Hey everyone! This is my first thread but I've been lurking this forum for years and this is my chance to thank all of you guys for the great amount of informations I've found in this wonderful forum.
I'm here to share my experience with Dr. Maral and my FUE transplant happened today in Istanbul with the hope to help those of you that are still not sure about his clinic/work or FUE transplant.
Long story short, I'm a 24yo Northern Italian guy who started developing male pattern baldness at the age of 19. Genetics family wise are NW 4-5 for males and NW 1-2 for females (some exceptions).
Here's some of my photos pre operation:
Front view
Right side
Left side
Back/donor
Upper zone
If it might help, here's also my father's baldness
I discovered about FUE thanks to this forum and you guys. At first I was heading towards Dr. Erdogan in Turkey, but I did not have a good impression from him e-mail wise so I kept looking. When I found out about Dr. Maral, we had some consultation via e-mail and I had a feeling I found someone competent, knowledgable and patient (I can be very anxious about my hair and I tend to ask a lot of questions).
Booked FUE with him for end of January, which happened today (had couple of days of delay due to university classes).
The clinic is nice and clean, in a busy business district in Istanbul. We were provided with full transports from and to our hotel/airport, which was very nice.
Dr. Maral appreciated my donor area explaining how, even if my back hair are very healthy and thick, it would be wise to keep a slightly high hairline eventually for future follow up operations, avoiding to use all the donor area. He said my hairloss covers only the front side (with a bit of central thinning), which is not bad compared to way higher NW levels, and I have the possibility to achieve a great result.
After a quick undressing (we were given surgical gowns) and a quick shave, I was asked to lay down on my front to proceed with the graft extraction. An assistent (a woman) was "piercing" my scalp with the motor and the other assitent (a man) was picking out the grafts and putting them first on a gauze and then in a petri dish. This process started around 10 am and it was done at 1:30 pm when I got asked what I wanted for lunch.
After a quick lunch with doner, I was asked to lay on my back so the same assistent could proceed to start piercing the holes on the front area. This was a very quick process. Seriously, I don't think it took more than 1 hour. Meanwhile, a LCD TV screen in front of me was playing some nice National Geographic documentaries, allowing time to fly faster.
After the piercing, the graft implantation begun, which honestly was the most boring part. It lasted from 2:30pm to 5:40pm.
I'm currently at the hotel (provided by the clinic) and I'm honestly a bit in pain, however the medical staff gave me 3 boxes of drugs to take for 3-4 days: paracetamol/acetaminophen (paninkiller), metilprednisolone (anti inflamation) and doxycycline (strong antibiotic). I'm dreading the night, to be honest. But oh well, the worst part is gone I guess.
Even if I do not have a donor pic yet, I'm going to share the front area. Consider that its very fresh (less than 6 hours) and that my hotel room is quite dark (only two lights? what the hell!)
I have such a huge instinct to scratch my head right now but its strictly forbidden to avoid making the grafts fall.
So yeah, here's my story if it can be useful to anyone. If you have any question feel free to ask, consider I'm all by myself and pretty bored at the moment so I'll reply quickly!