CosmoKramer

The almost 3-year update....gonna be a long one haha... I decided to share this now instead of next week which would be the official 3-years mark...from my 1st HT as I’m still very happy I went through this journey and explain why i say my 1st HT. So, it’s been almost 3 years since I took a big leap and flew to Turkey to get my HT, with Dr Koray Erdogan and his team at ASMED. I can honestly say, that if it wasn’t for their friendly prompt expert communications (Suzana is such an great asset to Dr. Erdogan & ASMED and a great person for that matter) and helping remove any worries and concerns I had about traveling overseas (as I had never done so) and guiding me every step of the way I would never have considered going to Turkey for an HT, and their support is what made me feel comfortable choosing them along with their results. My results, at the 1 year mark (June 2019) I was happy with my progress and results but I wanted a little more density (hair greed) so a month prior I had started incorporating microneedling and minox to help boost my progress and results, hoping it would actually help add little more density all around and more coverage in my crown area because for my level of hair loss I needed more than the 5,000 grafts total I had recieved, given my level of hair loss. During this time I was researching and planning to get major dental work done, but the cost here in the US was way too expensive and I did not have dental insurance, so my research took me back to Turkey and saw that many people from all over the world also go to Turkey to get dental work done and the results I saw on social media looked fantastic and the cost was 1/4th the price and some dental clinics followed the model of HT clinics in how they guide, communicate and handle overseas potential patients, so I thought it would be great if I was to travel back to Istanbul to get my dental work done and maybe see about getting another HT to fill-in some sparse areas. Once found a dental clinic I felt comfortable with, I booked an appointment with the dental clinic in Istanbul for September 2019, I seriously looked into doing the 2nd HT, but I had several concerns, firstly being the additional cost as I could not afford the price per/graft that I had paid for my 1st HT with ASMED, since I had already spent thousands of USD’s for my 1st HT & travels and was paying thousands of dollars more for the dental work/plane tickets/hotel etc this time as well. I am not the type of person to seek special treatment and ask for a special discount when I felt that ASMED had been worth it and had done their job as promised, the other concern I had was being that since I was 12-13 months post my HT that Dr Koray would turn me down and have me wait until I had reached my 18th month which would have been December 2019, to get the full results first. For some reason I felt the inner gut feeling and need to get my dental work done and a possible 2nd HT before the end of 2019...and I’m so glad I went with my gut given the pandemic and lockdowns which would have derailed my plans had I waited until early 2020. For my potential 2nd HT, I looked at several low cost options in Turkey but none of them made me feel comfortable and I didn’t want to risk any of them possibly damaging my 1st HT, so I narrowed down my research and looked into Dr Demirsoy and researched him and his results. I liked the fact he only does 1 patient per day and was 75% hands-on with his patients himself, he does all the extractions and incisions himself and has 3 of his nurses/techs do the implantation. My only hesitation with Dr Demirsoy was that he had stopped doing manual extraction as I felt manual extraction that ASMED does so wonderfully definitely helps maintain the donor area without much scarring and doesn’t damage grafts as a motorized method would, for graft survival , Dr Demirsoys representative, Muzaffer, assured me that given the Doctors long history in HT practice that he has seen with a careful skillful hand motorized extraction could give similar results and had. I submitted several photos through WhatsApp and received a quote for potential grafts needed and I found Dr Demirsoy’s price within my remaining budget. It seemed as though I might have been able to fit both my dental work and a 2nd Ht into my limited financial budget now, so I booked it as well. My experience with Dr Demirsoy’s representative, Muzaffer, was very good as well, answered all my questions and guided me throughout the process, which I was already somewhat familiar with at this point from my own experience and being on this forum. I arrived in Istanbul the beginning of September 2019, I chose to stay at the same hotel that I had stayed for my 1St HT as I had become familiar with it and the surrounding area as I would be staying in Istanbul for two weeks. The 1st week there, I had spent with the dental clinic and those appointments, but, I also made time to visit Dr Erdogan’s brand new ASMED clinic through my continued communications with Suzana, and the new clinic was truly impressive, high-tech meets artful beauty, I have never seen such a medical clinic that looked that impressive but also wasn’t sterile and boring like many medical clinics here in the US and N.Y. for that matter. During my visit to the new ASMED clinic I could instantly tell how proud Dr Erdogan and his staff were of their new home, and rightly and deservedly so. It was great to see Dr Erdogan/Dr Dilek/Suzana and the rest of the ASMED staff once again, after a tour of the new clinic I met with Dr Erdogan and Dr Dilek in their photography department to take some photographs and compare my results to my pre-HT photos which made me happy seeing how my progress and the results worked out 15-months post-HT....for me the results really did take up to 15 months to improve. I would also like to note that I did not inform anyone of my being in Istanbul for a 2nd HT other than my family and only that I was getting dental work done as I wanted to keep it to myself until I saw my results and until this point where I can give this review after a good amount of time had passed. Now on to my experience with Dr Demirsoy. The day I met with Dr Demirsoy for the initial consultation was on the morning of my scheduled procedure date, which was fine with me as I knew that I would be his only patient and was informed by his rep that there would be no rush and all my questions and concerners would have time to be answered. I want to add that there is a differing contrast between Dr Demirsoy’s clinic and ASMED, Dr Demirsoy’s office and clinic is in a very nice high rise in Istanbul, it is akin to a very nice upscale condo compared to a stand alone boutique clinic, that is not a negative as I know all that matters is the professionalism/skill/results of the doctor and staff. Upon meeting Dr Demirsoy in his office for the consultation, he speaks limited English so much of the conversation was done with his representative Muzaffer whom translated everything so not much of an issue there. As Dr Demirsoy began to examine my situation and hair in person, he became somewhat hesitant on doing a procedure as he said and thought that I had achieved a great result from my HT procedure with Dr Erdogan at ASMED and even stated that Dr Erdogan had done a very good job (after looking at my pre-1St HT photos), with that along with improvement from using minoxidil & microneedling he felt I could not ask for better....and since my initial concern was for my crown for the 2nd HT that was now seeing better improvement I insisted that maybe a procedure to add a little more density in certain areas that were lacking and wanting my hairline lowered a bit would be a better use of my limited grafts, still Dr Demirsoy was very upfront and honest and did not want to touch my hairline as he felt it was very good but I kept asking so he agreed to a very slim adjustment and no more than using 2,000 grafts as he said my donor looked good but he didn’t want to thin it out too much, which I was happy with. After the consultation with Dr Demirsoy, we moved on to marking the areas then having pre-shave photographs and post-shave photographs taken. Then it was in to the operating room where I met his 3 nurses/techs that I was told had been with him for many years. To be honest this 2nd HT procedure for me felt much easier and seemed less painful maybe because I knew the experience already. Dr Demirsoy did all the extractions, we took a short break, then he did all the site incisions then it was a quick meal break which they had ordered food for me which was nice, then it was back into the operating room for his 3 nurses to do all the graft implantions. I was happy with how it all went. I was given some medication then was driven to my hotel to rest. The next morning I was picked up by Mr Muzaffer and taken to the clinic to have my bandages removed,a wash, to take post-op photos, have Dr Demirsoy examine my scalp and his work to see if it all went well and it did, and to make my payment and then was taken back to my hotel. The days that followed I was happy with how I was healing as it seemed quicker than my 1st HT but that is due to having 5,000 grafts done over two long days so that’s understandable. The time that I had some fears and concerns were about having to return to the dental clinic 4-days after this procedure to finish up the work and was fearful of having the dentist chair or tools or the dentist and assistants touch my scalp and harm any grafts, but thankfully they fully understood and had delt with similar situations and were very careful and gentle and great. I’m very happy I went back to Istanbul and had done these two procedures (Dental & 2nd HT) before the pandemic shut everything down. I’m also very happy with both results, and to be honest I had stopped using minoxidil and microneedling since September 2020 and have had a bad seasonal shed so my crown at the current moment looks slightly less impressive than a year and a half ago and could use an additional 500-1,000 grafts for complete coverage if I chose to, thankfully my donor area looks good even after 7,000+ grafts taken, and that’s thanks to both HT clinics, in my honest opinion. I am going to try and post progress photos along the both processes and will try and correlate them to their appropriate timing.

Thanks Melvin, been a bit busy with life haha So will be adding an update, a long one since I haven’t spent much time on here, to make up for it. My crown has thinned a bit as I had stopped my microneedling & Minoxidil routine back in around September 2020 and had undergone quite a shed, that said I’m still happy and I have started resuming my routine the past couple of weeks.

Fantastic results given the amount of grafts and your hair loss level. Congrats!

The touch-up definitely did the trick, your results at this stage is really great, a home run in my honest opinion, and your hair styling as you originally wanted it being up looks spot-on now. Congrats man!

Hmmm...interesting.. What is their price for it? Have you seen the ads for a similar topical seller service I think it’s called Strut but they sell topical Dut..

Coming up on almost 3-years (crazy how time flies!) and considering doing an update ... if anyone is interested... 🙂

Very nice coverage for less than 2k grafts, considering your pre surgery situation, you doc did a good job.

Looks fantastic! Other than the FUT scar shadow, your donor looks great, like nothing was taken. Congrats!

Haha...we’ve all been there but now it’s so omnipresent that so many are openly using it there’s no need for worry...I highly doubt the cashiers or pharmacists care once u walk away.

Glad to help. Thanks! That sounds like a good route to go as well to try and get a prescription for oral Minox, I may try that. As for the brand name vs generic Minox, I wouldn’t be too concerned as it’s highly likely the same main ingredient since it’s now off patent and used for a long while. The Fin from Costco was in a bottle not in a blister pack.

I hear ya, although, you shouldn’t feel embarrassed...everyone and their younger brother seems to be getting on Fin lately, the pharmacist was a woman and I did not feel any type of embarrassment standing there getting the prescription filled and chatting, but that’s me, no hate from me for people whom might feel differently.

Haha thanks man. I’m very happy I did it.

Here you go:

You’re welcome! Sounds like low ma be working for you then. I totally understand your point on wanting to improve yourself now since your are still somewhat young-ish and single and just want to get it over and done...can’t disagree with you there man. Yes, it was a success, did it back in 2018, I made a progress post about it forgot the link since it’s been a while now but if you use the search box and type in mid-June progress you might find...if I do I’ll post it here for you to go through. As for anything post treatment that I think could really help that personally I think helped me...it to just relax and take it easy and if you have the ability to financially to stay a full week there in Turkey to be sure your grafts are healing well and not subject to any trauma from rushing to return home and the flights and plane passangers or you bumping your head damaging anything. I stayed in Istanbul almost 2 weeks if I recall just to be sure all healed well and scabs came off...but I would say at least 7 days/nights is helpful to ease worries..

I’m inclined to believe the tablet coating is only there to hold together the main ingredient (Finasteride) along with the filler material and give it some size otherwise it would be even smaller, plus they even warn that pregnant women shouldn’t even touch the tablets because it could get thru through the skin if I recall, but not 100% sure on that. Many have done it for years, as I did, splitting them and still being effective so I would be too concerned about it.

For very good density I’d say 1,500.

For 7-months it looks great thus far!

Hey man, As a person whom also went with Dr Erdogan/ASMED I’m going to try not to sound biased (I try to give my honest neutral opinion when possible no matter the clinic). The amount quoted sounds about right for the goal you want to achieve, although, I would wonder since youre close to 29 y/o do you think your hair loss has stabilized? Since your frontal area looks to still be miniaturizing and for myself I hadn’t lost the bulk of my hair until I was around 35+. That said, if yours is stabilized and you are being pro active and taking medication or utilizing some sort of treatment to prevent your current native hair from recession and loss...than it may not be a major worry for you for several years down the road if there are any. As for confirming that Dr Erdogan is going to do the incisions himself for your hair line...I think that’s very wise, he does some of the most natural appearing hairlines and temple peak incisions out there. And as for your worry and fear of flying half way around the world...I had the same fears...I have a fear of heights & flying and had never traveled overseas that far before...but with the Clinics help to ease my worries (especially that I had gone all alone to there) was very reassuring so I just said f*ck it I’m going to do it. Yes, the flights are expensive especially now that they are limiting them but that comes with the territory.

Nice! Thats something at least. 👍🏻

If you download the GoodRx app you can enter Finasteride and your zip code if in the US and it will provide you with a list of your local pharmacies with their prices to choose from....then if Roman does allow the transfer of the prescription to your choice of pharmacy it sounds like a reasonable thing to do as well.

I used keeps when it became first available, I’m not knocking these services, they definitely serve a purpose, but in my view they are charging a bit much for basic otc generic Minox and generic fin....but if you’re fine shelling out the extra cash for the service then more power to you.

Definitely some nice progress and improvement...especially looking back at your start. 👍🏻

Thanks for the comment. Yeah, I thought about that as well but I was thinking since I used topical heavily before and that I would cut the daily dose to only take 1.25mg a day that the side effects would likely be nil...in my case.