happyandsad

2 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

What did you take for the folliculitis? Could be an infection, I’d visit a dermatologist.

I used bacitracin and my friend who manages a pharmacy gave me mupirocin ointment.

I’m almost 3 months after my ht.  Had 3900 grafts done, mainly hairline and then dispersed throughout mid scalp and crown.

Ive had some folliculitis, which is getting better, but I’ve noticed a part of my transplant area feels a little swollen and is actually numb to the touch.  No fluid or pus if I try to squeeze it - normal or no?  Could it be some type of scar tissue/collagen?

Day 31.  Got the sides and back buzzed down last week to even things out, but it's still growing in faster than the transplanted area (top) lol.  I am a little worried as the donor area (back and sides) seems to be a bit patchy/thin - maybe I'm a slow healer or shock loss?  Should I be worried?

14 hours ago, Egy said:

@happyandsad I contacted them, Ziya Yavuz told me that what happened is not his fault, while Hamid Aydin told me through the clinic's translator, that they wanted to make a video call with me, but that I never received.  I wish you the best (I have always written it in my posts) but if you tell me that you have found only good reviews of Ziya Yavuz, I tell you that it is normal that it is so, the clinic has opened it for a year,  how many patients do you want me to have operated on yet?  Few...

Did you follow up with them about the video call?  Have you filed any formal complaints with the hospital/clinic or take any legal action against them?  Again, I'm sorry for what happened to you.  It sounds like maybe inexperienced technicians were working on you.  Anyway, I don't want to go back and forth with you.  I appreciate your well wishes and wish the best for you as well.

I'm trying to upload my pics that were just taken to show my progress (day 10), but it's giving me an error and saying "upload failed".  Maybe @Melvin-Moderator can help me?

23 hours ago, Egy said:

@Jijypuru. if you go to your mail you will find some pictures that I sent you.  If that's not enough, I can send you the link where my donor area is taken as an example in a document written by the ISHRS about the black transplant market in Turkey, taken as an example of over haversting. I have opened  a report on this forum of my second transplant or better, of my transplant because I don't consider the first one, and in any case I wish you never to suffer what I suffered when I entrusted myself to Estetistanbul and Ziya Yavuz

Did you ever contact them about what happened to you?  What was their response?

His new clinic that I went to has gotten great reviews which is why I chose them.  They only did 2 patients per day, now they do 3 because they’re more popular, but some of the “hair mills” in Turkey do a lot more than that.  I personally felt like I was in good hands.

Hi everyone.  So I just want to share the experience I had with my hair transplant procedure last week.

I'm 29 years old and I've been wanting to do something about my hair for a few years now.  A lot of people thought I was crazy when I told them I hated my hair, but I know my body the best and I could clearly tell that my hairline was receding and my head was getting less and less full of hair over the last few years.  It really took a toll on my confidence.  Unfortunately, I could not afford a ht here in the US.  My barber is the one who told me about Turkey during one of my haircuts last year, and then I began to do my research.

I was originally going to choose Smile Hair Clinic in Istanbul, but after joining the Facebook group "Hair Loss Conquerors", I decided to go with Dr. Ziya Yavuz, as he seemed to have the most positive comments overall, and other users suggested him to me.  I booked a "sapphire" FUE with Dr. Yavuz for my brother and I, and we flew out to Istanbul from NY on Jan 11th.  When we arrived at the airport, it was Sunday AM (Jan 12th).  The car service was in the waiting area to pick us up.  They drove us to the Hilton in Istanbul, which was a beautiful hotel and we had a nice room with a great view of the city sky line.  We decided to do a guided tour of the city while we were there, because why not?

The morning of our procedures, we woke up and had breakfast at the buffet in the hotel.  We went back to our room, and the front desk called us to let us know that our driver had arrived.  We were greeted by a friendly older Turkish man, who drove us to the clinic (located in Acibadem Hospital) in a nice Mercedes sedan.  We were greeted by one of Dr. Yavuz's female patient coordinators in the lobby, who took us up to the clinic on the 4th floor of the hospital.  My brother and I filled out some paperwork, and then the doctor came out to introduce himself.  Dr. Yavuz was very friendly and spoke great English.  He had asked us if we were taking any medications.  My brother told him no, so he gave my brother a pill for relaxation (I'm assuming Xanax).  I take medication for OCD/depression, so when I told the doctor that I am on medication and had in fact taken one of them that same morning, he didn't give me the sedative, which sucked, because I had my own Xanax and didn't take it because I figured he'd give me something lol.  No big deal.

We decided I would go first.  I went into a room with Dr. Yavuz where he pulled up the pictures I had previously sent and asked me what my goals were.  He then got a measuring tape and marker and drew a hairline for me, and asked how it looked.  I agreed that I liked its and then I had my head shaved.  I then went into the operating room with the techs/nurses.  They drew some blood to test for HIV and other blood-related diseases and to get some plasma for the PRP injections that they administered before starting the procedure.  All test results came back fine.  Dr. Yavuz came back in the room to administer the anesthesia.  The first part was the "needle-free" anesthesia, which really just felt like some rubber bands snapping on my scalp.  The pain wasn't bad.  Then, the needle anesthetic came and it hurt a bit more in certain spots.  Dr. Yavuz was in the room for a little while while the techs/nurses started extracting the grafts and they showed me what the grafts look like.  Dr. Yavuz left and said he'd be back to open the channels once the extraction was done.  Not going to lie, the extraction was pretty damn painful.  There were parts where I wanted to ask for more anesthetic, because I actually felt like it wasn't working, but I stupidly didn't say anything.

 I still had an IV in my arm so I believe they had actually sedated me a little more, because I remember falling asleep for a while and being a little drowsy when I woke up and they were still doing the extractions.  Dr. Yavuz then came back in the room to open the channels.  He asked how I was doing, then showed me the sapphire blade.  He opened up the channels in my head, which wasn't that bad compared to the graft extractions.  When he was done, the techs/nurses went to work on putting in the grafts.  Some more pain during this part, but again, I think the extractions were the worst.  I was pretty drowsy and kept moving because I was actually falling asleep lol.  The techs kept asking me to stay still, and I apologized.  They were not speaking English during the procedure, only when they told me not to move.

After I was done, I was brought into a room where I was given a lunch.  My brother was still having his done in another operating room.  I think the procedure lasted about 5-6 hours total.  More so than the pain of the procedure, I think the worst part was trying to lay comfortably for that long stretch of time.  The "table" I was laying on was more like a dentist's chair, so it was hard to lay in certain positions.

Eventually my brother came out of his procedure and all went well, though he agreed it was painful and said that they gave him more anesthesia at one point because he was agitated and he also took a lunch break in between.  They wrapped our heads up, gave us the meds we needed to take for the next few days and explained the instructions.  They also told me they were able to do 3900 grafts for me, as I was initially quoted 3800.  My brother was estimated at 3500 grafts and he ended up with 3600.  The the driver took us back to the hotel and the next morning, he picked us up again and brought us back for the follow up.  They took our bandages off and applied some iodine-type substance to our donor areas and send us on our way.  The next day, we were picked up again for our first wash by the same car service company that picked us up at the airport (not the same driver in the Mercedes that took us to/from our clinic appointments previously).  The patient coordinator explained to us the washing/after care process, as the nurse washed our heads.  The doctor also came to see us and see if we had any questions before we left.  Of course, they also tried selling us some extra supplements but there was no pressure, and we declined.

My only real complaint about this experience was that we had asked prior to going if they would accept a Discover credit card for my brother's procedure and we were told yes.  When we got there, they told us that the payment could not go through on a Discover card, so thankfully I had a MasterCard with me and we were able to pay with that and my brother gave me the money when we got home.  Would've saved us some stress, but at least it all worked out.

There's probably some other details I'm leaving out, but that's really it for the most part.  Overall, a good experience aside from the procedure itself being a bit more painful than expected.  The pain after the procedure and up until now has been minimal and I think everything is healing nicely so far.  I actually went to my primary care doctor today because I thought I had the flu (thankfully I don't) and I told her about the whole thing, and she even said it looks good and like it's healing nicely lol!  

All in all, I paid 2200 euros (a bit under $2500 USD) for the procedure which included 3-night stay at a Hilton in Istanbul and car service to/from the airport, all clinic appointments and the hotel.  My flight was about $1,000 USD but I had some credit card reward points so I paid about $850 for a round trip non-stop flight on Turkish Airlines.  Dr. Yavuz's team at Acibadem Hospital is super organized and friendly, and they reply very timely via Whats App.  I had some questions about some minor swelling I had when I returned and they asked me to send pictures, which I did, and I was advised to apply ice and keep taking the meds they gave (steroids, antibiotic).  I did, and the swelling went down the next day or so.  Keeping my fingers crossed that healing will continue to go well and that I'll get nice results.  

The first side by side picture shows me on the left in 2011 (age 21) and me about a week or so prior to the procedure.  The other pic collage are the pics I sent to Dr. Yavuz's team in November, and the mirror selfie is me just minutes after my procedure finished, followed by a pic from a few hours later.  Finally the gross pics of the back of my head/donor area are from the day after the procedure when the bandages were removed lol.

I'll post some new pics tomorrow since my scabs are finally starting to come off a bit and it will be one full week since this was done.  Stay turned for tomorrow's update!

On 1/16/2020 at 3:59 PM, Egy said:

@Glam the clinic (which is not a clinic but was advertised as such) was the Estetistanbul of doctors (or assumed it was) Hamid Aydin and Ziya Yavuz (the latter "advertising" the user @happyandsad in other thread)  and the agency was an Italian agency.

I'm not sure if I'm understanding your post correctly, but I am not "advertising" anything.  All I did was mention that I had a ht in Turkey with Dr. Yavuz last week and commented on my experiences of it.  I am now one week post-op with no problems and hopefully it stays that way.  Again, sorry that you had that experience, but I would hope that everyone is smart enough to do their own research instead of letting others convince them that they need to spend $10-$20k for a hair transplant here in the USA or wherever else they live.

21 minutes ago, Portugal25 said:

@happyandsad I can tell you that @Egy didn’t have a “bad result” Egy had a botched surgery that had to be repaired by another Doctor.
Even the world best doctors have had bad results but a Doctor that was responsible for a botched surgery that had to be repaired is someone that I would never recommend.
Egy is doing @gemini and everyone else in this forum a great service by alerting us about this Doctor. 
Thanks Egy

Again, it appears that he went to an old clinic that Dr. Yavuz used to work at.  I went to the clinic that he now owns and operates.  I’m very sorry that @Egy had a botched surgery, and I guess all I can do is share my experience and hope that my results come out good.

51 minutes ago, Egy said:

The only reliable places where you can see real patient results are forums like this, Facebook groups are piloted by consultants from these pseudo-clinics, and block users who have had a bad transplant.  The warranty is bullshit, we are not cars that can change the spare part.

Tomorrow in private I will send you some photos of the post operation with Ziya Yavuz.

Yes, there are Facebook groups like that, that are monitored by staff and they filter out certain posts.  I was part of one of those groups until someone messaged me and told me to join the group I mentioned, which ALL posts/reviews are allowed and nothing needs to be approved by a moderator in order to be posted.  So basically, it’s the same concept as this forum, and again, Dr. Yavuz had nothing but positive feedback on there.  Some other clinics had a mix of good and bad.  I’m not saying I don’t believe you had bad results, but I also don’t think everyone should avoid this guy because you got bad results at an old clinic he worked at 4 years ago.

6 minutes ago, Egy said:

@happyandsad My blood got stuck in reading that doctor's name, ruined my life, worked for estetistanbul three years ago, unfortunately I had the misfortune of meeting him, I have the donor area devastated because of him.  With me he limited himself to drawing the hairline and then I never saw him again, he made the kids do the operation that I don't know what title they had, when I contacted him some time ago, he told me that  was I am not responsible for the damage I have had, but I spoke to him before the procedure with no other doctor.  I wish you all the best, but I can't say otherwise.

Wow, I’m sorry you had that experience.  You are actually the first negative review I have read of him.  He now works at his own clinic in Acibadem Hospital in Istanbul, so maybe that was his old staff or staff from that facility that messed up your procedure.  During my procedure, he drew the hairline and administered the anesthesia himself.  The techs extracted the grafts, then Dr. Yavuz came back in the room and opened the channels himself with the sapphire blade.  Then the techs placed the grafts.  I guess we will see how it turns out, but on the Facebook group I mentioned above, everyone raves about him.  This came with a “guarantee” certificate for what it’s worth...

I just had my ht 2 days ago (Jan 13th) in Istanbul with Dr. Ziya Yavuz.  I’m 29 and flew all the way from New York.  He charged 2200€ (a little under $2500 USD for me), and that included 3 nights hotel stay at a Hilton and car service to/from the airport and to/from the hotel to the clinic for all appointments. 
 

I had FUE done and got 3900 grafts. The procedure itself was a little more painful than I had expected, but I can’t complain about the doctor, his staff, or the clinic whatsoever.  I’m very happy with how my hairline is looking and am now just waiting for the results.  I fly home today after receiving my first free wash, and today we went back for the follow up visit.  My brother came with me and we did it together.

If you’re interested in traveling abroad for your ht, I highly recommend joining the Facebook group Hair Loss Conquerors.  A lot of nice and helpful guys on there sharing their experiences and offering advice.  Nice online community and very informative, helped me to make my decision as to which clinic to choose.

Good luck!

Just wondering if anyone had any feedback on the below supplement.

XPECIA FOR MEN ANTI HAIR LOSS DHT BLOCKER NEW HAIR GROWTH FORMULA 60 TABLETS

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C3JD1YS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_bpJhEbXZF14Z9

I’ve seen people say they’ve used saline spray after their ht to help with the itchiness.

Another person told me they used this: Dr Wheatgrass Antioxidant Skin Recovery Spray 175ml - Great for Eczema, Molluscum, Skin Ulcers, Wounds, Burns and Many Other Skin Conditions https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001Q2CIK6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_b8veEb0107CTH

What do you guys recommend?  Do you think the wheatgrass spray is safe?

3 hours ago, duchaine said:

If you read the sides, taking oral minoxidil can make you die.
Anyway, if you read the researches on this topic, you can see great re-growth with no sides.

So would you take it or no?  Lol

I'm 29 and getting FUE done on Jan 13th.  I want to get on meds after to preserve my donor area in case I need another ht in the future, but I'm scared to take Finasteride.  A nurse I work with also said she would not take it at my age.  I am on an antidepressant (Luvox) for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/depression and Lamictal as an off-label use for OCD, so am I worried about how Finasteride could affect my mental health.

I read that oral Minoxidil is not commonly prescribed, but it's very effective, much more so than topical.  However, it's usually used for patients with low blood pressure as a last-resort at doses up to 40mg.  Those who take it for hair loss take anywhere from 2.5 to 10mg per day, which is supposedly a really low dose.

Anyone on it, or know anyone who is?

I have some recession on my temples that I’d like to have corrected.  Is this issue “fixed” during a ht?  What do they usually do?  I’ve never really seen anyone with grafts on their temples.

Even prior to losing my hair, I've always had trouble styling toward the back and keeping my hair from sticking up due to having a double cowlick.  I always have to mat it down heavily with gel or some other product.

If I'm having a ht and some work is being down near the crown, can they do anything to help fix that issue?

2 hours ago, Ian. said:

Hell man, I thought you were from like Uzbekistan or somewhere you needed a travel visa or something lol. 

You're in NY, why not go get a consultation with Dr. Bernstein. From what I've heard the guy doesn't have an ounce of bullshit in him. 

Perhaps more importantly, I checked out the link. The 13th photo looked really familiar to me, and I remembered seeing it on Realself's website. Check it out. https://www.realself.com/photos/fue-hair-transplant?tags=9953#media-photo-1622205-1494008-1  Apparently it was done by someone by the name of Dr. Karadeniz...

Tell me that's not the same photo just more zoomed in...

 

Hmmm it’s possible lol.  

The main reason for going abroad though is the cost.  Obviously, I won’t do it if it means I’m going to be disfigured for life or something, but if the worst that can happen is that I don’t get the best results possible, I’m willing to risk the $2,000 and learn my lesson as opposed to spending $10k plus here in the US.

Though I am delving a little deeper and am now starting to see that the nurses are the ones performing the actual procedure at this clinic, but the doctors do the consultations, which is a little worrisome.  But even so, the people who said this were still happy with their service and the results it seems.  And I’m assuming this is normal for these types of low-cost clinics.

Here’s a review from a guy who went there: 

Their Instagram pages also has a lot of before/after photos: https://instagram.com/smilehairclinic?igshid=gwgdy68dxufr

And by searching #smilehairclinic on Instagram, I found some people who went there, like this guy.  His looks like it came out nicely: https://instagram.com/cuthell22?igshid=ru72q6dfq5aq

59 minutes ago, Ian. said:

You’re the older brother, you have special license to pull rank on him. Especially if your paying for his trip/surgery. I don’t think you can let him go through a sketchy elective surgery with a clean conscience. You’ll hate yourself if it disfigures him for life. Besides, he owes it to himself to put in the time and do his own research.

 

I did a cursory search on Smile. I couldn’t find much. As far as I could tell they’ve been open for about a year.  I couldn’t find any actual before after photos. Not even on their website or facebook. I didn't spend a lot of time looking, maybe I missed them. Just people fresh after surgery or model photos of non-patients.

 

I’m not necessarily saying this about you because I have no idea, but it is really easy to trick yourself into thinking that you’ve done a lot of research on this subject. “I’ve done a lot of research” and “I’ve really done my homework” have been said many times by people on forums before surgery and then you scroll down and see terrible results 12 months later. Those phrases are almost like the kiss of death lol.

 

Where are you located?

 

We live in New York (Long Island).
 

I also found some before and after photos from Smile Hair Clinic patients here: https://www.qunomedical.com/en/smile-hair-clinic-at-moodist-hospital#beforeAfterPictures

1 hour ago, Ian. said:

I think it’s great that you’re looking out for your younger brother. Actually, I’m about your age and have brothers around your brothers age as well (hair loss runs in our family too😊). I bet that we’re also similar in that the last thing that we would is for one to be harmed by imitating decisions that we make ourselves. Whether we like it or not, we have a lot of influence on their behavior.

What about you? Do you feel good about going through a hair transplant, or are you reconsidering? 

I don't want you to be a lab rat for your brother, but at the very least, can’t he wait to see how your results turn out before making that decision? Like others have stated, in that time span he can try medication to see how his body responds. Why is the clinic recommending medication after the transplant and not before? To make their potentially mediocre results look better? By the way, we haven’t even gone into who would be performing you and your brother’s surgery..

 

Regardless of expectations, I think that his age does play a role in this. Twenty-three is an awfully young age to make a life-long decision like that. What style of hair does he plan on having? If he likes it short, a less drastic move would be to do what your 26-year-old brother does and rock the shaved head look. He does have a great shaped head for it, and he won’t be able to go with his current length with surgery.

 

 

 

Thanks for the response.  I do feel good about going through with a hair transplant for myself.  My main concern is for him, since he's younger and his hair loss is a bit different from mine.  I wanted someone to come on my trip to Istanbul with me so I wouldn't have to go alone.  I told him he could have his done too with me, since he's been losing his hair and I know it bothers him.  He seemed a little hesitant, but I told him to just come on the trip to Istanbul with me even if he didn't want to have it done.  But he said if he's coming to Istanbul, he's getting it done too lol.  I just want to do some more research for his sake before he actually goes through with it, because I'd feel partially responsible if he were to have it done and ended up with bad results.

We are going with Smile Hair Clinic.  I know a lot of people on here advise against those types of low-cost clinics, but I've done a lot of research on them and I haven't read anything negative yet.  Someone on these forums also mentioned in my thread that they've seen good results with this clinic, even though they typically advise against these types of places.

(if you're curious to see my hair, here's the thread I made: 

https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/55299-hi-everyone-new-here-and-considering-fue-do-you-think-im-a-candidate/?tab=comments#comment-522495

So, after discussing this with him in more detail, his main goal is to mainly to restore his hairline and add some thickness to his mid scalp.  Do you think he should move forward or would this just be a waste of time?

My brother and I plan on going to Istanbul in January for our hair transplants.  I’ve done plenty of research but I always like to hear different experiences.

How long did you stay and what was the flight like on the way back?  Did you get a lot of funny looks at the airport/on the plane (lol)? 

How was your experience overall?

19 hours ago, 1978matt said:

Hard to say for sure as his hair is buzzed so short...

..however, he looks like a NW6 is not far off and the donor area is not great.  A HT now could be a waste of time and not deliver anything better than the hair he has currently.  If anything it could turn out worse if the doctor does a stupid low hairline.

He very rarely grows his hair out because it has gotten so thin and now has a nappy texture to it when it gets long.  It wasn't like that in the past.  Here is one pic from a year ago that I found with it grown out a bit longer.

1 hour ago, LaserCap said:

The age has nothing to do with anything.  It is all about expectations.  If your brother's goal is to have a full set of hair, I would NOT do anything.  If his expectations are to have a class 6 hair loss pattern that will serve him well - then move forward.

With regards to medication, I would be more inclined to try the meds first to confirm they work.  A year later, if he is experiencing retention, then move forward with the transplant, concentrating most towards the front and blending grafts to the mid-scalp area.  I would NOT consider grafts int he crown area.

 

The thing is, he does have some balding in the crown area, it’s harder to tell in these photos because his hair is buzzed short. You can see the spots missing and thinning a lot more when he doesn’t get a haircut.

I don’t know that he’s expecting a full head of hair, but he definitely wants a normal hairline and some thickness added.

My brother is 23 and has some serious hair loss and hairline receding going on.  It actually started a few years ago and has gotten considerably worse.  I am 29 and our other brother who is 26 had the same problem, and he just shaves his entire head now.  Sadly hair loss runs in our family.

Anyway, my brother wants to get FUE with me.  He was told he can get at least 3,000 grafts and they recommend minoxidil and finasteride after.  Is 23 ok to have this done?  He may not have much hair left if he waits any longer.  Some of his pics below.