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Freddy’s Hair Transplant Journey – Part 1: Before Treatment

BannerImage_Freddy’s Hair Transplant Journey – Part 1: Before Treatment

Freddy is a 43-year old manager from Los Angeles who decided to have a hair transplant once he came to the inevitable conclusion that any other method (including medicines) fails to boost hair growth. He contacted Qunomedical to find a top clinic in Mexico and he got eventually treated at Hair Medical Restoration in Tijuana for a much cheaper price compared to the clinics in the US.

Below, are his own words on why he decided to go for a hair transplant and why he chose Qunomedical.

“My name is Fredrick Reilly, I’m 43 years old, American, and I am of Irish and Mexican descent. I am a manager at a Finance/Tax Incentives firm and I paint portraits on the side. In addition to working, I am dedicated to fitness, looking good and staying young. I lift weights, cross train, practice yoga and trail run 8-12 miles on Sunday. For the most part, through diet and exercise, I can control how I look and feel.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard I trained, how healthy I ate or how many hair medicines (Propecia/Minoxidil) or hair vitamins I took, I could not control my hair loss… Until I made the decision to take control and have a hair transplant.

Having a cool hairstyle was always very important to me. As a child, I looked up to guys like Elvis Presley, James Dean and the cast of the movie ‘The Outsiders.’ They all had the coolest hairstyles and I did my best to look like them. Growing up in Los Angeles, you had to be in tune with the latest hairstyles and fashion if you wanted to be cool.

In the early 2000s, as I became a young adult, I started identifying more with professional athletes. My brother made the 1992 Olympic boxing team and I trained for the 2000 Olympic Boxing team, so naturally I wanted to look my best in front of audiences. This often included the latest trendy hairstyle. Anyway, I wanted to have hair as cool as the top athletes in the world like David Beckham, Tom Brady, Andre Agassi, and Cristiano Ronaldo.

So when I started noticing my hairline receding and thinning, I looked to my sports heroes for inspiration. Namely, Tom Brady’s surprisingly revitalized hairline, often speculated to be the work of an excellent hair transplant (Brady reportedly visited hair specialists in 2008). Many people both on network television and social media made fun of Tom Brady, but nevertheless he didn’t give up. He fought his balding and made sure he beat it.

A couple of years after Tom Brady, another famous athlete, Wayne Rooney decided to combat his hair loss. Unlike Tom Brady, Wayne Rooney was very public about his procedure. Never before had such a personal procedure made public by a celebrity. Wayne Rooney, in 2011 tweeted: “Just to confirm to all my followers I have had a hair transplant. I was going bald at 25 so why not. I am delighted with the result.” The general public was left incredulous and then the jokes and negative comments began circulating around the internet.

Amidst the laughter and amusement, something much more significant was happening; Balding men around the world were glimpsing at their first ray of sunshine since they started losing their hair.

Soon after, other celebrities started going public with their procedures. Others, including Joey Fatone of N Sync (who is now a Bosley spokesman) and Backstreet Boy AJ McLean were publicly sharing their experiences with the hair procedures. While other celebrities were not openly admitting nor denying their hair procedures, there is plenty of speculation about which high profile men may have gotten them done: Celebrities such as Kevin Costner, John Travolta, Lebron James, Tyga and Jamie Foxx.

Now that the stigma associated with hair procedures was significantly lessened, I started thinking about the possibility of my own hair procedure. As I was debating this possibility, I was still spending way too much time thinking about my hair loss.

Whenever I saw a man with a good hair line, I would look at his hairline with envy, wishing I had a similar hairline.

Looking at myself in pictures was even harder, as I was totally confronted about the reality of losing my hair. Denial of my hair loss could make look at myself from the best angle when looking in the mirror. However, you could not do this when looking at yourself in a photograph. I decided I would do something about my hair loss, so I took the first step and started to doing research.

When I started doing my research, I came to the quick realization that hair transplants were extremely expensive. Someone like me who only needed 1500 grafts was looking at paying ($6 X 1500) $9,000.00 to ($9 X 1500) $12,000 US Dollars. Someone with more significant hair loss was looking at paying anywhere from $25,000 to $30,000. I simply could not afford a hair transplant at these prices.

As I started learning more about hair transplants, I discovered that you could get quality hair transplants 60% - 90% cheaper in other countries.

On YouTube, I saw that you could get quality hair transplants in other countries like Turkey and India, but there was nothing in Mexico, which is where I wanted to get my transplant. I then came across Qunomedical, a company whose mission statement is to provide every patient in the world “access to the best doctors. No matter who you are and where you are from.” – Dr Sophie Chung, CEO & Founder of Qunomedical. As I navigated through their website, I saw they had top rated doctors of all types in Mexico, so I signed an online form. A few hours later, I got a call from a gentleman by the name of Shaz who was a representative from Qunomedical. The ball was now rolling!

Shaz and I spoke several times through the phone and via email. He answered every possible question imaginable that I had regarding hair transplants.

The questions he couldn’t answer, he would write down, gather the information from a doctor and then get back to me the next day. Shaz also provide me with before and after pictures from the doctor I was planning to use for my hair procedure. When I was ready to commit, Shaz asked me to provide some photos of my head at various angles so I could get an assessment of the quantity of hair grafts I needed, which would provide a realistic quote from the doctors I would be using.

Here are some pictures of what I look like today before the surgery:

Blogpost_Image_fred before after

I  decided to make a commitment to Hair Medical Restoration in Tijuana, Mexico. Tijuana is only a two hour drive from Los Angeles, so I would only miss one day of work. Once I made this commitment, Shaz put me in touch with Dr. Jorge Cortez, MD and his colleague (brother) Dr. Jimmy Cortez, MD. The doctors were very accommodating and forthright about any medical questions that I had. Furthermore, Dr. Jorge Cortez explained how he would take an artistic approach to creating my hairline ( Single grafts in the front rows, progressively larger grafts behind the front row). Most importantly, both doctors would be performing the procedure themselves ( I learned that many clinics have their nurses and assistants perform the procedures). I was sold!!

Now that I know that I will be taken excellent care of by Shaz (Qunomedical) and the Dr Jorge Cortez (Hair Medical Restoration), I am excited at the prospect of having the full head of hair I had in my younger days.

Unfortunately, along with this excitement was some apprehension of what to expect. Will the doctors listen to what I want or will they do what they think is best? Will I be a good candidate for a hair transplant? Will the procedure be a success? How bad will it hurt? Will my hair fall out? Will I be able to work out after a week or two? Will I be satisfied with the end result? The answers to the questions will remain to be seen… Only time will tell.” To find some of these questions answered and see Freddy’s head after the procedure and a month later, check out the video below that he filmed himself!

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Frieda

Patient manager

Frieda

Your personal Patient Manager

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