FM1

Hey mate. I have the exact same issue as you - very fine hair all over my head and also looking at Dr Lorenzo as an option. The only thing is that I can't seem to find any pricing information on his site and I recall having read that the procedure can be a bit pricey.

Are you able to say how much the procedure cost you?

Had to stop taking propecia due to severe sides some of which are still lingering even though I stopped two years ago. It's definitely not an option for me.

Thanks for your feedback doc. I have decided to go for it as I don't have any other options available to me (can't get a transplant done as I have severe thinning of the sides and back). Are you able to tell me if I should bundle a diuretic with this to balance out the water and salt retention?

Thanks.

There was a thread on oral minox back in 2011. Just wondering if there have been any updated reports of usage, side affects, etc. I'm very seriously considering jumping on it as I have little to nothing left in my donor area.

Also looking for a trustworthy source to purchase it online as my doctor is not willing to prescribe it for me.

I'm worried about scarring. Since I have dark brown skin I'd like to know what the scarring is like before I make a commitment.

I have diffused thinning on the sides and back of my head and although I've not had a diagnosis I'm fairly confident its retrograde alopecia.

Do I have any options for an FUE procedure? I was thinking about getting a body hair transplant since I unfortunately have hair every where else in my body. Has anyone ever had any experience with it? Any feedback?

I've done a bit of reading and I do indeed have retroalopecia. I dare say it's very severe as well as my sides are very, vey thin. Does this mean I'm not a suitable candidate for a HT?

No previous procedures done. That one scar on the back of my head is from a gym accident. And I don't think I have retro alopecia - I do shave my neck though.

Hi op. Any further updates? Would be great to see some pics. I'm on the verge of booking in but hoping to see a few more independent reviews before I do so.

Hi op. I believe it's been about 6 months now. Any updates or updated photos?

I ask because I am very close to booking something in with Dr Yaman but would like to see a few more independent reviews to put my mind at ease. Thanks!

I have contacted Dr Resul Yaman and he has recommended that I get 2000 grafts done to improve my hairline. I'm slightly concerned about this as I'm not sure if I have enough hair in my donor area for 2000 grafts. What do you guys think?

Link: Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

Recently, there have been many threads about failed FUE procedures and really poor quality work. From what I've been able to find, Dr Yaman only has positive reviews but on the other hand, there are only 3 or 4 reviews.

Should I just bite the bullet for this one or should I look elsewhere?

Dear FM1

 

 

Thanks for interesting in a FUE surgery with Dr. Hakan DOGANAY. You mentioned a proposal for Dr. Hakan DOGANAY you are welcome to our clinic anytime. We would like to go for it there is no problem from our side. We also invite moderator to our clinic that how we do all operation anyway please keep in touch with me via info@hakandoganayfue.com

 

Regards

Email has been sent. I look forward to your response.

okay fair enough if you are genuine about it, but why exactly are you willing to risk going to a surgeon who it appears has seen his standards dip for the normal price? Why not just go with the Erdogans or Lorenzos of the world?

The main reason is that my maximum budget is €3 per graft. I know both doctors to be very reputable, although there seems to be a number of negative reviews against Dr Erdogan, but they are out of my price range.

At the moment Dr Resul Yaman is at the top of my list but there just isn't enough information about him or enough patient reviews for me to feel confident in his skill and ability.

I think the motivation is that you think you will get the best of Dr Dogany as you think you gurantee the doctor will treat this as special case, and based on previous good cases presented by this doctor in the past you expect you will end up with best result as you will be special case and dr would want to prove his work.... (so its for you more than helping doctor get back his reputation) ... but be carfull as this might not be smart as you thinking! Also take in consideration that dr is depending on techs for a while now so foung the whole surgery might not be so good now.

(Sorry for bad English)

If he was to take up the challenge and offer you the end to end service (no techs),and achieve an amazing result it still wouldn't address the concerns floating around recently. Yours would be a single success outside of his normal service, nothing more. Everyone that follows would have techs doing at least some work...so a successful could me more misleading to the forum that helpful.

You are both correct in that this may be treated as a one-off case which he may see as an opportunity to restore his reputation and then go back to his own ways. However, I am looking at this from a wider viewpoint.

This has the potential to be a massive benefit for this forum and the community as the doctor will now be aware that any patient from this forum is someone who is well informed and not someone he can put through a mill without any concern for the surgery efficacy and patient care. Ultimately and ideally, he may change his modus operandi completely and go back to providing an end to end service for all his clients and not just forum members. I am hoping he will recognise that providing consistently good results is the best way to ensure longevity for his business instead of churning patients through as quickly as possible with terrible results.

Secondly, other prospective members can use this thread as a framework which they can apply when looking for a hair transplant surgeon. They can start a thread, state their intention of documenting the whole process and ultimately increase visibility on their particular case to ensure the doctor performs at his very best knowing that the particular procedure will be under a great deal of scrutiny.

I feel this is a necessary step to increase confidence in the 'recommended doctor network'. As I see it, it is not a definitive list for doctors who consistently show excellent results. In fact, in some instances it's quite the opposite and given how easy to get on that list, i.e. two or three people vouch for them, they pay a fee and they are on the list, it does not instil a great deal of confidence in me and I'm sure others too.

I'm curious as to your motivation? Why in the world would you ever volunteer to pay normal price to be a guinea pig when you can pay a normal price to go with a more reputable surgeon who has maintained his standards. I dunno man, it seems a little suspicious to me that there wouldn't be some other incentive for you to do it. I personally don't buy it for a second. If you are genuine about it, then what are you thinking? Its absolutely crazy.

 

Also, if you do it, then what exactly is it going to prove? Doganay may agree to do 100% of the procedure for you, but it sounds as if he isn't going to change his practice to do 100% of the procedure for everyone, so a successful procedure in your case really doesn't prove anything.

I'm not sure what you're driving at. What's your concern exactly?

If you're worried I'm just a shill getting paid to do this, I'd be happy to post a video to show I'm a genuine hair transplant candidate who lives and works in London and not some random guy in Turkey looking to make a quick buck. Provided this thread gets the necessary traction and response, I'd be happy to provide any other additional means of proof that is asked of me.

Dr Yaman is at the very top of my list at the moment but I'm having a very hard time finding detailed reviews on him so a big thanks to Rakan for posting this detailed feedback.

Quick question - does anyone know why Dr Raman elects to have his technicians implant the hair? I was under the impression that this was one of the most important parts of the overall procedure so I would imagine that it would need to be done by a qualified doctor.

This is actually one of the biggest reasons why I have concerns with moving ahead with Dr Yaman.

The only way I would that is if the surgery was free based on all the terrible reviews the Dr. has...

That would be very problematic as people would then (rightfully) consider my review as having been bought in exchange for a free transplant. If it turns out to be an absolutely horrendous job, I will obviously be applying for a refund as well as consider legal action.

I'm not sure if Dr Doganay or his rep is still on this forum but I have a proposition for him. As someone who currently considering getting a hair transplant, I would be happy to volunteer to get a procedure done by Dr Doganay, at his normal price, provided he can provide a guarantee that he will be involved in the entire process - harvesting, extracting, incisions and implanting.

I will document the entire transplant process, including a video of the entire surgery, and make it available for public viewing on youtube. I will post before and after shots and ensure I post updated photos on a monthly basis at a minimum. All post surgery problems, including any discussions and interactions with the doctor will also be thoroughly documented.

To address any concerns of my review being 'bought', I can only say that I am a recent member of this forum but I have been a long standing member of another very reputable hair loss forum (this can be verified with my user name). Additionally, I would have sent him a private message to arrange some sort of compensation agreement in return for a review if I had wanted to do it in secret. This way, the whole process will be open to scrutiny by the whole forum. I want to ensure to you all that I am very objective and will provide a fair review.

If Dr Doganay, and lets face it - this forum, would like to restore their reputation, this would be a great way of doing so.

Oh, and your posts have already cost Dogany a lot of money in my opinion. I for one would NEVER go to him based on the reviews I've seen. Again, I'm surprised people are actually going to him when so many better Dr.s are on this site...

Can you please provide a list as to who you think is better, especially around Europe and preferably a doctor who does all the work him/herself instead of palming it off to technicians.

However, I had to advocate for this to happen, and the original message I received (via WhatsApp, when I raised this the day before my operation) was 'Dr Hakan will create your hair line as you requested. After this his assistant will be involved the implantation [sic]. They will be finished together'.

 

I insisted that Dr Doganay do the implantation, and referenced the wording on his website, specifically the 'Dr Doganay places all the grafts himself' line. My operation the next day was then delayed for a few hours, but my requested *was* followed through - as I said, about 90% of the operation. I would advise anyone interested in booking with this surgeon to insist on this, as I did.

This is a major red flag for me. If I felt a doctor was reluctant to do the work and I had to insist that he do so, I would be concerned he would do a bad job just because it's something he doesn't want to do.

In any case, glad it worked out for you. Best of luck with your progress.

Did you end up getting a response, Esrec?

I don't understand how other members are not concerned about this as much as I am. This website bills itself as the leading authority on HT surgeons yet their approach to get someone on their recommended network list is beyond airy fairy.

Just the fact that Bill knew that Dr Doganay no longer performs much of the surgeries (as admitted by him in another thread) and yet he remains on the recommended network speaks volumes of the quality assurance that is provided by the admin and mods of this site.

This is deeply concerning especially considering the ramifications of having a botched hair transplant.

Guys,

 

There is a lot of discussion regarding the recommendation process, the use of this website and in particular Dr. Doganay. While our recommendation process may not be perfect, I like to think of the cop has 80% full rather than 20% empty. Yes, there are certainly things that we can improve on and are in the process of improving on. In addition, we are in the process of changing the look and feel of some of our websites. We are also looking at changing pieces of the recommendation process to be more thorough, which includes an ongoing evaluation process so that we can feel confident continuing to recommend surgeons. Just because a surgeon is approved for recommendation, doesn't mean they obtain tenure. Any surgeons recommendation can be discontinued if they don't continue to meet our high standards recommendation. That is why the question of whether or not we should continue with Dr. Doganay's recommendation exists.

 

I am still in the process of speaking with the surgeon and the clinic privately. I did receive an exclamation of all 12 to 15 cases people had concerns about. I have asked the clinic to provide a public explanation, however I am still discussing other things with the clinic privately.

 

I do feel that their private explanation regarding all 12 to 15 cases or satisfactory as each case has to be taken separately. However the reality is, we are not exactly sure how involved the surgeon is during the procedure anymore. I am waiting to hear back from them on this and have suggested that the doctor consider getting more involved like he used to which may take care of any possible quality control issues that exist. If the doctor does agreed to become more involved again, I think perhaps we can give him another chance and possibly just put him on probation to see how things go and whether or not they improve over time.

 

Regarding the potential fake accounts, there is no solid evidence one way or another. I agree that it looks bad and it is possible that the clinic used fake accounts to promote themselves. However, as long as this behavior does not continue, I think this alone can be forgiven and we can move on. But the greater issue of physician involvement and cases of poor growth must be addressed publicly by the clinic.

 

That said, this particular topic cannot go on forever either. The concerns have been brought to our attention and we are addressing them. Once the clinic responds and we come to a conclusion, it is time to move on from this topic.

 

I would like to know everybody's thoughts on everything I said above.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

This is a terrible response. If it wasn't before, it should now be abundantly clear that the forum is more concerned about money than it is about the treatment of it's members.

Bill, this is a classic case of 'penny wise, pound foolish'. You may be protecting one of your revenue streams but this case, if not resolved very quickly and to the satisfaction of the members here, will end up costing you a lot of money in the long run. Once you lose credibility, you will lose everything.

We're hair loss sufferers and hair transplant patients with a real desire to help others avoid common pitfalls and find the best surgeons available.

 

I know it's tempting to believe that recommendation can be bought or that money is the first priority when considering whether or not to revoke a physician's recommendation but just take a moment and think about it. If that were true, how long would this community survive? Recommendations would be worthless and the that would be evident from the bulk of the results being produced. This is not the case in reality.

 

The truth is that the bulk of the results being produced by recommended physicians is top notch. I found both my docs via this site and I'm glad that I did.

 

Just as we don't recommend doctors at the drop of a hat, we don't withdraw recommendation willy-nilly either but we do take all patient concerns seriously.

This whole post is factually incorrect. As a new member, I have been doing a lot of reading and researching and I have found that your recommendation process is extremely loose with absolutely no qualifying criteria save for maybe a few positive responses from anyone in the forum. I've even started a thread asking some for some clarity around the recommendation process and it has not been addressed as yet.

You may not be realising it yet but I'm sure that with the advent of this thread and Paelo's previous thread, your recommendations are now seen to be worthless.

I a new member and have been researching HT surgeons extensively over the last month or so. I am extremely grateful for this site and the quality input by most members. I do however have a concern that the recommendation process seems to be very fast and loose without any concrete qualifying factors around it.

As an example, Dr Doganay got the approval to become a recommended surgeon after 6 positive responses (http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/169735-potential-recommendation-dr-hakan-doganay-turkey.html) along the lines of 'yeah, he is great' in the recommendation thread. He is still somehow a recommended doctor despite numerous horror stories being uncovered about his practice in the last few weeks.

Similarly, Dr Resul Yaman became recommended after only a handful of positive responses (http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/180530-potential-recommendation-dr-yaman-istanbul-turkey.html) despite there being very little information about him in the form of user review threads. To be clear, I am not saying he shouldn't be recommended or calling out the quality of his work - he is currently on my shortlist of potential HT surgeons. I'm simply stating that the whole process seems fairly lax.

I am sharing this concern as I am strong considering getting a hair transplant done and I am using this site and particularly the recommended doctor network as one of my sources to find surgeons. I am hoping to get some level of assurance from the admin or mods regarding the process on becoming a recommended surgeon. To that end, I would be grateful if someone could confirm the following:

1. How do you guys decide which doctor you like to add to recommended network? Do you get approached by the doctor in the first instance?

2. What are the guidelines for including a doctor in the recommended network?

3. Under which circumstances do you remove a doctor from the network?

4. If a patient has a particularly bad experience with a doctor, what kind of support do you provide?

5. Is there any accountability on your behalf for doctors in your network?

Paleo, I'd like to thank you for this thread as I feel like you have saved me a lot of grief and headaches by having such a rough experience yourself. I am considering getting a hair transplant procedure done and Dr Dogonay was on my shortlist. Having read every single post on this thread I am definitely taking him off.

I sincerely hope that things work out for you in the long run. All the best mate.

Now I would also like to address an issue that that is stirring in my mind as a result of having read all 44 pages in this thread. To the forum admins and mods - how can you justify making Dr Dogonay a recommended doctor based off 6 very loose unverified reviews: http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/169735-potential-recommendation-dr-hakan-doganay-turkey.html

More over, how is it that you have not taken the decision to remove him from your list after you have seen first hand the 20+ threads which very clearly show that his practice is not a reputable one and is more than likely an FUE mill?

I understand you guys need to make money to maintain the site and for profit but I thought this was a forum for and by hair loss patients?

Before people attack my motives, I just want to pre-emptively address any concerns about me being a new member: I was a very active member on another hair loss forum with the same username (withholding URL as I suspect it's against forum rules but happy to provide if requested) from 2009 onwards. I was taking minox and propecia but had some very nasty sides and decided to stop medication all together. Since then I've been simply showering with cold water and applying argan oil to my hair twice a week after shampooing and have had great results.

Unfortunately, my hair has been falling out rapidly in the last 3 months and I felt it necessary to investigate potential hair transplant procedures. This is how I came across this thread as well as the 'Dr recommendation' thread.