16 Months Post Op Istanbul Dr Emre Karadeniz

[CAMPBELL]

Firstly Gents, as many of you will already be aware, I have been cataloging my HT journey in my own Profile Section with sequential monthly updates listed with photographs over the past 'year-and-a-bit!.'

 

A lot has happened 'up top' since that pretty scary decision to travel to a city I'd only read about (Istanbul) in a country I'd never been to, to submit my noggin/melon to the knife of a person I'd never met!! Even on the morning of the taxi ride to the clinic from my hotel, I was having second thoughts and doubts about what I was about to do..!

 

Thankfully, with Emre and his team, my worries were soon put to bed and the experience was as relaxed and comfortable as anything like this realistically can be (it is still surgery after all!).

 

16 months later and I have a whole lot more self confidence in how I come across to people and about how I look. No longer is there an 'old fella' of a stranger gazing back at me from my shaving mirror in the morning!! And I have noticed that quite a few people have said to me that I'm looking really well (odd thing is...nobody seems to have noticed the hair change...the fact that 'I have hair on top' now!!! So I question just how much attention people actually give to your hair or notice the things that obviously affect us). But people 'do' notice 'something.' And it's something 'positive and good' in their eyes. So I'm accepting the gracious, well meaning compliments, whatever the reason behind them!!

 

This coming weekend I am popping into the 'big smoke' of central London Town to attend a presentation by Dr Ali Emre Karadeniz, MD (Emre!), the gentleman who conducted the surgery (& get a checkup on my progress). .

* (I'm not a 'thingmajigg rep or anything' however if you're really interested I can be available for hire for shed loads of money into my Swiss Bank Account! haha).

 

 

Anyway!... he will be giving a talk to potential HT clients who want to find out more about the process, what he does as a surgeon, what can be realistically achieved through HT and the costs. It's open to all so if you check on his website or email him you'll get the details. Just with my own positive experience I thought it was worth mentioning, as 'I know' the hard work it is to research all these guys via the internet (I did it!!) but the chance to talk in person to a surgeon is a huge, huge benefit.

 

Okay..! Have a look at my pics on the profile page (if you're really bored today!) and good luck with all your research in finding the right surgeon 'for you.'

Good luck guys in your HT Journey !

Edited October 5, 2015 by CAMPBELL
grammar

[Wwiizzkkiidd24]

nice!

 

thanks for giving us the update and let us watch your journey.

 

do you plan on having anymore hts or is that your lot?

[CAMPBELL]

You know how it is. "Never say Never..!"

 

For now ... I'm more than happy! Thanks

 

Campbell.

[Mick50]

Big difference from where you began, I seem to remember you say you were going to give it the full 18 months before final judgment do you feel things improved post 12 months op ?,texture thickness etc ,

congratulations again great you can carry on with your life without worrying about your hair

[Wwiizzkkiidd24]

You know how it is. "Never say Never..!"

 

For now ... I'm more than happy! Thanks

 

Campbell.

 

 

glad to hear it Bro.

[CAMPBELL]

Good memory there Mick! Quite right, that's what I said. I felt that just two months short of that 18 month point now that 'realistically' I'm not going to see any major changes 'now.' I 'think' this is as good as it gets to be honest (I'm pretty realistic in my expectations anyway).

 

The success of it has 'ex-ceded' my own personal expectations and that is a bonus. I would have been as happy with it even if the yield success hadn't been as much (ie: if not so many of the grafts had taken successfully). I'm in my 50s now so I'm not a spring chicken. The level of hair loss was getting high, so the area to cover was pretty large and none of us have unlimited quantities of donor hair to harvest. So...I would have been happy in my own mind with 'an improvement' on my hair loss (again just being realistic and not setting myself up for a major fall).

 

Sixteen months down the line and the transformation (from where my 5a starting point was with the hair loss ) is just astounding. So I rate it 'in my book' as a huge success.

 

I guess genetics play a part too. My hair is naturally thick, course and wavy (lending itself to giving a better 'impression' of being thicker coverage). According to Emre, most of the donor hair 'took hold' and established itself in its new place of residence on my noggin! All good.

 

When I think back to being in Istanbul by myself, wandering the back streets of the Asian quarter having mint tea and listening to the mosque 'call to prayer' I felt like a spy from a Le Carre novel!! It felt so middle eastern and exotic...I loved it. So the actual stay in Istanbul was as much part of the experience 'for me' as the actual HT. I remember lying on the clinic bed getting hair pushed into my head (felt like drawing pins being pushed into a cork board!) and gazing out of this huge plate glass window about ten stories up, overlooking the sea and some off shore islands. There was an electric lightening storm going on with electric forks arching across the sea!! magical.

 

I have really good memories of the whole trip. I know many folk just get focused on going to the clinic, getting the job done, and then out of the country again, without really even experiencing the culture of the country they are in. I felt it relaxed me to embrace the culture and enjoy the people and food of this amazing place. I'd recommend it to anyone

 

PS: I see that I joined this forum in 2009, and had my HT nearly a year and a half ago. Seems I didn't rush into things with the HT and I'd caution/advise anyone else out there thinking about it to do the same. Just take your time, a year or two won't make a major difference, but getting the right surgeon (within your budget, realistically) does make a huge difference and 'we all' want to make the right choice and be able to say later down the road that we were 'happy' with the result and our choice of place to go.