Helle everyone,
Wanted to create this thread as a thank you to all of you and give back what I can.
I’ve been a lurker for a while and this forum helped me pick a clinic.
A little bit about me first. 37 years old guy from Denmark. My hair loss started I guess in my late 20s, never really paid much attention to it or took any medication. I don't know my Norwood scale/level.
I decided on Turkey since my background is Kurdish and I speak Turkish okay-ish. Wanted to make a holiday out of it as well.
I contacted Dr. Bicer and Dr Yaman, decided to stick with the forum recommended ones, since it otherwise becomes a jungle
Both asked for photos and Dr. Yaman came back with an estimation quite fast. With Dr. Bicer, things didn't really went anywhere. They told I would get an estimate once Dr. Bicer takes a look. WhatsApp conversation just died after that. So I decided on Dr. Yaman.
Dr. Yaman recommended me to take Finasteride minimum 14 days before the surgery, which I did with no side effects.
I had the surgery scheduled for March 10th and took 3 days before and 3 days after (9 days total) in Istanbul. Everything went smoothly once I got picked up from my hotel on day 4.
Recommendation was 4200-4500 grafts based on pictures. Once I was there and Dr Yaman seeing my donor area, we went a bit higher. Crown area got a little bit grafts but will need another surgery, will reassess after 12 months and see how it goes.
Dr. Yaman checked the hair and my donor hair was on the ticker side with 6.2 micromilimeters(?). We spent some time discussing and agreeing on a hairline that would be age appropriate.
After that we did blood tests and PRP. Or maybe did blood tests first, can’t recall.
Once we started Dr. Yaman did all the incision himself. After this was done, another person (pretty sure his name was Muhammet) did the extraction with couple of other people pulling the grafts out.
After this was lunch.
Once lunch break was over, the implementation started. This was done by 2-3 women. Understanding Turkish was quite useful during this process and gave a good understanding of what was going on. Two of them sounded quite experienced based on our conversations and the conversation/instructions between them. The third who sounded newer than the other two, only did some top scalp and back scalp area. Hairline and front scalp was done by the most experienced of the three.
During the whole time, Dr. Yaman came in maybe like once in an hour to assess, probably saw him 6-7 times in total after the Incision step.
The day after the surgery they picked me up for a hair wash and instructions for the following days. Dr. Yaman also checked the result.
I have since taken Finasteride 1mg daily with no side effects.
Overall, it was a good experience and progress seems fine for now. Shock loss has slowly started, been seeing few hairs fall out over the last 2-3 days.
Will update this thread with updates occasionally.
Cheers everyone.
These 2 photos were some of the ones I sent on my initial contact.
Below are photos taken by the clinic on the day of the surgery, had let it grow out for this.
After the surgery