Hey Forum, I’m looking for input ahead of my January 6th HT surgery with Dr. Yaman. I’m getting the pre surgery jitters and would love to hear some input from this community. The things that are causing me the most concern are 1) Did I choose the correct Dr 2) Creating a NATURAL hairline 3) Overharvesting the donor area. Below is a quick blurb on my background & my decision process. Any guidance / insight would be greatly appreciated!
My Background:
Im a 30 year old guy from the USA who’s been loosing my hair for the last 5ish years. I’ve been on Finasteride and Minoxidil for the last 1.5 - 2 years. The medication has significantly stopped the hair loss and seemed to regrow a bit. As you can see from my photos below, my hairline has fallen back a good amount, especially in the peaks (I’m getting that count Dracula look), I also have hair loss at my crown.
With my family having baldness on both sides I am destined to have that medieval friar look bestowed upon me, because of this, I started looking into my options. My hair use to be a bit longer, but I have since moved to the buzz cut due to me not liking how wispy and thin it was looking at a certain length. I’m hoping with this surgery I can reinforce my hairline, fill in the peaks, and add density throughout, with the ultimate goal being to grow my hair back to a short / medium length.
My Decision:
I reached out to all the recommended Drs in Turkey that I read on the blogs...Pekiner, HLC, Bicer, and Keser were mostly out of budget. Out of the remaining group of Yaman, Turan, Gur I decided to go with Yaman (based on photos i’d seen and positive recent stories). Though I saw complains about his assistants preforming a decent amount of the work, as long as the DR was doing the important parts (hairline design / making the incisions) and the end result was a success, then it didn’t bother me that the assistants would be doing a portion of the work. I could be in the minority with my line of thinking on this, but I wouldn’t expect a USA doctor to do the whole procedure themselves and I also don’t think that this surgery is horribly complex. Any-whom, that was my thought process and now i’m scheduled for Jan 6th.
1) Dr. Yaman - I’m not sure if it’s my laissez-faire attitude or trying to fight through all the misinformation im reading on the internet, but i’m getting the pre surgery jitters. I’ve seen a lot of comments on various boards about Yaman having “bad results recently” and I’m not sure if this is just some fake echo chamber talk or real! I’m looking for some REAL advice on what people think of Yaman? And is there a difference in his work and the others in his same class (Turan / Gur)? Would you feel comfortable with a surgery handled by him?
2) Creating a NATURAL hairline - You know when you analyze something so much that you kinda don’t even know what looks good or bad anymore, thats where i’m at right now. A top priority of mine is to have something that looks natural and not so 90 degree sharp. I’m afraid i’ll get to the appointment, and it all goes so fast, and then i’m completely at the mercy of the doctor. Im 30 years old and don’t want to lower my hairline (i’m fine with showing some age), i just want to reinforce the hairline and fill in the dramatic “Dracula” peaks...Any advise on how to design a hairline? or what you’d recommend for me?
3) Overharvesting - Many of the complaints I saw in the forums about many Turkish doctors was the threat of overharvesting. To protect against this fear, I decided to come up with my own number of grafts I felt comfortable with, that would then help negate this overharvesting being a problem.
Most of the American resources and studies I saw to told me that they wouldn’t recommend a HT with over 2,500 in a sitting. While realizing that western doctors are quite conservative in most things, I was thinking about setting my own limit to 3,000 grafts.... Upon initial consultation via WhatsApp, Dr. Yaman recommended 4,000 grafts. I’ve see lots of people getting 4,000+ transplants online and I know a lot of this depends on my donor area (from my non-educated opinion I think my donor area is quite healthy and thick with no thinning above the ears)... but i’m curious if 4,000 Is too many for one go? How should I best protect myself from an overharvest?
Thanks so much to anyone who is willing to provide some advice! I’m planning on documenting my experience and growth to help giveback to this community!
