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Oh staying with them is even easier! They basically have an Airbnb in the same building on a different floor as the clinic. Don't expect a luxury hotel, but it's pretty decent and felt more comfortable to come back to than to get a transfer to a hotel after surgery (the Sheraton is basically opposite of the clinic, but being able to just take the elevator down in a shirt and tracksuit bottoms was super convenient), I'll attach a few pictures. On the first night they had food and breakfast sitting in the apartment for me which was a nice touch and in the morning they just pick you up from the room and take you up to the clinic. Depending on what time you arrive there is a really nice mall (Watergarden) with a decent food court and some restaurants about 400 meters away from the suites to grab some food and/or snacks on the first night. Ataşehir district is quite businessy so there is not too much else to see in the area so it was nice to have look there.

Airport wise, Istanbul has got two airports, one on the Asian, one on the European side. SAW airport is closer than IST, but if you're getting picked up it from IST doesn't matter. Might even see a bit of the city as you have to cross the Bosporus over the bridge (depending on the time you might get stuck in traffic though).

All in all Dr. Biçer makes it quite easy for her patients. It's still Istanbul, so depending on where you come from it might feel a little loud and overwhelming esp. with a bunch of cash in your wallet and shortly before getting any kind of surgery. I had been to Turkey and Istanbul a couple of times so I was pretty comfortable, but I'm sure you'll be fine too. If it makes you too nervous and you can afford the difference, pay by card, but if money is a little more tight, there is no issue on the Turkish side bringing cash if you're getting picked up. 

Hope this helps, I've been meaning to do a full write-up of my experience this year, which I will, but you chose a great f*in surgeon with Dr. Biçer. She did a great job, was super competent and sweet at the same time and I felt super comfortable with the whole team.

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I did not pay by card and also didn't use the taxi service they provide myself, but I know they pick clients up from the exit inside the airport and drop them off straight outside the hotel. So if you decide to carry cash it should be pretty safe either way.

Which airport are you flying in to and where are you staying? 

1 hour ago, Dhhhh said:

My problem. With this forum is that people don’t call out bad work from affiliated surgeons with the network 

All opinions about this transplant aside, I'm not sure what regular users would gain from giving dishonest feedback about any surgeons work.

That being said, it's of course okay to be critical but if @mark2137 or anyone else on here is happy with their result there's no need to be overly negative about it. There are tons of pictures and people can judge for themselves if this result is what they would like to see for their own transplant or not. I think it turned out nicely.

Hey guys, I thought I’d start a topic to collect your experiences regarding sleep after your HT and hopefully even some individual tips and tricks you might have to share.

Melvin shared this great video with his tips, maybe we can add some additional info with feedback from the community.

What was your experience? FUE or FUT? Are you a back/side/stomach sleeper? Which neck pillow worked for you? What’s your secret sleeping position that let you sleep like a baby those first few days? Any and all feedback is welcome.

😴

7 hours ago, DJ2210 said:

Had a few questions which were answered but none of the updates, pictures, calls etc others have talked about. I have also requested details of the procedure (pics,graft count,split etc) on about 5 separate occasions and nothing.

Did you allow them to use your pictures? I was thinking maybe that affects how much they follow-up with you…

20 minutes ago, Steve B said:

They also told me my graft count after the surgery (it was a little over 4000 but I forget the exact number). 

This is interesting, did you end up paying what they originally quoted you when they sent the offer after seeing your images? Or did they adjust the price according to the grafts they ended up using? I you don't mind me asking, did you pay cash or with card?

Looking good man! Left side doesn't look too bad to me!

13 hours ago, Steve B said:

Yeah so I actually spent that Sunday doing some touristy stuff. But yeah I had my mind set just heading back home as soon as she cleared me. She gave me a hat to wear over my head to prevent touching the area during travel and I slept with a neck pillow to prevent turning my head. You just need to be careful that you dont touch the hair until its safe to start washing on your own (she recommended using gloves to avoid accidentally scratching from nails). 

Bit of a silly question, what kinda hat did you get that was possible to be worn after the procedure? One of these top hat ones? Also, my surgery is on a Saturday as well, was hoping to fly home by Sunday as well… 😬

To cover up the donor redness and fresh scars I guess people go for the "shaggy" look on the sides/back as well. I would prefer to cut everything short until after the ugly duckling phase tbh, I'm (still) a hat guy anyways. Always wondered if that's okay to do as I never see anyone with a short cut on the transplanted area when in the phase of losing the transplanted hair.

15 hours ago, Snow said:

There you go mate

Thank you for the photos, the scars actually do look clean and I'm sure once the redness is gone this will be a great result. I'm now even looking forward to my appointment with Dr. Bicer next year spring!

17 minutes ago, Snow said:

i Can take a close-up if you want? She used 0.7-0.8 punch size.

That would be amazing, thank you!

Thanks for posting an update and thanks for showing such a close shave on your donor, this is super interesting. Can't see it too well, but are there "indentations" or little holes on your donor scars, similar to acne scars? What size punch did Dr. Biçer use?

Thanks a lot guys, that’s not what I wanted to hear, but I think I had to!

On 4/3/2022 at 5:46 PM, Fue3361 said:

There's not a single clinic from my understanding on these forums where you can get 3-4k grafts or 3k euros.  I don't see it happening.

There are clinics at these price points, but nobody here will consider them "recommendable" clinics.

That said, some are better than others.  But I'd at the MINIMUM save up to have about 5k euros.  At that point, your options open up (still not to recommended clinics, but much better than before).

Really, really appreciate this advice. I was aware that going with a technician-based clinic adds this element of uncertainty in regards to quality, but I guess I was hoping to maybe get recommendations for “a better” or “the best” lower cost clinics (or well, mills). But I will absolutely try to stretch my budget to 5k.

On 4/3/2022 at 5:16 PM, J.A.C said:

Please consider saving more for a decent choice of Dr/Clinic, this is not a procedure to be basing purely on cost. If you are going to consider affordable yet still decent Drs/Clinic's then consider Dr Bicer, Dr Turan, Dr Gur, Dr Demirsoy + Dr Yaman, but be aware the last couple of names have the occasional poor result. 
What you don’t want is a tech based procedure/hair mill. You need a Dr doing at least the incisions, and you want to be choosing a clinic that you have also seen lots of actual real reviews, not cherry picked ones. 

Thanks for this as well. I will contact some of your recommendations.

On 4/3/2022 at 5:45 PM, SeanToman said:

Had a great time with these guys,
Lovely bunch of people.  The procedure is done in an actual hospital.

I haven't seen or heard of a bad result from Elithair yet, but it's very important to note that tech's do the transplant itself, not Dr. Balwi!
He just draws the hairline and gives a brief consultation.  We don't know the tech's names or how long they've been doing transplants.
For all we know there could be a whole new team since I was there.

They seem to preform on two clients per day with two separate tech teams in separate rooms.

Happy to hear you had a good experience with them. They were really nice and tried to assure me that their technicians have years of experience in FUE and are well trained as teams. But when reading that Dr. Balwi is not involved in most of the surgeries at all and then saw the mixed reviews online, it did put me off. I do expect this to be mostly the same at the other less expensive clinics though.

Budget aside, maybe you guys also have some insight on my questions regarding graft count and SMP:

Originally from what I saw online, 3500 grafts sounded a bit much for a more conservative hairline and some added thickness, but now I think it’s actually quite realistic. What do you think?

I usually do get my hair cut quite short in the back and sides and would like to be able to do that after the HT. As I expect the donor scars would be visible I am already planning with SMP afterwards. How long after the transplant should I be able to get SMP on my donor? Or would you say it's unrealistic to expect to be able to get a shave like that after the procedure at all?

Thanks again!

Hey guys,

I also am looking for advice on where to get my FUE hair transplant. I’m based in Germany and have so far looked into Istanbul/Turkey only as my budget is around 3k Euro. I’m 42 y/o and basically had the same hair line for the last 10 years, I’d say I’m a Norwood 3.

Here are a few pictures:

My questions would be:

- How many grafts do you think I need? My first consultation said 3500 which felt like a lot.

- I’m usually getting a skin fade and would like to do so again after my donor area is healed up. Even with a close shave I guess the donor scars would be visible so I’m considering SMP afterwards. How long after the transplant should I be able to get SMP on my donor?

- Any recommendations on clinics in Istanbul for my budget? So far I only got a consultation at Elithair which quoted me 2700 EUR for 3500 grafts.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, super happy for any general advice as well.

Thanks a ton in advance!
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