barry80

For a start im 30 years old and from Ireland . I have been losing my hair since my late teens and it was weighing heavily on my mind. Like a lot of people it slowly destroyed my self-esteem and i took to wearing hats more and more frequently til the point came where i was depending on some form of coverage all the time and freaking out if i could'nt find it. Also slowly but surely what remaining hair i had became a comb over. Other friends just shaved their heads upon impending baldness and it did'nt seem to bother them, but i couldn’t change the way i felt about it. It got to a point where in my dreams id be freaking out if i did'nt have a hat on my head. Im not self-obsessive or anything i just did'nt like what i saw when id look at myself in the mirror, and found it depressing to be bald at what i saw as a young age. At the age of 27 I decided to get a hair transplant(FUT) in ireland and saved 6000 euros which got me a paltry 600 grafts. I should have researched abroad but was intimidated and ill-informed on procedures overseas and harboured suspicions about being in a foreign country. I was 'nt impressed with the results, taking the cost into account and the shockingly bad aftercare. ( My head swelled into a balloon and i was given no bandage of any kind and no proper painkillers, Ibuprofen does not cut it, and the first few days after the op, getting to sleep was impossible from the pain. And in all honesty there was just nowhere near enough grafts. And the price was prohibitive. Im not going to mention where it was done and which doctor but ill reaffirm i was not to happy with it all. High cost, zero after procedural care, and an arrogant attitude to boot as well. I knew that i needed to get another HT for proper coverage. I looked extensively online and opened myself up to the idea of travelling abroad. I researched different places and prices and kept coming across Transmed in Turkey. i eventually narrowed my choices down to 2 but kept putting off going ahead and getting the op done. That was until November where a bloke from the UK put up his experience with transmed and wrote a thorough review which was incredibly informative. i then put my finances together and emailed pics to them where i was told the next day id need in the region of 3000 grafts at a total cost of 4800euro. the difference in price and amount was incredible compared with my first op ireland - 600 grafts - 6000 euro Transmed - 3000 grafts - 4680 euro I booked in for the start of February and as the date approached i was a bit nervous as there is a certain level of uneasiness when your in surroundings your not familiar with. My mother was quite fearaful about it based on horror stories of botched jobs in foreign countries. In the end she and I had nothing to worry about. It was a breeze and thats not an exaggeration. I flew from dublin direct to istanbul with turkish airlines on the thursday afternoon and was picked up from the airport by a driver who drove me anywhere I needed to be. the bloke has next to no english but his cheerful disposition made up for it. (This same driver does all the driving of transmed patients so he is very helpful post op). he bought me to the hotel i was staying in (Park Royal Hotel - Decent prices, fridge in the room for the icepack and room service for food and a satellite tv and wifi) Next day the driver took me to Transmed and i was taken aback at the professionalism in the place. it was spotless in there not a speck of dirt it was like a clean room. All the staff were extremely courteous and had perfect english. The marketing manager Ayla (Who has perfectly fluent english) sat beside me and kept me company before the op. She is really cool and it took the edge off just chatting about random stuff. All i all a really nice person I was introduced to the doctor (Once again fluent english) who was as cool as a breeze. He told me how many grafts he expected to get from my donor area. In no time at all after pics were taken i was given a valium to relax and off i went for the op The operation was a breeze. I was given an ipad to arse about online with and tv channells. Just note here that when getting anaesthetic injections in ireland for the 1st op, it was quite painful but over in turkey it did'nt hurt at all. Post op was brilliant compared to the first time; I was given proper medicinal painkillers and anti infalms and sleeping tabs. Neither of which i got in ireland, and also a headband was put on to prevent inflammation, again did not receive that from irish operation, and my head swelled up badly that time. Before i knew it i was back in the hotel with a hat they gave me on my head . I ordered some food to my room and put the gelpacks i was given into the fridge. I had to stay an extra day because of flight times but i did'nt mind. Next day transmed washed my hair and i was given post op instructions to follow. Then off i went to the airport with the driver who was assigned to me the whole time. I was only stopped at one checkpoint and when i took my hat off a slight bit i was waved on. Slight bit off swelling when the plane touched down but that was gone in a day. I cant begin to tell you all how professional transmed were especially when compared to my local HT doctor. I equate it to staying at a travelodge or the belagio both at the same price. All the staff were really nice caring people, if you’re thinking about a HT abroad just do it. Dont be put off be pre conceived notions like i was. It was so easy the whole thing. I was only gone for 3 nights and it felt like i was never gone. Just ensure you research properly If anyone out there has any question id be happy to answer. If it were not for a guy posting his experience i might never have gone. And the simplicity of the whole thing amazed me. If your from ireland and the UK, forget about staying at home and go abroad. TRANSMED were outstanding. And by the way i never write stuff up on the net, but it struck me that there is people out there just like myself who just need that extra push, that little extra bit of information So 2 months on and I’m writing this with newfound optimism. I was told i could lose a lot of the transplanted hairs in the first 2 months after op but that they would regrow over the next 6 months to a year. Not so in my case i seem to have lost feck all of those hairs and the hair is growing mad. Ill post pics next week And as i said if anyone has a question id be happy to answer it, and once again i take my hat off to TRANSMED (No pun intended) Baz