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Last month I traveled to Bulgaria for my consultation with Dr. Zarev. It was pretty important for me to have him to a thorough assessment of my scalp in person to determine 1. How many total grafts I have and 2. How many total grafts I would need with my projected final pattern, as well as give me additional comfort that he’s the right surgeon for me. All in all, I’m super glad I went and I have my surgery scheduled for December 2021.
We first sat down and just talked through his process and he answered a bunch of questions I had. He educated me more on his technique and how such large extractions are possible. He inspected my scalp, took dozens of pictures (both with a regular camera and micro camera), and performed some pretty detailed calculations to assess my situation. It was concluded that I have 10.5k grafts (50% of my donor) in total and that if I were to fully reach my projected final pattern, I would need 10.9k grafts. Close enough! I have average donor density and fine-average hair thickness. He had me share pictures of my dad, both grandfathers, uncles, etc. No one in my family is beyond a NW6. Upon inspection of my scalp, he could pretty much detect exactly where the balding process was active and where it wasn’t. It’s weird because I’m a ~NW2.5 and I can nearly style my hair to look like I don’t have hair loss, but under a micro camera he could see that the balding process is active in the entire NW6 region. I may not actually get there all the way but of course we’re planning for it when it comes to donor management. There are clean breaks in the balding and non balding regions under a micro camera. So the risk that I would go beyond NW6 is extremely low.
Towards the end of the consultation, I asked him if I could see more of his cases and he was very open to it. He had a folder with hundreds of not thousands of cases and let me pick names at random to see their before and after photos. Overall I was extremely impressed with the quality of his work and his great results certainly aren’t just limited to the ones he has in his website. He had some killer repair cases. One I remember specifically, the patient had a bunch of synthetic hair implants, which Dr. Zarev had to extract and then replace with his own hair. It was an absolute f*****g mess but the final result was amazing.
I’m 30 years old - not on minoxidil nor finasteride and don’t have plans to hop on either of them. I tried min once but it gave me heart palpitations and I just refuse to risk it with finasteride. I do use zix + micro needling, as well as 1% keto shampoo 3x per week. Zarev recommend that I use 2% keto every day, which I thought was interesting. Anyway none of these are strong enough to stop my hair loss in its tracks so I plan to progressively fix with incremental hair transplants, which I won’t shave my recipient area for so that the transplant won’t be obvious. This was one of my main concerns, how much a shaved head transplant vs. non shaved head impacted the final result. It’s always been my assumption that a shaved head would lead to a better final result. He strongly emphasized there is no impact to the final result whatsoever and that the only difference is that it will take him longer to perform the procedure. This is pretty huge for me because I can’t stand the thought of walking into work with a shaved head and it being so obvious I had work done. It honestly may have been a deal breaker for me. I thankfully have enough hair so that I’ll be able to conceal any evidence of a transplant as it grows in. My first surgery is scheduled for December and the plan is 3,300 grafts - 2,200 in the crown area and 1,100 in the hairline. May get a few hundred more in the front.
I can’t say enough great things about Dr. Zarev. He was super friendly, nice, energetic, and intelligent. He only learned English a couple of years ago and still doesn’t know how to say a variety of words (I taught him the word “comb” lol), yet he was able to impressively articulate anything and everything I wanted to know. I personally truly believe he is the best surgeon in the world, especially when it comes to larger cases, and I can’t wait for my operation in December. I spent years with my fingers crossed for Tsuji to come through and save me. I still remember thinking several years ago I’d only have to wait until 2020 to get cloning.... yikes. I’m sure we will eventually get cloning but it’s hard to predict when and the reality is there are likely to be additional delays along the way. I’m very satisfied I have an alternative long-term option to correct my situation without having to worry about hormonal side effects.
Pics here:
We first sat down and just talked through his process and he answered a bunch of questions I had. He educated me more on his technique and how such large extractions are possible. He inspected my scalp, took dozens of pictures (both with a regular camera and micro camera), and performed some pretty detailed calculations to assess my situation. It was concluded that I have 10.5k grafts (50% of my donor) in total and that if I were to fully reach my projected final pattern, I would need 10.9k grafts. Close enough! I have average donor density and fine-average hair thickness. He had me share pictures of my dad, both grandfathers, uncles, etc. No one in my family is beyond a NW6. Upon inspection of my scalp, he could pretty much detect exactly where the balding process was active and where it wasn’t. It’s weird because I’m a ~NW2.5 and I can nearly style my hair to look like I don’t have hair loss, but under a micro camera he could see that the balding process is active in the entire NW6 region. I may not actually get there all the way but of course we’re planning for it when it comes to donor management. There are clean breaks in the balding and non balding regions under a micro camera. So the risk that I would go beyond NW6 is extremely low.
Towards the end of the consultation, I asked him if I could see more of his cases and he was very open to it. He had a folder with hundreds of not thousands of cases and let me pick names at random to see their before and after photos. Overall I was extremely impressed with the quality of his work and his great results certainly aren’t just limited to the ones he has in his website. He had some killer repair cases. One I remember specifically, the patient had a bunch of synthetic hair implants, which Dr. Zarev had to extract and then replace with his own hair. It was an absolute f*****g mess but the final result was amazing.
I’m 30 years old - not on minoxidil nor finasteride and don’t have plans to hop on either of them. I tried min once but it gave me heart palpitations and I just refuse to risk it with finasteride. I do use zix + micro needling, as well as 1% keto shampoo 3x per week. Zarev recommend that I use 2% keto every day, which I thought was interesting. Anyway none of these are strong enough to stop my hair loss in its tracks so I plan to progressively fix with incremental hair transplants, which I won’t shave my recipient area for so that the transplant won’t be obvious. This was one of my main concerns, how much a shaved head transplant vs. non shaved head impacted the final result. It’s always been my assumption that a shaved head would lead to a better final result. He strongly emphasized there is no impact to the final result whatsoever and that the only difference is that it will take him longer to perform the procedure. This is pretty huge for me because I can’t stand the thought of walking into work with a shaved head and it being so obvious I had work done. It honestly may have been a deal breaker for me. I thankfully have enough hair so that I’ll be able to conceal any evidence of a transplant as it grows in. My first surgery is scheduled for December and the plan is 3,300 grafts - 2,200 in the crown area and 1,100 in the hairline. May get a few hundred more in the front.
I can’t say enough great things about Dr. Zarev. He was super friendly, nice, energetic, and intelligent. He only learned English a couple of years ago and still doesn’t know how to say a variety of words (I taught him the word “comb” lol), yet he was able to impressively articulate anything and everything I wanted to know. I personally truly believe he is the best surgeon in the world, especially when it comes to larger cases, and I can’t wait for my operation in December. I spent years with my fingers crossed for Tsuji to come through and save me. I still remember thinking several years ago I’d only have to wait until 2020 to get cloning.... yikes. I’m sure we will eventually get cloning but it’s hard to predict when and the reality is there are likely to be additional delays along the way. I’m very satisfied I have an alternative long-term option to correct my situation without having to worry about hormonal side effects.
Pics here:
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