My surgery with Dr Bruno Ferreira 2500 grafts

[Sitries1]

Hello all! 
 

I’ve used this forum as a means to carry out research for the past year or so on surgeons/results so I feel its only fair to now give something back and document my story which can hopefully help others in choosing their surgeon. 

It was a toss up between HLC in Turkey and Dr Ferreira in Portugal for me and having had communication with both I felt I would be in safer hands with Dr Ferreira - his professionalism and attention to detail stood out immediately and I felt more secure in the knowledge that it would be only him doing the whole procedure. I booked him up early 2021 and secured my date for December 7th and 8th 2021 (I now sit here writing this  the following day after surgery). 

Return Flights were cheap to Portugal for this time of year and I booked a lovely apartment right in the centre of town which I managed to get a great discount on through air B and B as it’s out of season (I messaged the owner and asked if they bring the price down to get within my budget because I would be a single occupant and luckily for me they were happy to accommodate).  I booked up to stay here for 8 days so I could relax and not be panicked about the whole thing.  The 1st 2 days here I stocked up the apartment with all the food and water I would need for my stay in case I didn’t feel like roaming the streets post op.  There is a famous farmers market here every Monday and I got some great fresh produce there (fruit, veg,  bread, nuts etc).  I ate out at a couple of seafood restaurants and had plenty of strolls along the beach.  I have found the Portuguese people to be extremely friendly and welcoming. If you are coming to get surgery with Dr Ferreira I would highly recommend staying here in Espinho where the clinic is located (rather than commuting from Porto). Espinho is a city in name but really it’s just a small seaside town where everything is in walking distance and it has a lovely beach and plenty of shops and restaurants. 

I had my blood work and Covid test done at a local lab here in Espinho the day before my surgery (this was all booked up by Alexandra who is Dr Ferreira‘a PA). On the day of the surgery i got showered, ate breakfast and walked to Dr Ferreira’s medical facility which was a ten minute walk from my apartment.  I arrived at 7.30 and was allocated a room where I was briefed by one of the nurses and got changed into the hospital garments. At 8am Dr Ferreira came in and ran me through the procedure and answered any questions/concerns I had. I told him that I wasn’t nervous about anything apart from the hairline design as I wanted it to be symmetrical and I wanted to get as much depth as possible. He said not to worry and that would all be agreed between us.

So………Into the next room we went to take all the pre op photos and start designing the hairline. I had showed Dr Ferreira the type of hairline I wanted by showing him photos on my phone of other cases. Basically I wanted a windows peak style hairline with the centre to be accurate and the centre to be the lowest point and the sides to slope back up (I didn’t want a hair of instanbul style straight across hairline where the sides can end up lower than the centre if that makes sense!?).  I also wanted him to thicken up the temporal points and bring them slightly forward if possible. Dr Ferreira took his time and was very diligent in the hairline design and he got the shape and style bang on pretty much 1st time. There were a coupe of minor tweaks and then more photos and we were good to go. 

Both days of surgery were set up the same way - morning session of extraction and implantation, lunch (which was delicious btw) then afternoon session of extraction and implantation (the only person that touched my head all day was Dr Ferreira other than wiping down my head before lunch and at the end of the day). The surgeries were pretty painless overall (the anaesthetic  injections sting a little) and I found the hardest part laying in certain positions for long periods of time. Dr Ferreira and his team had a very good rapport with each other and we’re having a bit of banter during the surgery but everything seemed like clockwork as far as the procedure went. The nurses were very caring and accommodating and I can’t fault the experience at all.  The 1st day he did one side of the hairline in full and completed the outline of the other side of the hairline and the 2nd day he completed the hairline, did the temporal points and then scattered out some grafts on the thinning areas on top.

His analysis of my case was that I had good hair quality and less miniaturisation than the initial photos i sent him indicated. He had originally predicted that I would need 2500-3000 grafts and it ended up around the 2500 mark. It’s worth noting that I’m not taking Finasteride and do not intend to do so. Dr Ferreira said that the rate of my hairloss is fairly slow and that the level of miniaturisation was not high enough to suggest that Finasteride would be essential for me like in some cases. I know that In the future I will likely need a second procedure but I have plenty of donor area left for this so it’s not a problem. 

Originally I was going to wait for Dr Ferreira to send over the full set of photos pre and post op but he said that this could take a month or 2 to be distributed  to me so I’ve taken some photos myself the best I can (before and after). 

Please also note that I had SMP about 18 months before surgery purely because I shaved my head during Covid and it looked so bad and thin and one side of my hairline was recessed much worse than the other and I wanted to level it out. The plan was to keep a shaved head through covid and in the lead up to surgery.  

overall marks out of ten for Dr Ferreira and my experience this far is 10/10. Now let the growing commence!!!!
 

 

Edited December 9, 2021 by Sitries1

[JDEE0]

Looks really good, Dr. Ferreira is great.

Do you know how many grafts went into each temple, just out of interest?

[Sitries1]

17 minutes ago, JDEE0 said:

Looks really good, Dr. Ferreira is great.

Do you know how many grafts went into each temple, just out of interest?

I think it was between 50 and 75 grafts each side 

[giegnosiganoe]

Interesting to see such a different hairline design than we are used to from Dr. Ferreira. Work looks great, looking forward to how this turns out, especially the temple points (yours didn't look bad TBH).

[WhiteyUK]

I really like the hairline, good luck

[Mycroft]

I like the design you two settled on. I hope you'll continue to update us to the end because I'm very interested to see how it looks once it has grown in.

[JoeMan]

Looks good! I have surgery scheduled in mid January with him. I'm a little nervous as I still don't see many results from him, but more and more people are starting to post. I traveled to meet him several months ago and he seemed like a good Dr. I really enjoyed Porto so I'm contemplating just staying in Porto and Uber back and forth. But in the end I might just stay in Espinho at least for the surgery days. Unfortunately I just had ankle surgery 3 weeks ago, so I'm know I won't be able to walk much, especially up/down hill. That really has me nervous.

 

Anyways, thanks for sharing and good luck with your results. I'll likely start my own thread afterwards. Also can you share the Airbnb you used as I may look into it? 

[Fue3361]

I think it's a great sign when a doctor varies his hairline design depending on the patient.  Not all hairlines are ideal for everyone.  There are multiple ways to design a good hairline, and using the old one as a guide instead of going for a copy paste standard is always the better approach.

[Min12]

Looking great! What was the name of the air bnb apartment?

[Sitries1]

4 hours ago, Min12 said:

Looking great! What was the name of the air bnb apartment?

It’s called ‘The Blue Twenty Two House’

[Sitries1]

14 hours ago, JoeMan said:

Looks good! I have surgery scheduled in mid January with him. I'm a little nervous as I still don't see many results from him, but more and more people are starting to post. I traveled to meet him several months ago and he seemed like a good Dr. I really enjoyed Porto so I'm contemplating just staying in Porto and Uber back and forth. But in the end I might just stay in Espinho at least for the surgery days. Unfortunately I just had ankle surgery 3 weeks ago, so I'm know I won't be able to walk much, especially up/down hill. That really has me nervous.

 

Anyways, thanks for sharing and good luck with your results. I'll likely start my own thread afterwards. Also can you share the Airbnb you used as I may look into it? 

It’s called ‘The Blue Twenty Two House’. 
 

I really would recommend staying in Espinho buddy - getting a cab from Porto at 6.30-7.00am will not only be  expensive but it will likely get you in a panicky disposition before surgery (traffic/not being able to find a cab etc). It’s much nicer being just down the road within a  short walk away. You won’t feel like doing a great deal after surgery anyway so you won’t be able to enjoy Porto. Another thing to consider is that getting in and out of cars is a prime way to bang your head after surgery so I’ve been thankful I’ve not had to do that. 
 

Good luck for January. I wish you all the best.

[SD1984]

Wow, he really is good. Doesn't get any denser and clean than that. Good luck in your journey.

[stephcurry30]

This will be a home run result. Subbed to track your progress. 

[Sitries1]

Will keep you guys updated but I’m super happy so far. The hairline shape is everything I wanted and it’s healed really well. Looks even better now scabs are off and swelling has gone down. Will post som pics tomorrow. 

[HappyMan2021]

looks like the doctor used some donor hair from outside the donor safe zone. This would only be a concern if your native hairloss pattern is destined for a NW 6 or NW 7. But given you're before pic and your age, I doubt there is concern for this. 

Some people on this forum would kill for your "Before" hair. 

I agree with everyone this is looking like a homerun so far. 

[Sitries1]

Here’s a few pictures of 10 days post Op with all scabs off. Really happy with it so far. 

[Homesteader]

Looks great mate, I’m 3 months post op with Dr Ferreira today. Happy growing 

[Sitries1]

14 hours ago, SadMan2021 said:

looks like the doctor used some donor hair from outside the donor safe zone. This would only be a concern if your native hairloss pattern is destined for a NW 6 or NW 7. But given you're before pic and your age, I doubt there is concern for this. 

Some people on this forum would kill for your "Before" hair. 

I agree with everyone this is looking like a homerun so far. 

I wouldn’t of thought my hair will ever hit a Norwood 5 or more luckily. Dr Ferreira said my hair was healthy which was a bonus. 

[SD1984]

On 12/10/2021 at 2:08 PM, Sitries1 said:

It’s called ‘The Blue Twenty Two House’

How did the post-op sleeping go?

[Sitries1]

4 minutes ago, SD1984 said:

How did the post-op sleeping go?

Wasn’t too bad at all to be honest. Dr Ferreira said is was ok to sleep flat on my back so I did that and just wore the neck pillow and propped up my head with multiple bed pillows 

[dollhairs]

did you not have swelling at all? i had a transplant and the guy put in this fluid in my skull. took like weeks to wash down thru my face!

Edited December 29, 2021 by dollhairs

[Spaceguy]

1 hour ago, dollhairs said:

did you not have swelling at all? i had a transplant and the guy put in this fluid in my skull. took like weeks to wash down thru my face!

I've got swelling 3 days post op, 2-3 days after it was gone, ice pack helps a lot, just keep it away from recipient area, i was putting it on low forhead and eyes.

[Sitries1]

5 weeks Post Op now guys so here is the update pics. Everything seems on track as far as I can tell. The shedding stopped completely at the 4 week mark and I would say I lost 80% of the implanted hair (rough estimate). I’ve had a few little white head spots on the donor area but recipient area has been good as gold and dare I say it  maybe some early growth! I can feel lots of stubble and little hairs sprouting up. It’s hard to say how significant this growth is since I’ve not been through this before. 

I’m taking 10,000mg Biotin and 5iu of Human Growth hormone daily and have been doing this since 2 months pre Op and will continue the same protocol for around a year to 18 months. 

Edited January 14, 2022 by Sitries1

[stephcurry30]

Looking solid. Does the recipient area look a bit blue to anyone else?

[Spaceguy]

On 1/18/2022 at 2:40 AM, stephcurry30 said:

Looking solid. Does the recipient area look a bit blue to anyone else?

Could be a dried layer of minoxidil solution