Dr Zarev 11,941 grafts. 1st procedure 8,321, 2nd procedure 3,620

[asterix0]

13 hours ago, Fox243 said:

ugh we need this so bad -- i can't wait almost 5 years to get a surgery done.

I know I understand your frustration. There are some doctors that get close though, but are very expensive. Dr. Konior in the USA for instance, if you do not need a gigasession. 

[hairman22]

I dont agree you cant wait

Actually patience was what got @HugoX and @mtb go a great surgeon.

4 years as a diffuse thinner i was turned down by the top surgeons because i cant take fin. Im glad i was.

you can wear a system possibly.

its best to actually wait for example no one knew about Pittella and Zarev 3 years ago. Eugenix too really have some great cases. The longer you wait better chance of a great result and increase your funds and clearly hair transplantation is improving others will hopefully catch up and improve their extraction of the donor area

[vanilia]

but why is Zarev actually so good? has he invented some new technic? whats the catch that he can do such magical things noone did before?

[Joseph James]

27 minutes ago, vanilia said:

but why is Zarev actually so good? has he invented some new technic? whats the catch that he can do such magical things noone did before?

That's what I want to know. And why do American doctors not do these mega sessions? The surgeons I've spoken to would just do the front, then come back at a later time if crown work is desired.

[HugoX]

Besides him being a genius and excellent donor management, I think alot of people don't recognise his extraction method that uses vacuum, he has altered and fine tuned the device further from it's original I belive and this makes survival rate of grafts go to whole new level. 

 

[general-etwan]

6 hours ago, Joseph James said:

That's what I want to know. And why do American doctors not do these mega sessions? The surgeons I've spoken to would just do the front, then come back at a later time if crown work is desired.

4 hours ago, HugoX said:

Besides him being a genius and excellent donor management, I think alot of people don't recognise his extraction method that uses vacuum, he has altered and fine tuned the device further from it's original I belive and this makes survival rate of grafts go to whole new level. 

 

That is true but it's not like survival rate of grafts of other top surgeons lags far behind. It's already in the 90%+ and so Zarev isn't relatively that much higher. You can only get to 99%.

I think Zarev simply harvests from the entire head, way outside the traditional safe donor zone, and does so in a very calculated and proper way in terms of density distribution, so that when it all grows back, there are no obvious areas that stand out as having been over-depleted.

[Fox243]

13 hours ago, hairman22 said:

I dont agree you cant wait

Actually patience was what got @HugoX and @mtb go a great surgeon.

4 years as a diffuse thinner i was turned down by the top surgeons because i cant take fin. Im glad i was.

you can wear a system possibly.

its best to actually wait for example no one knew about Pittella and Zarev 3 years ago. Eugenix too really have some great cases. The longer you wait better chance of a great result and increase your funds and clearly hair transplantation is improving others will hopefully catch up and improve their extraction of the donor area

I'm missing valuable years of my life as I wait though. I don't want to build my life around my hair transplant.

[HairEnthusiast101]

2 hours ago, general-etwan said:

That is true but it's not like survival rate of grafts of other top surgeons lags far behind. It's already in the 90%+ and so Zarev isn't relatively that much higher. You can only get to 99%.

I think Zarev simply harvests from the entire head, way outside the traditional safe donor zone, and does so in a very calculated and proper way in terms of density distribution, so that when it all grows back, there are no obvious areas that stand out as having been over-depleted.

Yep I think you nailed it. To cover that much ground you have to take hair from outside a more dht resistant zone. He does so in a homogenous way so the donor doesn’t look depleted in one area more than the other. But who is to say what these hair transplants look like 30-40 years from now. Hopefully the same but we don’t have that evidence yet. I would love to hear what Dr Konior thinks of Dr Zarev technique? Would be really cool considering one is considered the greatest ever and Zarev is certainly heading into that territory for high norwoods.

Edited June 6, 2023 by HairEnthusiast101

[johnto]

9 hours ago, vanilia said:

but why is Zarev actually so good? has he invented some new technic? whats the catch that he can do such magical things noone did before?

If you watch some of his youtube videos you can see how he can do what he does.  Below are two videos which show his surgical technique and how he can accomplish transpants with such high graft counts.  The main points of his technique are as follows

• At your consultation he develops a long term plan on how many grafts you need to cover your area of balding.  
• So lets say if you are a norwood 6 he will make measurements on your head on where to place your hairline and then develop a calculation of the number of grafts you need for full coverage.  If he determines you need 10000 fue grafts to cover the entire norwood 6 area he will see if your donor zone has this capacity
• so if your donor area has "20000 total remaining folliucar units in the entire donor" he will recommend extracting 50% of the donor in a "homogenous" way which depletes the donor equally allowing him to remove such high graft counts without the donor looking moth eaten or depleted.  It does deplete but its equally across the whole donor.  So to the naked eye the donor looks the same after surgery
• I believe the vacuum assisted FUE machine he uses allows him to use a tiny punch size which minimizes scarring but "sucks up" the fue graft dislodging it (it doesnt suck it into a tube).  This allows him to then easily remove the graft with tweezers and not harm adjacent follicular units allowing him to extract more grafts without damaging neighboring follicles.
• when he places the fue grafts into the recipient area he does so in a homogeneous way and in a way to optimize graft survival.  So because each FUE graft needs blood flow to survive he doesnt "dense pack" but distributes the grafts equally ensuring survival and getting full homogeneous coverage.  Density is then added in subsequent surgeries over time as needed.  This is why his patients he performs surgeries on with high norwoods are booked for a 2 day session then a follow up session 10 months later to add density (like HugoX)
• He does not do 10000 fue grafts in one sitting.  He will do 3-4000 fue grafts in one 11 hour surgical day and then a second surgery the next day for 8000 fue grafts over 2 days.  A final follow up density surgery is booked for 10mo later to finish the case completely.
• He doesn't use microscopes to separate follicular units.  During his micro camera analysis of your donor zone he maps out different parts of your donor.  There are areas in the donor zone that apparently only have singles, other areas doubles, others triple fue units, so when he extracts grafts the separates them based on the location of the donor he got the grafts from.  I assume this just results in less handling of the grafts preventing damage to them and increasing survival rates
• Grafts are implanted with a choi implanter pen.  He does not use lateral slit or scalpels for preparing recipient sites so when he works on a patient it appears there is less trauma to the recipient area which may help with graft survival.  His surgical field is clean.  He is very meticulous 
• Finally every step of the procedure is completed by him.  Apparently no one else touches a patients head other than Zarev.  It allows for consistency in results

Zarev appears to be active on another hair transplant forum He just posted another case there. See the below videos for his technique

https://bellicapelli.forumfree.it/?t=79701174

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by johnto

[hairman22]

8 hours ago, general-etwan said:

That is true but it's not like survival rate of grafts of other top surgeons lags far behind. It's already in the 90%+ and so Zarev isn't relatively that much higher. You can only get to 99%.

I think Zarev simply harvests from the entire head, way outside the traditional safe donor zone, and does so in a very calculated and proper way in terms of density distribution, so that when it all grows back, there are no obvious areas that stand out as having been over-depleted.

Everyones safe zone is individual

But Zarev just took 12k grafts from a nw 7.

In 30-40 years of course you may thin more any surgeon being honest will tell you this.

Zarev technique with less scarring will look better than larger punches

[ScottishGuy21]

On 6/4/2023 at 11:56 PM, Fox243 said:

The main difference for zarev imho is his attention to detail -- I don't think there's much more to that, so if he hires someone who pays attention to detail, then using his technology, they should be close to as good

It’s a tricky one trusting someone 100% to carry your reputation especially if you barely know that person. Maybe Zarev isn’t at that stage right now where he is willing to go down this path. We’ve also seen countless surgeons try to expand their business and suffer reputation damage due to poorer results. So in that respect it’s understandable.

I agree with the attention to detail, nobody comes close from what I hear. 3+ hours just for an initial consultation alone!
 

 

[Turkhair]

He’s good but there’s nothing extraordinary going on here. 

Good donors and he seems to deplete the donor area completely to give coverage to the front. I don’t know how I feel about that having seen a person with a balding donor area and balding at the front too. It’s not a pretty look, even worse than frontal balding, donor area balding looks much worse. The frontal hairs then look like a toupee.

He does extract in a good way which makes the area look thin all over instead of in certain places.

I think the guy in the bellicapelli forum should have instead used body hairs. Once his donor area thins further, it’s going to look super weird balding at the back and having hair in front. He’s doomed to use finasteride forever

Edited June 6, 2023 by Turkhair

[asterix0]

26 minutes ago, Turkhair said:

He’s good but there’s nothing extraordinary going on here. 

Good donors and he seems to deplete the donor area completely to give coverage to the front. I don’t know how I feel about that having seen a person with a balding donor area and balding at the front too. It’s not a pretty look, even worse than frontal balding, donor area balding looks much worse. The frontal hairs then look like a toupee.

He does extract in a good way which makes the area look thin all over instead of in certain places.

I think the guy in the bellicapelli forum should have instead used body hairs. Once his donor area thins further, it’s going to look super weird balding at the back and having hair in front. He’s doomed to use finasteride forever

Good that you aren't a fan...one less person to go on the long waiting list 😀

[Spring15]

24 minutes ago, Turkhair said:

He’s good but there’s nothing extraordinary going on here. 

Good donors and he seems to deplete the donor area completely to give coverage to the front. I don’t know how I feel about that having seen a person with a balding donor area and balding at the front too. It’s not a pretty look, even worse than frontal balding, donor area balding looks much worse. The frontal hairs then look like a toupee.

He does extract in a good way which makes the area look thin all over instead of in certain places.

I think the guy in the bellicapelli forum should have instead used body hairs. Once his donor area thins further, it’s going to look super weird balding at the back and having hair in front. He’s doomed to use finasteride forever

OP has great density on the side of his head where half the grafts were taken from, as seen in his recent pics. Pretty sure Zarev's donor results looks similar to all other top surgeons

[vanilia]

3 hours ago, Turkhair said:

He’s good but there’s nothing extraordinary going on here. 

Good donors and he seems to deplete the donor area completely to give coverage to the front. I don’t know how I feel about that having seen a person with a balding donor area and balding at the front too. It’s not a pretty look, even worse than frontal balding, donor area balding looks much worse. The frontal hairs then look like a toupee.

He does extract in a good way which makes the area look thin all over instead of in certain places.

I think the guy in the bellicapelli forum should have instead used body hairs. Once his donor area thins further, it’s going to look super weird balding at the back and having hair in front. He’s doomed to use finasteride forever

You seriously think this guy cares about this? He just got a head full of hair at probably 60 years of age while being completely bold for probably more then 20 years. Even if he would get sexual side effects from fin he probably wouldnt care  

Edited June 6, 2023 by vanilia

[asterix0]

15 hours ago, general-etwan said:

That is true but it's not like survival rate of grafts of other top surgeons lags far behind. It's already in the 90%+ and so Zarev isn't relatively that much higher. You can only get to 99%.

I think Zarev simply harvests from the entire head, way outside the traditional safe donor zone, and does so in a very calculated and proper way in terms of density distribution, so that when it all grows back, there are no obvious areas that stand out as having been over-depleted.

Not everyone goes to Norwood 7. The Norwood 6 zone is perfectly harvestable for many patients, see @Melvin- Moderator

[Turkhair]

10 hours ago, asterix0 said:

Good that you aren't a fan...one less person to go on the long waiting list 😀

Or maybe I am already booked and trying to dissuade others from going there 😅😀

[Melvin- Admin]

Guys,

This is really de-railing the purpose of this thread, which is to follow @mtb progress.

[mtb]

On 6/4/2023 at 10:33 AM, Joseph James said:

How is this even possible?

 

He uses a much wider donor area than most surgeons. On page 3(?) of this thread I commented on why I was okay with this. It's not going to be right for everyone. Everyone needs to make their own informed decision.

On 6/4/2023 at 11:50 AM, HugoX said:

Just the begging, you haven't seen anything yet..On top of that... One more surgery to go. 

I still have to look at my old pictures just to remember what I used to look like and pinch myself 

I'm pleasantly surprised. I no longer where hats. Maybe once or twice a week I use toppik. But even getting to the point where I don't care for it. 

On 6/4/2023 at 1:24 PM, asterix0 said:

He has said he wants to but has found it hard to find medical students who are good enough I think. 

Yeah, he wants to get a med student rather than someone from the industry who already had bad habits.

On 6/4/2023 at 2:16 PM, Fox243 said:

ugh we need this so bad -- i can't wait almost 5 years to get a surgery done.

It's rough, man. I totally understand. You could shave it down or glue a wig to your head. Or just go to Pitella, H&W, or Eugenix. For me it was worth the wait but I only had to wait 20months from first contact to procedure. 

On 6/5/2023 at 4:13 AM, asterix0 said:

I know I understand your frustration. There are some doctors that get close though, but are very expensive. Dr. Konior in the USA for instance, if you do not need a gigasession. 

If you're a full blown slick NW6 Zarev is the man for the job. 

 

22 hours ago, general-etwan said:

That is true but it's not like survival rate of grafts of other top surgeons lags far behind. It's already in the 90%+ and so Zarev isn't relatively that much higher. You can only get to 99%.

I think Zarev simply harvests from the entire head, way outside the traditional safe donor zone, and does so in a very calculated and proper way in terms of density distribution, so that when it all grows back, there are no obvious areas that stand out as having been over-depleted.

I have no idea how anyone can accurately estimated the survival rate. What is the methodology?

 

19 hours ago, johnto said:

If you watch some of his youtube videos you can see how he can do what he does.  Below are two videos which show his surgical technique and how he can accomplish transpants with such high graft counts.  The main points of his technique are as follows

• At your consultation he develops a long term plan on how many grafts you need to cover your area of balding.  
• So lets say if you are a norwood 6 he will make measurements on your head on where to place your hairline and then develop a calculation of the number of grafts you need for full coverage.  If he determines you need 10000 fue grafts to cover the entire norwood 6 area he will see if your donor zone has this capacity
• so if your donor area has "20000 total remaining folliucar units in the entire donor" he will recommend extracting 50% of the donor in a "homogenous" way which depletes the donor equally allowing him to remove such high graft counts without the donor looking moth eaten or depleted.  It does deplete but its equally across the whole donor.  So to the naked eye the donor looks the same after surgery
• I believe the vacuum assisted FUE machine he uses allows him to use a tiny punch size which minimizes scarring but "sucks up" the fue graft dislodging it (it doesnt suck it into a tube).  This allows him to then easily remove the graft with tweezers and not harm adjacent follicular units allowing him to extract more grafts without damaging neighboring follicles.
• when he places the fue grafts into the recipient area he does so in a homogeneous way and in a way to optimize graft survival.  So because each FUE graft needs blood flow to survive he doesnt "dense pack" but distributes the grafts equally ensuring survival and getting full homogeneous coverage.  Density is then added in subsequent surgeries over time as needed.  This is why his patients he performs surgeries on with high norwoods are booked for a 2 day session then a follow up session 10 months later to add density (like HugoX)
• He does not do 10000 fue grafts in one sitting.  He will do 3-4000 fue grafts in one 11 hour surgical day and then a second surgery the next day for 8000 fue grafts over 2 days.  A final follow up density surgery is booked for 10mo later to finish the case completely.
• He doesn't use microscopes to separate follicular units.  During his micro camera analysis of your donor zone he maps out different parts of your donor.  There are areas in the donor zone that apparently only have singles, other areas doubles, others triple fue units, so when he extracts grafts the separates them based on the location of the donor he got the grafts from.  I assume this just results in less handling of the grafts preventing damage to them and increasing survival rates
• Grafts are implanted with a choi implanter pen.  He does not use lateral slit or scalpels for preparing recipient sites so when he works on a patient it appears there is less trauma to the recipient area which may help with graft survival.  His surgical field is clean.  He is very meticulous 
• Finally every step of the procedure is completed by him.  Apparently no one else touches a patients head other than Zarev.  It allows for consistency in results

Zarev appears to be active on another hair transplant forum He just posted another case there. See the below videos for his technique

https://bellicapelli.forumfree.it/?t=79701174

 

Very thorough review. Agreed. 

13 hours ago, ScottishGuy21 said:

It’s a tricky one trusting someone 100% to carry your reputation especially if you barely know that person. Maybe Zarev isn’t at that stage right now where he is willing to go down this path. We’ve also seen countless surgeons try to expand their business and suffer reputation damage due to poorer results. So in that respect it’s understandable.

I agree with the attention to detail, nobody comes close from what I hear. 3+ hours just for an initial consultation alone!
 

 

I was the one who told about the 3 hour consultation. I wouldn't anticipate that are there were some circumstances that were specific to me. That said, you'll leave the consult feeling 100% confident. 

10 hours ago, Turkhair said:

He’s good but there’s nothing extraordinary going on here. 

Good donors and he seems to deplete the donor area completely to give coverage to the front. I don’t know how I feel about that having seen a person with a balding donor area and balding at the front too. It’s not a pretty look, even worse than frontal balding, donor area balding looks much worse. The frontal hairs then look like a toupee.

He does extract in a good way which makes the area look thin all over instead of in certain places.

I think the guy in the bellicapelli forum should have instead used body hairs. Once his donor area thins further, it’s going to look super weird balding at the back and having hair in front. He’s doomed to use finasteride forever

It's not just going outside the traditional safe donor. It's also his extraction technique. For sure it's thinner overall than full native dense scalp but it's totally fine for me. Never understood wanting to have super thick hair on the sides of my head. 

10 hours ago, Spring15 said:

OP has great density on the side of his head where half the grafts were taken from, as seen in his recent pics. Pretty sure Zarev's donor results looks similar to all other top surgeons

Yeah, his donor management his excellent considering how many grafts he can extract. 

6 hours ago, asterix0 said:

Not everyone goes to Norwood 7. The Norwood 6 zone is perfectly harvestable for many patients, see @Melvin- Moderator

Yes, not everyone goes full 7. See my comments on the matter on page 2 or 3 of this thread .

[mtb]

5 minutes ago, Turkhair said:

Or maybe I am already booked and trying to dissuade others from going there 😅😀

It's all good man. Gotta do what you feel comfortable with. 

3 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Guys,

This is really de-railing the purpose of this thread, which is to follow @mtb progress.

Thanks for keeping us on track. And to your comment, I will post some top and crown pics from real life when I do my 5 month update in a couple weeks. 

[OliverAtom]

Oh my God! Wow wow... and this is just 5 months!!!
Zarev is providing some AMAZING results! 

[BackFromTheBrink]

6 hours ago, OliverAtom said:

Oh my God! Wow wow... and this is just 5 months!!!
Zarev is providing some AMAZING results! 

It really is phenomenal. The hair is short so there's no questioning the fantastic density he has on his hairline. 

Will be interested to see how it looks further back, but it's largely irrelevant - we know the hairline grows quickest and I'm sure the rest will follow in time.

[mtb]

Here’s some top shots from this weekend. The bottom one is where I started. Almost 5 month mark. Dr Z says the top takes longer than the hairline and the crown comes last, maybe 4 more months until it’s meant to look great. Will post the Dr Zarev yellow background update pics this weekend. 

[Joseph James]

It looks phenomenal. I am very jealous.

[HairEnthusiast101]

56 minutes ago, mtb said:

Here’s some top shots from this weekend. The bottom one is where I started. Almost 5 month mark. Dr Z says the top takes longer than the hairline and the crown comes last, maybe 4 more months until it’s meant to look great. Will post the Dr Zarev yellow background update pics this weekend. 

Wow. And donor looks untouched. You could probably wear a mullet lol great growth for the time frame