Urschwob

The first washing or removal of the bandages was exactly 1 week ago. In my environment, those who knew about HT say that if you don't know it, you won't know it.

Der letzte Eingriff war genau 4 Tage her. Bezüglich der beigefügten Bilder bestätigt Dr. Keser, dass es sich in einem sehr guten Zustand befindet. Allerdings müssen die verbliebenen Krusten innerhalb einer Woche nach dem letzten Eingriff und somit innerhalb der nächsten 3-4 Tage entfernt werden! Weitere Bilder folgen am Freitag.

3 hours ago, BaldV said:

Tut mir leid, ich verstehe das nicht. Ich meine, in Zentimetern von der Spitze Ihrer Brauen, wie viel tiefer ist der neue Haaransatz, der durch die Haartransplantation entstanden ist, im Vergleich zu Ihrem natürlichen vertieften Haaransatz?

Sorry, forgot that. But we went approximately 3cm down

5 hours ago, BaldV said:

Sieht gut aus, wie hoch war dein Haaransatz vorher und wie hoch ist er jetzt?

Sorry, don't know that. He went approximately 3cm down.

2 hours ago, BaldV said:

Sieht gut aus, wie hoch war dein Haaransatz vorher und wie hoch ist er jetzt?

The first line Dr Keser made was exactly between my original hairline and the new hairline

Hello everyone,

First of all, I used for this the Google translator because I'm from Germany an my original post has been on a German page in German language, but I think it's fair if I share all of my experiences with my first HT with Dr Muttalip Keser in Ankara with all of you, as I would also like to thank everyone who took the time to share their experiences here in the forum. I have benefited in one way or another from all of these reports, comments, notes and tips! So thank you again for sharing your experiences with us and I wish everyone would do so here...even if it's just pictures! No matter where he had his HT!

I will now go very far and address in detail all the topics that occupied or surprised me when I was researching before the HT, during the HT and afterwards.

I am 37 years old, Turkish, non-smoker and athlete. I have never used any tablets or hair products! I have had the current, stable condition for almost 5 years.

I came into contact with the topic of HT 20 years ago when my uncle had his first HT (FUT). The result was and is not good! Now, over the last 4 years, I've dealt with it rarely and superficially (only YouTube videos), because here and there someone close to me had HT. HT was recognized immediately in 70 percent of these people and I repeatedly saw terrible results of HT on the street or in the "Turkish nightlife of Stuttgart". This was also a reason why it was never really an issue for me personally!

Since the HT in my environment had become more and more frequent in recent years and my high forehead and receding hairline were bothering me more and more, the idea was no longer so far-fetched for me!

At some point two years ago the topic of HT came up between me and a colleague.

By the way, I was never sure whether he had HT or not. So depending on the light or its styling, I was more or less sure. I didn't want to ask him about it because I think that would be very rude. From this conversation he then revealed to me in confidence that he had HT. It was definitely very good work, especially since he showed me his old pictures of it and I could compare it!

My colleague is a perfectionist, a smartass in a positive sense! So I knew immediately that he had checked out all aspects of the topic of HT from A to Z and once he got going, over the course of months he told me everything about the topic that he thought I should pay attention to and know. He had his HT 6 years ago with Dr Keser and I saw the results every day at work!

Long story short, after months of “advice” from my colleague and collecting information from various forums, it was clear to me that it would be Dr Keser!

So it was time to save more money and wait for the right time.

Why Dr Keser?

1. I had my colleague's result (hairline) in front of my eyes and various photo reports on the Internet

2. the doctor carries out all the important steps and this point was non-negotiable for me

So in February 2023 I contacted Dr Keser for the first time via WhatsApp.

He received photos and videos of my head so he could tell me if it made any sense. I have been working as a sales representative in the construction trade for 20 years and this was not a sales pitch from him, which I really liked and put me at ease!

What I also found very good were his answers to various questions. For example, according to the number of grafts. He replied "I won't judge that until you are there, estimated between 1900 and 2200, assuming four days and 500 grafts per day and an extra day for unexpected findings or checks/washing".

My cousin, on the other hand, received the blanket answer to this question from a clinic in Istanbul: "5000 grafts"... and we have very, very similar requirements!

At that time my colleague at Keser had 2,000 grafts! I had always wondered why Keser, Pekiner or Ferudini could handle 2000 grafts and the clinics my friends went to in Istanbul always spoke of 4000 or 5000 grafts!? Does anyone know that?

A second conversation took place in July 2023 to fix the date for December. He told me that I should send him my blood test results and the flight ticket booking by October at the latest. He recommended a few hotels to me that were close to the practice and that I could book at a discount as a patient.

That means I had to take care of the flight and hotel bookings myself.

Direct flights Stuttgart/Ankara, outbound flight on Sunday December 17th. and return flight on Friday December 22nd! 5 nights!

My hotel was called "King" and was in the perfect location, a 5 minute walk from the clinic.

 The two transfers from/to the airport were organized by the clinic and they worked really well.

A week in advance I was informed that it would start for me on Monday afternoon at 2 p.m. because an American (actually Polish guy) would be there that morning.

Greetings to Sebastian from Chi-Town! You're a good boy and I wish you happy growing!

I was previously expecting a maximum of 2,500 grafts and I also brought the €9,900 allowed by law with me to Ankara because of the hotel bill!

For transporting money and generally for city trips, I use an ultra-flat belt bag/bum bag. You can wear this under your shirt or sweater without anything being noticeable. For safety reasons, I absolutely recommend it!

On the way from the hotel to the surgery (for me it is more of a surgery like I know from Germany, i.e. not a clinic, although I don't know the definitions either) there was a pharmacy and a shopping center with a food court. So the location was perfect. What wasn't perfect was my hotel room. It smelled like cigarettes. I only noticed this on the second day due to a cold. For me as a non-smoker it was disgusting. Doctor Keser had also offered to get me involved so that I could get another room, but a) I was exhausted from the first day and b) I had already spread out in the room and c) I was in a corner and it was rather quiet there.

 In general, he offered that I could contact him if I had any questions or problems of any kind during my stay.

A little hidden, directly to the right of the hotel, not on the way to the surgery, but away from the surgery, was a mini market where I treated myself to 6x 1.5 liters of water and sweets! They said you should drink a lot because of the swelling!

Dr Keser's surgery is located in a kind of medical center. There is another surgeon and a psychologist in the building. There is also a currency exchange office there. As I said, on the way from the hotel to the surgery I had everything that was important to me.

So I was in the surgery on Monday at 2 p.m.

I was welcomed by Funda, one of Dr Keser's two assistants.

Since I speak Turkish very well, I had no problems.

There is also a translator (I think his name is Ahmet) on site and his translations for the American into English were correct as far as I could tell!

When I entered the practice I had to put covers over my shoes. So nothing with adilettes, socks or slippers. If I had known that, I wouldn't have worn leather sneakers but comfortable fabric sneakers. Luckily I was wearing comfortable sweatpants and a loose sweatshirt.

His second assistant is called Senem. I'll get to the two ladies later.

Funda informed me that it would be delayed by 1 hour because there were delays with the US patient. The waiting time was sweetened with fruit juice, cookies, Wi-Fi and a nice small talk.

The surgery consists of a very comfortable and large waiting area with leather armchairs, a kitchen, a relaxation room, a treatment room, Dr. Keser's office and two toilets.

At some point the place came to life and the American, the doctor and the translator came into the waiting area. Here I experienced my first real surprise: the American's head was completely bandaged! Shock! I had never seen it like this before in any forum. Later I would find out the good reason for this.

After the doctor said goodbye to his patient, he turned to me.

We also quickly went to the relaxation room where there was a sink and plenty of space.

Dr Keser and his two assistants as well as I got to know each other better, what my requirements are and whether my expectations are realistic or not!

In other words, he checked my donor area and the front area to be transplanted.

Then he made his first rough hairline as he could imagine it and talked about a maximum of 2000 grafts.

However, I found his hairline too high and asked him to lower it a little.

My colleague actually showed up at his place years ago with a prepared stencil and that's why he remembered it very well, which also led to a few laughs there.

After the optimal hairline was found, he made other lines over which I had no influence.

He informed me that we were now at around 2300-2400 grafts, but that he would only be wiser when the first grafts were extracted and that we could then plan the next procedures again at the end of the day.

Here again I had to think of my cousins who had 4500-6000 grafts processed in one day in Istanbul...I mean what kind of glaring discrepancy is that?!

Of course, photos were taken of my head before, during and after.

Then my head was shaved, washed, disinfected and, after changing, I went to the treatment room.

It started with the anesthetic injections.

I have to say, these really destroyed me! Really, I knew from my friends that the injections were brutal, but I never imagined it would be so bad. Why don't the doctors work with laughing gas or something? At least just to give these injections?!

First of all, the donor area on the right back was anesthetized, the doctor told me "we will work from right to left", i.e. parallel to the back and front.

Here I noticed what a well-rehearsed team the three of them are.

Keser extracted the grafts, Senem collected them and Funda then sorted according to the pattern: single grafts, double grafts and multigrafts.

The ladies counted each time (sometimes louder and sometimes quieter) and the doctor kept asking about the current status.

600 grafts were extracted after an estimated 1.5 hours.

Every time I showed signs of pain the ladies pointed it out to the doctor and asked me if I felt anything. Super attentive assistants who were also able to answer my questions during breaks. If I had some questions, they clearly referred me to the doctor, which I found extremely professional.

Important to mention, over the four days I counted occasionally out of boredom and Senem's counting matched the doctor's extractions.

After we finished we took a 20 minute break. During that time I was given cookies and fruit juice again and was able to look at the back of my head in the mirror and text with the family.

After the break, the assistants swapped activities. Funda, who had previously sorted the grafts, was now the one who had more work, because she now handed the doctor the grafts according to his wishes...i.e. one, two or multiple!

During this time, Senem assisted with the light or took care of organizational matters.

This is where so many people claimed in so many forums why Keser or Ferudini achieve the best results with few grafts: Stick and Place.

It then went like this: Keser positioned the needle according to space and angle, announced which graft he needed, Funda handed him the tweezers with the graft, hole, graft in, done!

Sometimes he changed his mind about the graft or an announcement like “the next five only multis” followed!

This went on for 600 grafts or 2.5 hours. After 400 grafts, I took another 10-minute break, which I was extremely grateful for.

Not to be forgotten, of course, are the numerous anesthetic injections for the area to be transplanted, which are really painful!

Afterwards my head was cleaned, completely bandaged and we were all off work. The doctor also told me that I didn't need a neck pillow and could sleep however I wanted because everything was protected with the bandage. That was a very very very pleasant surprise! But I still barely slept and was completely exhausted on the second day of treatment.

I have to say, everyone involved was exhausted afterwards and I'm wondering again how things fared for those involved in Istanbul with the 4500 grafts?!

To review the first day, we met at Dr Keser's office.

Here he told me what the condition of my donor area was and how the insertion worked. Here we agreed, at my request, that we would process 2500 grafts!

He told me that it would definitely be 2,300 and that he could process 2,500 grafts if necessary, but that this was his absolute upper limit as a matter of principle, as there are generally 5,000 very good grafts in the donor area.

As I write these lines, my cousin tells me that 4500 grafts will be processed during his first HT in Istanbul and another 5500 grafts will be processed in the summer of 2024! As mentioned, we have absolutely similar requirements...! I do not have to understand everything!

So I'm not mentioning the names of the Istanbul clinics here because I haven't had my personal experience, I'm just trying to tell you what I learned at Keser and that these big differences are a mystery to me!

When it came to the topic of “payment,” I asked him to please keep all of my money in his safe and then, if there were fewer grafts, he should simply give me the difference back. I also received a receipt from him.

I read online about a Korean guy who had done the same thing.

I also felt more comfortable with it because I was no longer running around with so much cash and didn't have anything in the hotel anymore.

On the way home I stopped by the food court and ate at Burger King.

The whole thing was repeated three more times from 2:30 p.m. and in the end it was as follows:

 600+650+650+600 grafts over four days!

Of course, we also made small talk during the treatment and took a short, extraordinary pee break.

During a break I asked him why I can hardly find anything about him in German forums or official information on Insta/Facebook?! To this he simply replied with "my work is the best advertisement for me, my patients come to me through recommendations and word of mouth"! Sounds understandable, that's how it was for me too...

Every day the swelling got worse and I had to spontaneously buy sunglasses because my eyes looked really bad. It also felt like the injections were becoming more painful every day, especially injections that went into the swollen areas were bad. But these were still bearable and as I said, the assistant Funda and Senem were very attentive and obviously very competent, as Dr Keser never had to repeat his announcements or correct anything. If I remember correctly, they have been assisting the doctor for 9 and 11 years.

On the fifth and last day, Friday, my head was washed at 11 a.m. and the girls showed me how to use the cream (Thiocilline, obtained in the practice) and what I should pay attention to from now until when!

Then I was recommended to take 5 mg of biotin for 3 months and that was it. I didn't get that! That surprised me too and I asked because my friends came back from their HT with real medical kits. Senem's answer was "No, just the cream for 1 week until your scrap is gone, baby shampoo from the second day and the biotin for the next 90 days as soon as you get it"!!!

When I asked, brands for biotin were recommended to me.

I was picked up from the hotel at 2 p.m. and that was it!

As you progress, you will of course continue to find new pictures here in the thread.

Conclusion:

I know countless people who had HT for a little less and who also told me about it in detail. Unfortunately, for many people around me, the issue of HT is a question of money. After all, you have to be able to raise the money first.

Based on my expectations of an HT and my ultimate experiences, I can only say that when it comes to this topic I was now able to recognize that quality may have its price and I notice the difference in many of my friends, many forum reports and my colleague concerns!

Of course, this doesn't mean anything to others and is not transferable to everyone, but I believe that you can at least get the best possible result for yourself from the clinic and that's why I was positive from the start because I saw the result every day with my colleague I had in front of my eyes how it should go and with many of my friends how it shouldn't go!

Dr Keser is a very meticulous, confident and precise doctor (the examples would now go beyond the scope). If the result is anywhere near as good as my feeling suggests, then I will be an overjoyed man in the summer of 2024. I still remember one thing Keser said to me when he said goodbye: "I've done my job, the rest is up to you."

I can write as much as I want here, in the end only one thing counts > the result!

There are also the pictures that I will post regularly.

I hope my body or head plays along and what all the other patients in all the forums say about Keser is confirmed for me.

Attached various collages. The bottom picture was taken yesterday, on day 5 (washing day).

PS: I found some typos and spelling errors. Sorry for that. Whoever finds it is welcome to keep it 😜