RobsHair16

As I said it’s luck of the drawer, chances are you will be fine, just one to think about as I had a really challenging flight back. Also as you said giving yourself a few days should help a lot as by that point your new hairs are really starting to bed in.

As above you are fine flying back a few days after, dependant on where you go, particularly in Turkey you will see patients who are clearly flying back the day after their surgery. My only advice would be if you can try to give yourself a few days recovery time, while you will likely have swelling by day 4 the recovery process will be well underway, also if you fly economy its a gamble who you are next too and spending a long flight protecting your precious new hairs is daunting but if they've had a good few days to recover takes some of the pressure off. In terms of spends, I signed up for a revolt card and converted what I need to Turkish Lira but think most currencies are on there, so was fee free and pretty good exchange rates , I did also take cash for the transplant and a bit spare for tips and stuff. Best of luck

Thanks @Jackdaniels and @jjalay I don't think for a second it's an issue with the surgery as it was Dr Yaman, I'me just more interested if its an after effect of the anaesthesia due to the patching, like you said I'm hoping the tenderness calms down over the next few weeks and then just a case of waiting for the area to recover. Always had a pretty good donor area even I 've tended to keep it quite long I've popped my pre consult photo below and the ones next are on day 3 post surgery

@Patricio I did try to figure out what was going on in the show but I could barely say thanks in Turkish so didn't have much chance, best of luck to you too, be good to see some progression photos if you have some, always enjoy looking at others progress

As per my experience post I had surgery 3 weeks today for 4500 grafts, I'm just hoping someone may be able to give me a better idea on donor recovery. My Donor is still quite tender particularly when sleeping and has developed what appears to be patches. I'm hoping its shock loss but would welcome if anyone can share any insights on this please.

I just looked at your first photos to now, can't believe the transformation what an incredible result and your donors look untouched.

From my perspective everyone’s choice is personal, I looked around a lot in the UK and was confident with a bigger budget and potentially two surgeries I could have got a similar outcome. I fundamentally balanced what I perceived as quality, outcomes and affordability and made the decision l that for what I could afford I couldn’t get the quality and outcome in the UK so opted for abroad

Ah glad to hear it but yeah I think removing the dressing was quite uncomfortable but I think the relief of everything looking pretty good out weighed the pain at the time aha. I’m just waiting for the shedding to begin as much as I’d love to be that few percent where it doesn’t happen I know it’s coming aha

Best of luck, hope all goes well 😀

Sorry didn't seem load photos in correct, Consultation Photo Bald head before surgery Hair Post op hair wash hair day 2 (no head band as advised) day 4 Day 10 Day 19

Before I start this post, it’s really important for me to thank all of those who run this forum and regularly contribute as it’s been an absolute god send for me in navigating to the decision I made, and I honestly think without this forum I would have made a huge mistake so thank you. Also there is a lot of background info in here which may be interesting to some but if you are more interested in the procedure its along skip the first few paragraphs. My Journey and Decision So I started losing my hair in my early 20s, it remained relatively manageable until my 30s as I had always kept it quite long so allowed for a fairly serious comb over. However from 30 onwards the comb over in isolation wasn't cutting it and started using Toppik. This helped a bit but as most of my thinning is at the front once my hairline disappeared it was time to start looking towards solutions. My hair below; Being completely new to this area I started to google and due to being relatively apprehensive around travelling for any form of procedure kept it fairly localised to the UK, the price range as you can imagine was broad anything from £2,000 - £10,000+. I stumbled across a company called Now Cosmetic who offered a fixed price hair transplant for £3,500 which in truth was around the maximum I could afford so got in touch to get more detail. They seemed helpful and far from pushy but were relatively secretive on who and where the procedure would be being carried out, however I felt quite positive at the end and did some further reading. I eventually figured out after deciphering reviews (good and bad) that actually the same clinic (Hair Growth Centre) offered the surgery direct for £2,000 I initially thought great.... I then did some more digging and found that there could be up to 8 patients being treated per day and the graft number wasn't going to come close to what I required. I spoke with the clinic direct and again while helpful these guys were much more pushy even offering to do a further surgery if required for £1250 which started to raise quite a few alarm bells as I couldn't understand how it could be offered so cheap comparably. I paused for a few months then my wife mentioned someone she had seen who had been to a surgeon in turkey, I had a chat with him and sounded as though he had a good experience and his results at least in photos looked good. I gradually felt more confident on the Turkey route and in doing that came across this forum which thank goodness I did, not having to navigate the false reviews and see genuine results all be it good and bad was reassuring and led me to making the decision to go with Dr Yaman. Before I finally decided I did a lot of reading of patient stories, results but also reached out to a few other clinics including those highly recommended on this forum including Dr Turan, Dr Bicer etc but in truth Dr Turan never responded and Dr Bicer was 2.5 Euros per graft so was significantly more than I could afford. Once I had decided I got in touch with the clinic and was put in touch with Doga who is the Clinic director, he explained the process and what would happen and advised if I wanted to progress I would need to send flight confirmation which I did. The bit which confused me however was that the surgery would ideally need to be paid in cash, being such a big amount this again did make me apprehensive but from speaking with others and reading this forum noticed it was quite common practice so just needed to be as cautious as I could. The communication as others have said is relatively sparse until around a month before where I checked all was still okay, Doga sent the hotel confirmation and asked for a head shot the morning I was departing so the driver could recognise me. My Experience Travelling out was relatively straight forward, there were a few issues with initial pick up due to one of the drivers being sick but within half an hour I was collected and quite helpfully for me had a small driving tour of Istanbul. I was collected at the same time as a nice lad from Texas who was staying in the centre and as I was happy to see some of the area from the safety of a car I was happy to be driven around, also helped in truth with occupying my mind ahead of the surgery. I arrived at the hotel at around 8pm which was the Royal Palace Stay Hotel, I had googled the hotel before I arrived and had my reservations but was pleasantly surprised, it seemed busier than I thought it would be and staff seemed friendly, I will say now though if like me you are going to be there for a few days, take snacks, drinks something to watch with you as if after your transplant you are essentially sitting in the room recovering there are no shops nearby and the food in the hotel is limited. If I was doing this again I would stay somewhere else, as I was sat in the room recovering I could see the price of a hotel a few miles down the road overlooking the sea with what appeared to be much better facilities on site was relatively cheap so I would advise the clinic you are booking your own hotel and I imagine providing it isn't too far they should accommodate you from a transport perspective. On the day of the surgery, I wasn't sure if it was the adrenaline, but I felt relatively relaxed, I was picked up at around 8:30am and taken to the clinic, I was met by Doga and led downstairs to have my blood taken to check for basic markers and prepare the PRP. I was then led back upstairs to the main clinic where I met Dr Yaman, now after reading lots of stories it almost felt like meeting a celebrity but as most have said a nice friendly guy who gives off a sense of calm which was reassuring. Dr Yaman did a full consultation with me examined my hair using camera which I could see on screen to look at the quality along with assess coverage within the donor area. Dr Yaman was honest with my hairline design in that even with 4,500 grafts I was going to struggle to get dense coverage and the more reserved hairline reflected that, but I was happy. Once that was done it all starts I was taken into a room, hair is washed, a few photos are taken and the head is shaved, quite a scary point for me as I managed to glimpse a look in the mirror and after having a comb over for so long didn't realise what little hair I actually had left. It was a good realisation of I've paid, I'm here, my hair is shaved time to get on with it. Once this is done you are led into room where you Doga explains the process again, and the anaesthesia injections start, I imagine like most of us this was one of the most nerve-wracking parts but it was actually over quite quickly and yes it was painful but you soon forget. Once your head has gone numb the graft extraction starts, this was done by two staff, I wasn’t sure if these were doctors or techs but it was around 2-3 hours on my front. On reflection I felt this was the most nerve-wracking part as you can see quite a bit of blood but I think it just spreads and imagine didn’t really equate to that much. Doga and Dr Yaman popped in a few times during the extraction phase to assure me all was okay and going well. Once that was complete, I had a quick lunch stop which was welcome and topped up my fluids as after the extraction phase I felt a little dizzy but I was assured this is normal and after half an hour felt fine. After lunch I went to different room to the extraction, the room had my photo on and could see my hair sat in the fridge waiting to be implanted. The next stage was the incisions and the final hair line design carried out by Dr Yaman, the hairline design took some time and you could tell Dr Yaman wanted to make sure it was right, once this was done I had some more numbing to my head (no where near as bad as the morning) and the incision process started. Dr Yaman was fairly quiet and could tell he was concentrating, but the process seemed quite quick and id say within an hour it was all done and the techs came in for the implantation stage. This stage took a while I didn’t check start time, but I’d say it started around half 2 and finished at half 8, I had 3 techs implanting while watching some TV show in Turkish. I tried to dose off a few times with no luck but felt fairly relaxed so time seemed to go quick. Around half way through one of the staff connected me to a drip can only assume I looked pale as I did feel quite cold by this point but similar to the morning Doga and Dr Yaman came in to check every few hours. I felt under the impression the staff were doing a good job and while there was a lot of talking and laughing good progress seemed to be being made. Not far from the end Dr Yaman did come and seemed to tell the staff off, I imagine by the response he was asking them to concentrate. This was the only part I felt a little vulnerable as obviously you don’t want to say anything to jeopardise the work they are doing so I was happy to nod along and providing all my hairs got implanted correctly and there wasn’t a risk to graft survival if it took a little longer no problem by me I was happy. Around 8:30 all was finished, the staff bandaged up my head and Doga gave me medication for the next 5 days, the driver was ready, and I went back to the hotel. I’m glad I took my own travel pillow as the inflatable ones are too small but I did make a mistake of having one with a slightly raised neck support, I regrated this instantly and had a very long night but this was to be expected and knew it would only get better. The next morning, I was picked up around 11 for the hair wash and bandage removal, I was pleasantly surprised how well things looked and the hair wash was fairly pleasant. Again, Doga went over the medicine schedule and reminded me to send him a photo in 10 days’ time to check on progress, or message if there are any problems. I was back at the hotel for around 1pm and now the long wait to go home began. As I said earlier I didn’t feel poorly but didn’t want to risk going walking so would have valued a nice hotel with a bar/café with a view to sit with a coffee to break the day up so would recommend a better location if you can. The travel home was more of a challenge than I thought, Istanbul airport is huge and very security heavy, so there is a lot of moving from que to que and when you avoiding a sweat getting to the gate takes longer than my normal pace. I gave myself 3 hours and by the time I had got through all the different checkpoints (this was midday) I didn’t have much time to explore the airport which I would have liked. Once I was on the plane (Turkish Airlines) I did unfortunately also end up next to the most rude individual who had no respect for boundaries and I consequently spend the next 4 hours worryingly making sure that my hair was protected so on reflection if ever I need to do this again for the small difference in price given the scale of things I will upgrade to business as the space especially going back is so worthwhile. At home the recovery has felt fairly good and within a few days I had got into a good sleep routine, it was amazing to see the small hair emerge and between a combination of paracetamol and a daily antihistamine I never had any substantial pain or itching. The strangest sensation was the scabbing while felt like a small cap on my head, despite washing and applying the foam each day I did have quite heavy scabbing still by day 10. As the photos show I did manage to wash this out but took around 2 hours and 4 washes. Overall, I’m really happy with the progress so far, my donor doesn’t appear to have recovered as quickly as some but I’m hoping with time it will. My shedding has been light so far, the photo below shows me at day 19, I imagine it will come but for the time being I’m enjoying a head of hair I haven’t had for a long time. I will keep updating as the months progress but I hope this is of help to some as much as it has been to me. Total Grafts 4550 950 Single Units 2150 Double Units 1450 Multiple Units