Dr Raghu Reddy - Value for Money

[BlueSkyDay]

I met Dr Reddy and was quoted £8500 for 1500 grafts. Alternatively £14500 for 2800 grafts. His donor area extractions appear very neat and tidy. His implantation appears to be precise. The holes to extract the grafts are performed with a semi motorised device. The tech removes the graft. Implantation is 25 % doctor and 75% technician. For the price I was expecting a higher % for doctor implantation. Does anyone have views on whether doctor Reddys results justify his pricing. I don’t mind paying more if the results achieved are in the top 15 pc of surgeons 

[Melvin- Admin]

10 hours ago, BlueSkyDay said:

I met Dr Reddy and was quoted £8500 for 1500 grafts. Alternatively £14500 for 2800 grafts. His donor area extractions appear very neat and tidy. His implantation appears to be precise. The holes to extract the grafts are performed with a semi motorised device. The tech removes the graft. Implantation is 25 % doctor and 75% technician. For the price I was expecting a higher % for doctor implantation. Does anyone have views on whether doctor Reddys results justify his pricing. I don’t mind paying more if the results achieved are in the top 15 pc of surgeons 

He’s doing most of the work himself and only charging $5 per graft. That’s the going rate for a surgeon of his caliber. His results are fantastic, just look him up on the forum. 

[Bandit90]

Similar to Dr Konior, I find that Dr Reddy can get a lot mileage from the grafts, 2k grafts from him can be the equivalent of 3k+ grafts from another surgeon. So in this sense I see him as value for money. If you are no higher than a NW3, i;d say he is a solid choice, a very underrated surgeon imho. 

Edited February 23 by Bandit90

[BlueSkyDay]

I was told by Dr May that I needed 1800 grafts. £5500. He thought this would give sufficient coverage. Dr May has been around for more than 30 years. However he operates a technician model- they do most of the work, he does design, drugs, slits. The techs do extraction and implantation.  Dr Reddy thinks I need 3000 grafts. £14,500. Option -1 - 1500 grafts £8500. Option 2 - 3000 grafts £14,500. Dr Reddy does drilling of grafts (critical) techs extract. Dr does 25% implantation techs implant 75%. I have a major crown problem and overall thinning. I would say I’m probably a NW5 but remaining hair is dense giving reasonable comb over coverage. A few months ago Dr Reddy quotes another poster on this forum £7000 for 1500 grafts and £12500 for 3000 grafts. It seems for the uk Dr Reddy is the best choice. Elsewhere I am considering Mwamba in Belgium or Erdogan as Asmed although I have seen some concerning complaints from a few years ago. 

Edited February 23 by BlueSkyDay

[Lenzman]

On 2/23/2024 at 9:07 AM, Bandit90 said:

Similar to Dr Konior, I find that Dr Reddy can get a lot mileage from the grafts, 2k grafts from him can be the equivalent of 3k+ grafts from another surgeon. So in this sense I see him as value for money. If you are no higher than a NW3, i;d say he is a solid choice, a very underrated surgeon imho. 

Interesting this. How does this work with fewer grafts achieving the same look as more grafts? I don’t get it. Hair thickness ??

[BlueSkyDay]

According to Dr Reddy he uses a semi manual punch 0.8 mm to 0.9 mm for the extraction which he personally performs. The difference is that he does the extraction instead of a number of technicians. The risk avoided is transection of the hair follicles resulting in wasted hair follicles and a moth eaten donor area. So the lesson here is make sure the doctor only performs the punching of the hair follicles and not technicians.  the technician pulls out the graft using forceps. The graft can also be damaged when removed with forceps . So technician skill is important In essence the punching and removal of grafts using forceps is where damage can occur to the follicles. Dr said he works slowly and removes circa 300 grafts per hour. In addition grafts can be damaged during implantation . Dr Reddy uses an implanter pen (Choi) and believes this mitigates damaging the graft. Using forceps can have a higher risk of damage to the grafts . Dr Reddy stated that his 2000 grafts is equivalent to 4000 grafts that a less skilled surgeon would need. In terms of improvement areas the quotation fails the clarity test- there is very little content other than grafts and price and there is no mention of any guarantee. 

Edited February 25 by BlueSkyDay

[ScottishGuy21]

Reddy is certainly one of if not the best in the UK. His prices although high seem to have come down a little now. Pretty sure at one point he was charging per hair rather than graft which seemed crazy (Imagine a 5 hair graft cost 🤣)

[BlueSkyDay]

Quality = % doctor FUE work * % doctor implantation work

 

in Spain the % is 100% by Law

in the Uk the model is different. Doctor has to do the slits in the recipient area and drugs. The techs can do extraction and implantation.

It would interesting to see which countries require doctor only surgery (100% for FUE and 100% implantation) and where the top ranked doctors are operating out of. My guess - the very best doctors perform 100% of the FUE and 100% of the implantation and they are generally found in ….. Spain 

 

[Bandit90]

On 2/24/2024 at 10:24 PM, Lenzman said:

Interesting this. How does this work with fewer grafts achieving the same look as more grafts? I don’t get it. Hair thickness ??

i believe it is more to do with being able to skilfully assess & place the minimum amount of grafts required to conceal the scalp. 

Edited February 26 by Bandit90

[BlueSkyDay]

Hello Mr Bandit

 

actually the reasons I gave are exactly what Dr Reddy said .

The damage and wastage is the main reason - per Dr Reddy

[Bandit90]

1 hour ago, BlueSkyDay said:

Hello Mr Bandit

 

actually the reasons I gave are exactly what Dr Reddy said .

The damage and wastage is the main reason - per Dr Reddy

The point i'm making is actually irrespective of hair yield. There are certain surgeons, who can very skilfully make the amount of grafts go further, with Dr Konior being the classic example of this. So what i'm trying to say... compare Dr Reddy vs an average Hair Mill surgeon, both implant 2k grafts (both with a 99+% yield), i'm saying that Dr Reddy results would have more coverage, because of skilfully being able to determine the minimum amount of grafts required to conceal the scalp. 

From  your posted response from Dr  Reddy, i'm not convinced that he is getting a 100% higher yield than a less experienced surgeon who uses forceps over choi implanter pens. On face value it appears an exaggerated claim. 

Edited February 26 by Bandit90

[BlueSkyDay]

Ideally a highly trained surgeon would do excision with magnification and a manual punch, then the surgeon does extraction, the tech would sort the grafts and store them at the ideal temperature, the tech would place the grafts in an implanter pen, the surgeon would do the implantation ensuring angles and density are optimal.

Obviously high use of techs increases risk. Dr Reddys claim makes sense when compared to most clinics. He is not benchmarking himself against other elite surgeons when saying his 2000 grafts is equivalent to other surgeons 4000 grafts. 

For others reading this: beware of techs doing the excision , then doing the extraction. The doctor doing the slits. The tech doing the implantation.

 

 

Edited February 26 by BlueSkyDay

[HairFunk]

It’s a debatable topic as some clinics who use FUE extraction technicians would say that a good extraction technician who has over 10 years of experience is better than a newer surgeon who’s just learned to extract. Controversial, though who would you rather? At one point we were debating if the machines were better than human extractors (Artas system etc) 

Obviously there are very sophisticated and expensive FUE systems now which make it very difficult to transect and damage the hairs such as the WAW DUO system and Trivellini and UGraft Zeus system though these set-ups cost over $15,000+.

Manual punches are great in the right hands (although much slower) and can be very cost effective ($30 - $50 each disposable punch) though don’t expect big number sessions. Typically anything over 2500 grafts would be 2 days of surgery and could be quite fatiguing

[TrixGlendevon]

On 2/25/2024 at 3:09 PM, BlueSkyDay said:

Quality = % doctor FUE work * % doctor implantation work

 

in Spain the % is 100% by Law

in the Uk the model is different. Doctor has to do the slits in the recipient area and drugs. The techs can do extraction and implantation.

It would interesting to see which countries require doctor only surgery (100% for FUE and 100% implantation) and where the top ranked doctors are operating out of. My guess - the very best doctors perform 100% of the FUE and 100% of the implantation and they are generally found in ….. Spain 

 

Could not disagree more with that equation. I have never understood this weird obsession with who does what part of the procedure and that the doctor doing it all is somehow better. The person who is best at doing that job in the procedure should be the one doing it. I just want a good result and it does not matter if it is the doctor, the techs or the guy in the alleyway doing it. Hasson and Wong is probably the best clinic in the world and they use an army of techs. Hattingen, techs. Feriduni, techs. Look for consistently good results over a substantial period of time (say, 5 years) and if it is a tech heavy clinic, ask them how long their techs have been with them to ensure it is the same techs that produced the previous results you have seen.

[Silent123]

Hey man, always look for a surgeon led clinic that lists it’s staff members on the website. You’ll find most clinics don’t / have forever changing staff of varying skill levels. 

[BlueSkyDay]

Surgery should only be done by a doctor. In Spain surgery is done by doctors . You have much more protection there. I prefer minimising risk. Thank you to all who have contributed views. High doctor involvement decreases risk. It’s a filter that I use to screen out clinics . The remaining clinics are what I am focusing on

[TheManeMan]

He does the slits and punches but his technicians also remove/implant them with him. I think he does the first few rows of the hairline. At one stage I thought he was working on me until I asked who was behind me and realised it wasn't Dr Reddy but the guy who shaved my head.

[secondtryuser]

He’s on Harley St which make his prices ridiculous. His results do seem impressive - I had a consultation with him but on that basis decided not to go with him. He had a bizarre strategy of taking donor from the crown (already thinning) for the hairline. That to me was a big red flag. 

Edited March 4 by secondtryuser

[BlueSkyDay]

I am now seriously looking at doctors in Madrid . I only want a doctor doing extraction and implantation. I do not like the risk of damage to grafts as I have too little left - I cannot afford any botch ups 

[Melvin- Admin]

On 3/4/2024 at 2:17 AM, TheManeMan said:

He does the slits and punches but his technicians also remove/implant them with him. I think he does the first few rows of the hairline. At one stage I thought he was working on me until I asked who was behind me and realised it wasn't Dr Reddy but the guy who shaved my head.

This is normal for 99% of all docs. Only surgeons I know do it all. Dr. Konior, Dr. Pinto. Technicians are vital. They implant the grafts. But the doctor creates the incisions. The fact he implanted some grafts is more than most docs. There’s nothing wrong with delegating the implantation. 

[TheManeMan]

11 minutes ago, Melvin- Admin said:

This is normal for 99% of all docs. Only surgeons I know do it all. Dr. Konior, Dr. Pinto. Technicians are vital. They implant the grafts. But the doctor creates the incisions. The fact he implanted some grafts is more than most docs. There’s nothing wrong with delegating the implantation. 

Given that the choice of follicle is important in creating naturalness it seems apt that the main doctor would be the one choosing which follicles and which slit to place them rather than a technician (to avoid triples being chosen where a single ought to be). Also, I know the angle of the slit is important, but what about the orientation of the actual follicle being implanted?

My comment was how I was never told who would be doing what, so it came as a surprise to realise someone else was choosing which grafts to place and where before implanting them.

I think Dr Munib does it all too AFAIK

Edited March 6 by TheManeMan

[Melvin- Admin]

1 minute ago, TheManeMan said:

Given that the choice of follicle is important in creating naturalness it seems apt that the main doctor would be the one choosing which follicles and which slit to place them rather than a technician. My comment was how I was never told who would be doing what, so it came as a surprise to realise someone else was choosing which grafts to place and where before implanting them.

I think Dr Munib does it all too AFAIK

The doctor does choose which grafts are selected. They instruct technicians to implant single and multi-hair follicles in which slits. Again, if you’re going to penalize a doctor on this, you’re penalizing the vast majority of top docs. 

[TheManeMan]

3 minutes ago, Melvin- Admin said:

The doctor does choose which grafts are selected. They instruct technicians to implant single and multi-hair follicles in which slits. Again, if you’re going to penalize a doctor on this, you’re penalizing the vast majority of top docs. 

I'm not penalising anyone, I'm merely commenting on the reality of the process. I'm aware that Dr Reddy can produce very good results.

An appeal to the majority also doesn't automatically mean it is ideal or not, it's debatable and depends on the individual technicians involved. My comment was simply about the lack of communication, nothing more.

 

[BlueSkyDay]

I believe the ideal solution ignoring cost considerations is to select a surgeon  that does all the FUE and implantation and who guarantees his work.

The country’s laws should also offer protection.

i have booked a consultation with Dr Custodio

[secondtryuser]

13 hours ago, BlueSkyDay said:

I believe the ideal solution ignoring cost considerations is to select a surgeon  that does all the FUE and implantation and who guarantees his work.

The country’s laws should also offer protection.

i have booked a consultation with Dr Custodio

But as Melvin explained above, very few doctors do this. Even then best ones don’t. This is largely because it would take way too long and also physically it’s a repetitive task - in my view you don’t want those doc hands getting tired.