Este-grande

This wasn't my first hair transplant as I had one done in Vancouver at Hasson & Wong about 15 years ago, but the pricing in places such as Turkey and other European countries along with the fact they seem to specialize in these things finally made me give EsteGrande a try. While, they are not the worst company out there, they are certainly not the best either. Out of the 5 contact people I met with in person, 4 of them had only been with the company for less than a few months. English was definitely not at all adequate to communicate effectively unfortunately and especially considering the fact that most of the customers are foreigners.

I had received around 6 or so other quotes and with companies who were super eager to get my business along with follow-ups as to why I didn't choose them. Rates varied between $1,500-3,000 USD for the most part due to the competitive nature of this business. I definitely got the feeling that this company was just pushing through people like cattle in order to rake in the money as opposed to truly understanding the needs of their clients.

There was a lot of back and forth via WhatsApp beforehand, but I had to repeat some information more than once due to the fact that my original agent was no longer with the company. While I was treated fairly well, the whole process was extremely disorganized and I don't feel as if I received what I paid for to be honest. There was a lot of conflicting information about what you can/cannot do, but I blame this on management and the training of their staff. After having arrived at the hospital, I was taken from room to room, upstairs, registration desk with NO clear idea or even an agenda as to what was going on? This was extremely unprofessional. It would have been easy enough to have an agenda printed out with a potential idea of what was going on! I had to wait several hours literally just doing nothing and wondering when my surgery would happen? After finally getting in around 3pm or so, it definitely seemed as if things were rushed and by the end of the night (quite late) it was obvious that everyone wanted to go home. I didn't get any sense of confidence after learning that the technician working on my grafts actually had another job. Seriously?

After meeting with one of the technician's around 3pm (arriving at the Hospital around 9), they went over my hairline, donor area and had NO idea of the past pictures that I submitted. It's been about 2+ months now after the surgery and while I understand it takes a bit longer for transplanted grafts to grow back, I can always revise this review pending the results. At the moment though, I'm not impressed. It was evident that there were a few balding spots which were not addressed/or had any grafts added due to the fact they had already marked out the areas where the grafts would be taking place. I mean, isn't this why we're there? It would have been nice to address these due to the fact that having one's head shaved clearly shows where some significant balding areas are!

Dealing with words and phrases such as...pain? No pain, sit, wait here...etc. Was almost the full extent of any conversation...and never understanding what was going on! That says a lot! They used single needles to administer anaesthesia to the scalp and this could have also been done through a machine which is much more effective, however, probably more expensive. I was also under the impression that removal of grafts from the donor area would be done with a machine, but it was all by hand! This was a bit surprising to say the least! There are a couple of areas at the back of my scalp now which have bald spots and no indication that the original hair will grow back! Sure, this might be covered up a bit after my hair grows a bit longer, but this is clearly an error on their extraction process.

Needless to say, I would not recommend EsteGrande to anyone, even if their prices seem to be very competitive as it's like this for a reason as they are just wanting the $$$. Best to look at alternatives but this is from my perspective and as I've mentioned, it was not my first surgery!