One Month Post-op Dr. Bisanga - adding density resulted in even worse situation

[patronovski]

Hello, 

In december 2022 i ve had a surgery in Turkey where they implanted 2400 grafts into my receding hairline. They overharvested my donor and the denisty of the hairline was not that great. One year after my first surgery (december 2023), i went to Dr. Bisanga to make a corretion. My goal with this operation was to homogonize the donor area and implant the extracted grafts into the hairline. After the consult, they said that i dont need more than 300 grafts to improve the hairline. This surgery for me was not realy needed, because nobody could see anything, until i buzzed my hair on de back. So for me this would be a very small touch up to improve, but surely not a neccesary operation.

At the day of surgery, doctor Bisanga told me that he cannot homogonize the donor. Instead, he wanted to take hair from the sides. Reason for this was because the donor was already overharvested and the hairs on the side are soft and better for the hairline. I told the doctor that my sides are very weak and already lacks density, so what will happen if we take more hair from there? I was affraid that we will fix one problem (the hairline) and create another problem (patchiness) in the left and right side. For me this did not sound like a repair, but more moving the problem to another area. But he told me that it wouldnt be noticable and i trusted him.

After telling me that he cannot homogonize the donor, he also told me that there is only 50% growth chance, because it is not a virgin scalp. So all this information was new for me at the day of surgery. He adviced not to implant 300 grafts, but just 50 to see if it will grow. But i still had to pay the full price, so i was like: i am not gonna pay full price for just 50 grafts, so lets do 150 grafts instead.

During the surgery the doctor took around 50 grafts from my right side and 100 grafts from the left side. To be honest, I look much worse now than before I had the surgery. I dont even look at progress of my hairline, i forgot about that. I am totally focussed on my left and right donor, becuase those places are even more visible then the low density of my hairline.

As you guys can see on the photo's, my donor (back, left and right) looked perfect before the surgery with my hairstyle. And know, i cant even grow the left side, because there is no density at all. It is very patchy.

Here are some pics:
 

Hairline to repair, 1 year after my 1st surgery, before Bisanga correction:

 

1 week post operation with dr. Bisanga (nothing to see):

 

Left donor 2 days post operation (100 grafts):

 

Right donor 2 days post operation (50 grafts):

 

Left side 5 weeks post operation (completely destroyed)

 

Right side 5 weeks post operation (big patchy place where they extracted the 50 grafts):

 

Left donor one night before surgery with Bisanga:

 

Right donor one night before surgery with Bisanga:

 

I am very dissapointed with this. I looked way better before surgery then i am looking now. I choose dr. Bisanga because of this forum and patient reviews. It looks like i am the unlucky one. I mean, for a very small surgery like this, how could it be? My overall experience was not that great with Dr. Bisanga. He was not like he was caring about his patient, he came across as a bit dominant. The two consultations i ve had was like in a rush and took couple of minutes. He also didnt come to see me after surgery by himself. I dont know, i didnt had a good feeling.The technicians on the other hand, where nice and friendly.

What you guys think? I dont realy believe this looks like a shockloss. Is there a way to fix this? What about implanting chest/beard hair into the left and right side? Will i get noticable scars on my chest? I do swim alot.

[laverita]

You look like you have ridges from the first surgery in the hair line. Did the clinic not say anything about repair prior to you booking or in the assessments, consult or any contracts about what a repair is? Personally that would suprise me. From what has been taken is seems little numbers and well spread and you have thinned throughout it so it does seem more shock loss at this stage. Compare the thinning to the actual extractions and it seems that way from what I see and in that case time is needed and can add minox to help speed up any shock loss.  To be honest 50 grafts would not cover the cost of an op-room, so probably there is a minimal charge to open and cover staff and meds but probably best to go slow.  Of course can be more costly but repairs are not one and done and usually are a process of steps. All the best but I do think this is shock and this area is prone to it also. 

[Berba11]

I don't think your left and right donor look worse before and after the Bisanga surgery. Your hair styles on the sides are different which creates a different visual appearance. The reality is that extracting such a small number like 50 & 100 grafts from an area that is already overharvested simply isn't going to make much difference at all. Where the hair is shaven down we can clearly see how bad the original extraction work from the Turkish clinic was and that's the issue.

Bisanga simply hasn't extracted enough grafts to do any damage here and the extractions are nicely spaced apart.

What I would say is that I'm surprised you didn't have any punch outs from the hairline. You have a lot of thick multigraft hairs and covering that up with implantations alone will require something in the region of 300-500 singles and some softer, finer doubles place amongst and in front of the existing hairline (which would probably mean lowing the hairline beyond a desirable position).

[Eli_Avdikian]

You had your surgery about a month ago with Dr. Bisanga. It's normal that it will look worse at this stage. It's too early to judge

Edited January 30 by Eli_Avdikian

[shiba1985]

hello

 

100% shock loss/ different shaving style and will come back. Dr Bisanga is VERY good at extracting and not over harvesting. I mean top 1% good. You are too early post surgery, and you have a bad taste in your mouth about the way things transpired. But I can bet money that you will not look worse. 

Edited January 29 by shiba1985

[Melvin- Admin]

Your hair is way longer in the before photo, not a good comparison. Also, you had surgery a month ago. It’s normal to have some residual shock loss in the recipient and donor. 
 

OP I ask that you please allow @BHR Clinic the ability to respond to your concerns here publicly.

[patronovski]

9 hours ago, laverita said:

You look like you have ridges from the first surgery in the hair line. Did the clinic not say anything about repair prior to you booking or in the assessments, consult or any contracts about what a repair is? Personally that would suprise me. From what has been taken is seems little numbers and well spread and you have thinned throughout it so it does seem more shock loss at this stage. Compare the thinning to the actual extractions and it seems that way from what I see and in that case time is needed and can add minox to help speed up any shock loss.  To be honest 50 grafts would not cover the cost of an op-room, so probably there is a minimal charge to open and cover staff and meds but probably best to go slow.  Of course can be more costly but repairs are not one and done and usually are a process of steps. All the best but I do think this is shock and this area is prone to it also. 

Thank you and also other members for their replies. 
 

Yes i went to the clinic months before the surgery, but back then they said that i would need 1000 grafts to add density. I was like no way i am gonna do that. Because i didnt want to waste my donor just for the hairline only. Remeber, i already did 2400 grafts in turkey for the hairline.

Couple months later, my hair grew more and more. It was also thicker. This time, i send them a photo via email (so no personal consult) and they said that now i only need 300-400 grafts based on the photos of course. This was like 12 months after my first surgery. 400 grafts sounded reasonable and i could have that. 

As for the graft count and price, yes i did pay the jackpot, because they will open the surgery room only for surgeries above 500 grafts. Otherwise it is not profitable. They normaly charge like 4-6 euros per graft. In my case, i needed 300. So they offered me a fixed minimum price, which is 2000 euros. That means that you can implant 300 grafts or 10 grafts, doesn t matter. You pay the same base price. 

Like i said, initial plan was to implant 300, but at surgery date we decided to implant 150 due the low survival chance, so it was like a test. If the clinic told me this before, i would never book a date for surgery, because this was realy new information on surgery day. My hair didnt look to bad and i would never take that risk  i did take it now because i already took days off from work and traveled to belgium and was mentaly prepared for it.

Dr. Bisanga did a good job with the extraction as you can see, very spaced out. But my initial idea was not to take from the sides, because the hairs on my sides are very thin and also lacks density. I had always this problem. So every hair you take from that area counts. Its all about ratio, you can take 10 grafts from an area and create a patchy look if that area only has 15 hairs for example. So its all about ratio. Dr Bisanga wanted to take from those places, because those places were not touched during the first surgery.

In my right side there is 1 bald spot where they took 50 grafts. The left side is even worse, they took 100 grafts and it looks very patchy now. My hair doenst grow dense there as compared to the back, which results in a weird haircut. The barber cannot do much about this, only trim it shorter. But then, the patchiness of my back donor will be visible. I cannot go lower then 6mm clipper  

i am very worried now. An yes, i do apply topical minoxidil twice a day. I also take hair vitamines. 

You guys think this is an easy fix with body hair? I realy dont dare to take any scalp hair to repair this. I am afraid it would create the same problem elsewhere on the scalp.

i realy hope this is a shockloss, but my experience with the first surgery says it isn t. Because after the first surgery, the clinic also said it was shockloss for my back donor. But it never grew back. If i trim the back with 6mm or lower, you see the patchiness. Thats why i keep my hair long now. 
 

PS: yes, the hair is longer on the before photo, because i did go to the barber because of the crazy look. They shaved the sides and back, and the top was too long compared to the rest. i did look like Bad Pit from the movie Fury. The barber took a little off from the top to reduce the crazy look. 

Thank you all again. I will keep you updated with new photos. And if this will not get better in 3 months, i think i need to fix this with BHT. 

Edited January 30 by patronovski

[GeneralNorwood]

150 grafts it's like nothing. I doubt that it would hurt the donor. Removing few grafts per cm2 won't make difference. 

 

But this information that only 50% grafts will survive... I didn't know that if you do the touch up procedure, survival rate goes down that significantly.

 

So if you paid 2000 euro for the "test", do you have to pay again 2000 euro for the next "test"?  

Edited January 29 by GeneralNorwood

[Shadman]

1 hour ago, patronovski said:

Hello, 

In december 2022 i ve had a surgery in Turkey where they implanted 2400 grafts into my receding hairline. They overharvested my donor and the denisty of the hairline was not that great. After one year of my first surgery (december 2023) i went to Dr. Bisanga to make a corretion. My goal with this operation was to homogonize the donor area and implant the extracted grafts into the hairline. After the consult, they said that i dont need more than 300 grafts to improve the hairline. This surgery for me was not realy needed, because nobody could see anything, until i buzzed my hair on de back and sides. So it was for me just a realy small touch up to improve, but surely not a neccesary operation.

At the day of surgery, doctor Bisanga told me that he cannot homogonize the donor. Instead, he wanted to take hair from the sides. Reason for this was because the donor was already overharvested and the hairs on the side are soft and better for the hairline. I told the doctor that my sides are very weak and already lacks density, so what will happen if we take more hair from there? I was affraid that we will fix one problem (the hairline) and create another problem (patchiness) in the left and right side. For me this did not sound like a repair, but more moving the problem to another area. But he told me that it wouldnt be noticable and i trusted him.

After telling me that he cannot homogonize the donor, he also told me that there is only 50% growth chance, because it is not a virgin scalp. So all this information was new for me at the day of surgery. He adviced not to implant 300 grafts, but just 50 to see if it will grow. But i still had to pay the full price, so i was like: i am not gonna pay full price for just 50 grafts, so lets do 150 grafts instead.

During the surgery doctor took around 50 grafts from my right side and 100 grafts from the left side. To be honest, i look worse now then before i entered the surgery room. I dont even look at progress on my hairline, i forgot about that. I am totally focussed on my left and right donor, becuase it is very visible.

As you guys can see on the photo's, my donor (back, left and right) looked perfect before the surgery with my hairstyle. And know, i cant even grow the left side, because there is no density at all. It is very patchy.

Here are some pics:
 

Hairline to repair, 1 year after my 1st surgery, before Bisanga correction:

 

1 week post operation with dr. Bisanga (nothing to see):

 

Left donor 2 days post operation (100 grafts):

 

Right donor 2 days post operation (50 grafts):

 

Left side 5 weeks post operation (completely destroyed)

 

Right side 5 weeks post operation (big patchy place where they extracted the 50 grafts):

 

Left donor one night before surgery with Bisanga:

 

Right donor one night before surgery with Bisanga:

 

I am very dissapointed with this. I looked way better before surgery then i am looking now. I choose dr. Bisanga because of this forum and patient reviews. It looks like i am the unlucky one. I mean, for a very small surgery like this, how could it be? My overall experience was not that great with Dr. Bisanga. He was not realy caring about his patient. The consult was like finished in couple minutes and he didnt come to see me after surgery.

What you guys think? I dont realy believe this looks like a shockloss. Is there a way to fix this? What about implanting chest/beard hair into the left and right side? Will i get noticable scars on my chest? I do swim alot.

Your procedure was one month back. You need to give it few more months so that area can recover from shock loss.

[laverita]

Placing into  ridges is never the same as virgin cases..you have excessive scar tissue and I could see it just from the photo here easily. They have videos on this also when working to ridges. Repairs are never the same as virgin cases and rear donor is probably also with over harvesting or scars I assume,  so one needs to understand the challenges and also the clinic who messes up the patient is rarely if ever named and the one touching takes on the consequences for small graft amounts. Give it time before talking beard hair and wait a good 3 to 5 months as shock can take time and good you are on minox. Try to relax and keep in touch with the clinic. Best. 

[HappyMan2021]

@patronovski im really confused. This was a repair surgery for you. Doesnt Bisanga require mandatory in person consults for repair patients?

Was your consult in person or virtual?

I thought the whole point of making a prospective patient travel to Brussels just for a consult was so that the doctor and patient could be on the same page and there wouldnt be any surprises...

4 hours ago, patronovski said:

He adviced not to implant 300 grafts, but just 50 to see if it will grow. But i still had to pay the full price, so i was like: i am not gonna pay full price for just 50 grafts, so lets do 150 grafts instead.

Yikes, so you had to pay for more work than was actually performed?

Why should it be the patients responsibility if the doctor is the one who overquoted the estimate?

Edited January 29 by HappyMan2021

[laverita]

No I think there  is some mis-understanding, there was a flat price to open clinic of 2k and not based on graft count etc and I think if I read correctly he had a cons in the clinic. 

"Yes i went to the clinic months before the surgery" 

 

"So they offered me a fixed minimum price, which is 2000 euros. That means that you can implant 300 grafts or 10 grafts, doesn t matter. You pay the same base price. "  

 

 

 

 

[Raphael84]

Other forum users have shared this thread with me and asked if I can clarify some points.

I am not personally the patient advisor to @patronovski and so prior to today, I didn´t have any knowledge of his case. 

As I understand your advisor Hilde has been in contact regularly via email, WhatsApp and phone calls throughout this period and has asked for consent to be able to share further images and details additional to what has been disclosed here to allow a more clear, thorough and honest representation now that you have shared your case publicly.

To address the points that have been raised in your post -

Your post suggests that 150 grafts were used to complete the surgery, when in reality more than double this graft amount was performed for the pricing that is stated and so this can be misleading especially as no donor restocking has been mentioned which included beard hair which has a unique price point to scalp and this took place in areas on both sides of the occipital donor area and as said over doubles the graft count you disclosed. 

The price given was also below our usual price for booking an op-room. As a repair patient with donor restocking, this is below clinic pricing.

I can see from notes from initial in person consultation some months prior, ridging was explained to be present in both temples and noted and drawn on the consultation notes, that realistic expectations are important based on your objectives and that SMP was recommended after any work into the donor area.

Consultation at the time of surgery explains the risk of shock loss also.

From what I can ascertain at current, the messaging throughout from your advisor Hilde has been the need for patience at such an early stage where shock loss has occurred and others here independent of BHR Clinic have said the same as we have.

The nature of the hair cycle means that any follicle that has experienced shock loss and entered a resting phase, will require several months (generally around 3-4 months) before transitioning into an anagen growth stage. This is the reality of the hair cycle and time is needed, especially in repair cases where skin is not virgin.

Whilst we encourage all patients to share their experience and case online, it is regrettable the manor in which some of the points have been portrayed missing important elements for transparency and also the time frame of one month post surgery when shock loss needs more time to recover, when the clinic have not at any point failed to reply and Hilde has also explained that we would also take care of shock in good will should there be any issues, in order to alleviate your concerns.

I would recommend you follow up with your advisor further and the best advice has been detailed by many posters above, the necessity for time.

Edited January 29 by Raphael84

[baddecisions]

I think the patient is having a bad time and it is to some extent understandable, we all know what the first one or two months after the operation are like. If we add to that that it is a repair (with all the emotional wear and tear that the journey entails) and that there may have been certain misunderstandings or communication problems, it becomes even more intense.

You are in the worst moment, what you say about the donor area, the amount of grafts extracted is so small that, even if it were weakened at first, the difference would be minimal, especially considering the care with which Dr Bisanga works. It is better that you take some time, rest and come back later with a more global vision of the operation.

You have put yourself in the best hands when it comes to repairs, don't get obsessed and you will see how everything ends up going as it should.

[patronovski]

7 hours ago, GeneralNorwood said:

150 grafts it's like nothing. I doubt that it would hurt the donor. Removing few grafts per cm2 won't make difference. 

 

But this information that only 50% grafts will survive... I didn't know that if you do the touch up procedure, survival rate goes down that significantly.

 

So if you paid 2000 euro for the "test", do you have to pay again 2000 euro for the next "test"?  

Yes, the 50% survival chance was also new for me.

At that moment I assumed that they would ask 2k euros again for the follow up surgery. This is because I was told that they have to pay the assistants and reserve the room, medicine costs, etc etc. That's why I thought, 50 grafts is too little for a test that costs 2k euros. Let's bump this to 150 grafts. But I still felt like i was paying way to much for just 150 grafts, so i in a split second i decided to use extra 150 beard grafts to implant in my back donor to improve some overharvested areas. So we implanted 150 scalp hair into the hairline and 150 beard grafts in my back donor. Repairing the donor was not the initial plan. I made this decision during surgery day because i didnt want to pay 2K for just 150 grafts only. 

 

7 hours ago, Shadman said:

Your procedure was one month back. You need to give it few more months so that area can recover from shock loss.

I hope so, we are now 6 weeks further. As my hair grows, it starts looking even worse, especially the left side. Because there is not much hair left compared to the back. Some people around me starts noticing the patchy areas and comment about it. This affects you mentally very much.

 

7 hours ago, laverita said:

Placing into  ridges is never the same as virgin cases..you have excessive scar tissue and I could see it just from the photo here easily. They have videos on this also when working to ridges. Repairs are never the same as virgin cases and rear donor is probably also with over harvesting or scars I assume,  so one needs to understand the challenges and also the clinic who messes up the patient is rarely if ever named and the one touching takes on the consequences for small graft amounts. Give it time before talking beard hair and wait a good 3 to 5 months as shock can take time and good you are on minox. Try to relax and keep in touch with the clinic. Best. 

Yes, i understood about the low survival chance at surgery day. But i also had a personal consult in September 2023 when they said that i would need 1000 grafts to add denstity. During that consult they didnt give any information that placing grafts into ridges reduces the survival chance. So i was only hoping that my hairline would improve more so i would not need 1000 grafts but lesser. I didnt want to waste 1000 grafts to the hairline.

 

5 hours ago, HappyMan2021 said:

@patronovski im really confused. This was a repair surgery for you. Doesnt Bisanga require mandatory in person consults for repair patients?

Was your consult in person or virtual?

I thought the whole point of making a prospective patient travel to Brussels just for a consult was so that the doctor and patient could be on the same page and there wouldnt be any surprises...

Yikes, so you had to pay for more work than was actually performed?

Why should it be the patients responsibility if the doctor is the one who overquoted the estimate?

Like i replied to Laverita, i went to Brussels to do a personal consult with dr. Bisanga in September 2023. Back then, he did a rough estimation of 1000 grafts. But september was like 9 months after my first surgery so there was still chance that my hairline could improve and i would need less grafts to add more density. Back then, for me 1000 grafts was no option. My donor at the back was already overharvested so i didnt want to take that much grafts. 

 

4 hours ago, laverita said:

No I think there  is some mis-understanding, there was a flat price to open clinic of 2k and not based on graft count etc and I think if I read correctly he had a cons in the clinic. 

"Yes i went to the clinic months before the surgery" 

"So they offered me a fixed minimum price, which is 2000 euros. That means that you can implant 300 grafts or 10 grafts, doesn t matter. You pay the same base price. "  

No sure what you mean, but in September when i had my consult, we didnt talk about prices. We talked about prices in december after i sent my photo's via email. Based on the photo's, they said that the hairline was improved and i would need max 300-400 grafts. For me that was great news! I wanted to do the surgery and then we talked about the pricing. And yes, they said because its a very small operation, the costs for opening the surgery room is 2000 euros. So for me it would be a fixed price of 2000 euros. I also had to pay like 120 euros for blood tests, but i didnt pay this because they didnt do the blood test. I dont know why.

Dont get me wrong, i am not complaining about prices. If they calculate the price based on grafts for my case, the cost of the punch they use and medicine alone would be more expensive than the surgery itself. So no problem paying 2K. But paying 2K for for a test of 50 grafts? Thats too much and thats why i decided during surgery day doing 150 grafts for my hairline and 150 beard grafts to the donor (back). Because the 2k euros was originaly based on 300-400 scalp grafts into my hairline. But after the story of low survival chance, i didnt dare risking 300 of my scalp hair. The doctor came up with testing just with 50 grafts, i bumped this up to 150 and added 150 beard grafts also just to have a reasonable graft count for that price.

Edited January 30 by patronovski

[patronovski]

27 minutes ago, baddecisions said:

I think the patient is having a bad time and it is to some extent understandable, we all know what the first one or two months after the operation are like. If we add to that that it is a repair (with all the emotional wear and tear that the journey entails) and that there may have been certain misunderstandings or communication problems, it becomes even more intense.

You are in the worst moment, what you say about the donor area, the amount of grafts extracted is so small that, even if it were weakened at first, the difference would be minimal, especially considering the care with which Dr Bisanga works. It is better that you take some time, rest and come back later with a more global vision of the operation.

You have put yourself in the best hands when it comes to repairs, don't get obsessed and you will see how everything ends up going as it should.

Thank you for your understanding. I just had bad experience with the first surgery when they also said its shockloss. The back of my head never improved, its still patchy. The sides and my temples was already weak since i was at my 20s. I even thought about improving the sides and tempels by adding grafts, but i never thought about removing grafts from there to use it as donor. Like you said, I realy hope this will improve as time passes and i will keep you guys updated. I am now at week 6 and after another 6 weeks it will be 3 months in total. 

I try to share my honest experience here. Thanks again.

Edited January 29 by patronovski

[BackFromTheBrink]

For shock loss I can totally empathize.

I was worried my donor was overworked and my family also commented on it.

At about 4 months that changed and by 6 it had totally recovered.

Bisanga is in a totally different league to the vast majority of reputable doctors, nevermind Turkish hairmills. I have every confidence your donor will bounce back, but you'll need patience.

Edited January 30 by BackFromTheBrink

[dba]

@BackFromTheBrink do you mind me.asking how much grafts cm² you did on the hairline for improvement in density?

[patronovski]

44 minutes ago, BackFromTheBrink said:

For shock loss I can totally empathize.

I was worried my donor was overworked and my family also commented on it.

At about 4 months that changed and by 6 it had totally recovered.

Bisanga is in a totally different league to the vast majority of reputable doctors, nevermind Turkish hairmills. I have every confidence your donor will bounce back, but you'll need patience.

Thank you for your support. I realy hope it will. I try to be honest with my overal experience from consultation to surgery day.

Edited January 30 by patronovski

[BackFromTheBrink]

9 hours ago, dba said:

@BackFromTheBrink do you mind me.asking how much grafts cm² you did on the hairline for improvement in density?

I don't actually know. While I'm sure that sounds odd, with my surgeries I've found surgeons I trust then pretty much followed their advice blindly. 

I'm a Norwood 5a (going on 6) with a big head and relatively fine hair. In total I've had 5500 grafts. Most on here would say it wouldn't be enough, but I'm quite happy the way it's growing.

My hairline looks like this now (brightly lit, next to a window), and I'm 6.5months in.

 

[dba]

@BackFromTheBrinkI think it looks amazing, I reached out to bisanga but the reception guy or salesman whoever,  pretty much rejected me unless I flew in person to get assessed

I'm now just about ready to go with Dr arika Bansal 

[BackFromTheBrink]

13 minutes ago, dba said:

@BackFromTheBrinkI think it looks amazing, I reached out to bisanga but the reception guy or salesman whoever,  pretty much rejected me unless I flew in person to get assessed

I'm now just about ready to go with Dr arika Bansal 

Mine was with Dr Michalis Georgiou. We had lots of back and forth with pictures and videos in different lighting, wet etc. However, it was all done remotely. He's very low key, but very talented IMHO.

[Melvin- Admin]

I see nothing wrong with needing an in-person consultation when you’re a repair case. Dr. Zarev requires in-person consultations period. I think that’s the best way to properly assess a patient. 

I have to be honest, this is the opposite of what you should do as a repair case. Even if you turn out satisfied, the damage between you and the clinic is done.  Remember a clinic is a business and they have a right to refuse any patient. This will make it more difficult for repair patients. 

It looks like the clinic was very accommodating and even opened the OR for 2,000. If you factor the cost of personnel and VAT tax. I doubt they made any money. Now they’re being attacked one-month after the procedure, when the results haven’t started and you haven’t healed. 

Its common to see clinics that repair patients, get maligned more than the clinics that did the botching (they’re never named). I think this will inevitably give clinics second thoughts accepting repair cases, or make them significantly increase their prices. 

But please give BHR full consent to discuss your case here with photos. To be fair, we need to allow the clinic the opportunity to discuss your case here. 

[Shawnintheusa]

23 hours ago, patronovski said:

Thank you and also other members for their replies. 
 

Yes i went to the clinic months before the surgery, but back then they said that i would need 1000 grafts to add density. I was like no way i am gonna do that. Because i didnt want to waste my donor just for the hairline only. Remeber, i already did 2400 grafts in turkey for the hairline.

Couple months later, my hair grew more and more. It was also thicker. This time, i send them a photo via email (so no personal consult) and they said that now i only need 300-400 grafts based on the photos of course. This was like 12 months after my first surgery. 400 grafts sounded reasonable and i could have that. 

As for the graft count and price, yes i did pay the jackpot, because they will open the surgery room only for surgeries above 500 grafts. Otherwise it is not profitable. They normaly charge like 4-6 euros per graft. In my case, i needed 300. So they offered me a fixed minimum price, which is 2000 euros. That means that you can implant 300 grafts or 10 grafts, doesn t matter. You pay the same base price. 

Like i said, initial plan was to implant 300, but at surgery date we decided to implant 150 due the low survival chance, so it was like a test. If the clinic told me this before, i would never book a date for surgery, because this was realy new information on surgery day. My hair didnt look to bad and i would never take that risk  i did take it now because i already took days off from work and traveled to belgium and was mentaly prepared for it.

Dr. Bisanga did a good job with the extraction as you can see, very spaced out. But my initial idea was not to take from the sides, because the hairs on my sides are very thin and also lacks density. I had always this problem. So every hair you take from that area counts. Its all about ratio, you can take 10 grafts from an area and create a patchy look if that area only has 15 hairs for example. So its all about ratio. Dr Bisanga wanted to take from those places, because those places were not touched during the first surgery.

In my right side there is 1 bald spot where they took 50 grafts. The left side is even worse, they took 100 grafts and it looks very patchy now. My hair doenst grow dense there as compared to the back, which results in a weird haircut. The barber cannot do much about this, only trim it shorter. But then, the patchiness of my back donor will be visible. I cannot go lower then 6mm clipper  

i am very worried now. An yes, i do apply topical minoxidil twice a day. I also take hair vitamines. 

You guys think this is an easy fix with body hair? I realy dont dare to take any scalp hair to repair this. I am afraid it would create the same problem elsewhere on the scalp.

i realy hope this is a shockloss, but my experience with the first surgery says it isn t. Because after the first surgery, the clinic also said it was shockloss for my back donor. But it never grew back. If i trim the back with 6mm or lower, you see the patchiness. Thats why i keep my hair long now. 
 

PS: yes, the hair is longer on the before photo, because i did go to the barber because of the crazy look. They shaved the sides and back, and the top was too long compared to the rest. i did look like Bad Pit from the movie Fury. The barber took a little off from the top to reduce the crazy look. 

Thank you all again. I will keep you updated with new photos. And if this will not get better in 3 months, i think i need to fix this with BHT. 

Be patient young Daniel son 

 

[patronovski]

5 hours ago, Melvin- Admin said:

I see nothing wrong with needing an in-person consultation when you’re a repair case. Dr. Zarev requires in-person consultations period. I think that’s the best way to properly assess a patient. 

I have to be honest, this is the opposite of what you should do as a repair case. Even if you turn out satisfied, the damage between you and the clinic is done.  Remember a clinic is a business and they have a right to refuse any patient. This will make it more difficult for repair patients. 

It looks like the clinic was very accommodating and even opened the OR for 2,000. If you factor the cost of personnel and VAT tax. I doubt they made any money. Now they’re being attacked one-month after the procedure, when the results haven’t started and you haven’t healed. 

Its common to see clinics that repair patients, get maligned more than the clinics that did the botching (they’re never named). I think this will inevitably give clinics second thoughts accepting repair cases, or make them significantly increase their prices. 

But please give BHR full consent to discuss your case here with photos. To be fair, we need to allow the clinic the opportunity to discuss your case here. 

The price was never the problem for me Melvyn. If it was, i wouldnt plan a surgery for 2K euros just for 300 grafts in the first place. Their normal price is 4 euros per graft and they quoted me 2K for this surgery which i accepted it. I did not negotiate about it. In fact, I even offered the clinic 500 euros just for their honest opinion on whether the operation would ruin my appearance or not. I didn't want them to ruin my hair just to make some money like other clinics do. I was willing to give 500 euros as a thank you for their honesty without doing any surgery at all. (The advisor didnt respond to this offer).

As i can read your post, you re a bit defending the clinic, which is fine. Dr. Bisanga is your buddy and you have alot of video's with him. But every person is different and they threat every patient differently. I am pretty sure that if you were their patient, they would put a red carpet for you. My overall experience wasnt that great, not during the consultations and not during the surgery. For me, the doctor was different on video's then in reality. He was dominant, in a rush and not so caring. I also didnt even mentioned about the aftercare. But i will do this in a later post.

As for my concerns, the advisor herself said that the left side doesnt look like a shockloss. For me this is very worrying. The density is lost as you can see below:

Left side after surgery with Bisanga:

Left side before surgery with Bisanga:

Overal donor before 2nd surgery with Bisanga:

 

Hairline before second surgery (not a big problem at all as you can see)

 

Btw, this morning i saw the clinic contacted me via WhatsApp and asked me if they could respond to my thread. In whatsapp they called it accusing. What they call accusing, is what I call sharing experience. I don't know why I should talk negatively about a clinic if I haven't experienced it that way. They ask me if they can reply on this thread, but they post their message anyways without waiting for my actual response as i can see from the timestamp of their post. I mean, whats the point of asking then? But its ok.

I am now at 6 weeks and didnt see any improvement. In fact, things get even worse and the patchiness is getting more visible as my hair grows around it. The difference in contrast is more visible. The clinic adviced me to wait 3 months, that means i need to wait for a miracle to happen in the next 6 weeks.

Edited January 30 by patronovski