Dr. Bruno Ferreira - 2 surgeries - 6762 grafts - Norwood 5V

[son2]

Hey guys,
I had my second hair transplant with Dr. Bruno Ferreira 5 months ago and I want to share my results so far with you. I feel it's only fair considering I've been using this forum to research and make decisions, and I want to give back by providing my review and experience.

I'm turning 26 soon, and I've experienced hair loss since I was around 19 in 2018. My hair is thin, so the loss was visible quite soon. The loss started slowly at the crown, and I did caught it early, but was foolish to jump only on Minoxidil, and not Finasteride, after reading too much stuff online about it. Still the only regret in my life so far. Fast forward to 2021, I've finally mustered the courage to jump on Finasteride, but the damage was already done, as I was already a Norwood 5, with a bald spot and a thinned out front... In 2022, after giving Finasteride almost a full year, I've noticed stabilization in my hair loss, which was a win, but there was too much loss to ignore. So I've decided to look into hair transplants.

This forum was and still is a one-stop shop for anything hair related, so I've found a bunch of reviews for a bunch of surgeons. I was 24 at the time, so naturally some surgeons rejected me because of my age. There were a few top surgeons who did think I was a candidate, one of them was Dr. Bruno Ferreira. I've seen some results of his on this forum, but not too many. But he did have some knock outs with thin hair, one of them Mr. Rolandas of course. And I also found that his plan matched my vision of restoring the whole head, front and crown. Other surgeons were hesitant on touching my front. So after a bit of back and forth with him via e-mails, I've decided to bite the bullet and book the first surgery for November 2023. Luckily, I didn't have to wait that long, as there was a cancellation for January 2023, which I jumped on.

On the surgery day, I met the team and Dr. Bruno Ferreira. They were all super professional and friendly. Also extremely caring, making sure that I'm comfortable. Ferreira categorized me as a Norwood 5V. We did some measurements, I've had:

• Around 10000 grafts available for extraction. Quite a bit.
• ~48-49 micron hair. Fine hair.

The plan was:

• 1st surgery. ~3200 grafts to the crown. I was much more consious about my crown.
• 2nd surgery. ~3000 grafts to the front, do not lower the hairline. ~800 more grafts to the crown, if needed.
• 3rd surgery, if needed. A touchup to the front of ~500 grafts.

The plan stayed roughly the same as we decided via e-mail. It was go time.

I was shaved and my blood pressure was taken. It was quite high because of nerves, so they gave me some valium. Which relaxed me. It was smooth sailing from there. The initial injections were a bit painful, but a dentist appointment is usually much worse lol. Ferreira did the injections, extractions and implantations. The surgery was over 2 days. The lunches tasted awesome and were filling. The team was extremely caring. The most professional and friendly medical personnel I've ever met. After the surgery I went to my hotel to relax. It was done.

Then it was the waiting game. The donor healed quickly. The crown was looking good at 5 months already. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Then in December 2023 it was round 2.

From the initial plan of 800 grafts to the crown on the 2nd go, we lowered it to 200, to preserve grafts, as it was looking pretty good. I think that's the rationale for being more conservative and doing touch-ups - we save grafts that way. We also did around 3300 grafts to the front. It's looking good at 5 months I think!

So that's how it went. I'm very happy with my choice of going with Dr. Bruno Ferreira. I think he did a fantastic job. The personnel was also super accommodating, professional, friendly and helpful. The results I think are looking very good, and I feel much more confident, everyone around me also says that the results are looking awesome.
Pictures (if you need more at different angles/conditions, feel free to ask):

Edited May 11 by son2

[davidn]

Hair looks amazing! Great choices you've made (except starting Fin too late) 😅

[hair_forever]

The result is very beautiful but the extractions are too obvious

[son2]

32 minutes ago, hair_forever said:

The result is very beautiful but the extractions are too obvious

Thanks for the input! For me they seem fairly standard from what I've seen on this forum, the scarring didn't seem too obvious for me or others at least. Curious to hear what others think.

[donpizmeov]

Hi son2,

 

Great progress for 5 months on the 2nd surgery. Will be a great result.
 

Scarring is absolutely normal and yours look pretty good with good space between the dots, ie. Good harvest which you would expect from Ferreira so IMHO you can completely disregard what hair_forever said. Keep us updated with your progress!

[hair_forever]

Too evident after only 3200 uf after the 10000 uf available I can't imagine how the donnor would appear with this extraction system.

[GeneralNorwood]

6 hours ago, hair_forever said:

Too evident after only 3200 uf after the 10000 uf available I can't imagine how the donnor would appear with this extraction system.

It was 6700 FU, not 3200.

 

And yeah, i think Ferreira uses rather big punch size, so with sides cut shorter, scaring is more visible. However, if he grows hair longer, it should be unnoticable

Edited May 11 by GeneralNorwood

[donpizmeov]

Guys, FUE scarring takes longer than 5 months to soften, reduce in brightnes and be less visible - ie. those pictures at 5 months are not at full recovery at all. Evidence shows this happens even after 1 year post OP. 

[son2]

My sides were always weaker, even Ferreira said that in our e-mails way before surgery. I'll upload more pictures. You can clearly see, that with buzzed, shorter hair, my sides were looking not as strong as my occipital before a single graft was even taken. One theory I have is that my hair on my sides are looking more straight, instead of down, like my occipital area hairs. Combine that with thin hair, and the sides are looking weak. The extractions also seem minimal. And quite frankly, I didn't notice or see a real difference in my density all across my donor, even with shorter length 😉. Edit: I think Ferreira was using 0.8mm punches

Edited May 12 by son2

[Ccd99]

Thanks for the write-up!

Good to see more Dr. Ferreira posts. Excellent yield, there is something about Dr Ferreira's method, all of his patients have amazing growth by the 5/6 months mark, and you've still got 6 more months for the newly transplanted hair to mature so the result will be even better by end of the year!

Interesting approach doing the crown first, it definitely paid off in your case. By the way I would not worry about the FUE donor scars, those are just part of the game and you honestly cannot see them when the hair longer than a 2 or 3 guard.

Like you, I am also a Norwood 5V (but with a diffuse element) and I have my 1st surgery with Dr Ferreira in September this year (3500 grafts in the frontal third, and then 2500 in the crown for the second surgery, + an optional third touch-up surgery). Looking forward to the procedure and hopefully I can replicate your success.

I have a question regarding your surgeries, you obviously had some hair on your mid-scalp/bridge and frontal-lock area, did Dr Ferreira mention anything about transplanting in between hairs and whether or not that could be risky/cause shock loss? Just curious on his approach because I am a diffuse thinner I have quite a lot of native hairs and I am hoping he can transplant in between them without transecting.

[son2]

@Ccd99 Hi!

Saw your posts some time ago about you going to him soon, and it motivated me to post my write up 😄 I know that these threads are super useful for patients.

Ferreira really does seem to get good results early. I'm not sweating about the FUE scars, I knew they will be there, and I accepted living with them way before I got in the chair.

I did ask him about shock loss ross via email. He said the risk is very low, since I'm on medication and he is skilled in planting in between hairs. He estimated shock loss risk of 5%. Don't know if he meant temporary or permanent. Didn't ask, because I know it can sometimes be permanent and I accepted the risk. That's the reality of the surgery, sometimes things can go wrong. But I felt that I was in good hands and took the leap. We didn't even bring it up before surgery, in person. Most likely permanent shock loss in his practice is super rare.

I'll drop a couple of original quality pictures, which show the forelock implantations and the shaved look from top. The implantations seem between existing hairs. Don't think I had shock loss. The other pictures in this thread are compressed, since the original photos are like 25MB each, which is a ton.

Good luck! I'm rooting for you 😉 You're in good hands

Edit: these pictures also got compressed 🤔If you want high-res photos, let me know. Not sure I can upload it here.

Edited May 12 by son2

[NorwoodKnight]

Great to see another patient of Dr Ferreira! Would you mind to share pics of your hairline from the front with the hair up and also close up pictures?
thank you 🙏🏼

[son2]

30 minutes ago, NorwoodKnight said:

Great to see another patient of Dr Ferreira! Would you mind to share pics of your hairline from the front with the hair up and also close up pictures?
thank you 🙏🏼

Sure, I have a new phone arriving next week with a better camera. Will do it then.

[Ccd99]

3 hours ago, son2 said:

@Ccd99 Hi!

Saw your posts some time ago about you going to him soon, and it motivated me to post my write up 😄 I know that these threads are super useful for patients.

Ferreira really does seem to get good results early. I'm not sweating about the FUE scars, I knew they will be there, and I accepted living with them way before I got in the chair.

I did ask him about shock loss ross via email. He said the risk is very low, since I'm on medication and he is skilled in planting in between hairs. He estimated shock loss risk of 5%. Don't know if he meant temporary or permanent. Didn't ask, because I know it can sometimes be permanent and I accepted the risk. That's the reality of the surgery, sometimes things can go wrong. But I felt that I was in good hands and took the leap. We didn't even bring it up before surgery, in person. Most likely permanent shock loss in his practice is super rare.

I'll drop a couple of original quality pictures, which show the forelock implantations and the shaved look from top. The implantations seem between existing hairs. Don't think I had shock loss. The other pictures in this thread are compressed, since the original photos are like 25MB each, which is a ton.

Good luck! I'm rooting for you 😉 You're in good hands

Edit: these pictures also got compressed 🤔If you want high-res photos, let me know. Not sure I can upload it here.

Glad to hear that motivated you! I do need to update my thread with more photos, since Dr Ferreira saw me, I would say I've had about 30/40% increase in terms of hair density so I am hoping the original plan will be altered and less grafts are needed.

I will drop Ines an email I do have a bunch of questions I'd like to ask.

Thanks for the photos, that's very insightful. The work looks super clean!

One last question, is there anything that you wish you'd known prior to your surgery (whether it's related to the surgery, hotel accommodation, post-op care, etc)? Just looking for any little bit of advice possible!

[Yd684]

Going to be a homerun! The crown looks amazing. Congrats man

[Eli_Avdikian]

Crown looking great after the first transplant. The front will defintely look much better after the second surgery. Happy growing!

[son2]

53 minutes ago, Ccd99 said:

Glad to hear that motivated you! I do need to update my thread with more photos, since Dr Ferreira saw me, I would say I've had about 30/40% increase in terms of hair density so I am hoping the original plan will be altered and less grafts are needed.

I will drop Ines an email I do have a bunch of questions I'd like to ask.

Thanks for the photos, that's very insightful. The work looks super clean!

One last question, is there anything that you wish you'd known prior to your surgery (whether it's related to the surgery, hotel accommodation, post-op care, etc)? Just looking for any little bit of advice possible!

Pack a good sleeping pillow. Also get some ibuprofen, it helps with the itchiness. The clinic will provide some special sheets which you put on the sleeping pillow to not stain it. The sheets will definitely get wet from the extractions. I woke up during the nights, and changed the provided sheets, but ran out quickly 😅 luckily I stayed there for a few days after, so just asked some more at the clinic. So if you're leaving a day or two after the procedure, ask for a couple of extras.

Regarding accommodation, I've stayed in Monte Lirio hotel the first time, which was nice, and pretty close. Around 10 minute walk. Second time I stayed in this AirBnb:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/27061841?source_impression_id=p3_1707656679_GIjCZK8Xr%2BnaqWiQ
Super close to the clinic, like a 3 minute walk. Not sure which I prefer.

[Ccd99]

1 hour ago, son2 said:

Pack a good sleeping pillow. Also get some ibuprofen, it helps with the itchiness. The clinic will provide some special sheets which you put on the sleeping pillow to not stain it. The sheets will definitely get wet from the extractions. I woke up during the nights, and changed the provided sheets, but ran out quickly 😅 luckily I stayed there for a few days after, so just asked some more at the clinic. So if you're leaving a day or two after the procedure, ask for a couple of extras.

Regarding accommodation, I've stayed in Monte Lirio hotel the first time, which was nice, and pretty close. Around 10 minute walk. Second time I stayed in this AirBnb:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/27061841?source_impression_id=p3_1707656679_GIjCZK8Xr%2BnaqWiQ
Super close to the clinic, like a 3 minute walk. Not sure which I prefer.

Thanks appreciate the info! I'll take a look at that!