April 14, 2018

1st Day:

Single: 400

Double:1066

Triple: 690

2nd Day:

Single: 290

Double: 575

Triple: 375

Beard: 1000

Total Graphs: 4316

Finasteride: 6 months prior to surgery 5mg

Hey there - So I arrived in Turkey from Miami and I'm 4 days post-op with Dr. Hakan Doganay. I would like everyone reading to know this was the best decision I ever made by choosing this Doctor and this location. I got the added benefit of meeting up with my friend in Turkey as we decided to do this together so it made for an easier decision to go.

From discussing the logistics with Mustafa (based in the US) to booking and arriving its been a pretty quick 3 months of anticipation and the payoff is beyond what I expected. As a side note, my buddy also got the procedure done a couple of days after me and arrived a couple of days after me as well. I arrived in Antalya, was picked up by Tolga who was our driver for the remainder of the trip, super nice and friendly guy. Doesn't speak a lot of English, but we managed to communicate just fine. He dropped me off at the Holiday Inn which is about 20 minutes from the airport and advised he would pick me up in the morning. This happens to be an extremely nice Holiday Inn, modern updated rooms, spa, gym etc. and the food which is included is fantastic. In the meantime, as I landed I received a text message from Didem (Didi) who was the consultant through that entire stay. She speaks fluent English and was as sweet as can be and she confirmed the next morning what time to be ready for pick-up from the hotel.

The following morning I was picked up at 9:30am and headed over for my procedure, the office is located 5 minutes from the Holiday Inn. I was greeted by Didi and we started the consultation. We discussed everything from the pre-op to post-up. As we were going through the final details the surgeon, Dr. Hakan Doganay, walked into the room to introduce himself. He is super friendly, soft spoken, and immediately put me at ease. Kind of like a big teddy bear. I was extremely nervous having had only 3 hours of sleep the night before. He pretty much understood everything, but didn't speak a lot of English so Didi does all the translating. He drew out the hairline which I loved using a tool that has a laser on it, and we proceeded to discuss my expectations of the surgery. He told me my donor area was normal, not good and not bad. Also, he took a look at my beard area and we agreed to try to take out 800-1000 graphs. So, all in all we agreed on 4000+ graphs and he said if we can extract more from the back of the head then Ahmed (the extraction assistant) would do so. This would be a 2 day procedure which I already was informed of prior to arriving. I was expecting 4500-5000 graphs, but was not going to argue from someone who has decades of experience. He also didn't want to pull out too many graphs because he didn't want me to recede and scar to a point that I can't wear my hair short. So, I agreed and we got started.

We took some pictures which I will post when I receive them from the clinic and they started to shave my head and beard area. They cleaned the area after by shampooing and took another set of pictures. Then I met Ahmed, the extractor, and the entire group of assistants (there were a total of 4-5 people in the room during both extraction and implantation). Ahmed is a very cool guy and always laughing. The nurses couldn't be more professional and very inviting. I can't begin to tell you how that put me in a calm state of mind, finally. Didi and Dr. Hakan spoke to Ahmed and set up the game plan. They took me into the room and started my life changing procedure. Ahmed gave me a series of anesthesia which hurt a bit but lasted 3 minutes tops. He was able to extract 2116 graphs from the left side of my head to the middle. We then took a break for lunch and went back into the room for the implantation with Dr. Doganay. The doctor did all of the implantation personally. I was extremely happy because the experience from a Dr. that's been doing this for decades is priceless! Its an art... if you put the graphs in the wrong direction or implant them wrong you're officially not going to get the results you're expecting. That's another reason why I decided not to go with Dr. Koray Erdogan.

After speaking to Dr. Koray Erdogan's assistant Sema, very poor response time btw, I was turned off to them. Plus, she was extremely rude and short tempered on the phone. I later found out Dr. Erdogan has his technicians do the entire surgery from A to Z and just comes in to check up on them periodically. He apparently has several clients in different rooms in one shot all in a days work and thats great for him but I prefer the personalized experience. Don't get me wrong, I've seen a ton of great results on YouTube from Erdogans office, but wasn't going to take any chances for a poor result. More importantly when speaking with Erdogans office, my friend was told he needed 5,500 grafts which we both thought was excessive since he's only mildly receding. Doctor Doganay on the other hand told my friend he could achieve the results he wanted with only 2,200 grafts and he did achieve the results? Go figure. My point is of course you're going to get more density if you implant more hair but its unnecessary.

Dr. Hakan started with the incisions and completed the insertions in 3 1/2 hours with a half hour break. 6 hours total for the first day. They patched me up and drove me back to the hotel. That evening I felt a little discomfort but hardly any pain at all. The whole procedure was pain free except for the few minutes of injections. My friend and I both had some swelling and he had some discomfort which was resolved with the pain medication given.

2nd day:

Got picked up the same time and headed over to the clinic. Today was a bit of a bigger procedure because I was getting the beard graphs taken out. I was a bit nervous because I wasn't looking forward to getting injections on my chin area. We proceeded as day one with the other half of the back of the head which Ahmed extracted 1200 graphs and 1000 graphs from my beard area. The injections hurt a bit more because my head was a bit sore from the previous day and a bit more sensitive. I'm not going to lie, the beard injections had me cringing, but then again it only lasted 2 minutes. I'm a baby when it comes to needles and the pain factor might be a bit different for other patients. We took a 30 min lunch break and Dr. Hakan came in to finish up which lasted roughly 3 1/2 hours. This part of the surgery was a total of 6 hours. They bandaged me up and sent me home. As I got dropped off my friend arrived and was freaking out of how I looked -he loved it. He was so excited and couldn't wait for his procedure the following day.

3rd day:

We got picked up and headed on over to the clinic. My friend got his consoltation and his procedure was on its way. While he was in the room getting worked on I went with Dedim (Didi) and she started taking off the bandages and the first wash.

Overall - If you can rank the AHD Clinik 1 out of 10 - I would give it a 12, hands down.

Didi was one of the sweetest and charming women I have ever met. She took such good care of my friend and I from the second we met her to the last minute we said our good-byes. The nurses and Ahmed were super sweet and absolutely professional. Dr. Hakan was in such great spirit throughout the days and to see a Doctor enjoy his job this much is priceless.

I just want to say that if anyone is thinking about this procedure like I have been for the past 15 years - DON'T EVEN HESITATE. Granted I haven't seen the results being 4 days after surgery, but the first part of my mission was successful. Think about it, You can have your hair back in 6 hours with little to no scarring, this was undoable only 5 years ago for a proper FUE. It's not like the FUT procedure where whey leave a scar on your head from ear to ear. It was a no brainier for me and my friend!

FYI - I wasn't paid to write this or asked in any which way!!! Just speaking from my heart because I know there are so many people out there that are considering this procedure and have their dilemmas. Without all the testimonials I read for the past 8 months I would have never even considered it and now I'm sitting here writing this. I hope this clarifies some questions people have and remember you DON'T have to live with hair loss like I've been since 23.....

I'll post some pictures once I receive them from the clinic and download some from my phone...

Hi, thanks for sharing your experience! Do you have any more pics on your progress so far?

I'm literally deciding between Dr Doganay and Dr Erdogan right now. I'm interested in understanding why you chose Doganay over Erdogan. You mention that Erdogan quoted more grafts, is that the only reason why? 

Also, how does the beard transplant work, did they only use that because your head donor hair was weaker than expected? Did they use the beard hair for your crown only (I believe beard hair is not great for hairlines?). I'm a bit worried that using beard hair will leave my beard permanently patchy in the future... but I've been advised my head donor area isn't great so likely I will need to rely on my beard hair...