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I had surgery on 5th to 7th Feb and therefore I’m about to post a 2 month update also. I have to say yours look remarkably similar to mind at this point which I suppose is a source of comfort! thanks for posting!

I started on 5mg daily about 2.5 weeks ago As for sides I haven't had any yet, but then it's only been 2 weeks and I haven't noticed any difference to my hair either. Some folks swear by it. Dr Path is a big advocate and he wrote about it on this forum in 2010.

I have - I'm only about a month ahead of you. I also went to Turkey, although I went to HLC in Ankara. I need to put this in my signature I guess 😀https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/56309-4938-grafts-fue-hlc-5-7-february-2020/ I'll be following your progress man, good luck!

Great write up. The part you wrote about the discomfort of laying down for so many hours felt very familiar to me 😂 and I forgot about the light headed-ness! I almost fainted when I stood up too fast. Didn’t do that again!

To add some sanity to this thread I went to HLC last month, and found the clinic to be as advertised and so far I am very happy. I get the impression Melvin considers HLC to be a snide backstreet clinic but in fact they hosted Dr Bisanga (among others) in 2018 at the FUE Europe workshop at their clinic in Ankara. I really like Dr B’s work and I think he is a great choice 😎

Looks like it's ready to pop this mate. Keep us posted!

I see - I guess they rotate depending on the new cases in & out of the clinic on each day 🙂 I like the fact there are 5 surgeons there at HLC, allows for peer review which is always a good thing in a professional environment I think! My thread is here

I am 4 weeks/28 days post op today. The shedding has started, the first 3.5 weeks I had barely any shedding at all and then this week it seems like whenever I touch my head 3 or 4 hairs fall out! Attaching pics taken today in the harshest light possible (directly under an LED strip light at work) and I have to say it looks bad. I am unconcerned though as everything is on track according to the post-op information from HLC. I think they say after 3-4 weeks the transplanted hair will fall (50%-80%) and it looks about 50% fallen now I think You can clearly see the transplanted areas on the front... Same story on the crown it's shed city...I can still see the outline of redness on the scalp too The donor doesn't look great either 😬 as I explained in the OP, my donor area has always (even before the HT) been a bit patchy looking when cut short, so the fact it looks this way now is not a surprise to me. Hopefully when it grows out, and with time, it will improve!

No problems. In fact I had a beautiful daughter while on Fina, she is 2.5 years old now and healthy as can be. In reality the proportion of ppl who are affected by sides on Fin are very small (is it about 2%?)

Dr Elif for me, 6 sessions over 3 days and she did it all. I noticed from other HLC reports that the other doctors tend to rotate for extractions and placement, as it was for you I guess?

Mate I'm sorry it does look like the work done was sub par, although as you know at 5 months there is still plenty of time for improvement. I would say that your donor area does look patchy yes but to the average person on the street I don't think they would look twice at it, I don't think it looks awful. It's not as bad as you think. Best thing to do I think is consult with some top-tier surgeons (I see you've already started) and see what they say, also given a repair is inherently more complex in person consultations would be best. It is recoverable and it's not as bad as you think. You look fine from what I can see.

Hey another HLC patient! Happy for you man, looks great at day 11. Which doctor did your procedure?

Amazing regrowth on the crown. Congrats! Can I ask you: How long have you been taking finasteride in total? Are you literally using .83 ml (i.e. 5/6) topical mixox daily; or do you mean 5 to 6 ml daily? Why this amount, when the recommended dose is 2 ml daily? Where did you get your HT? I saw your thread re abortive surgery at Pekiner...

Already some hair where there was none, I guess these are the non-shedders. Just a waiting game now. Good luck!

Thanks for the update. I would take that comment about fibers as a huge compliment tbh. Unfortunately jealous people will always find something bad to say even if it means making things up!

Who are the surgeons mentioned in this thread you feel are lacking in ethics?

Hi mate. I was considering Dr Demirsoy too I like his work a lot. Looks like a sensible strategy considering your starting position to concentrate on the front and mid scalp in this first procedure. It does look like a second procedure will be needed for the crown unless you're a super-responder to the fin! Interesting your shed was quite aggressive. I am approaching 3 weeks post op and not had a much shedding yet (I am sure it will come soon). I wonder what relevance the shed has to the end result if any?

Looking good mate. You can tell this is gonna be a home run, you must be well pleased

Hi Kramer thanks for your support! Let's see how it grows out, everything is great so far. Excited to see how it turns out although I am mindful I need to wait at least 9-12 months before I can judge the crown at least - the frontal third maybe a little earlier.

Hair of Istanbul aren’t undercutting, they charge a flat fee of £4000 which is roughly double the average hairmill price. They seem to be marketing themselves as an upmarket/VIP experience for the Instagram crowd Recently they got themselves in the tabloid press by giving a hair transplant to some kid from a boyband who definitely didn’t need any work doing. I’d give them a swerve if I were you

It’s a good question but unfortunately I neglected to ask for the doctor’s assessment of total donor capacity. I was a bundle of nerves and excitement on the morning of the assessment. I do remember Dr Özgür saying I had a large area to cover (my head is v big) but that the donor is also big so he had no concerns about it. Once the hair has grown out a bit I’ll post a pic of the donor, not much to see there at the moment. One of the clinic’s main selling points is donor management so I should hope they’ve left some in the tank!

I think your transplant has been a great success. To be honest it looks like you can wear your hair brushed back if it is styled properly. I like it.

Hi Phil. Thanks for your support! Re the midscalp - nothing was mentioned, other than I was instructed to continue with finasteride and also to use minoxidil foam twice daily starting approx 1 month after the surgery. I think the doc mentioned this was to retain existing hair, but in fairness I knew the importance of this already and wasn't surprised. I am planning to add .5 mg dutasteride 1x per week as a matter of fact as a little insurance policy. I have used minox on and off in the past, but not consistently due to laziness and I wasn't sure if I was responding or not. I will follow the doctors orders though and plan to start in a couple of weeks with it.

Here is my current status. All of the scabs have fallen off and much to my amazement the surgery is mostly unnoticeable at this point (some minor redness remains on the recipient area). I think to the layman it just looks like I cropped my hair short. 16 days post op

Hi all. I am a 36 year old man from the UK. I want to share with you my hair transplant progress. I had 4938 grafts at HLC in Ankara, Turkey on 5th, 6th and 7th February 2020. I chose HLC after consulting with various clinics over a 6 month period. HLC fit my criteria: doctor performs the procedure themselves, manual extraction, stick & place technique. I also liked their results, some of which are just insanely good, and found them to be good to deal with. All of my consultations were done over email. I also got talking on Facebook to a Mexican guy who had been to HLC and had nothing but good things to say, and his results were incredible. Being able to talk to a genuine patient sealed the deal for me. I first became aware of my hair loss at around 19 years of age. Even at that point, I had some thinning on the crown. Since then I have also receded at the front and thinned on top, as you can see from the pictures below. I have been taking finasteride 1mg per day for around 10 years now (I can't remember exactly how long) and I think it has helped me retain a reasonable head of hair. I felt at 36 years of age, after first considering a transplant about 8 years ago, now was a good time and a sensible time to do something. The experience with HLC was excellent. You stay in an apartment with 4 bedrooms, just over the road from the clinic. I was a bit apprehensive about this communal living arrangement at first, but I really enjoyed the experience and made a couple of friends while I was there. The staff at HLC are superb. All meals are provided. Pre-op photos (for the consultation) Surgery plan 1 day after surgery Graft report Graft placement I had 2800 grafts in the frontal third at a density of 50 per sq cm in the hairline; grafts at 20 per sq cm were placed in between native hairs further back I also had 2000 on the crown at a density of 30 per sq cm (of those on the crown, 711 were beard grafts) My donor has many singles and doubles, not so many multiples unfortunately. Not much I can do about that. I was aware of this, as when I cut my back & sides very short a lot of scalp was visible. I was briefly concerned I might have DUPA but the surgeon assured me this was not the case. In view of this, the doctor proposed to take 500 or so from the beard (although this ended up being 700) and I happily agreed to this.