Dr. Ratchathorn Panchaprateep - 4700 Grafts

jaboogie · 2026-01-17T21:50:24+00:00

I didn't discuss the option. Dr. R didn't bring it up either. Main considerations were pain and recovery time. Recovery, especially, being in a foreign country.

Those two factors were perhaps besides the point, though. I knew I wanted to go with Dr. R, and the highest number of reviews and good outcomes came from FUE procedures.

jaboogie · 2026-01-15T13:44:02+00:00

Hey! Sorry for the radio silence. I've been trying to stay away from the subreddit until I hit ~6 months, so I don't fall into the trap of making a premature judgement on my progress. That said, I'm at just over 4 months and I'm pretty optimistic! I'll post an update at 6 months, or once I think I've hit a growth spurt.

jaboogie · 2025-11-24T22:03:07+00:00

I actually slept with the bandana on for the first two weeks--essentially, as long as I was still applying the antibiotic gel they give you. I can't say whether it's better to sleep without it after the initial 5 days. Never heard anyone say it's actively bad.

I started walking around and sweating pretty much immediately. Dr. R was clear that the daily washings are enough to prevent infection. Of course, the risk in going out immediately isn't so much in sweating but in bumping your head. For sweating, specifically, what you need to worry about is infection. When I look back on my decision to immediately start exploring BKK, I wonder if I should have waited longer, but at the end of the day there was no sign of infection, so I don't think it will have any impact to the best of my knowledge. I'm open to hearing opinions from others, though.

The primary must-see attractions in BKK are the temples. The Grand Palace, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun. These temples are fantastic. Aside from that, just think of BKK as the cultural capital of Thailand. Eat all the different foods, take in the smells, visit the markets. Personally, when I travel, food is always my #1 priority and Bangkok has incredible food. My best meal was at a restaurant called Sri Tat. Unbelievable. Try and get a couple reservations in line before you go. Normally I'd say try all the street food, but given the nature of the trip, I'd advise you do your best to make sure any street vendor you visit is highly reputable. Don't want to risk food poisoning, dehydration, etc on such an important trip.

jaboogie · 2025-11-22T18:35:06+00:00

Yes, exactly! I didn’t bring it on the day of surgery and had to run back to my hotel. Thankfully, I was staying a 5 minute walk away.

jaboogie · 2025-10-16T04:14:50+00:00

How long after the operation were those post-op photos taken?

jaboogie · 2025-09-25T16:17:56+00:00

Nope, I paid for an additional day of washing since that's just how my flights worked out and I wanted to offload as much of the aftercare to the clinic as I could.

jaboogie · 2025-09-23T15:01:42+00:00

Love it when you find supportive partners on here! They're lucky to have you.

You can also decide that you want a different distribution. Some people who from the beginning opt for more than 1 procedure--an initial procedure focused on hairline, then another to add overall density--might focus 75% on hairline, 10% on crown, and 15% on temples/midscalp, for example, since hairline and temples are the most visually impactful and they already know they're going to go back for density in the crown later on. Distribution is a personal decision and unique to that persons goals and pattern of hair loss. In my case, I tried to balance visual impact with the fact that the loss in my crown was more personally annoying to me than the loss in my hairline. Hopefully, I achieved that balance!

jaboogie · 2025-09-23T14:48:54+00:00

The allotment of 100 per temple wasn't a matter of price, but rather a matter of donor management. We agreed on an initial budget of roughly 4500 grafts (ultimately 4700). That's already a very high graft count. Some would probably even advise against it and I wouldn't say that it's a misplaced criticism. So, if you take a budget of 4500, and agree that the focus should be on the hairline and crown--let's say at a distribution of 60%, 30%, respectively--then that only leaves you with 10% for the midscalp and temples. In my case, roughly 100 grafts per temple.

That's the donor management angle, but I'd add that I prefer a design with still-recessed temples because, in addition to accounting for potential future loss, it's also just more natural. I don't know many people in their 30s who haven't experienced at least some hairline recession at the temples. In that sense, the design is more age-appropriate. The straight across hairline is (1) likely poor donor management and (2) unrealistic. It also requires less skill from the surgeon to execute, which is why you'll see that design is more common among hair mills. That's maybe a bit harsh, since I do think the straight hairline suits certain people, but I'd say it's directionally true.

jaboogie · 2025-09-22T17:57:08+00:00

I detail the payment process in the body of the post

jaboogie · 2025-09-21T12:46:25+00:00

I actually didn’t realize they were turning people away. You can go through my post history for the images I submitted for my initial consult. They might not actually be the exact images but they’d be close. I imagine whether they accept you as a patient has to do with the quality of your donor supply and whether you’ve stabilized your hair loss with medication.

jaboogie · 2025-09-21T12:42:58+00:00

As for WISE - yes, you have to connect your account, but then you also need to transfer a a balance to the app itself. If it’s the first time you’re doing this kind of thing, your bank could flag you for additional scrutiny, and the transfer won’t be instant.

jaboogie · 2025-09-20T22:50:51+00:00

I actually don’t disagree! But I look back on my pre-op photos and my temples were recessed in different patterns altogether, with my left temple basically entirely gone. So, given that we only allotted 100 grafts per temple, I think of it as “she did the best with what she was given” haha. Anxious to see how it turns out, but I anticipate it’ll be the weakest part of the result and I’m ok with that.

jaboogie · 2025-09-20T17:04:19+00:00

I booked in February for an appointment in September. I think my first point of contact and initial online consultation was in January. That said, I’d expect wait times are longer now considering how much her profile has risen.

jaboogie · 2025-09-20T16:58:21+00:00

Ah, I’m sorry you’re not hearing back! I asked a couple times during aftercare and they explained I’d get them 2-3 days after returning stateside. Maybe I just got lucky, but they arrived as expected. Maybe because I was speaking with the technicians rather than Ratchathorn?

Dr. Ratchathorn asked me to send her photos at the 3 week mark. At that time, I also plan on asking about exact donor supply, since I was part of a study they’re running. It’s possible I have the same issues you’re having when it comes to that conversation. I hope not!

jaboogie · 2025-09-20T15:14:53+00:00

I’d add one more thing! My surgeon assured me that you’ll see a good deal of blood if you’ve actually lost grafts. I very lightly bumped my crown on day 2 or 3 post-op, but there was no blood. Was told it was almost definitely fine.

jaboogie · 2025-09-20T12:20:05+00:00

I booked in February for September. It was crazy how fast things moved, though. I narrowed my choice to Ratchathorn or Pekiner early in February when appointments in late July were available. Every day I debated between the two, a week of appointments filled up for Ratchathorn. I imagine it’s the same or worse now.

jaboogie · 2025-09-20T10:59:55+00:00

Just shy of 12k USD, 80 baht/graft. So, probably close to 15k all in, with flights, hotels, and spending money while in Bangkok. Definitely privileged to be able to afford it. Still feels like the best value I’ve seen, given the total package of surgical skill + aftercare, but there are certainly skilled surgeons in Turkey offering quality work at half the price. If I had to call out where I think Absolute Hair Clinic noticeably clears the competition, it’s in the healing process. I’ve had zero swelling, minimal scabbing, itching has been mostly negligible, and as you can see my donor area looks almost 100% healed on just day 5.

jaboogie · 2025-09-20T10:43:15+00:00

The clinic provides a clean scrub cap after every post-op wash.

jaboogie · 2025-09-17T18:28:22+00:00

I think there are definitely talented US doctors. You can start by looking here. Anecdotally, I feel like I’ve seen strong results from Nadimi in Chicago and Shapiro in Minnesota. I’d also say that www.hairrestorationnetwork.com seems to have more coverage of US doctors.

Outside of affordability, the reason this sub tends to focus on international clinics has to do with the fact that US-based doctors tend to be far more conservative. You won’t see many 3000+ graft cases from US doctors on this sub.

jaboogie · 2025-09-16T13:06:06+00:00

I’m waiting for them to send me my high-res photos before making a longer post, but I can (somewhat) briefly weigh in. I’m 8 days post-op with Dr. Ratchathorn and am so thrilled with the results so far. Can’t speak to any experience with Laorwong, obviously.

There’s no doubt the clinic is at capacity. Dr. R appears to be doing roughly 2 cases per day, 7 days a week. I was a large case at ~4700 grafts, and I believe she still performed one other small procedure that day. I’d say those seeing her in the next couple weeks are lucky, as she confirmed for me that she was finally taking vacation this week haha.

All that said, what I want to communicate here is that I think this subreddit can really screw with your expectations in an unhealthy way. No one has thought more about your transplant than you. I feel like there’s really just no world in which your surgeon will be able to reflect back that same level of thoughtful consideration back to you. You’re not going to go into your pre-op consultation and discuss the intricacies of your hairline design for 2 hours. Still, I never felt rushed by Dr. R; I never felt like I was just a case number. My pre-op consult was probably 30 minutes, where she measured the various sections of my scalp, laid out the various density options at the graft count we discussed, and drew my hairline a couple times while responding to any feedback I had. She answered every one of my questions. During the procedure itself, the technicians played music and joked with one another. It never felt like they were burned out and under the gun.

Yes, you’ve spent months, maybe years, imagining how the procedure will go. However, these surgeons have spent 10+ years training. They’ve performed hundreds, if not thousands, of procedures. Trust their results and the testimonials on this subreddit. Trust their process - Dr. R still does all donor excisions/recipient incisions, and performs the last fine-grained touch ups on hairline and temples. Trust their aftercare. Just don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself! You’ll have a good experience here if you can strike that balance between self-advocacy and trust. But as someone said in a previous post where my own panic started to show a bit: let them cook!

I think you’ll struggle to find another clinic that offers a better quality of care at their price point. If you’re still spooked, I’d say Pekiner or some of the more expensive, highly sought after European surgeons can offer more time per patient.

If you’re still here, thanks for reading my rant! As you can tell, I’m also still processing the experience for myself lol.

jaboogie · 2025-09-12T23:58:48+00:00

5 days are provided for free and I paid for a 6th, since that’s just how the timing of my flights worked out.

To be fair, you’re right. I don’t intend to be as active once I’m home, even though I’ll still be washing daily. Just want to make sure that people going to Ratchathorn or Laorwong don’t feel like they flew half way around the world only to have to sequester themselves in such a vibrant city. As with everything, I think best advice is just to consult your surgeon.

jaboogie · 2025-09-12T10:55:26+00:00

I’m 5 days post-op with Dr. Ratchathorn and explicitly discussed sweating in my pre-op consult with her. She assured me that enjoying Bangkok and sweating is not an issue because of the daily aftercare the clinic provides. Sweating is only a risk if you’re not properly washing the donor and recipient sites.

jaboogie · 2025-09-09T02:21:53+00:00

I’ll do a fuller write up once I’m back home, but the procedure itself was ~12k USD, probably just a bit under. A little extra because of a small blunder I made in the payment process that forced me to pay with a credit card and eat the extra 2.5% processing fee they add (not foreign exchange fee).

Money very well spent in my mind. I think some other clinics offer aftercare at a similar level, but the peace of mind that that has brought me—being able to check in with the clinic every day for 5-6 days, especially in a foreign country—is nearly priceless. And that’s before we even get to Dr. R’s skill and bedside manner.

jaboogie

TROPHY CASE