Surgery on 24th September 2022 with Dr Arika Bansal, Eugenix

[keratin_matters]

Hi all,

     I have been visiting this forum for a long time now. I made a post an year ago requesting suggestions on my hair loss and how to tackle it. @Gatsby , @Melvin- Moderator, @Berba11, @Britalian had all suggested that I should stay on finasteride longer before considering a transplant as I was only 23. I was already on finasteride for almost an year back then, I waited one more year and I am 2 years on finasteride now. I know waiting for some more months until I actually turn 25 would still be the opinion of many people on this forum. However, I am not going to be able to do a procedure like this one for at least 4-5 years after that due to things that I have planned in my life. If somebody still has a recommendation that I should be delaying this further, please feel free to suggest so, I am always open to rethinking. Rest assured my compliance to medications is excellent, I have been taking minoxidil since I was 19 and have barely missed a day in 5 years, same for finasteride for 2 years. 

    I had an in-person consultation with Dr Arika Bansal from @Eugenix Hair Sciences, my native place is not far away from Mumbai so I planned to do a one day trip to Mumbai to consult with her. I reached a little early for the consultation, so I had to roam around the area for a while and explore before returning to the clinic for the consultation. Everybody from the staff to Dr Arika were incredibly accommodating and their hospitality was indeed good. In the consultation, I discussed my family history with hair loss, the history of my hair loss and of the medications that I have been taking. I also had Dr Arika take a look at my donor, she said that the donor is pretty good but so is everyone else's at 24 and so medications are important. We spoke about the possible ways that my hair loss can progress despite being on medications and how to tackle it, etc. After the discussion, she drew two hairlines for me, one aggressive and one conservative. I am definitely going with the conservative one given my age. Inputs from other members regarding the hairline placement are also welcome.. Attaching the photos they took after the consultation. Cropping out my face for anonymity. 

P.S: I was quoted between 1500 to 1700 grafts. 

    

     Soon afterwards, the big question before me was the packages. After much thinking, I decided to go with the premium package with the involvement of Dr Arika. She would be doing all the slits and the crucial extractions. Tbh I have read quite a bit in this forum regarding recent problems with donor management, but I don't have enough money to afford the Super Premium Package, so I will discuss this frankly with the clinic the day before the surgery and discuss how my donor management will be done before going forward with the transplant. One minor criticism I have is that I had a question for them, whether I should be stopping minoxidil in only the hairline where we are implanting or should I stop applying it throughout the scalp before the OP, I was redirected to another person and I reached out to him on Whatsapp, but got no reply for some hours so I followed up and asked if I should be asking someone else but no reply despite the message being seen. Such medical questions pre-op should be answered relatively quickly and a delay of an entire day isn't right. I hope they resolve this, it's a minor thing but small things add up. 

     I have booked the date of 24th September for my transplant which is the coming Saturday. I have a combination of both nervousness and excitement, let's hope the best comes out of it. I will document the entire journey on this forum so that others can benefit from it as well. 

Edited September 19, 2022 by keratin_matters

[Gatsby]

Minoxidil should be ceased at least two weeks prior to surgery as it is a vasodilator. You have done well to to stick with Finasteride and minoxidil. These are life long medications in your hair restoration journey. At 24 I highly recommend choosing the conservative hairline design. All the best! 

[keratin_matters]

47 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

Minoxidil should be ceased at least two weeks prior to surgery as it is a vasodilator. You have done well to to stick with Finasteride and minoxidil. These are life long medications in your hair restoration journey. At 24 I highly recommend choosing the conservative hairline design. All the best! 

Yup conservative it is! Maybe I'll request them to go slightly more conservative than the one they drew. I've no problem with a conservative hairline tbh, I've a problem no hairline. XD

[ahmed9500]

All the best, let the nerves be settled by the Eugenix team they will take care of you in every way possible. Your hair looks amazing im sure you are going to get a home run and will be one please patient in the next year - good luck and pass my regards to the team! Just say hi from the footballer who loves a party 😂

[keratin_matters]

7 hours ago, ahmed9500 said:

All the best, let the nerves be settled by the Eugenix team they will take care of you in every way possible. Your hair looks amazing im sure you are going to get a home run and will be one please patient in the next year - good luck and pass my regards to the team! Just say hi from the footballer who loves a party 😂

Saw your thread, best of luck to you too! 

[keratin_matters]

One small update, my surgery with @Eugenix Hair Science @Eugenix Hair Scienceshas been moved from 24th September to 25th September due to a request from the surgeon. They were able to book an extra day for me at the hotel, their service and promptness regarding this was appreciatable. So now I'd leaving my hometown early morning on the 24th now, reach the clinic and sort out the formalities.. then explore Mumbai for a bit and then head to the hotel. 

 

Is there anything that I should be carrying with me which I wouldn't know about? (I'm not an international traveller, any indians here who can give me any inputs?)

[Eugenix Hair Sciences]

Greetings @keratin_matters,

Thank you for showcasing your trust in us, One and only advise, Relax and just visit Mumbai for a day, enjoy the weather and the sea. The food is amazing in Mumbai and so are the peoples. Have a good breakfast before coming to the clinic, wear an open buttoned shirt and the rest will be taken care by us. 

Feel free to reach me out for any enquiry. 

[Karan Chawla]

@keratin_matters, relax buddy, these guys are very good in taking care of everything. you will feel like home with all facilities available. 

Enjoy mumbai and keep us updated. 

[keratin_matters]

1 hour ago, Eugenix Hair Sciences said:

Greetings @keratin_matters,

Thank you for showcasing your trust in us, One and only advise, Relax and just visit Mumbai for a day, enjoy the weather and the sea. The food is amazing in Mumbai and so are the peoples. Have a good breakfast before coming to the clinic, wear an open buttoned shirt and the rest will be taken care by us. 

Feel free to reach me out for any enquiry. 

Thank you.. Super excited for this! 

[keratin_matters]

1 hour ago, Karan Chawla said:

@keratin_matters, relax buddy, these guys are very good in taking care of everything. you will feel like home with all facilities available. 

Enjoy mumbai and keep us updated. 

Best of luck for your results too man! 

[Gatsby]

The only advice I can give is to sit back and prepare to be treated like a king! 👌

[Ryan Daniel]

1 minute ago, Gatsby said:

The only advice I can give is to sit back and prepare to be treated like a king! 👌

Well said 

[general-etwan]

Good luck tomorrow! You will be treated with amazing care. Just relax and let them do their thing. 

[Bb111]

Good luck. Looking forward to following your journey.

[keratin_matters]

Hey guys! Update on the transplant. 

24th September: The day before the surgery. I arrived at the clinic with all of my luggage, did some pre-op over there. This included checking my blood pressure, and giving a small dose of anaesthesia to see if I react negativity. I also signed some forms regarding my consent about hair transplant. I was accompanied by a family member and after all the formalities, we went to the hotel. Now the hotel is Taj ends hotel in Band Stand, Mumbai and my room had the view of the entire mumbai skyline and the Bandra-Kurla sea link. I also went about the sea and saw some famous Bollywood's personalities' houses, and the saw the sunset on the beach. It was a good day overall and prepared me for the next day!

My room:

 

25th September the D day: I was told to report to the clinic at 11 am, I went in early at 10:30 just to be safe from the Mumbai traffic. The process began with Dr Arika drawing a hairline for me, we went for the conservative approach. I also asked her what my total donor capacity might be, she said that a total of 6,000 grafts can be removed from my donor. 

I was then taken to shave off my hair and take some photos, soon afterwards they cleaned my scalp with the betadine medication. The slits were made by Dr Arika, I had a chat with her about hair transplant related things, the instruments they were using, etc. After the slits, Dr Arika did some initial extractions, 200 if I saw correctly on the board. My main reason for choosing her was that she'd determine the donor area size, punch size, etc. The punch size they used on me was between 0.9 to 1 mm because my hair diameter is quite thick. I told the technician to take a pic of my donor trimmed area to see how big it is. Adding that photo as well.

Knowing the native language was a big advantage to me as I could communicate with the techs about the pain, steps being performed, for breaks now and then. The lady giving the anasthesia was also very kind and checking in every few minutes if there is any pain. I could see little about what was going on as I had a cloth on my eyes, but I could understand that one guy was extracting the grafts, one was implanting and was spraying the saline every now and then.

Now I wouldn't say that the surgery was not uncomfortable, because it certainly was. I was sitting in odd postures and there was also some pain associated with the anasthesia, but it was bearable, and I was thinking about those amazing hair that would sprout out at the end 😂. They did arrange some nice indian food for me in the break, their hospitality and care was lovely.

The surgery went right from 12 pm to 8 pm so it was quite exhausting. In the end, some hairline implantation was being done, after that the surgery was over, I asked the technician to take a photo of my donor at that point. After the procedure, some more photos were taken, I have asked the clinic to send those photos to me in high resolution so that I can upload them here. 

Here are some implanted hairline photos as well.  I was explained the post OP care by the Eugenix team, sleeping was a challenge but managed it somehow. Now come the crucial 7-10 days and the long journey ahead. Thanks for reading and I'd keep you guys updated in this post! 

Edited September 26, 2022 by keratin_matters

[Gatsby]

@keratin_matters thanks for sharing your experience. From the photos you appear to have an excellent donor. I look forward to following your updates. 👌

[keratin_matters]

51 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

@keratin_matters thanks for sharing your experience. From the photos you appear to have an excellent donor. I look forward to following your updates. 👌

Thanks!

Do the extractions look uniform? I can't really tell and was really stressed out about this part. Does the implantation look good?

[keratin_matters]

21 minutes ago, Corbyn said:

@keratin_matters

Did they serve you butter chicken by any chance? 

No I asked for an all vegeterian indian lunch. It was pretty good though.

[Gatsby]

3 hours ago, keratin_matters said:

Thanks!

Do the extractions look uniform? I can't really tell and was really stressed out about this part. Does the implantation look good?

Definitely! 👌

[Shaik]

@keratin_mattersThanks for sharing with pictures Bro. it helps others. It looks clean work. As @Gatsbysaid looks like you have great donor. Please share your detailed experience about the way your surgery went, when you get some comfortable time. Let us know if there are any point that are important to keep in mind when others plan to HT at Eugenix. I am planning for HT at Eugenix in October. 

Thanks and Take Care Bro.

[keratin_matters]

1 hour ago, Gatsby said:

Definitely! 👌

That's a big relief, thank you! 

[keratin_matters]

22 minutes ago, Shaik said:

@keratin_mattersThanks for sharing with pictures Bro. it helps others. It looks clean work. As @Gatsbysaid looks like you have great donor. Please share your detailed experience about the way your surgery went, when you get some comfortable time. Let us know if there are any point that are important to keep in mind when others plan to HT at Eugenix. I am planning for HT at Eugenix in October. 

Thanks and Take Care Bro.

I will certainly post a more detailed experience when I receive the HD photos. The advice that I can give is

 1) Keep some notes of questions on your mobile notes app. And when Dr Arika comes in, just make sure you go through all of them.

2) Besides this I also asked them to introduce each technician to me with their years of experience to increase my trust. You can do this as well. 

3) Communication and awareness is key, they will take care of everything but do make sure to communicate every small thing and expectation. I was constantly asking about the steps being performed, the number of grafts yielded from a particular area, punch size being used, density per sq cm being given,etc. 

4) Also a funny thing I noticed is that there were some concerns that Dr Arika is streched between too many packages. But it seems that their Mumbai clinic has only 3 OTs in total so they literally cannot pack anyone more than that. On the other hand, the Delhi clinic has 7-10 OTs I guess, so if you're choosing anything less than the super premium package, the Mumbai clinic might not be a bad option.

[Shaik]

14 hours ago, keratin_matters said:

I will certainly post a more detailed experience when I receive the HD photos. The advice that I can give is

 1) Keep some notes of questions on your mobile notes app. And when Dr Arika comes in, just make sure you go through all of them.

2) Besides this I also asked them to introduce each technician to me with their years of experience to increase my trust. You can do this as well. 

3) Communication and awareness is key, they will take care of everything but do make sure to communicate every small thing and expectation. I was constantly asking about the steps being performed, the number of grafts yielded from a particular area, punch size being used, density per sq cm being given,etc. 

4) Also, a funny thing I noticed is that there were some concerns that Dr Arika is stretched between too many packages. But it seems that their Mumbai clinic has only 3 OTs in total so they literally cannot pack anyone more than that. On the other hand, the Delhi clinic has 7-10 OTs I guess, so if you're choosing anything less than the super-premium package, the Mumbai clinic might not be a bad option.

Thanks for sharing these points bro. Even in some other thread I read like there were 7 surgeries were going on the same day. Hope they continue to keep up the quality.

[keratin_matters]

2 hours ago, Corbyn said:

@keratin_matters

How much was your transplant? Does the price differ based on whether you get the quote from them if you're in India vis-a-vis from outside of India?

Well that's strange.. the highest package with Dr arika is 350 rs/graft which would be 4.37£/graft. But perhaps this is the one with Dr Sethi? He only takes up special cases these days and must be charging much more. This is my hunch, but it's best that you clarify this with the clinic. 

[Bb111]

13 hours ago, Corbyn said:

How much was your transplant? Does the price differ based on whether you get the quote from them if you're in India vis-a-vis from outside of India?

I am pretty sure the prices are the same whether you live in India or outside. I think what you are seeing is that Eugenix does have even higher packages then they advertise on their site. The higher package has even more involvement from Dr. Sethi.