jonathande

Hi,

MY STORY

A few months ago I made a post describing my results from 3000 grafts  crown surgery at Demirsoy 2016. Unfortunately, after now 4 years have passed half of the grafts seem not to have survived either directly from the surgery or as a result of bad post-care routine. Either way, it seems difficult to determine but could be the result from  exposure to sun, heating, nicotine, exercising etc months after. Although it is surprising that as much as 50% has fallen off either way which leaves me in suspicion that it was a sloppy surgery from the start and especially the large bald patch following immediately after the surgery that was left on my crown.

PRE-SURGERY RESEARCH

Anyhow, I decided to do to finally do an un-shaven FUE to repair my crown and initiated contact with many surgeons (some of them recognized here at hair transplantation network). Most surgeons assessed, based on the pictures, that I would need around 2000-2500 extra craft on my crown area for a satisfied result. Of course, Dr Koray argued for 3000 grafts...

However, I was also in contact with Akacia Medical which was the Clinique I finally ended up choosing and in which I could do a personal consultation where the doctor assessed that 1500 grafts was enough and also suitable for the un-shaven method. I was a bit hesitant choosing this Clinique as it is not international recognized and due to the fact that the un-shaven FUE method requires extra skill. 

FINAL CHOICE

What influenced my decisions to go with Akacia over international recognized Clinique could be broken down into the falling factors:

1. I am also balding in the front and I did not wanna spend my grafts to get a perfect "marketing picture" for the top-surgeons. They care to much about reference pictures and is not always founded in what is most suitable for the patients depending on his condition (grafts, goal, symmetry of the "balding process" etc.

2. Akacia had an extremely professional yet personal approach - they were honest about conditions and gave concrete solutions on how I could do the surgery to fit with my other life.

3. Akacia has existed since 2011 and yet - has only positive reviews on local Scandinavian forums

4. The price was on pair with "hair shops" such as Dr. Cinik etc. but less expensive than  more experienced Belgian and West-European surgeons. 

THE DAY

I arrived at 8.00 to the surgeon and had a warm welcome. The doctor was a true people-person and easy to interact with, ask questions etc. The surgery was nearly painless and lasted for around 4 hours in total.  The surgery ended with a PPR treatment which does not seem very discussed at this forum surprisingly. 

Afterwards I was given extensive care instructions and package of  medicines/shampoo/painkillers etc with detailed instructions for each day and coming year. 

DID I MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE

Time will tell if I did the right choice to go with this doctor instead of the renowned surgeons. I felt that for the crown-area the work is supposed to be quite straight forward as long as the graft survival can me maximized and the surgeons can handle the "swirl". 

As I just came home - I have no idea if this was accomplished but will give you updates on the progress.

MY OPINION ABOUT DEMIRSOY

Finally, how did the surgery compare to Demirsoy? Well, I must say it was day and night. Everything from the consultation, surgery and after-care instructions seem much more rigorous, smoother and superior to be honest. I felt kind of like this is how a hair transplant should be going. 

The only thing I cannot tell now is the result, since Demirsoy left a quite large bold patch on my crown - I really hope Akacia Medical can give me that crown that was intended in the first place.

The doctor said that 3000 grafts had been extracted earlier but that my crown maximum had a density of 1500 grafts. He could not tell me the reason though so investigation continues.

These are truly some beautiful surgeons. Thank you for sharing!

Hi,

Which surgeons would be consider to be the absolute top in Europe including Turkey?

I have around 2 years to plan my frontal hair transplantation and would like to have the best.

Pictures?

Hi,

I have requested a consultation with dr zontos for a non-shaven FUE/DHI in Athens, Greece.

However, I find it really hard to find any recent reviews about him. Does anyone have any experience or could guide me to more recent updates from him?

Hi,

Fair advice and thank you for the recommendation of surgeons. I will look into Lorenzo altough Wong is a bit to far (Canada).

I think fully long hair is indeed a bit risky when it comes to graft placement but hope that somewhat short hair in the recipient (not donnor) can be accomplished. I don’t mind shaving donnor is just that I want to avoid going through ugly duck phase 3 months after as with a regular FUE.

Bumping this thread again as dr.koray could not proceed with long-hair fue which means I looking for an alternativ surgeon.

Hi,

I looking to make a FUE this summer despite the shut down. However, I wonder which ones that may be available. I just talked to ASMED hair transplant which will be closed.

Does anyone of you have any ideas on where to go?

Best regards

On 12/27/2019 at 9:48 AM, Gasthoerer said:

I would recommend to have a look at Lupanzula for such a case.

Hi, Thanks for the tips - looks interesting and will commence my research on this clinique.

On 12/26/2019 at 10:09 PM, duchaine said:

ASMED is one of the very few chain Clinique having Long hair fue.
Anyway, it is very expensive (5 euro/graft) and I suggest not to go there considering the results you can see on many many boards.

If you do not want to shave your head, you can have a FUT or you can have shave your donor area only.
There are a lot of good docs providing half shaved fue for a very reasonable price.

Interesting - haven't fully dig into all the reviews yet but if he has gone that profit-maximizing road which many surgeons eventually do and thereby fallen in quality he will definitely be out of scope.

What other docs are performing unshaven FUE that you recommend me looking up?

On 8/14/2019 at 1:09 PM, Anthonyd said:

I’m sorry your not happy with your results after three years, however I can’t understand why you can’t get hold of the clinic photos to show your situation before surgery.

 But are you serious with the above quote?  Dr Demirsoy has been doing HT for 15 years+ Which your research would of told you, and I will echo what the other members have said, it is rare to find bad results. Look at his before/after photos on his site, YouTube, forums( especially international). 

Who has said this? 😂😂 you or the clinic, sorry I find this absurd.

Nokia made Cellphones even longer....

Sorry, but I work in a business (management consulting areas including hospitals) where I analyze human production/quality output every day and is my job to establish process to improve/minimize this. Just because someone or process has worked - there is no indication that they will continue to do so. Keeping quality consistent is a bit more complex than just experience of a single surgeon in his profession. It requires processes, standards and so on.  And often it diminish with the pressure for decreased marginal cost for profits.

To expect that a team of young nurses using motorized extraction to yield the same result as manually extracted/inserted grafts by an experienced surgeon is a nice dream - but just not the reality. You get what you pay for most often in this industry and Demirsoy is cheaper than other surgeons in Turkey - not because of charity but because he is using cheaper/more cost efficient processes including techniques, staff for extraction and other procedures. This is exactly what my point is.  

 Hi,

As requested - this is an image approx 1 week post surgery. Enjoy!

Hi,

I performed my first hair transplant in 2016 with Dr Demirsoy and I wasn't very satisfied with the results (See link further below). Years have passed and I finally feel the need to to another HT but this time - I am considering Long hair fue to just fill my crown and make it thicker.

You learn a lot doing your first HT and some aspects I have learnt is to pay more careful attention to technique being used (The devil lies in the details) for a successful HT.

Here are some principles:

• Basically - I am considering 500-1000 grafts in crown
• Manual extraction (NOT MOTORIZED LIKE DEMIRSOY)
• Not trying to accomplish to many grafts in one session (nurses/surgeon get tired -> sloppy - > bad results)
• Long Hair FUE preferably - Being shaved and having a funny hair cut for 6-8 months is a large part of your life..

Thus, I look for recommendation on surgeon with or nearly 100% satsifactory rate, manual extraction and possible capable of long hair FUE.

For now - I am considering ASMED Surgical Medical Center which both offers long hair fue and manual extraction plus extremely good reviews. I am up to travel anywhere in the world but it all comes down to value for money. 

See my old post here:

)

First of all. Thank you for all feedback! Lots of comments here. So to answer all of them I will try to summarize some answers.

1. Why am I not happy with the treatment

As you can see in the photos. Some parts of crown had very low density now resulting in a small ”bald spor”. In my opinion, this is sloppy when inserting the graft as it should have been more densely packed in this area. It had nothing to do with further hairloss. It’s rather the result of poor cosmetic design or fallacy in the surgery procedure.

2. Have I lost more hair post surgery?

I wouldnt say so. Not only because I have been on minoxidil and finasteride but also because there is no sign on further hair loss such as in the front area for instance, which has  completly stopped years back. However, it can very well be so that the general quality of my entire hair has deteriorated  somewhat.

3. Really only one bad case?

First of all, it is not true as I have seen other cases for 3 years ago. However, I have no doubt that the majority of Demirsoy’s clients are happy with the results. But, hair transplantation is an extremly large investment - not only due to cost but maybe more so due to social isolation, painful procedure and the risks associated with it. In this aspect, me personally would like to minimize the risk of getting a result I am not satisfied with. Also, definitely minimize the risk of wasting pressures  grafts. 

I think you are not as likely to post a review  of a bad result because majority of us wants confirmation and kudos. Simple psychological phenomenas. Therefor, I have no ideas if other have had similar experiences - maybe not - maybe so. However, it is important to explain my reasoning but to allow others to make their judgement.

On 5/30/2019 at 8:48 AM, jj51702 said:

Do you have immediate post op pics to show the graft placement issue you’re talking about?

Sadly not as I lost my phone with all photos without back up. Yes, bummer. 

Just be careful with the choice of doctor. I will do a new hair transplant but will do my due diligence this time.

1 hour ago, jj51702 said:

This is the first I’m hearing of a dissatisfied demirsoy patient. Have you’re reached out there and what was there response?

There are a couple of more but yes, if you are dissatisfied is not likely that you share and just like hairloss, a bad result is something you dont want to think of. Probably a way big number but who are not to eager to share. Took me also 3 years to share after all. However, altough I felt the the graft were misplaced only few days after, I wanted to give an honest opinion if posted online and therefor wanted to give it some time. I have been inte contact with demirsoy assistant for 1 year ago, he was claiming it was all about hair loss but as you can see , it was actually big bald spots already from the beginning. Apprently his nurses may not have had the focus during my surgery or graft died due to bad processes. The learning from this is that u get what you pay for, but if I had the money, is not worth to save even 50% of cost from going to a more reputable surgeon with consistent results. 

Transplanted hair should not be sensibel to hairloss. But yes, I am on propecia and minoxidil once a day.

Hi,

I did my operation i  August 2016 and which was a decision that truly changed my life to the better. After discussion with Demirsoy, he recommended 3000 grafts and ensured me it was enough to get my crown completly filled.

3 years has now passed and I am not supersatisfied with the results. It seems like some areas were neglected and had that impression almost immediatley after the surgery.

I wish I had gone with a more experienced surgeon and will be more careful with research next time.

Before operation:

1 year update

2 years:

3 years 

Yes, because I was considering the same clinic.

Strange, why has this post gone unnoticed?