P
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I just had my second hair transplant with Dr Mark Tam 2 days ago to fix the various issues from the first hair transplant I had a year ago in another reputable clinic on the same Harley Street. Having been through the whole experience with Dr Tam and comparing with my previous experience, I would thoroughly recommend Dr Tam to anyone who is considering for a hair transplant. Honestly speaking, to have 2 hair transplants in one year time is emotionally draining but I am happy to say I put an end of it now, so I will try to tell you my whole experience as detailed as I can in case you want to consider a hair transplant.
My PREVIOUS TRANSPLANT:
Less than a year ago, I had my first transplant in another reputable clinic on Harley Street. I decided to go ahead with that clinic solely based on seemingly good Google reviews and the fact that I wanted to get it done ASAP when lockdown started. There were indeed a few red flags before operation but I decided to ignore them as I just wanted to get it done quickly. These red flags included the fact that I never got a chance to speak to the doctor before surgery and the surgery location was not in the clinic on Harley Street but in some place in North London. However, these issues were minor compared to those I had on the operation day and post operation.
On the operation day, I realized I went into a massive hair transplant factory with at least 8 patients in the facility but only 2 doctors performing surgery. It was only the first time for me to meet the doctor who performed my operation but it was not a good experience either. The doctor only spent 2 mins to design/draw my hairline and even worse the hair line he drew was not even (my left temple was a lot higher than the right one) and I only spotted it when I went back home. The majority of the operation including extraction and transplant was performed by technicians. The doctor only spent about 20-30 mins to create the incision sites and then I never got a change to meet him again as he needed to be off early, so I met the remaining doctor for post operation procedures after the operation. They also did not count how many hair grafts were taken from me and the biggest issue was I had a lot of “holes” in my transplanted area with no hair at all. I tried to contact the clinic a few times but they did not seem to care about the issues. They never followed up with my issues with call or email. At that point I completely lost confidence on that clinic so I decided to reach out to Dr Tam after doing some research.
PRE OPERATION:
I reached out to Dr Tam about 10 days after my first hair transplant with pictures of my transplanted area. Even though I was not his client, but he still replied very quickly and gave me a very detailed assessment of my issues and potential remedial solutions. After a number of email exchanges with detailed and professional replies, I knew that he would be the doctor to fix the my botched hair transplant. I waited for 9 months after my transplanted hairs to completely grow out and I had a face to face consultation with Dr Tam in his clinic. It was a great experience because not only he showed his expertise in hair transplant by answering all my questions but more importantly he really listened to my needs. Considering it would be my second hair transplant, I wanted to make it the last one, so I did not only want to fix the issues but I wanted my hairline to go down more to have the perfect hairline I wanted. That would mean that it would be a massive hair transplant with potential of staffing issues on the operation day. However, he did understand where I came from, so he made the necessarily arrangements to accommodate my needs as much as he could on the operation day. At the end, the paid consultation section, which was supposed to last for an hour, finished in 2 hours, and we went through assessment of my donor area, hairline design, what I should expect, and fees for the procedure. Further, there was not a moment in the consultation or post consultation I was rushed to make a decision to proceed with the hair transplant. Instead, he stressed that I should take as much time I needed to consider about the operation.
OPERATION DAY:
I arrived in the clinic at 7:15am. The procedures of the operation were thoroughly explained by Dr Tam again. We then spent 1.5 hours to just to make the final design of my hairline (I was a bit fussy with it given it was my second hair transplant and hopefully last one). Then I had a haircut with a visiting hairdresser as I did not want to shave my hairs completely this time (I did not even have a choice in my first hair transplant). Given that it was my second transplant, so I already knew what to expect in the operation but still there were a number of small details that genuinely impressed me (You can only tell these subtle differences if you have 2 hair transplants from 2 clinics): i) Dr Tam used a muscle vibration machine to massage my donor and transplanted areas when he applied anesthetic jabs. If anyone tells you having 50-60 anesthetic jabs all over your head, you would feel little tingles, that would be a complete lie. However, with that machine, the pain level was dramatically reduced, ii) Dr Tam used a staggering system for his technicians (i.e. technician started early on the day would be replaced by another technician later during the day but the core of the team would always remain the system) so to make sure no technician would be overly tired but largely the same team would carry out the same surgery, so everyone knew what everyone was doing, iii). At some point in the operation, there were 4-5 technicians working together to carry out different functions. One of the key functions that impressed me was Dr. Tam assigned 2-3 technicians to use microscopes to separate single-grafts and multi- grafts, so he would be able to place the single-grafts in front part of the hairline to create a more natural looking hairs, and iv). The whole technician team (Monica, Suman, Silman, Lucrecia, and many more) was very professional during the 13-hour journey. They always checked on me if I felt pains or cold etc. So well done to the team. Finally a bonus point is that breakfast/lunch options were brilliant. I could choose whatever I felt like e.g. Chinese, Italian, burger, pizza etc. With Amazon Prime, PlayStation, music of your choice provided, the whole day was gone pretty quickly.
POST OPERATION:
Right after the operation, Dr Tam gave me a after care pack including medication (pain killer, anti-inflammatory pills, anti-inflammatory cream for donor area), a number of gauzes, baby shampoo, more than 2 litres of saline solution (I only got 2 30ml bottles in my first transplants) and an explanation of detailed procedures how I should take care of my transplanted hairs (post operation guide was sent to my by email separately). Dr Tam also gave me a call to follow up the next day after operation. My transplanted hairs look very dense now. Unlike the first hair transplant, so far I have not had any swelling in my forehead and just have minimal scabbing. Also, the donor area is also very neat with minimal extraction signs. It was completely different from my first transplant experience where I had excessive blood in my donor area and very visible scars. Talking to Dr Tam, I believe it is due to using an exceedingly small punch and blade to extract hairs and create the incision sites in the transplanted area.
Overall, comparing with first hair transplant experience in another clinic on the Harley Street, the second transplant experience was truly amazing. As I described with Dr Tam post operation, it was a difference between flying with first class of premium airline and economic class in a budget airline. I could have personalized VIP service all the way through (no need to waste time with sales/ communicate directly to same doctor from start to the end/ whole team looking after one patient on operation day etc.). Of course, from my own research, Dr Tam’s fees would probably on a higher end in the market, but I would say it is truly value for money. After all, the new hairline will follow me for the rest of my life.
Attached are pics taken first day after the operation to show you the neatness of donor area and the density in the transplanted area.
My PREVIOUS TRANSPLANT:
Less than a year ago, I had my first transplant in another reputable clinic on Harley Street. I decided to go ahead with that clinic solely based on seemingly good Google reviews and the fact that I wanted to get it done ASAP when lockdown started. There were indeed a few red flags before operation but I decided to ignore them as I just wanted to get it done quickly. These red flags included the fact that I never got a chance to speak to the doctor before surgery and the surgery location was not in the clinic on Harley Street but in some place in North London. However, these issues were minor compared to those I had on the operation day and post operation.
On the operation day, I realized I went into a massive hair transplant factory with at least 8 patients in the facility but only 2 doctors performing surgery. It was only the first time for me to meet the doctor who performed my operation but it was not a good experience either. The doctor only spent 2 mins to design/draw my hairline and even worse the hair line he drew was not even (my left temple was a lot higher than the right one) and I only spotted it when I went back home. The majority of the operation including extraction and transplant was performed by technicians. The doctor only spent about 20-30 mins to create the incision sites and then I never got a change to meet him again as he needed to be off early, so I met the remaining doctor for post operation procedures after the operation. They also did not count how many hair grafts were taken from me and the biggest issue was I had a lot of “holes” in my transplanted area with no hair at all. I tried to contact the clinic a few times but they did not seem to care about the issues. They never followed up with my issues with call or email. At that point I completely lost confidence on that clinic so I decided to reach out to Dr Tam after doing some research.
PRE OPERATION:
I reached out to Dr Tam about 10 days after my first hair transplant with pictures of my transplanted area. Even though I was not his client, but he still replied very quickly and gave me a very detailed assessment of my issues and potential remedial solutions. After a number of email exchanges with detailed and professional replies, I knew that he would be the doctor to fix the my botched hair transplant. I waited for 9 months after my transplanted hairs to completely grow out and I had a face to face consultation with Dr Tam in his clinic. It was a great experience because not only he showed his expertise in hair transplant by answering all my questions but more importantly he really listened to my needs. Considering it would be my second hair transplant, I wanted to make it the last one, so I did not only want to fix the issues but I wanted my hairline to go down more to have the perfect hairline I wanted. That would mean that it would be a massive hair transplant with potential of staffing issues on the operation day. However, he did understand where I came from, so he made the necessarily arrangements to accommodate my needs as much as he could on the operation day. At the end, the paid consultation section, which was supposed to last for an hour, finished in 2 hours, and we went through assessment of my donor area, hairline design, what I should expect, and fees for the procedure. Further, there was not a moment in the consultation or post consultation I was rushed to make a decision to proceed with the hair transplant. Instead, he stressed that I should take as much time I needed to consider about the operation.
OPERATION DAY:
I arrived in the clinic at 7:15am. The procedures of the operation were thoroughly explained by Dr Tam again. We then spent 1.5 hours to just to make the final design of my hairline (I was a bit fussy with it given it was my second hair transplant and hopefully last one). Then I had a haircut with a visiting hairdresser as I did not want to shave my hairs completely this time (I did not even have a choice in my first hair transplant). Given that it was my second transplant, so I already knew what to expect in the operation but still there were a number of small details that genuinely impressed me (You can only tell these subtle differences if you have 2 hair transplants from 2 clinics): i) Dr Tam used a muscle vibration machine to massage my donor and transplanted areas when he applied anesthetic jabs. If anyone tells you having 50-60 anesthetic jabs all over your head, you would feel little tingles, that would be a complete lie. However, with that machine, the pain level was dramatically reduced, ii) Dr Tam used a staggering system for his technicians (i.e. technician started early on the day would be replaced by another technician later during the day but the core of the team would always remain the system) so to make sure no technician would be overly tired but largely the same team would carry out the same surgery, so everyone knew what everyone was doing, iii). At some point in the operation, there were 4-5 technicians working together to carry out different functions. One of the key functions that impressed me was Dr. Tam assigned 2-3 technicians to use microscopes to separate single-grafts and multi- grafts, so he would be able to place the single-grafts in front part of the hairline to create a more natural looking hairs, and iv). The whole technician team (Monica, Suman, Silman, Lucrecia, and many more) was very professional during the 13-hour journey. They always checked on me if I felt pains or cold etc. So well done to the team. Finally a bonus point is that breakfast/lunch options were brilliant. I could choose whatever I felt like e.g. Chinese, Italian, burger, pizza etc. With Amazon Prime, PlayStation, music of your choice provided, the whole day was gone pretty quickly.
POST OPERATION:
Right after the operation, Dr Tam gave me a after care pack including medication (pain killer, anti-inflammatory pills, anti-inflammatory cream for donor area), a number of gauzes, baby shampoo, more than 2 litres of saline solution (I only got 2 30ml bottles in my first transplants) and an explanation of detailed procedures how I should take care of my transplanted hairs (post operation guide was sent to my by email separately). Dr Tam also gave me a call to follow up the next day after operation. My transplanted hairs look very dense now. Unlike the first hair transplant, so far I have not had any swelling in my forehead and just have minimal scabbing. Also, the donor area is also very neat with minimal extraction signs. It was completely different from my first transplant experience where I had excessive blood in my donor area and very visible scars. Talking to Dr Tam, I believe it is due to using an exceedingly small punch and blade to extract hairs and create the incision sites in the transplanted area.
Overall, comparing with first hair transplant experience in another clinic on the Harley Street, the second transplant experience was truly amazing. As I described with Dr Tam post operation, it was a difference between flying with first class of premium airline and economic class in a budget airline. I could have personalized VIP service all the way through (no need to waste time with sales/ communicate directly to same doctor from start to the end/ whole team looking after one patient on operation day etc.). Of course, from my own research, Dr Tam’s fees would probably on a higher end in the market, but I would say it is truly value for money. After all, the new hairline will follow me for the rest of my life.
Attached are pics taken first day after the operation to show you the neatness of donor area and the density in the transplanted area.
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