luckily….avoided Frankenstein level swelling.  

Soon afterwards, I caught an uber to the airport for my flight back to Melbourne – in my newly acquired loose fitting baseball cap.  At security, the officer did ask me to remove my cap which I didn’t really think about beforehand - so brought about a sudden onset of major self-consciousness.  But I removed it and quickly went through – no-one appeared to notice anything….then again, I kept my eyes on the floor in shame so wouldn’t of noticed anyway haha.   I was a bit concerned that my head would swell up further on the flight or the fact of wearing the baseball cap for a couple hours wouldn’t be great for the hair – but was no issue.  I didn’t have any discomfort on the flight despite having the operation the day before.

So that was yesterday, and today I’ve started Day 2 post procedure back home in Melbourne as I write this post.  Now, I’ m just trying to be really careful with my head at the moment, knowing that the first 7 days post procedure are the most crucial to ensure the grafts lock in place.  Tomorrow is Day 3 so I’ll wash the grafts for the first time then.

All in all, I’m very happy I got it done and with the work performed.  In all honestly I was just getting tired of waiting and putting my life on hold for it.  Although I’ve got the ugly duckling phase to go through, it feels nice to finally be moving forward with my hair…and in a way with life again.

Hope that helps lads, any questions let me know.  Wish me luck .  I'll try to post an update once a month to track progress.

P.S. - Apologies I’m using an old i-phone so not the best quality photos.  I’ll add in the photos from the clinic from directly post procedure when I get them.
 

   

Edited May 22, 2021 by Rui
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[Gatsby]

Did your doctor recommend that you start on finasteride? Thanks for sharing.

[Rui]

@Gatsby I've been on Finasteride and Minoxodil for a many years prior to the HT.  He recommended I stop Minoxodil the day before the procedure and recommence 3 weeks after.  For Finasteride, he suggested I continue having this daily as per normal.

[Gatsby]

I think the reason you bled post op as you stated is because you should have ceased minoxidil long before one day prior to surgery. Minoxidil is vasco dilator and shouldn't be taken before surgery. Stay on the finasteride! 👍 All the best.

[Melvin- Admin]

Thank you for sharing you got 1200 grafts?

[victormaitland]

Thanks for sharing this excellent summary Rui. It is great to get some insights into Australian clinics and how they are operating.

I look forward to seeing your updates and hopefully good results. 

 

 

[Rui]

@Melvin-Moderator - no I only got 550-600 grafts in total.  I did want more but the Dr advised against due to the limited space and wanting to ensure the planted grafts had best chance of survival with blood circulation.  Fingers crossed it provides enought density!

[victormaitland]

I don't understand the survival/blood circulation dynamic. I see clinics get impressive results by packing grafts very densely, particularly at the hairline. The results from doing this can look really incredible. Are these grafts then less likely survive because they are densely packed? If so, how are some of these guys getting such incredible results? 

 

[victormaitland]

@Rui Which clinics did you visit in Melbourne? How did those consultations go? Is there are reason you did not go with them? 

[BDK081522]

You needed more grafts for the area covered. Your clinic mislead you in saying survival would be low if implanting at a higher density. You will not be satisfied with the density based on your post op photos. 

[Mark Wolfer]

12 minutes ago, BDK081522 said:

You needed more grafts for the area covered. Your clinic mislead you in saying survival would be low if implanting at a higher density. You will not be satisfied with the density based on your post op photos. 

We'd need to see pre-surgery pics to say this for sure, no way of knowing how many native hairs were there before the FUE.

Edited May 23, 2021 by Mark Wolfer

[BDK081522]

13 minutes ago, Mark Wolfer said:

We'd need to see pre-surgery pics to say this for sure, no way of knowing how many native hairs were there before the FUE.

While I agree pre-op photos would certainly give a better indication of how things may turn out if in fact he has native hair in the restored area. However, it doesn't seem like there was anything there to begin with so if it's all transplanted then the density is below what top clinics would transplant at. After reviewing thousands of cases over the years you get a sense of what will be a good result based off post op placement. It's well known that Aussie clinics are simply not up to par with elite surgeons at the moment. 

[Britanium]

Hate to say it but yes i just dont see the grafts implanted being anywhere near enough. Say its approx 225 grafts per side, even with some decent multi hair grafts its simply not going to give adequate density. 
We can see it was basically empty areas they grafted in to. 

[Rui]

Lets see how it goes lads, I won't jump to any conclusions until I see the results.  I'm hoping it does come through as I want and if not, as you mention there's always a recourse - so not the end of the world.  Will try post an update every month and track the progress.  

[Gatsby]

On 5/23/2021 at 12:53 PM, qui bono said:

There are no quality clinics in Australia that would make the cut. The closest is Knudsen and until recently this was posted on his website as a cherry picked result (and for 651 grafts and the price you have to question why);

This poster uploaded more examples, all exhibiting the same issues with density;

https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/59064-experience-with-dr-russell-knudsen-in-sydney-australia/?tab=comments#comment-573977

Sadly I agree. I don't believe this will get you the density you would need to match with the native areas behind it. I'd consider looking into a 2nd surgery in the future (at 12 months) preferably with another clinic once the results can be assessed.

This post for anyone even just considering a hair transplant in Australia says it all. This is as good as it gets. What gets my back up is when they operate on young guys. Because statistically the younger you have surgery the least satisfied you will be with the outcome. Currently 7/10 people who have a hair transplant are dissatisfied or left disfigured as a result. That means that only 30% of people 'in general' who have surgery are satisfied. Remember this when you do your research. More importantly do your research. Get onto these forums for at least a year and see what goes on. See who has good outcomes. See who has bad outcomes and ask yourself why? And one year is only the journey of one transplant (from post op to 12 months). After 36 years you start to get a much greater understanding of what really is going on. 

@Rui stay the course and please keep asking questions (there is no such thing as a wrong or bad question in this industry). Please give your surgery a full 12 months before assessing the results. Wishing you all the best brother.

[NDAustralia]

On 5/23/2021 at 12:53 PM, qui bono said:

There are no quality clinics in Australia that would make the cut. The closest is Knudsen and until recently this was posted on his website as a cherry picked result (and for 651 grafts and the price you have to question why);

This poster uploaded more examples, all exhibiting the same issues with density;

https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/59064-experience-with-dr-russell-knudsen-in-sydney-australia/?tab=comments#comment-573977

Sadly I agree. I don't believe this will get you the density you would need to match with the native areas behind it. I'd consider looking into a 2nd surgery in the future (at 12 months) preferably with another clinic once the results can be assessed.

I went with Dr Jayaprakash from the Melbourne clinic (Knudsen) you can check out my results if you'd like, I'm very happy.

https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/58689-dr-vikram-jayaprakash-fut-procedure-20th-july-2020-2600-grafts/

Edited August 4, 2021 by NDAustralia

[NDAustralia]

On 5/24/2021 at 8:49 PM, Gatsby said:

This post for anyone even just considering a hair transplant in Australia says it all. This is as good as it gets. What gets my back up is when they operate on young guys. Because statistically the younger you have surgery the least satisfied you will be with the outcome. Currently 7/10 people who have a hair transplant are dissatisfied or left disfigured as a result. That means that only 30% of people 'in general' who have surgery are satisfied. Remember this when you do your research. More importantly do your research. Get onto these forums for at least a year and see what goes on. See who has good outcomes. See who has bad outcomes and ask yourself why? And one year is only the journey of one transplant (from post op to 12 months). After 36 years you start to get a much greater understanding of what really is going on. 

@Rui stay the course and please keep asking questions (there is no such thing as a wrong or bad question in this industry). Please give your surgery a full 12 months before assessing the results. Wishing you all the best brother.

It's not really the best it can get though is it? My results clearly show you can get a better result in Australia.

I'm not saying they are world class but to say these pics are the best it gets is incorrect.

[victormaitland]

NDAustralia your results from Dr Vikram show that it is possible to get a good transplant in Australia. 

I am glad that I have looked into a number of options in Australia, not just overseas. I totally appreciate the warnings about the price/quality in Australia vs. overseas options - and I am taking that into account before making any final decision. 

At this point, I am keen on finding a surgeon in Australia who has produced good work. I am hoping to see Dr Rukshan Senanayake in Brisbane

If anyone has feedback on him, or Gro clinics, I would appreciate it. 

 

 

[NDAustralia]

20 hours ago, victormaitland said:

NDAustralia your results from Dr Vikram show that it is possible to get a good transplant in Australia. 

I am glad that I have looked into a number of options in Australia, not just overseas. I totally appreciate the warnings about the price/quality in Australia vs. overseas options - and I am taking that into account before making any final decision. 

At this point, I am keen on finding a surgeon in Australia who has produced good work. I am hoping to see Dr Rukshan Senanayake in Brisbane: https://www.instagram.com/dr_ruk/?hl=en

If anyone has feedback on him, or Gro clinics, I would appreciate it. 

 

 

Dr Ruk is fantastic. I'd consider going to him myself!

[deeznuts]

Similar boat as you. 600 grafts is way too little man. I've seen surgeon put closer to 2400 grafts in that area. 

[Gatsby]

Quote

NDAustralia your results from Dr Vikram show that it is possible to get a good transplant in Australia. 

I am glad that I have looked into a number of options in Australia, not just overseas. I totally appreciate the warnings about the price/quality in Australia vs. overseas options - and I am taking that into account before making any final decision. 

At this point, I am keen on finding a surgeon in Australia who has produced good work. I am hoping to see Dr Rukshan Senanayake in Brisbane

If anyone has feedback on him, or Gro clinics, I would appreciate it. 

As I have said previously, do not even consider going to ANY surgeon in Australia!! They do not have the body of work under their belts and the one's who do are terrible! I've had conversations and consultations with many over the past 35 years. Dr Vic and Knudsen put doubles in the frontal hairline and justify this as 'occurring in nature!' Rubbish. If you even just compare any 'true' work that they have done here (and the prices they are asking) to other clinics overseas you will soon realise that it's like night and day. The skill set just doesn't exist in Australia. Look at Eugenix and recommended surgeons from this forum. There are no short cuts with surgery. All the best.

[NDAustralia]

On 8/18/2021 at 4:37 PM, Gatsby said:

As I have said previously, do not even consider going to ANY surgeon in Australia!! They do not have the body of work under their belts and the one's who do are terrible! I've had conversations and consultations with many over the past 35 years. Dr Vic and Knudsen put doubles in the frontal hairline and justify this as 'occurring in nature!' Rubbish. If you even just compare any 'true' work that they have done here (and the prices they are asking) to other clinics overseas you will soon realise that it's like night and day. The skill set just doesn't exist in Australia. Look at Eugenix and recommended surgeons from this forum. There are no short cuts with surgery. All the best.

I believe your original quote was that the OP's results are as good as it gets which was what I was referring to because that's clearly not true- look at my results which are far better.

Your points are absolutely valid regarding the quality of surgeons vs price here in Australia 

[Gatsby]

Nic your results look excellent. However none of the credit is due to Vikram. It's due to your hair quality being wavy/curly, the color of you hair contrasting to your skin pigmentation and the use of meds. No expert hair transplant surgeon would state that doubles are seen in nature. That's just another of his long list of lies going back to his convicted fraud case in New Zealand. Your results look excellent as I've said. 👍

[NDAustralia]

On 8/27/2021 at 11:31 AM, Gatsby said:

Nic your results look excellent. However none of the credit is due to Vikram. It's due to your hair quality being wavy/curly, the color of you hair contrasting to your skin pigmentation and the use of meds. No expert hair transplant surgeon would state that doubles are seen in nature. That's just another of his long list of lies going back to his convicted fraud case in New Zealand. Your results look excellent as I've said. 👍

I agree that my hair characteristics are more than favourable but also really like the actual hairline design and micro-irregularities that he's put into the hairline design. Yes, the doubles are an outright mistake and as I said he's not world class but I think he's probably as good as it gets in Australia alongside Dr Ruk from Gro Clinics. We aren't spoiled for choice here that's for sure

[Luka19]

Hey Rui, am keen to know your thoughts on your HT now that it's been a few months if you're happy to share