I am a new member of the forum and I feel the need to share my hair transplant experience with you.
I am 37 years of age and have been slowly loosing my hair since the age of about 22. My main problem has been the frontal area of the scalp. However I have more or less managed to keep my hairline.
I live in Cyprus and I had never considered having a hair transplant until I saw an old friend of mine who I had not seen in about 5 years. I remember the last time I saw him his hair had been really thinning. In fact he had lost quite a lot of hair on top. Now he had a full head of hair. I had expected that he would have lost more hair and he should have been balder than me at this stage. It made me wonder and I casually mentioned that his hair was looking really good. That’s when he told me about his hair transplant at HDC. I was really surprised how natural it looked. I’d known someone in the past that had a hair transplant in the UK many years ago and honestly his scalp looked like a dolls head. So to me a transplant was something that made you look worse than being bald. So how come we had top surgeons doing natural looking hair transplants on right on our own doorstep? I mean I’d seen HDC adverts but it never really occurred to me that such good results were possible.
A week later I was being consulted by this really nice guy called Pantelis (the clinic manager) in this nicely built clinic in Nicosia (the capital city of Cyprus). I must admit I hardly knew anything about hair transplants and this guy took me through the procedure step by step with the use of a visual presentation. I was really impressed. He gave me an estimate of how many grafts I would need to get a good coverage. He said that anything around 3,000 would give me a decent result. He also said that because my hair is curly I will get even better coverage which was encouraging. I asked him if the donor area could provide more would it be okay to place them. He said yes and that I would get an even better result. Finally we agreed on 3,000 grafts and I signed a preset written agreement that I would be willing to pay up to 500 grafts more should my donor area allow. He gave me a price and I went home to think about it. It didn’t take long. I had some savings in the bank that were going towards new sofas but with my wife’s encouragement I decided to go ahead.
I then called up work and arranged time off. I booked in for surgery for 11th December 2006. It was a quick decision and it didn’t really dawn on me until the night before. I felt a little nervous. Got up early and was at the clinic by 7.45am. Felt strange at first but was greeted by such friendly staff that I immediately felt calmer and less nervous. I knew instantly that I was in good hands. Before the procedure Dr Michalis went through the details with me. He designed a couple of hairlines on my scalp. I was happy with either and left it to his judgment.
They started the injections at the back in preparation to take out the strip. Expected some kind of pain but got no more than what you get when the dentist puts injections in your gums. In fact this was much better than a trip to the dentist. Much more comfortable than keeping your mouth wide open and the dentist drilling about and driving you mad. I decided that sorting out your hair is much nicer than sorting out your teeth!
During the process I had 3 breaks. They asked me if I wanted to see a film but I was much happier chatting to the staff all day. I must have driven them mad but they were so nice like old friends so I couldn’t help it. Finally I was finished by 7pm. The final amount of grafts placed amounted to 3,400.They cleaned me up really well as you can see in the pics. They then went through the post op instructions with me in full detail.
It really amazed me how efficient and professional the staff was. They created a safe, relaxed and very friendly atmosphere. They were polite, chatty and humorous and the time just flew by. I actually enjoyed being there and having it done.
The days following I rested and was careful to follow the detailed instructions. I used an ice pack every hour for 10 minutes. I hardly had any swelling that they told me about. I reckon it’s because I was careful to follow their instructions exactly.
Now its 2 months post op. Most of the hairs have fallen out as expected. I am now really looking forward to a full head of hair. Compared to before the op my thinning scalp no longer shines as it did before so there is some kind of improvement already.
I am attaching my pre-op photos that were taken at HDC. I will keep you all informed and will show you my results as they come through.

Detailed forum discussion for these pics can be found at:
http://www.hairsite4.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=12&topic_id=51832&mode=full&page=7