Bruno Ferreira | 2879 Grafts | 29y | NW 3 | December 2022

[Mars11]

Hello everyone,

after about 2.5 to 3 years of extensive research on the subject of hair transplantation, I had the surgery with Dr. Bruno Ferreira in beautiful Esphino (near Porto) on December 13 and 14.
Some preliminary information (age, status, medications) can be taken from this thread:

Several sources are the basis for me finally approaching the surgery. First, the general information here in the forum and in the German forum (https://www.alopezie.de/foren/transplant/) helped me a lot to be able to assess the general chances and risks of a hair transplant as rationally as possible.
Also, I had read as many patient reports as possible over the last few years, contacted consultants and of course contacted a number of reputable clinics/doctors. With 2 doctors I have been advised personally, with the others I have exchanged e.g. by mail.
In the end, the total package (consultation, hairline design, comparable cases, price-performance ratio, all-by-himself working method) of Bruno convinced me the most.  
So 2 years ago I contacted the clinic and received the recommendation to have a total of about 2,800 grafts implanted. At that time I started with Finasteride, which I still tolerate well (5 mg/week). My hair loss has almost completely stopped.

So much in advance about my initial situation. In the following I would like to outline the course of the last week chronologically:
The surgery was scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday (December 13-14). Unfortunately, I got sick the week before and had a cold that lingered in the form of a severe cough until Monday evening before the surgery. I was very lucky that all the sneezing and coughing from the night before just stopped on the 1st day of surgery as soon as I was about to lay down on the OP couch.
Btw: One day before surgery, I had my blood tested for various health markers at a cooperating medical facility.

 

Surgery Day 1:
The walk from my accommodation to the clinic was about 15 minutes. 
I arrived at the clinic at 7:30 am. Bruno's rooms are located there on the ground floor. I had a few short conversations with Bruno's staff and gave them some typical sweets that I had brought from home. All of his staff, from the assistants to the office member, were incredibly polite and personable, so I felt - I want to preface this - very comfortable at all times.

For the next 2 days, I was provided with my own lounge/room where I could relax and eat during breaks. 
Shortly after I changed clothes and read some enclosed information about the surgery and aftercare, Bruno came in and we had a brief conversation about what I thought about the surgery. Now, since I had been sleeping very little lately and was still a little sickly (coupled with some excitation), I forgot a lot of what I had been thinking about before. Anyway. Bruno still knew about our previous exchange via e-mail. My desire is to fill in the temple corners. But it was especially important to me to have a long-lasting result that would not conjure up a youthful hairline, but a hairline that would still look age appropriate when I was 40-50 years old. 
So we went to the next room. There, photos were taken from different angles and my hair was trimmed - one of my biggest tease for me was that my hair was completely shaved off. Nevermind, did look like a criminal but that was fine for the moment. 
We coordinated on the hairline, and it ended up being the line that Bruno drew in the 2nd approach. Slightly lower than the first attempt.

Then it was straight on to the operating room. After I was given a sedative, things started right away. The atmosphere was positive at all times, music was playing in the background and in the supine position I had a view of a TV. 
I still felt the anesthetic injections slightly, but from then on the whole procedure was almost painless. Bruno always noticed immediately when the anesthesia wore off a bit and injected some more.
By lunch-time, about 900 grafts had been implanted into the hairline. It was incredible for me to see how well-coordinated and professional Bruno was with his assistants.
Bruno punches out the grafts and collects them together with a colleague. The grafts are immediately placed in a liquid and prepared under the microscope for later implentation. Bruno again does the slits and implantation of the grafts all by himself. 

I was allowed to choose my own lunch and opted for soup and fish with potatoes. The selection was really great on both days and the food is highly recommended. 

After a break of about 1 hour, we continued, so that almost 1,400 grafts were implanted on the first day.

Bruno and his team took the time to explain some more steps to me and to take photos again. I started using the saline spray that was provided to keep the receiving area as moist as possible. By 7:30 a.m. the next day, I was ready to go.

Surgery Day 2:
Photos were taken again at the beginning. Everything looked just fine. Only a little wound secretion (fibrin) had formed, but this should not be a problem due to the recommended increased use of the saline spray.
The 2nd day went almost like the first. The mood was good and by three o'clock in the afternoon almost 2,900 grafts had been implanted.
 

Since I still had 2 days until I had to leave, I also came to the clinic the following 2 days to have my donor area washed. Again, photos were taken.
 

Back at home, I feel pretty good. Only the swellings still distort the shape of my face. But since I took vacation until the beginning of the year anyway, that's not a problem.

Unfortunately, I have hardly taken any meaningful pictures myself. That's why the attached photos are just from the end of the first day, sorry for that.
 In the course of the next week I should receive the pictures from the clinic and post them here. I'd like to do this chronologically from then on, so I'll post the clinic pictures first and then my own pictures from home. 
Tomorrow I have arrived at the 4th postoperative day and will wash the recipient area for the first time. At the same time, I will be switching from saline spray to aloe vera gel. Both saline spray, aloe vera and the shampoo were provided to me by the clinic in sufficient quantity. I also received a vitamin blend from Bruno, which is not necessary in itself, but prevents deficiencies of certain vitamins. So I took it.
Every few weeks I will send Bruno and his team pictures of my current condition and get feedback. 
 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! 

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by Mars11

[Hairy Henderson]

Great to see another Ferreira review.  Curious, when you researched, where did you find other Ferreira results?  They are limited on here.

[PutTheFolliclesInTheBag]

Nice write up and a very clean job by Dr Ferreira by the looks of it! 

I had my surgery with Ferreira in early March with a similar recession pattern, was also 29 at the time and had pretty much exactly the same number of grafts (288x, don't remember the exact figure) implanted, nice coincidence 😅 I also happen to be German too (fast schon gruselig haha). My hair grew in very nicely, I have no doubt that yours will as well 😌

Will post my own thread around the 12 month mark, but feel free to reach out in the meantime if you have doubts regarding your progress etc, I took plenty of pictures especially in the early stages!

Happy growing!

[Mars11]

5 minutes ago, Calihome1 said:

Great to see another Ferreira review.  Curious, when you researched, where did you find other Ferreira results?  They are limited on here.

Thank you for your reply.
I have not seen any other results tbh. But over the last 2 years I have felt that those who have been documented have all done very well and ethically. The main reason I made the decision was because of his consultation by mail. It was exceptionally accurate (+ seemingly consensus that he's on of the top ones atm).

[Mars11]

6 minutes ago, PutTheFolliclesInTheBag said:

Nice write up and a very clean job by Dr Ferreira by the looks of it! 

I had my surgery with Ferreira in early March with a similar recession pattern, was also 29 at the time and had pretty much exactly the same number of grafts (288x, don't remember the exact figure) implanted, nice coincidence 😅 I also happen to be German too (fast schon gruselig haha). My hair grew in very nicely, I have no doubt that yours will as well 😌

Will post my own thread around the 12 month mark, but feel free to reach out in the meantime if you have doubts regarding your progress etc, I took plenty of pictures especially in the early stages!

Happy growing!

Hi, thanks for your answer. 
Might we found our Doppelganger.  I'd reach out to you via pm if that's fine for you. 

Happy growing to you as well!

[PutTheFolliclesInTheBag]

3 minutes ago, Mars11 said:

Hi, thanks for your answer. 
Might we found our Doppelganger.  I'd reach out to you via pm if that's fine for you. 

Happy growing to you as well!

Absolutely, message me any time! 😌

[Hairy Henderson]

13 minutes ago, PutTheFolliclesInTheBag said:

Nice write up and a very clean job by Dr Ferreira by the looks of it! 

I had my surgery with Ferreira in early March with a similar recession pattern, was also 29 at the time and had pretty much exactly the same number of grafts (288x, don't remember the exact figure) implanted, nice coincidence 😅 I also happen to be German too (fast schon gruselig haha). My hair grew in very nicely, I have no doubt that yours will as well 😌

Will post my own thread around the 12 month mark, but feel free to reach out in the meantime if you have doubts regarding your progress etc, I took plenty of pictures especially in the early stages!

Happy growing!

Sure you don’t want to start posting before that? 😁

[PutTheFolliclesInTheBag]

4 minutes ago, Calihome1 said:

Sure you don’t want to start posting before that? 😁

Yep very sure, sorry 😇 I want to post it all in one go, I don't trust myself with the updates and don't want to let anyone down. If you go through the Ferreira threads on this site (as I'm sure you have) you'll see that many of the posters stop updating well before the final result. I just want to make sure I don't add to that list. Also, the clinic still hasn't sent me the pre-surgery photos they took, and I want to include those in my write up.

Feel free to nudge me in March if I haven't posted by then ☺️

[WhereIsMyMind]

Super clean extractions and looks dense, looks like its gonna be a banger

I noticed the hairline design is not symetrical (both corners not on same level), when it grows it will be impossible to notice most likely though. My transplant also resulted in uneven corners after swelling went down, but I might go for a round 2 for my OCD obsession with symetry 😅

[Mars11]

28 minutes ago, WhereIsMyMind said:

Super clean extractions and looks dense, looks like its gonna be a banger

I noticed the hairline design is not symetrical (both corners not on same level), when it grows it will be impossible to notice most likely though. My transplant also resulted in uneven corners after swelling went down, but I might go for a round 2 for my OCD obsession with symetry 😅

Yes, you are right. 
I also noticed the asymmetry while drawing the hairline. Bruno and I have discussed this. It is intentional because my head in general and the temple points e.g. are not symmetrical. This is to achieve the most natural result possible. Also, what you see in the picture is far from what it is now - Bruno started the insertion at the left corner (of the picture), so at the time of the picture (still in the clinic on day 1) the swelling on one side was much bigger than on the other side. This causes a strong temporal asymmetry.

Haha hope everything works out well for you!

[Hairy Henderson]

If your result is anything close to @Sitries1, you’ll be super pleased.

[Tiger2050]

I only see good results from Ferreira but it’s impossible to book him. Contacted him 1.5 years ago and was told online consultations were closed temporarily but never heard back again. I tried reaching out again several months ago and got the same response. 

[Mars11]

17 hours ago, Tiger2050 said:

I only see good results from Ferreira but it’s impossible to book him. Contacted him 1.5 years ago and was told online consultations were closed temporarily but never heard back again. I tried reaching out again several months ago and got the same response. 

Hi,
I would advise you to just keep trying. I'm pretty sure you'll get a personal reply at some point soon. 🤞

[Mars11]

Attached you will find first the pre-op pictures unshaven:

[Mars11]

Second the pre-op pictures after shaving:

[Mars11]

Lastly: post-op pictures and graft statistics after two day:

 

[Hairy Henderson]

Great design and the donor looks good as well.  Congrats.

[Mars11]

Hi everyone,

these are some homemade pictures using flashlight from day 4 after surgery. This is the day I washed the recipient area for the first time.
The next pictures I will post will be once the scabs is completely off (should be around day 10). From then on, I plan to post an update once a month.

Cheers!

[Sitries1]

Wow. You got your clinic photos back super fast!! I waited close to a year before getting mine back from my 1st procedure!  It Just shows how much better his operation has got with regards to the team around him doing the admin side of things. We're you dealing with Ines??  I found her to be extremely helpful. 

 

Your work looks excellent - it's going to be another fantastic result from  Dr F. I feel very grateful to be a patient of his to be honest - I dont think there is anyone better. 

[Mars11]

9 hours ago, Sitries1 said:

Wow. You got your clinic photos back super fast!! I waited close to a year before getting mine back from my 1st procedure!  It Just shows how much better his operation has got with regards to the team around him doing the admin side of things. We're you dealing with Ines??  I found her to be extremely helpful. 

 

Your work looks excellent - it's going to be another fantastic result from  Dr F. I feel very grateful to be a patient of his to be honest - I dont think there is anyone better. 

Thanks for your reply. I really enjoy following your progress.
Yes, my main contact person is Inês. I told her in advance that I wanted to do patient documentation, so she probably prepared all the images very quickly.
In general, I agree with you that most of the processes seem to be very well optimized. 

[Hairy Henderson]

I really like the hairline to temple corner transition.  Looks beautiful

[stephcurry30]

You are in great hands and I'm sure this will be a home run result! 

How much did you pay total or per graft? I am curious! 

[Mars11]

13 hours ago, Calihome1 said:

I really like the hairline to temple corner transition.  Looks beautiful

Hi @Calihome1,

thanks for your kind words!

[Mars11]

9 hours ago, stephcurry30 said:

You are in great hands and I'm sure this will be a home run result! 

How much did you pay total or per graft? I am curious! 

Since I had my first contact with the clinic in the beginning of 2021, I paid the price at that time (2.50€/graft). As far as I know, the price now is 3.50€/graft, but I can't say that with absolute certainty.

Edited December 23, 2022 by Mars11

[Gatsby]

@Mars11 the work looks excellent! Happy growing! 👌