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salemsalem78

Regular Member
  • Posts

    24
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Basic Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Country
    United Arab Emirates
  • State
    AL

Hair Loss Overview

  • Describe Your Hair Loss Pattern
    Thinning Hair Loss All over the Scalp
  • How long have you been losing your hair?
    In the last 5 years
  • What Best Describes Your Goals?
    Considering Surgical Hair Restoration

Hair Loss Treatments

  • Have you ever had a hair transplant?
    Yes
  • Other hair restoration physicians
    Transmed
  • Current Non-Surgical Treatment Regime
    Propecia (Finasteride)
    Generic Minoxidil 5% for Men

salemsalem78's Achievements

Real Hair Club Member

Real Hair Club Member (2/8)

10

Reputation

  1. Quark, Hope your transplant has gone well, and wish you the best in future transplants. I had some experience with Transmed, and basically what sometimes happens is the rep who is in charge of responding to e-mails gets overwhelmed or something, and some e-mails slip through the cracks. This was what happened with me when I was trying to get in touch with them. Finally the good folks on this forum helped me get in touch with them. So basically it's not them ignoring you, the rep is just screwing up. I believe a couple of the moderators here can help you get in touch with them if you need to. Or you can try digging up another e-mail address from their website. Regards, Salem.
  2. Hey guys, I just came back from Turkey a few days ago. I'll dive right into my trip: Overall it was a pleasant trip. Transmed were quite friendly. I had a long discussion with Mr. Taner on the lapse in communication that had taken place. Basically they owned up to it. They explained how they're changing the way they communicate with patients (not because of me, just restucturing), that would eliminate situations similar to what happened with me. Dr. Kulahci and another surgeon (a young guy, can't remember his name), examined my scalp. We did have a slightly different view of the outcome of the surgery. We didn't go into detail, as to counting percentage yield. STILL, they offered a 1000 graft surgery "on the house". They kept a slot open for me in case I decided I wanted to. I explained I had just started propecia, and would prefer to wait for a while before doing another surgery. It is unfortunate that there was that disconnect in communication. A clinic rep who is overwhelmed with juggling patients could give a bad impression. (I did have a short chat with the rep who dropped the ball. It was a little awkward at first! ). As for the success of the transplant, it is difficult to judge. I am not sure how much hair I have lost, how much of the transplanted grafts grew... Regardless of the outcome, I'm glad that Transmed care about their patients' satisfaction. SO, for now, I will wait a few months to see the effects of propecia and rogaine, and probably do another transplant. This forum is wonderful. Thanks to all of you guys. Salem.
  3. Hey there thanks for sharing your experience online. In my personal opinion judging from your before pictures you posted I would have never noticed any hair loss and would have not recommended surgery. I think transmed mislead you into believing you needed surgery to restore your hair and the outcome one year later looks thinner than your before pics. I would consider contacting them and explain your case. Its unfortunate they took complete advantage of you to benefit themselves. They should be held accountable for their actions. Its places like this that give the hair industry a bad name.

  4. Largechris, Actually, I totally agree with you. This I realized afterwards of course! But here's the thing, you cannot start taking meds right after a transplant, else how would you know the results are due to what? The meds or the transplant? But here's one more thing, how much hair does one lose in a year? Is it actually enough to completely render a transplant useless? I seriously doubt that. Anyway, I do think you're right. Anybody who's interested in a transplant should take finasteride/minoxidil for a year, make sure everything's stable, and then go for it if still needed. That's what I'm actually doing now. I just started propecia, and minoxidil 5% today! Salem.
  5. So far my phone calls with Taner are quite good. I will say this about Mr.Taner personally, that he is a very pleasant person to talk to and discuss issues with. He is very supportive. Now I changed my mind and decided to go for two reasons, first I believe since this forum has been my biggest resource of information, I think I'd benefit everybody here by going through with the consultation and seeing how things go. Second, was my talks with Mr. Taner, I've read in a few places how Bill describes Taner, and so far I've experienced this myself, that he is really supportive. Anyway, it is never a bad thing to spend a few days in Istanbul. It's a nice city, and the food is great. So regardless of the outcome of the consultation, I'll still manage to have a good time there. A question to the readers of this forum, let's say I agree with Transmed on a second surgery, who would be the best surgeon to do it? Should I just stick to Dr. Kulahci, since she is the only one recommended on this forum? Are there others on the Transmed team? Thanks to everybody who has chipped in to this thread. Salem.
  6. Hey guys, Quite a bit happened in the few hours since I last posted my last reply. I'll save everybody the drama. The short version of it is that I contacted Transmed and wrapped it up with them. Mr. Taner called a couple of times afterwards and he wanted to hear the full story from me. I basically explained to him everything I had written on this thread, and he read the thread himself. We discussed things for about an hour! I am not considering any surgery, but I will go to Turkey and visit Transmed. The reason I'm posting this now is I don't want anybody to pass any judgments. I'll post again after one week, after I get back. I do have a lot about this topic to write about, but I'll hold off until I come back. Salem.
  7. I always try to organize my thoughts and segregate them, ill do so here:, 1. I have said this before, as an HT clinic Transmed is a superb one. All threads on this forum speak of a great experience. No clinic gets 100% results, it happens, it is nobody's fault. I do not point any finger at Transmed for the yield. I hope this is clear enough. 2. Any medical patient cares about post-care support as much as the actual care itself. Expecting support does not mean a patient is pointing fingers. Support by itself does not mean an admission of guilt by the clinic. On the contrary, a clinic that takes initiative in supporting their patient is the best way a clinic can fortify its name.. A brief summary of my support experiences so far: not answering emails for weeks at a time. After finally answering (thanks to the moderators of this forum) support is kept to a minimum, depending on my knowledge. No offer of chipping in with hotel or air ticket. Hints of 70% yield. No information given as to who would do any surgery. No mention of word surgery even, sticking to the word "retouch". If I am mistaken in being disappointed by this, please feel free to correct me. If i feel that I will get no support from Transmed, why should I even try to go there? Anything I get here (such as monetary refund) is going to be based solely on how much I argue for it. It is obvious to me that Transmed will not take an initiative to support me. That is why i made the decision to just drop it. I do not know what advice to offer visitors of this site. On one hand, I had an absolute great experience with Transmed during the transplant, maybe one should be clear with the on what kind of support to expect from them after surgery. Again, thanks to everybody... Salem.
  8. Hey guys Last year when I was at Transmed, during the consultation, Dr. Ozge Ergun (I found out his name! ) said I needed around 2500 grafts to for proper coverage. He was quite a nice doctor by the way, we talked for a while, I showed off with the 10 words of Turkish that I know! Today I just feel that my hair loss has just progressed normally, with no sign of the transplanted hairs! The results of the transplant itself are not that relevant, but I say that to stress a point. Every single thread on this forum about a Transmed experience is stellar. Wonderful staff/doctors, pleasant transplant, etc... Honestly, Transmed do not seem to have a protocol as to how to deal with patients with transplants did not have a high yield. I say this because in comparison, when I had questions after the surgery, my e-mails were responded to quickly and efficiently. So why the erratic correspondance now? I had a couple of phone calls with Mr. Taner, one of their managers. I already posted that they asked me to come in for a consultation, and I had booked my flight and hotel. After we talked a couple of times more, a couple of bells started ringing. Transmed only used the word "retouch" in all our phone calls. We all have limited donor site, we cannot afford to waste them on retouches when the transplants results themselves were not optimal. Also, I asked who the doctors would be, the response was Dr. Kulahci would do the consultation, but "we will discuss who the surgeon will be to perform the retouch". I could not get an answer to that. After scouring this forum, I realized that previously, Transmed had graciously paid for hotel and air travel. In my case, they didn't. Why am I different? Is it because I didn't know that they could (or maybe should?) pay for at least part of my travel/hotel expenses? One last thing, during our phone calls, a couple of times they brought up the number 70% yield. This does not require a rocket scientist to understand this will probably be the number they tell me after my consultation. So to wrap this up, I do not have the stomach or time to go through with this. I apologize but I have lost faith in Transmed. I prefer to take my grafts and money somewhere else and start fresh with another clinic. I do want to add though, this site is amazing. The moderators and members have been of great help and support. Thank you guys. I also learned that when I do a second transplant, I will maintain a regular blog with pictures. Thanks, Salem.
  9. Bill, I posted pictures that I sent transmed for evaluation. These pictures were taken a week before surgery. I have posted a total of 5 pictures, two before surgery, one just after surgery, and two taken today, 11 months after surgery. Salem.
  10. Bill, I just uploaded three sets of pictures, the first is the set I sent Transmed for their initial evaluation. The second is one picture right after surgery, this is just to give folks here on this forum a chance to see where work has been done. The last two pictures I just took 20 minutes ago! Again, I do want to stress, the sole reason I came to this forum was not to discuss results. When one does a transplant, you stare at your scalp every day in the mirror, especially if it is your first, waiting to see those new hairs come out. You guys can see from the pictures that results are not great, but that's besides the point. I say "that's besides the point" because I was quite happy with the way I was treated at Transmed last year. Now I read a few threads here about how they were treated the second time round when they visited Transmed, and that's making me feel a little apprehensive. I would really appreciate it if viewers here can give me their opinion on the results of the transplant. Again, I posted a few pictures in my profile. Thanks again to the moderators of this forum, I have my checkup scheduled for Monday morning. Salem.
  11. salemsalem78

    11 months later

  12. salemsalem78

    Right after surgery

    This is a photo I took at the hotel, after surgery
  13. salemsalem78

    Before surgery

    These are the photos I sent Transmed for the consultation
  14. First of all, again I'd like to thank all of you here for your support. I think I had confused Bill, so I'll clarify a couple of things: I had both verified my identity to Transmed and sent them recent photos. The irratic communication started after all that, and that was what made it the more confusing. Honestly, I was not aware that you guys here know the contact details of clinics, else I'd have put in more personal information, and would've made sure to post photos. It takes years for a clinic to build a solid reputation, and they don't do that with lousy work or customer (patient) care. My choice of Transmed was of course based on the recommendations of this site. Of course, Transmed lived up to their standards during the transplant last year, I hope I had made that clear in my previous posts. This website has a reputation to maintain, and even if a patient is not satisfied, this is not the place to just come in here and tear a clinic a new one just because we're unhappy. Again, this website's integrity took time to build. Clinics have to understand that even though it is a patient's decision to scrap up some money for a transplant, the one thing that would really kill a patient's morale is feeling they were bamboozled. This is no different than when you buy a car and you feel the sales man doesn't care anymore. I am not saying this is the care with Transmed, but given that after the identity confirmation and sending them the photos, I started receiving e-mails with minimal info once every two weeks. This was my first transplant, and so you have to understand how hurt that would make me feel. Again, it is NOT the outcome of the transplant I was complaining about, I am well aware that sometimes stuff just doesn't work out! I was just confused as to the rep's lack of concern. So, just not knowing what to do or how to take this, I came to this website to explain by delimma. Again, Bill, apologies if I had confused you by jumping around with the info. NOW, thanks to the moderators of this site, I did receive a call from Mr. Taner from Transmed. I will take a few days off, unpaid leave! , from my college, and travel to Turkey this coming Monday. I was not waiting for Transmed to give me definite promises to begin with, I just wanted information as to how they handle patients such as myself. Mr. Taner did that by phone and then through e-mail. Mr. Taner said they would check the yield and based on that we have a few options. I will write a final update after my visit to Transmed. Bill, in all honesty I blame Transmed rep for this miscommunication. In a professional environment it is really unacceptable to take weeks at a time to respond to simple questions from patients. Again, thanks to everybody for your support. I'll write another update once I come back from my trip next week. Regards, Salem. P.S. It is telling me I am receiving messages, but for the life of me I cannot open them. I can't even join groups or do anything. So if anybody has sent me a message, I apologize, I am not ignoring anybody!
  15. Hey guys, I just became and active member a few days ago, and I realized I am unable to send users any messages, and I can't even access my own messages! Actually, apart from writing writing threads, I am pretty much unable to do anything!! I tried both Chrome and Internet Explorer, and I just can't figure out what's going on.. Just an example, it tells me I have a message, if I click on it, it takes me back to the home page. Help? Thanks, Salem.
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