BigBen

@Anthonyd You can see the transplanted grafts in the day-after-surgery photo, the recipient area is just the front. I do it but I don't feel comfortable sharing my photos. Melvin and others have seen the whole head in other photos. I had hair before the hair transplant everywhere else including the crown and I have a good donor area and hair calibre, thicker than I thought. I only needed hair transplant on the front, even the temples seemed fine to the doctor so the temples didn't get any grafts. The hairline is where the attention was focused on. I like the new hairline but the density is too low and also there are some gaps. It should be between 44 and 48 grafts per square centimetre. Yes, I met a patient that told me that a girl did his incisions, that's why I made sure that Koray Erdogan did the incisions on my head because I didn't want a technician to do them. And yes, Koray Erdogan did my incisions. @jj51702 OK, I'll let you know what they say when they reply.

@Gasthoerer As I explained, the recipient area is the front but I had diffuse hair loss so even for me it's impossible to know exactly what is the original and the transplanted hair. Not that it matters much because the result in my case should be between 44 and 48 grafts per square centimetre including natural and transplanted hair and obviously I'm not even near. @jj51702 To the first email they replied right away but once I attached the photos it's over a week now with no response. I just sent the email again.

Thank you. I attach more photos. All the photos that I have posted this far are with dry hair under natural light. Density is low along the hairline with some gaps.

A hair transplant was done just on the front with a lot of grafts as you can see in the photo of the day after. They used 48 grafts per square centimetre and now there are portions where the number of grafts is really low as you can see in this other photo that I just took. The ink lines measure one centimetre wide for reference.

@Fozzie I had no idea that there were 4 to 6 surgeries per day (4 my day) and I had made my research. I think that we should never question patients about what a clinic does, not even indirectly. As you said, information about HTs is blurry with good and bad results and so many doctors but Koray Erdogan was considered one of the best in the world when I checked the forums to choose mine. You can only blame a patient who chose an unknown doctor, a cheap doctor or a doctor with bad reputation. Even if one year ago some people that were researching for their HT knew that there are 4 to 6 surgeries per day in Asmed that's not the information that affects a patient directly but the consequences of that decision such as unknown technicians doing the majority of the work. The problem is not exactly the number of surgeries but the consequences. Only after I had my HT done, more subpar cases appeared that were a year old because you can't judge any result until after one year has passed. Besides, the clinic representative I had talked to never told me about more than one surgery at the same time and I never asked because I would have never suspected that. However, as mentioned before, the problem is how that kind of business decisions affects real patients.

When he says that they comply with policies outlined by the Turkish Health Ministry, of course they do, who knows if to a minimum level and let's get real, Turkey is not the best example of regulations of any kind and it's not part of the European Union, that's why no one would go to a clinic in Turkey unless recommended so that paragraph means nothing to me. He can say that they use expensive technology and nobody questions that (expensive technology pays off) and the clinic is very clean. I do doubt the qualification and experience of the technicians because they didn't want to tell their names though and because there are a lot and some of them are recent workers. He always says that he needs assistants and that he can't do everything on his own but he is no the only doctor in the world with this problem, they normally solve it by reducing the number of surgeries so they can focus on one and have all the assistants around. If you have four to six surgeries per day and he is only 10 minutes for the incisions as it was my case then he is not really taking responsibility and supervising each process. I have heard of people that had the incisions done by another person and that they didn't see the doctor at all except for the 5 minutes the day before that he takes to check your hair, hair calibre and draw the new hairline. The only logical reason to have 4 to 6 full surgeries per day is to make 4 to 6 times more money. Why I wonder when you are rich already and your reputation is being questioned. Words can be as pretty as you want them to be but the only thing that matters is facts and results. A serious doctor addresses the problems directly without resorting to marketing-like talk.

I chose Koray Erdogan because this forum also made me believe that he was the best in Turkey and one of the best in Europe but his lack of involvement in the process and the four full surgeries taking place at the same time I did not know until I was there and this is the big problem with Asmed in recent times and the proof is the subpar results. My result also lacks density like @kw877 so I will count how many grafts have grown per square centimetre and contact the clinic. Like somebody said on the last page, it's not just a lot of money but it affects our mood in a very deep and negative way.

I posted my results.

Lately, I have been seeing many recent cases from Koray Erdogan's clinic that have low density and unsatisfactory hairline but I have remained positive until the end. Now after one year, the density in my hairline is much lower than what I expected and than what they had guaranteed, at least 90% growth of 48 grafts transplanted per square centimetre, which is at the very least 44 grafts per square centimetre. I only had the front done, what you can see in the photos, because I have a lot of hair elsewhere. Also, my hair calibre is the same everywhere, 61 microns, which is slightly above average (55). I will contact the doctor about my results.

I haven't counted the grafts that have grown on my head but I will. The problem with my result is also density. Koray Erdogan offers 90% growth guarantee but a touch up seems risky for several reasons. Firstly, it is likely done by technicians, this clinic have many technicians, they work fast and you don't know what their experience is, they didn't even want to tell me their names. If the job is not nicely done you are losing donor grafts for nothing. On top of that, if not done properly, the touch up could destroy grafts that are safe now because in our cases and in some other recent cases I've seen by Koray, the problem is low density and not just one empty area which would be easier to fix. Working in between healthy grafts is an extremely delicate job and the question here is this doctor cares enough. A partial refund makes more sense.

He offers a 90% growth guarantee though?

We both are almost at the one year mark with the same doctor and I am also disappointed (understatement) with the density. I will probably post photos on my own thread. The doctor offers a 90% growth guarantee so we should either ask for partial refund or ask for a free touch-up after the first year. The only problem with the touch-up is that it will have to be done on a wide area where healthy grafts have grown and that should only be done carefully by the best technicians or the doctor himself.

I was with kw877 at Asmed and we had the HT done with only a few days of difference. I haven't posted here recently but I wanted to thank you publicly for all your posts and your own thread. Every person that posts their results not being sponsored are very generous, not for the time spent but for that privacy they are exposing somehow. They deserve all the support, honesty and constructive feedback they can get. The pain was also unbearable for me but the anaesthetic came and gave me a higher dose. I was suffering for two weeks after the HT because of a pain deep in my head and painkillers didn't help but after the first weeks I started feeling great again. I guess the nerves just healed. I don't think that FUT would have been better for you, FUE was the right choice for you. Do you remember the Bepanthol lotion that they gave us for the scalp? Keep using that on the irritated areas, I also have sensitive skin and it has been good and no allergies reactions whatsoever. If you don't like to have lotion soaking your hair do it when you are at home and/or some time before having a shower, styling your hair and hitting the street. I had that tiny dandruff that is not because of greasy scalp but because of dry and irritated scalp and using this or any other hypoallergenic lotion helps. Also, what shampoo are you using? Try using hypoallergenic shampoo like the one they gave us (Sebamed), for sensitive scalp it is better than trying fancy shampoos with special properties in the long term. You are absolute right when you say that if the HT result doesn't look good under direct light then it's not a satisfying result when the person is young and the hair loss wasn't that bad to begin with. The result should look good under direct light and the good results prove that. As you know I am not happy with my own results yet either, the lack of density is very obvious in the hairline, but we are at the fifth month mark so we have to stay positive because it's not definitive. Yes, there are some fast results but we might have slower growth. You say that you can't see the incisions in those gaps, I will check my gaps and see if I can find incisions (I haven't checked that) but I have noticed new thin hairs, not everywhere unfortunately but I hope that more will sprout. Are you sure that you have not found any shorter or thinner hairs in the recipient area (the hairline is the easiest part to check)? I see that your donor has what looks like a round area where density is lower. Give it time, if you keep the hair short on the back side compare the photos and see if it's filling up with time. My donor is lower density now but it's quite uniform. I will get a new hair cut soon with that area short and I will see if density has improved there.

Well said. I don't even know who is he talking about on each paragraph because he makes 99% of his statements up especially when talking about other users. The lies, manipulation, hypocrisy, toxicity and aggressions of this user towards others, myself included, should not be tolerated. He is lying, intoxicating and trying to ridicule any person that is critical of the doctor or clinic of his choice or reporting a bad result. I really don't understand how this can be tolerated on this forum. I really want to know what moderators are going to do about this. He can talk about his own experience but he shouldn't be allowed to do what he is doing to other people. Some people don't want to post just because of him, because he is a bully. Just read all the insults and stalking behaviour, breaking every behaviour forum rule and yet not being banned. I would like to say that I agree with Bill that every doctor has subpar results for different reasons. I also agree with Melvin that patients should wait one year before calling their results a failure even if late growth typically means a worse result. I haven't even called Payam's result a failure yet because I want to see if things improve for him. I have seen other Koray Erdogan's cases that I consider a failure after a year and I also have seen one of the best results I've ever seen made by this very same doctor. Because again, no doctor has a flawless curriculum. I see how the unhappy patients move back and forth after a year in their opinions, something that LordBalwin mentioned above. They want to convince themselves that it's not that bad and I feel sad for them because they are just trying to feel better. We should not say that they look great but support them. I have been reading this forum for years before my HT with Koray Erdogan, especially doctors and surgeries reviews. I started to be more active recently when I made up my mind. I have provided sincere feedback about any results that I have checked (including results from other doctors) while being respectful with everybody. I have provided zero feedback about my own result because only three months have passed. I have only talked about my experience in the clinic which is the same as the other people that have been there recently. I will say the truth about my result when the time comes, whether it is positive as I obviously desire and hope or it is negative and I really hope that if it's negative I will find comfort and help in here, but not white lies or personal attacks. Every doctor has subpar results but every result should be considered and every recommended doctor on this forum should be willing to talk with the unhappy patients too. I understand that they won't post the bad results on their website but they should care about their patients privately, even more when the patients are not satisfied than when they are. If they are happy, good for you, another success. If they are not happy, talk to them, don't delay responses and don't try to get rid of them. That is not ethical. Money aside, for every one of us this is a lifetime investment of grafts.

I totally agree. I want to read what everyone has to say whether it's positive, negative or a mixed bag and not speculation about patients' mental stability or honesty. People that we know that were there with us and had concerns, issues or complaints don't talk so you know for sure there is more than the few brave people speaking loud and clear. Quickly come these very suspicious people to call unhappy patients liar, mentally unstable, "why do you post only on Asmed threads and not evaluate other clinics?" This was addressed to me by the most aggressive and obvious of them all, JeanLDD. If you get a HT at Asmed you are basically checking Asmed results before and after the HT, but not all the threads about all the doctors on all the forums (glad that some people have so much free time) and if you say what others have said about the clinic you are not lying. We are not professional reviewers of HTs so we don't have to review every case and every doctor but they are already in defence mode before you even know, even bashing other doctors. Why I wonder. What's the reasoning behind "Your expectations were not realistic" that some people get here as response? People choose a HT and a doctor because they have seen other people's results with similar hair loss and not because one night they had a dream about how their hair would look if they had a HT done by whatever doctor. Their expectations are based on real cases and not on fantasies. If hoping for a good result is unrealistic what's the point of the surgery and choosing a good doctor? We don't need to read aggressive bulldog(s) on every thread like they have to be everywhere bullying anyone who has a critical opinion like undercover representatives or lawyers. That's not what a forum is for. If they don't feel comfortable with unsatisfied patients they should not be everywhere and just post their results and their experiences on their own threads and stop right there because they are just annoying people that have suffered enough already and not helping anybody but a doctor's reputation. Again, this is not what a forum is for.