I have been following this forum for a while and I really admire the quality. I've seen this claim being repeated many times and I initially thought there must be some truth to it, coming from people so experienced in hair transplants. So I kept browsing to find the proof to help me with my decision to get a hair transplant in the future. So far, I haven't seen anyone being able to support the idea that Turkey should be avoided altogether in a meaningful way. What happens is, people link to posts of poor results coming from Turkey but they don't seem to consider that every clinic has bad results and what matters is the ratio. I'll try to address some arguments I see being repeated here as far as I can remember them.
Clinics in Turkey has a higher chance of producing bad results.
The reality is that Turkey has great hair transplant clinics with great success but it also has awful ones out to get your money. This is typical for anywhere. The difference is that hair transplant is a big business with thousands of clinics in Turkey so the number of bad clinics is higher. If you choose a good one, there is no reason to think it would have a higher chance of failing compared to any other country. There was a topic here and a member analyzed ASMED cases which admittedly seemed to be slipping recently and found out they still preserve a very high ratio of success.
Turkey must be avoided at all costs. There is no regulation in Turkey. A cab driver can be operating on you.
I admit that the standards of this business is not as strictly enforced as say, the US. There are people who aren't real doctors that own hair transplant clinics and make it look like they are doctors. But, these are so obviously shady you would recognize them from a mile away. It doesn't make sense to believe that a reputable clinic would hire a random person to operate on patients. In general, I find this claim really absurd because when someone agrees to have an operation at a certain clinic in Turkey, then that is it. It is not like they will be kidnapped at the airport and forced upon a HT at another shady clinic.
Hair transplant is cheap in Turkey so it must be bad.
What people fail to realize is that especially after the recent economic crisis, the value of Turkish lira has plummeted. The minimum wage is around 300 Euros and more than 40% of the working population is getting paid the minimum wage. So, a clinic which asks for 2 Eur/graft actually makes so much money in Turkey it makes sense for them to keep their prices at this level to keep the business flowing. Because their rent is in Turkish lira, they pay their staff in Turkish lira. Most of their expenses are in Turkish lira.
To minimize the risk, a hair transplant must be done at the best of the best in the world or not done at all.
This I see is a controversial topic. I myself would not spare money and I would go to the best. But I also know that there are so many people who would not be able to get a transplant in these top clinics in their lifetime because they will never be able to afford it. The Turkish forum is extremely active in terms of results being posted. And majority of these operations are performed in more affordable clinics most of you probably don't know about. So after browsing hundreds of topics here and there, I now believe there is a middle ground. The risk is worth taking in some of these more affordable clinics if you can't afford the best. There are clinics charging reasonable prices and still producing a high ratio of success, but obviously not as high as the best ones.
To conclude, I think hair transplant is an important decision and it should be approached with cold logic and not sentiment. And logic dictates that we should research the individual clinics as much as we possibly can and consider all the good and the bad results. Turkey has some awful hair mills with no ethics. It also has amazing clinics with doctors passionate about their work and then many many inbetween.
To answer your question, the best in my opinion are Muttalip Keser, Kaan Pekiner, HLC and ASMED. These are also the most expensive.