J
JosephInimb
member
Great plan and choice of clinic.
Hi Parasol,Hi @Bigmac ! Thanks for checking in.
I’ve been on Finasteride (1mg) and Minoxidil foam (1 cap full) daily for about 7 months now. Although there might be some minor improvements (my hair sometimes seems darker, so perhaps some miniaturized hairs have strengthened?), my hair is definitely still a mess so I’m planning on having another procedure here in the near-ish future.
Originally, I was thinking of going back to Dr. Boden, but after seeing he uses ARTAS for FUE, which turns me off a lot, I decided he is not the surgeon for me, so I spent some time doing some research on clinics all over the world.
After a couple months kicking the idea of taking the plunge a third time around, I decided if I was gonna do it, I wanted to go to the best of the best.
Then I decided, what the heck, may as well just get this thing done!
I’m currently booked with Eugenix in India for March 3rd, however, I highly doubt this will end up being the surgery date. As of now, I can’t even acquire a visa due to COVID restrictions.
Eugenix has a game plan I really like, so I’m excited to have chosen them and to get this done eventually. For the top of my head, they want to bring back the hairline a bit (by plucking out and reusing my previously transplanted hairline grafts), then adding density to the new hairline and to the rest of the frontal 2/3. Based on my photos, I was told 2500 grafts would be enough for this, but that seemed a bit too conservative for me, so tentatively, until we meet in person, we are planning 3,000 grafts in total for the scalp.
For the FUT scar, they think I’ll need 300-500 grafts.
The plan is, to take 2,500-3,000 grafts from the back of my head, and 500-1,000 grafts from my beard, depending, to reach our final number.
I’m hesitant to take grafts from my beard for this if we don’t have to, but we’ll see what Dr. Bansal thinks once we meet in person.
I’ll attach some new photos so you guys can see how the meds have worked. I hope everyone here is doing well! Stay safe.
@Parasol No need to thank at all, it’s better to be safe so wanted to just let you know.@Lockdown-Locks! Thanks for the heads up! That’s very kind of you to pass this along to me!
At the moment, I can’t actually get a travel visa to India anyway. Due to COVID, they are not processing them at all (at least not in my case, applying for a travel visa from the US).
So needless to say, surgery won’t be happening for me in March.
I did consult with other clinics that I also thought were top-tier, and it looks like I can probably get in with Dr. Maras at HDC in Cyprus at the beginning of April. So surgery may still be on the horizon.
Based on the online consult, HDC wants to use a similar amount of grafts as Eugenix (2500-3000 for the top, and a TBD amount of grafts upon in person inspection on the scar). However, they want to leave my current hairline in-tact, so no punching out any grafts, and it also seems, at least based on my photos, that we can accomplish this without pulling grafts from my beard. Finger’s crossed.
Both of which would be ideal for me, because I was worried about potential scarring on my hairline and the prospect of using grafts from my face in general.
I’ll keep you all posted and post my journey here regardless of where I end up. Thanks all for the support, it means a lot.
In India, no.@Parasol No need to thank at all, it’s better to be safe so wanted to just let you know.
Great to hear that you have an alternative in the pipeline so hopefully things won’t be thrown behind schedule too much.
I’m curious to know if you came across any other top-quality clinics in India that you would recommend?
Hi Parasol,In India, no.
My goal from the beginning was to find clinics that excel in repair, and also frontal half density and naturalness in the $3 per graft-ish range (I realize price should never be an issue. You have to live with your results for life. But researching, lots of great clinics come up in this price range, which is doable for the disposable income I have).
Anywhere in the world was fine with me. This time it just mattered to me a lot to not go to just an ok surgeon again, but a great world class surgeon.
My top two from the beginning were Eugenix and HDC, so I haven’t had any consults aside from them. If you’re curious about other names on my radar, I personally also like the work Dr. Arshad and Dr. Bicer have been putting out, along with Dr. Ferreira and more recently Dr De Freitas. There are other excellent clinics out there as well.
All in all, Dr. Maras at HDC has been putting out excellent work for a really long time. So assuming I can get entry into Cyprus, which so far seems will happen, I think I’ll be in an optimal position to succeed. If not, I’ll see when entry to India is possible, and if that fails too, I’ll have to reassess and decide exactly how long I’m willing to wait to get this done.
The flights here weren’t too bad. About 18 hours total. The only real issue I had was Germany passing a new law requiring anyone who enters, even just connecting to another flight, to have a negative COVID test 48 hours before entry.Pleased you were able to make the travel and get this second transplant. The work looks good....How were the flights from USA to Cyprus?
I have 3 flights to get back home, which is the same as it took to get to Cyprus. The difference being I have a 14 hour layover between my flight from New Jersey to Vermont. I can drive it in like 5 hours lol. Debating on just renting a car when I get to NJ, but I hate to spend even more money on this trip at this point when the plane ticket is already paid for.It was a good job you were able to get the PCR test near the airport. 48 hours to get home, I don't envy you there. How many flights will that be and what is the longest layover?
By Sunday I think you will have healed plenty enough to not put your transplant in any jeopardy. The grafts will be secure and the daily washes will help your whole scalp look clean.
How are you passing your time in Cyprus?
Scares me too!Hi Parasol,
Congratulations! Great to see this happen so soon (during our last few messages, it sounded like getting out abroad wasn’t going to happen in the short-term). Great to hear.
Generally speaking, how long post-op do clinics advise you to wait before washing your hair? The thought of jumping on a flight within a few days post-op kind of scares me!?