ThinJim

Hi tsav84, The operation has worked out well for me. The main objective was to be able to live a normal life again and to stop worrying about the hair. It was preventing me doing so much in life and I had suffered for so long that I felt I had to try and sort it out. I can say that this goal has been achieved. It will be 18 months in a few days so I will try and get some photos done so I can show everyone. I haven't got around to posting updates simply because I no longer come on this forum. I used to be on here all the time, spending hours and hours reading peoples posts but now there is no need. Hair loss is now not a problem and I have been enjoying life. Catching up on 10 years lost. The result is not perfect in that I do not feel all of the grafts grew in, but most of them did. Either that or maybe I received a small amount of shock-loss which never came back. This is what is to be expected though with any hair transplant; you will never achieve 100% yield despite what some will say. What you also have to realise is that the transplanted hair still falls out and the follicle goes into the dormant stage for several months. So some months are better than other as more of the transplanted hair may be in its resting phase than during other months. As for Dr Demirsoy I would thoroughly recommend him to anyone who is considering it. The whole trip from start to finish went seamlessly and the Dr, Clemens, Muzaffer and their team were all great. Dr Demirsoy in my view is a very competent, experienced and knowledgeable surgeon. When I think that i only paid 1 euro a graft (I think this has now increased slightly) and the doctor made all of the extractions and recipient site incisions himself I feel I got an incredible deal. When I see what in my view are poor results from other doctors who charge 5 and sometimes 10 times more per graft it only re-enforces this. I always hear people on here bashing clinics which have lower prices, just assuming because they are cheaper that they are therefore worse. In a lot of cases maybe this is true, but I did a hell of a lot of research before my procedure and for me this paid off. Travelling abroad should not deter people. I will try and get some photos up in the next few days. Cheers

I have had some requests for updates so these photos were taken on the 19th and 20th May. I had my procedure on the 11th February so I am now at the 14 week mark. There is some styling paste in my hair but no concealers. The first photo was taken at the one month stage. The shedding carried on until around week 6 so that photo was not the lowest point for me. You will notice there are still some transplanted hairs hanging in there and these pretty much all fell out over the next few weeks. Overall I am very pleased with how things are going. As you will see some redness is still present but with my light skin I was expecting this to be the case. It is gradually becoming less noticeable but I am not sure whether that's because new hair is camouflaging it or it is actually becoming lighter, probably a combination of both. Considering three months ago I had my head completely shaved though I think I have had quite a quick recovery. I have been taking all sorts of supplements to make it grow back as fast as possible including MSM, Biotin, B vitamin complex and Hair, skin and nails tablets. I am also still on Dutasteride and minoxidil which I have been on for around 8 years or so. I started noticing growth around 2-3 weeks ago and I am now seeing things improve almost daily. Nothing major yet but I feel very optimistic now that I am going to get the result I wanted. I think I made the right choice asking for a conservative hairline and I think it suits my age well, I am in my 30s. It is something I would strongly advise anyone considering doing this to really think about beforehand. In my opinion guys that opt for a straight, low and youthful hairline are making a mistake. Going for something more conservative means less grafts are required and you are going to have something natural looking when later on in life. If you are 60 years old and have a straight hairline its just not going to look right. Just another few points to add about my experience over the first 3 months. Let me start by saying that it has not been easy and the 3 months have really dragged by. Up until around 3 weeks ago I was having to wear a cap whenever I left the house. I have been dodging friends and social situations as much as possible, missing birthdays etc, because I was not able to make myself presentable. When you are getting invited to places each week it is hard to keep coming up with excuses. I ended up telling some of my closest friends because it was so obvious what I had done. I also currently work from home and I realise now that had I had a normal office job then I wonder if I could have gone through with it. Going to work everyday and facing colleagues looking like I was would have been incredibly hard. Lets face it, if we wasn't self concious about our hair then we wouldn't be having these procedures. With FUE you are always told you can go back to work after a few weeks and you can. But what you are not told is just how obvious it is going to be that you have had something done for the next few months. In my opinion if you do not work from home you're best bet is just to be honest about it. However do not let these points put you off doing something about your hair loss. Things are only just starting to happen for me and I am already feeling so much happier in life. My hair loss was not just effecting the way I looked, it was effecting almost every aspect of my life in ways most people could not imagine and I had suffered long enough.

I know you're only half the way there but I must say that I cannot see any real improvement. For the amount of grafts that you received you should be seeing a real considerable difference at this point. I know many will say that there is still plenty of time and there is, but I would not be happy with how things are going at this point. Dr Hakan was one of the doctors on my short-list as I had been very impressed with his showcase results. However lately I have seen many patients of his on this forum who seem to be getting poor results. I just hope that in getting accredited on this forum standards have not slipped from the increase in business. I really hope you end up getting the result that you want, hang in there and see how things are in a few months. I know that when I consulted with Dr Hakan that his assistant told me if the procedure was not a success then a free follow up would be provided.

Sorry, I got my organisations mixed up. Spencer actually runs the IAHRS so he has nothing to do with this. So for anybody who read my earlier post I would like to retract it entirely and have deleted it. I did check out the ISHRS website though and this doctor is indeed recommended on there. Their mission statement reads; 'The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery is the leading authority on hair loss treatment and restoration with more than 1,000 members throughout 60 countries worldwide. We are dedicated to promoting the highest standards of medical practice and medical ethics. The ISHRS also provides continuing education to hair transplant doctors specializing in hair restoration surgery and is committed to providing the latest information on medical and surgical treatments for hair loss to the general public' The mission of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery is to achieve excellence in patient outcomes by promoting member education, international collegiality, research, ethics, and public awareness. The vision is to establish the ISHRS as the leading unbiased authority in hair restoration surgery. Hmmmm.......I think maybe they need to see this thread

I'm shocked to be honest. I really cannot believe there are still places out there performing this kind of work. I really feel for you and hope you can find a way to fix this. This just goes to show how important it is to thoroughly do your research before jumping into things. Unfortunately once the damage has been done its a long way back. For the money you paid to have this done you could have travelled to Europe and had a top FUE procedure. Like others had said you do have options. Firstly I would try and get my money back from this joke of a doctor. From your photos it does not even look like 1500 grafts! Your best bet then is to present your situation to a reputable doctor on this forum and ask how best to proceed. I hope everything works out for you in the end, I really do.........but seeing this sort of thing really pisses me off!

I put a little montage together to demonstrate the healing phase over the first couple of weeks. I am still awaiting the shedding phase and will next update the thread when its complete. Cheers

Day 17, Still waiting for the shedding to kick in. The wounds that I was worried about are also now healing. Recipient area still red however its fading each day, hopefully within another month or so it will be gone

Imnothere, Looks good to me, very clean and refined! Glad you had a good experience as well. Keep us updated, I will be watching closely.

imnothere, Congratulations on your procedure, I would be very interested to see some pics. Yes I saw the result that you mentioned. Like you though I had seen pretty much all of the results that Muzaffer was showing me. In the end we just skipped that part as I mentioned I was on the forums and had followed Dr Demirsoy's work for some time. Just to note for anybody that is interested in seeing more results there is a German forum where there is a dedicated section for Dr Demirsoy (alopezie forum), Just stick google translate on. With the headband situation, all I know is that within 6 hours of taking it off I ended up not being able to recognise myself in the mirror. You are instructed to wear a headband for three days to keep the swelling to your head, just making sure that you remove it for 30 minutes or so a couple of times a day. I was under the impression that swelling moving to your face was avoidable with correct use of the headband. I didn't follow the instructions as directed so its my own fault. The swelling took three days to go in the end. As for the pain in my donor area I am not 100% sure what caused it. From research on the forums though I think it was nerve damage which seems to be fairly common. If you search on Google for 'pain in donor area 5 days post fue op' you will find many people who describe the same pain I was experiencing. Whether this caused the bruising in my neck I am not sure. Some people say the pain remained for many weeks after, some even months! As I sit here almost 2 weeks post op mine has all but gone.

Day 11 - Close up of Hair Line Things are progressing as expected, redness is going down each day although the wounds that have not healed do not look like they are going to be gone any time soon. My main wish for having a transplant was to have a conservative but dense hairline. I really would rather not have to go through this all again so I am hoping the density is going to be sufficient. I do have finer hair than most, but it is blonde which should work in my favour. Time will tell!

Also just to note that the area of inflammation/psoriasis that I had has cleared up really well. As I said I am not sure what caused this, it was a real shock to see how bad it was when I was shaved down for surgery. I have been applying aloe vera gel to the area and maybe the anti-biotics I was on for 5 days helped. Not sure what cured it but I am happy its gone!

DAY 8 - SCABS OFF All, Its day 8 and the scabs have all come off. I am happy with the density that I can see now the hairs are all revealed . I am slightly concerned about the areas which have not healed, these areas were apparent immediately post op. I have been in contact with Dr Demirsoy and he assures me it is nothing to worry about and they will heal in time. My family and girlfriend cant believe how well things have healed in just over a week. I am applying aloe vera gel now and have also just bought some distilled witch hazel as I have heard it helps to get rid of the redness. I am also taking MSM and Biotin supplements to try and get back to a pre-op state as soon as possible. Also the intense pain I have been experiencing in the donor area is much better. I am no longer having to take pain killers to get through it. It is still there but it is definitely 80% better. This was at its worst from day 5 to day 7. Overall I am really pleased with how things are going. I am really not looking forward to the shedding to come and will be donning a cap for the foreseeable future.

The only doctor on your list I have heard of is Doctor Maral. In my opinion the only doctors to consider if you are going to Turkey are Dr Hakan Dongonay, Dr Koray Erdogan and Dr Erkan Demirsoy (in no particular order). All three have shown some great results!

SlowMoe, Your in good hands, best of luck!

Procedure Report 11/02/2014 Dr Erkan Demirsoy. Istanbul, Turkey (2694 grafts) *All communications and arrangements were made with Clemens Weber who is Dr Demirsoy’s agent* I arrived in Istanbul on the afternoon of the 10th. A driver was waiting for me in the arrivals hall to take me to the Asia Princess hotel which is a 10 minute walk from the clinic. He was a friendly guy but spoke very minimal English. The trip took around 35 minutes with some traffic. He did drive like a lunatic but I quickly gathered this is somewhat of a necessity in Istanbul if you want to get anywhere. The cars do not even stop at pedestrian crossings so you almost feel like you are taking your life into your own hands just by crossing the street. The hotel is your standard 4 star business hotel, modern deccor etc. This seems to be the base for hair transplants in the area. At breakfast I saw one guy who had his done the day before and two other guys who were having theirs performed the same day as me with a different surgeon. The staff are used to seeing hair transplant patients so you certainly have no need to feel self-conscious walking around the hotel post op. Breakfast was included and had a decent selection of hot and cold food. Me and my partner also ordered room service on three separate occasions and the food was very nice, a burger and chips will set you back 20 Turkish lira (roughly 8 dollars). My main complaint about the hotel was how unbelievably thin the walls were. We were able to hear the people in the rooms next to us so clear it was like there was no wall there at all. Not great having to listen to a couple go at it for about an hour at 2am when you’ve just had 2500 holes put in your head and you’re trying to get some sleep! Anyway the day of the procedure Muzaffer (really good guy) who is the doctor’s assistant met me at 8am to take me to the hospital. On arrival I was welcomed by Clemens (also a great guy) and Dr Demirsoy. I was given some disclaimer papers to sign and then had my consultation. The consultation was thorough and we discussed everything from hair loss history, medications and what I wanted to achieve amongst other things. I told the doctor that I wanted a conservative hairline, something that would look age appropriate later in life. The doctor did point out that he felt I had very dry skin and was also concerned about an area of inflammation above my left ear where he decided not to take any grafts (see photo below). I did know this was there as it had only just came up 4 weeks prior, however I did not realise how bad it was until my head was shaved. I will definitely be seeing a doctor about this when I am back to normal. Not sure where this has come from though as I have never had anything like this before. The doctor then drew on what he felt was the best hair line for me to which I agreed. Dr Demirsoy came across as a true professional and I could see at this stage why other people had reported such positive experiences. Some photos were taken with the doctors ridiculously high powered camera and I was then taken into the surgery room and had my head shaved. I never realised just how bad my hair loss was until I met the doctors camera combined with the fluorescent lighting in his office.......ouch! The first stage was extracting the grafts with the micro-motor. I believe the doctor does extract with a manual punch if requested but all of the results I have seen from him used the motor and I was confident that he was able to achieve very good results with it. Plus for a manual punch the price was double. Your head is numbed with many anaesthetic injections. For someone who hates needles I didn’t find them too bad, about 5/10 in terms of pain. Some hurt more than others but they kick in fairly quickly. Once you are fully numb you really don’t feel any pain or discomfort at all. It is a funny feeling when the holes are being punched though. Dr Demirsoy extracted all of the grafts himself, no techs like some other clinics I have read about. This part lasted from 10am until 1:30ish when we stopped for lunch. The worst thing by far about this part was lying on my side in the same position for such a long time. The sides of my legs were really hurting me for much of it. I’m sure I could have asked to get up and stretch my legs but I did not want to interrupt the doctor (my own fault really). You are able to use the free wifi during the whole procedure so take your phone or a tablet for some entertainment. We then had lunch which was provided by the clinic. I had a choice of meatballs and rice or a burger and chips. I chose the meatballs and they were really tasty. I had my girlfriend with me and the clinic also provided lunch for her which was much appreciated (something they did not have to do). So after lunch the front of my head was numbed with more anaesthetic and the doctor began making the recipient sites. These injections did hurt slightly more but still not too bad, you can definitely tell when they hit a nerve though! There was a few times during this part where the doctor found a spot that was not completely numb and it did hurt quite a bit. As soon as you say ‘pain’ though more anaesthetic is given. Again it’s a funny feeling when the sites are being made, almost like a crunching, tearing sensation. This took about an hour and a half or so. The doctor did say that because I have light hair it made it more difficult for him to differentiate where I still had existing hair when making the sites. Ordinarily it would have been preferable to die my hair darker but he said that because I had such dry skin it wouldn’t have been a good idea. The final stage was obviously implanting the grafts. This for me was the worst part of the day. The main reason being is that much of the anaesthetic kept wearing off and I needed around another 4 rounds of injections. The doctor ended up giving me a pain killer because it seemed like every 20 minutes I was asking for more injections. Pain and discomfort got up to around 7/10 for me at this point. Two technicians placed the grafts and it took around 2 1/2 to 3 hours to complete. The procedure was finished at around 6:30. I was cleaned up, the doctor took some post op photos and then Muzaffer dropped me back at the hotel. I felt fine after the operation when back in the room. Other than some tightness and a swollen feeling in the head there was really no discomfort at all. I was expecting to be in a lot more pain than I was. I slept fine other than the people next door keeping me awake for an hour. My pillow the next morning was a bit worse for wear (see photo below!) This was a mixture of blood and antiseptic lotion Muzaffer again picked me up the following afternoon to take me back to the hospital for my first wash and follow up check. I was talked through post op instructions and given a 5 day course of anti-biotics, some pain killers, bepanthol lotion and some shampoo. I also took a list of questions I had prepared which the doctor answered. We said our goodbyes and I was dropped back at the hotel. My flight home was not until the following afternoon. I wrote earlier in this thread about my experience at the airport on the way home. To be honest I think I just got unlucky with the girl who sniggered at me. I also think it was more my paranoia kicking in than the bad experience I described. That said I think it is something that people should be aware of as I was fine walking around Istanbul with my transplant on display for all to see, but when I hit the airport it all seemed to change! I became quite self-conscious about it and I guess I didn’t like the fact that I was specifically being asked to remove my hat in front of so many people standing there in a line all looking at me. I also didn’t see why there was a need to make me remove it three times when I had pointed out that I had just had surgery, it felt like they was doing it just to annoy me. Once I was through security though I was fine. Overall I am very happy that I chose to have my transplant performed by Dr Demirsoy. For 1 euro a graft I don’t think you will find many clinics in the world that come anywhere close to giving such value for money. I think Dr Demirsoy proves you do not have to blow your life savings to get a top quality FUE procedure. The whole trip went seamlessly from start to finish. Dr Demirsoy, Clemens, Muzaffer and the techs were all great. When I look in the mirror I really like what I see. I am even getting used to being a skin head now, I dont think it looks that bad! Obviously the result remains to be seen so I will reserve final judgement for now but as I sit here I am very optimistic that in 6 month I will be a happy man. The only improvement suggestion I would have for the clinic if I am being picky is to begin keeping count of how many 1s,2s, and 3 units grafts which are extracted. It is something that as a patient I would have liked to have known. I was told I averaged 2 units per grafts but was not given an exact count of each. Couple of pointers for anyone having a procedure would be to • Make sure you take a headband with you to prevent swelling. Make sure you wear it for at least 3 days post op. I did take one but stopped wearing it once I got home; big mistake! • If you think you are going to be self-conscious about how you look post op then be mentally prepared for the airport experience. I thought I was until I got there! • Take a tablet/phone with you on the day for some entertainment • If possible take someone with you on the trip. I was very glad I had my girlfriend with me to help me out post op. Any questions/comments welcome Cheers all :cool: Cost of procedure 2694 grafts – 2694 euros Hotel and transfers for 3 nights – 410 euros Flights – 125 euros Various expenses whilst in Istanbul (mostly food) – 100 euros Total – 3329 euros