Zarev - March 2021 Consultation and December 2021 Operation

nahte42

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I will still seek to have a consultation with Zarev. Some of his patients have extremely similar cases to mine just like in that video.
 

Omega2327

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Awesome stuff. Really appreciate you doing all this to help gain information.

I am a Norwood 6-7 at age 25. I am seriously desperate to be evaluated by someone like Zarev to see what he thinks is possible in my case.

I had a consultation with Dr. Shaver/Bernstein in NYC last month. If you are unfamiliar, Dr. Shaver was trained and mentored by Dr. William Rassman who was a leading pioneer of the FUE. I brought up Dr. Zarev to Dr. Shaver and showed her pictures of his Instagram and explained his procedure, and she straight up wouldn't believe that he was a legit doctor. She never heard of him, and after I explained how he does his transplants and showed her pictures of his cases, she told me he's "probably a scam." She said it was physically impossible to do what he's doing and that taking hair from beyond the traditional "safe" donor region was barbaric and scammy. I even told her that her mentor, Dr. Rassman, knows Dr. Zarev and has endorsed his work, and then she got very defensive and continued to say she knows nothing about him.

My main goal as a Norwood 6-7 who wants to have something done asap is to eliminate the horseshoe ring pattern on my head. I don't even care about a full head of hair with thick density everywhere. It's the ring pattern that makes my head look sickly and I simply want even density across the entire head.

I am confident that this could be achieved, but I would ask that a doctor take donor hair from the sides of my head too; not just the back. I see that Zarev is willing to do this. For example, I have thick *** sideburn areas...please take some follicles from there and move them up top.

Do you have any advice for getting in contact with Dr. Zarev? I don't know if I'd be able to travel there for a consultation. I am also exploring a doctor in the U.S. who may be very open to quickly learning a technique like the vacuum assisted one Zarev uses.
Haha that’s funny that some surgeons don’t even believe. I remember in our consultation at one point going over some of his results, him smiling and saying “Most other doctors will say this is not possible”. I think Dr. Shaver’s reaction just shows how closed minded she is and that she likely doesn’t believe she or anyone can produce results in the same league as Zarev. It’s a bit troubling she got defensive like that...

I’m going to be honest, just from the tone of your posts you seem pretty desperate and in a hurry to get something done ASAP. I would slow your roll and just try to make the best possible long-term decision so that you don’t do something you’ll regret.

I saw one result of Zarev’s that completely baffled me, even compared to his other megasessions. Some guy was pretty much a NW7 and had pretty poor density. That horseshoe pattern like absolute sh*t but Zarev somehow extracted 70% of what sparse donor he had and transplanted it to be uniform across the patient’s head. With the final result, it looked the patient had to keep his hair at a short buzz cut so that it wouldn’t look too weird grown out but the aesthetic difference was extremely significant. Even though it wasn’t dense, it passed the eye test with a buzz cut and looked SO much better. Not saying Zarev could do this for you because I don’t know your situation but if you’re serious about it, could be worth booking a consultation and having him personally examine your hair and situation. He will absolutely turn you away though if he concludes you’re not a good candidate so just don’t get your hopes up.
 

nahte42

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Haha that’s funny that some surgeons don’t even believe. I remember in our consultation at one point going over some of his results, him smiling and saying “Most other doctors will say this is not possible”. I think Dr. Shaver’s reaction just shows how closed minded she is and that she likely doesn’t believe she or anyone can produce results in the same league as Zarev. It’s a bit troubling she got defensive like that...

I’m going to be honest, just from the tone of your posts you seem pretty desperate and in a hurry to get something done ASAP. I would slow your roll and just try to make the best possible long-term decision so that you don’t do something you’ll regret.

I saw one result of Zarev’s that completely baffled me, even compared to his other megasessions. Some guy was pretty much a NW7 and had pretty poor density. That horseshoe pattern like absolute sh*t but Zarev somehow extracted 70% of what sparse donor he had and transplanted it to be uniform across the patient’s head. With the final result, it looked the patient had to keep his hair at a short buzz cut so that it wouldn’t look too weird grown out but the aesthetic difference was extremely significant. Even though it wasn’t dense, it passed the eye test with a buzz cut and looked SO much better. Not saying Zarev could do this for you because I don’t know your situation but if you’re serious about it, could be worth booking a consultation and having him personally examine your hair and situation. He will absolutely turn you away though if he concludes you’re not a good candidate so just don’t get your hopes up.

Appreciate it. Yeah I get that I sound desperate to do something quickly but trust me I’m not making any decision on a whim. I’ve been reading into all this stuff for years. I was NW5 at age 21/22. I never even had a receding hairline really; it just all thinned and went except for the horseshoe. Totally genetic; all the guys on my dad’s side have the gene, for me it just came on super young and aggressively. I’ve gone through periods where I say I’m fine, and largely I’ve been coping well for all these years now, but the truth is I can’t ever feel fully right with my hair the way it is now and that’s why I’m still searching for a solution. Whenever I get to know new people and get to the point of taking my hat off, the “Oh wow you’re bald?!” gasps get to me. It’s like, I am totally comfortable with who I am as person and my life is good, but when your hair looks like sh*t like mine does, it’s always a big blow to ultimate peace. I buzz the back and sides myself to 0 mm length every three days, but it is still visible obviously. If Zarev could potentially spread that around the entire scalp and get even density with a decent visual appearance, and I’d consider constantly dying my hair lighter if that would help decrease the visual contrast, then that would put me at peace. At least when buzzing my own head I could just buzz all across evenly and not have to fade the back and sides into the top which is very difficult and annoying to do yourself.
 

abovedagame

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He might just have good vision?
Good vision has nothing to do with what I’m referring to. He may have good vision but he’s not a hawk. Surgeons require magnification during fue to see the angle of growth, to align the punch correctly, and to minimize trauma to nearby grafts. The only clinic I’ve seen that do not utilize magnification during extraction are cheap hair mills in turkey. I would def ask zarev this question. I’ve asked on his latest video and he didn’t respond
 

giegnosiganoe

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Very interesting, thanks for sharing. Would you consider sharing this to the HRN forums? There's massive interest in Dr. Zarev over there, but no patient reviews (well, one did pop up a week ago).
 

giegnosiganoe

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I have to say I'm surprised with the total number of extractable grafts he came up with. 66 FU/cm2 is on the lower end (however your donor appears pretty decent, I would have thought the density was higher). I guess the area is just really large.

And the extractable grafts is exactly half of your total donor grafts? Seems like quite the coincidence.

Do you know what your exact hair caliber is and how that factors into his calculations? If you had a larger caliber, I'm guessing you'd be able to extract more grafts?

How about your hair/graft average?

Finally, how did he measure all of this? Did he shave down a 1cm2 area or did he somehow manage with long hair?

I think this info would be useful to better understand his recommendations, thanks in advance

Edit: And when he says +27 FU/cm2 at the hairline corners, how is that enough..? You seem to have very low density in that area. Surely you'd need to implant at around 50 FU/cm2? And your crown/vertex looks pretty good to me, I'm surprised you need 2200 there.
 
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Omega2327

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I have to say I'm surprised with the total number of extractable grafts he came up with. 66 FU/cm2 is on the lower end (however your donor appears pretty decent, I would have thought the density was higher). I guess the area is just really large.
He did state that one unique aspect of my hair is that I have more nests than the average person meaning my number of hairs per FU is on the higher end of the range. I think this may compensate for some of what you perceive as being on the lower-end. Also there are many patients whom he can and will extract 60% of the donor area as he states. He’s only doing 50% of mine perhaps partly because my overall characteristics are slightly lower than average.

And the extractable grafts is exactly half of your total donor grafts? Seems like quite the coincidence.
He purposefully came up with an estimated ability to extract 50% of my donor area without causing visual donor dilution based on my characteristics. So that 50% was intentional, not just a coincidence.

Do you know what your exact hair caliber is and how that factors into his calculations? If you had a larger caliber, I'm guessing you'd be able to extract more grafts?
I don’t remember the exact figure.. maybe like 70 microns. I could be wrong on that.

How about your hair/graft average?
As stated above, it’s higher than average though I don’t know the exact figure.

Finally, how did he measure all of this? Did he shave down a 1cm2 area or did he somehow manage with long hair?
He managed with long hair. He took like a dozen photos of different areas of the scalp with a micro camera that I believe had an area of 1cm2. Then he used those as samples and counted the number of FUs in each photo as well as measured hair thickness to approximate an average and to extrapolate to the rest of my scalp.

Edit: And when he says +27 FU/cm2 at the hairline corners, how is that enough..? You seem to have very low density in that area. Surely you'd need to implant at around 50 FU/cm2? And your crown/vertex looks pretty good to me, I'm surprised you need 2200 there.
If you look, it’s 27 FU/cm2 on my left corner and 35 FU/cm2 on my right. My right has suffered more loss than my left and therefore needs a higher implant density. I think 50 FU/cm2 may be too much at this point in time. I’m not necessarily going for a dense pack. Ultimately I’m aiming for visual density and full coverage if I were to reach a NW6. I still do have some hair in those corners (mainly left) and I want to say that another important factor he mentioned is blood supply. I think to maximize the result he wants to make sure there aren’t too many hairs in a given area fighting for the same blood supply, which could put graft survival at risk. I honestly wanted to go higher than 3,500 grafts as a more preventative measure lol but he didn’t think it was a good idea I think in part for that reason. Also the fact that I should have a higher than average hair count per graft should add some extra juice to the squeeze. With regard to the crown, I think it really just boils down to how big the area is. It’s massive compared to the hairline and many surgeons won’t even want to touch the crown because it’s too big of an area and requires too many grafts to get sufficient coverage - so they’ll only work on the front/mid section and just leave the back alone, which I think looks stupid. Or if they do work on the crown it often times comes out looking like sh*t. I think this is one aspect of Zarev’s work that is under appreciated. His ability to rebuild crowns especially in high Norwoods is exceptional.
 

giegnosiganoe

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@Omega2327 thanks for the detailed reply, this is really helpful. I did miss the 35 FU on the right, makes more sense now. Really looking forward to your surgery report.

Oh, one other thing. All of the cases Zarev presents on his website are of patients with perfect hair characteristics. You seem like more of an average case, for example your hair caliber seems more on the finer side. Can you talk more about the cases he showed you on his computer? Did you see any of patients with similar hair characteristics to yourself? And how did the results compare to the work he displays online?
 

Omega2327

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@Omega2327 thanks for the detailed reply, this is really helpful. I did miss the 35 FU on the right, makes more sense now. Really looking forward to your surgery report.

Oh, one other thing. All of the cases Zarev presents on his website are of patients with perfect hair characteristics. You seem like more of an average case, for example your hair caliber seems more on the finer side. Can you talk more about the cases he showed you on his computer? Did you see any of patients with similar hair characteristics to yourself? And how did the results compare to the work he displays online?
Yes, I saw plenty with average hair characteristics and the results were excellent. When people write off his results to all of his patients being Bulgarian with thick hair, it’s simply a cope. Zarev is on another level in my opinion.
 

DAVAT

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Thanks for the thorough write up, I'm looking forward to checking back when you get this done.
The part about not having to shave is especially interesting.
Good luck with this mate
 

Omega2327

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Sorry guys been busy and I’m waiting to get all the pictures back from Dr. Zarev but here are some that I snapped on my phone throughout the process. Overall I’m very satisfied so far. I ended up getting 4,000+ grafts - not sure about the distribution I’m guessing it was like 1,400 in the frontal area and 2,600 in the crown/back part of the mid scalp area. I definitely got the majority of my total recipient area covered and there wasn’t all that much space in between the two sections. I have healed fairly well and can cover the transplant completely with my existing hair. The small transplanted hairs actually help lol almost like some natural toppik. Day 10 I went to an NYE party without any worries someone would notice. Pretty much all redness gone by that point. Here are some pictures. I was most stressed about the hairline going into it but he basically just drew it based on my current hairline with some natural irregularities and I loved it. Not looking for a teenage NW0 hairline but more of a mature NW2ish look that I can grow into as I get older. I don’t want to judge until the final result and at that point I can touch it up as I see fit. Zarev was an absolute machine during the operation and the speed at which he works is remarkable. We started the planning and tests around 9 or 10am and didn’t finish until about midnight. At the end of the day, I have nothing but great things to say about him. I think he’s top knotch.

 
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Zon Ama

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Sorry guys been busy and I’m waiting to get all the pictures back from Dr. Zarev but here are some that I snapped on my phone throughout the process. Overall I’m very satisfied so far. I ended up getting 4,000+ grafts - not sure about the distribution I’m guessing it was like 1,400 in the frontal area and 2,600 in the crown/back part of the mid scalp area. I definitely got the majority of my total recipient area covered and there wasn’t all that much space in between the two sections. I have healed fairly well and can cover the transplant completely with my existing hair. The small transplanted hairs actually help lol almost like some natural toppik. Day 10 I went to an NYE party without any worries someone would notice. Pretty much all redness gone by that point. Here are some pictures. I was most stressed about the hairline going into it but he basically just drew it based on my current hairline with some natural irregularities and I loved it. Not looking for a teenage NW0 hairline but more of a mature NW2ish look that I can grow into as I get older. I don’t want to judge until the final result and at that point I can touch it up as I see fit. Zarev was an absolute machine during the operation and the speed at which he works is remarkable. We started the planning and tests around 9 or 10am and didn’t finish until about midnight. At the end of the day, I have nothing but great things to say about him. I think he’s top knotch.


The final result will be awesome! Congrats. Is the price still 4€/Graft and is this price fix?
 

Omega2327

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Fck yeah bro, I can already see that the density in front area is already higher than most transplants.

Going to be sick results

Also what was the total cost?
Thanks man, got my fingers crossed! It was 4 euros per graft so around 16k euros total.
 
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