Dr. Emrah Cinik - 2500 Grafts - USA to ISTANBUL

[TillerMaN]

Hello everyone!

 

I'm from Los Angeles California, 36 years old, and just traveled to Istanbul Turkey for a FUE 2,500 grafts operation with Dr. Emrah Cinik and his amazing team. I'm sharing my story because I feel like I might save some nice people just looking for help a SHIT ton of money.

 

SIDE NOTE: Dr. Cinik and his team don't know I'm writing this. I just remember how I felt a few months ago... clueless - but I had finally decided I wanted to go under the knife. I had no idea who to choose. If you're looking to get a HT, hopefully my story will help.

 

In southern California. FUE operations roughly cost $8 a graft. That means my operation would have cost $20,000 plus tax in LA. I was quoted prices ranging from $12,000 - $20,000. I understand that price isn't everything, but please... it's obviously VERY important. My thoughts on it are if some whack doctor is peddling $5 street corner hair transplants, odds are they aren't going to stay reputable and people would warn others to STAY AWAY. No one would willingly pay to get their head messed up even for free. Shaving your head and going bald is a much better alternative to a bad HT.

 

From what I've read, Dr. Cinik has been doing this over ten years with ZERO bad reviews. I couldn't find a single one. I talked with many reputable doctors in the US, Europe, Turkey, and India - but after reading dozens of positive reviews and seeing Dr. Cinik's work all over these kind of forums, I chose him. The dude seems like a legend.

 

Like many others, I thought it was too good to be true. But that's why I'm here. I did it and I couldn't be happier I did. I paid $2,150 cash (1,990 euro) plus a $930 flight. That's IT. $3,080 total. Ground transportation + 3 night hotel was taken care of. Long story short, if you're from the USA and want to save about $17,000, get your ass to Istanbul.

 

I'll post my pre-operation pictures here first. The first short hair pictures are from early 2016 before I started using Rogaine daily again and began finasteride (zero side effects from either btw). Those drugs helped a TON and I grew my hair out for a year. Realizing that's the best I could do on those drugs, I finally decided I wanted to get a transplant to fill in my receding hairline. The long hair pictures were taken before my flight to Istanbul.

 

I'll respond to this thread with my post op pictures and comment on HT experience while I was there.

[TillerMaN]

Okay so I'll talk a little about the operation in this section.

 

After I decided on Dr. Cinik, I worked with a wonderful woman named Ozlem. She helped me through all the finer details about my trip. We set a date for April 4th, I used skyscanner to find plane tickets that cost me $930 instead of the typical $1,500-$2,000 I would have paid for tickets on such short notice. Bought them March 22nd for a April 2nd flight :eek: Skyscanner for flights is awesome if your dates are flexible btw. 13 hour flight to Moscow from LA, 7 hour layover, and a 4 hour flight to Istanbul. That much traveling SUCKED but reminded myself again I'm saving $17,000. WORTH.

 

Ozlem had set up ground transportation from the airport to the hotel that I was staying at (literally 2 minutes from the hospital). She gave me directions for everything. The hotel is VERY nice and there are bunch of men walking around with a bandage on they back of their heads lol. Seemed like half the hotel was there to get the operation. I slept for 4 hours, woke up, got a call from the front desk saying my English speaking driver had arrived at 7:30am, we drove 2 minutes to the hospital, and that's when I met Sara.

 

Sara is basically there as a translator / guide for Dr. Cinik. She's great and honestly made me feel better about everything. A lot of the doctors didn't understand English, (which I expected) but as long as she was there, I felt a little safer in case something happened. She introduced me to Dr. Cinik who also spoke great English. He looked over my head, drew some lines which I trusted him making. He obviously is the expert, and I know there are limitations to a HT (pretty much impossible to gain ALL of your hairline back), so I decided to just trust him on everything.

 

I was then taken to a room to get my blood drawn for PRP. PRP is said to help with post OP recovery and they were giving it to me for free.... (it's $1,000 in the USA) so I was like yeah okay do it. Next, upstairs for the operation. They shaved my head and then I had to lay face down onto a medical table. They gave me local anesthetic which hurt pretty fucking bad...

 

Not gonna lie, I was expecting it to hurt, but something about getting large needles jammed into your head was not sitting well with me. My heart was beating fast, but I laid there in silence getting super sweaty, but next thing I knew, my head was solid as a rock and couldn't feel a thing. Zero pain after about 5 minutes of agony. I hated it but it's doable. If you're worried about pain, you can do it, just know it's gonna hurt like a bitch for a sec! :eek:

 

Not much to say about the operation because you honestly cannot feel a thing. I even fell asleep for part of it hah! It lasted 8 hours and I slept for about half. One time, I woke up by surprise and grabbed at the eye covering they had on me! Luckily the nurses stopped me before I did any damage to myself. Dr. Cinik personally crafted my hairline, then the nurses filled everything in with the grafts from my donor area.

 

On a side note, I think that's why they're able to charge such a small price... Dr. Cinik only does the super technical parts 6 times a day. 3 patients in the morning, 3 in the afternoon. (that's 6 x $2,000 so $12,000 a day, 6 days a week) Some doctors in LA were saying they only do 1 operation a day to give you special attention... but honestly? I'd rather go with the guy that has been doing this 6 times a day for 6 days week for 10 years. Think about it seriously, Dr. Cinik has to be a master after that many transplants.

 

They finished, wrapped me up, and Sara called for my car to bring me back to the hotel. When I was getting into the cab... they told me to watch my head, but I stupidly didn't and bumped my head (you can see the splat on the back of my head) - luckily it ended up being nothing, and I didn't feel it when it happened (papa bless the anesthetics), so that was good!

 

Got back to the hotel, and tried my best to fall asleep on the inflatable neck pillow they gave me so my donor area wasn't squashed by my head all night. I was tired enough that I was able to sleep a few more hours before they picked me up the next morning.

 

Okay that's all for now. Thanks for reading. I'l respond again with the rest and my day 1-6 pictures soon!

[Spring15]

Looks good, the other guy I was with also bumped his head in the car on the way back geez. I was just about crouching to ensure I didn't bump my head.

 

The anaesthetic injections aren't that bad, just the one at the bottom of the neck. hahh

[densedream]

What's going on in the crown? Looks like he only put a few grafts there. Being that they charge 1990 for up 5000 grafts, I wonder why they barely put anything back there. You traveled all that way, I would want them to as much as possible. What they put won't make any difference. I was considering this doctor, but your crown situation and the fact they do 6 people a day has me a bit turned off.

 

What was his explanation about the crown?

[Benny1984]

Hey great to see your story thanks for sharing I have been looking at this doctor myself after you made contact with dr cinik was it long before they got back to you ?? I made an enquiry twice this week still no reply. I did it through the dr cinik website his own one or is there a different way to contact him ? Thanks any help would be greatful thanks .

[TillerMaN]

What's going on in the crown? Looks like he only put a few grafts there. Being that they charge 1990 for up 5000 grafts, I wonder why they barely put anything back there. You traveled all that way, I would want them to as much as possible. What they put won't make any difference. I was considering this doctor, but your crown situation and the fact they do 6 people a day has me a bit turned off.

 

What was his explanation about the crown?

 

They wanted to pack as much as they could up on the frontal hairline and temple area, and then use whatever they had left of the 2500 on the crown. He said I didn't really need any on the crown as I already have decent coverage there (look at pre-op long hair pictures), but I told him to use whatever he had left on the crown. I agree the grafts look spares, but they're surrounded by my natural hair there anyways.

 

And as far as the the 6 operations a day, all I can say is you pay for the time you get with the doctor.. In the USA, yes you could book a doctor for the whole day at $12k-$20k plus tax... I decided on $3k to have him and his team do my operation split with others. Dr. Cinik did the most technical work on my hairline, and deligated the grunt harvesting work to his team of 8-10 nurses that were there (I had 2 nurses working on me the whole day) I understand why you'd be hesitant, but personally I believe it was worth it. ~$1 a graft vs ~$8 a graft in the USA.

[TillerMaN]

Looks good, the other guy I was with also bumped his head in the car on the way back geez. I was just about crouching to ensure I didn't bump my head.

 

The anaesthetic injections aren't that bad, just the one at the bottom of the neck. hahh

 

Yeah after that first bump on my head, I was *EXTRA* careful not to do it again.

 

And yeah I was being a little baby about the injections lol. Knew it was gonna hurt, but it was just more pain than I thought it'd be so thought mention it

[TillerMaN]

Hey great to see your story thanks for sharing I have been looking at this doctor myself after you made contact with dr cinik was it long before they got back to you ?? I made an enquiry twice this week still no reply. I did it through the dr cinik website his own one or is there a different way to contact him ? Thanks any help would be greatful thanks .

 

Hey good luck friend! I know they didn't have a lot of open spots left in April... that's why I booked as soon as they had an opening on April 4th. I talked with Ozlem through this email address: info@emrahcinik.com

 

Hope that helps!

[rickyrixon]

I was always wondering why the cost was so low for this doctor at 1,990 euro no matter how many grafts you received...Now I understand.. Still, at the end of the day the only thing that matters is the final result.. Looking forward to seeing yours Happy growing!

[Slush]

Good luck! Eager to see the results.

[hairtransplanthrowaway]

I'm not trying to be harsh and while I do sincerely hope your results come out great, I'd quite like to see the results in 8-12 months time as opposed to getting all excited at this point of time.

 

Like you, I underwent a similar HT procedure (similar price) with another doctor in Istanbul. He provided me with consultation and what not but he didn't do a single thing in terms of HT.

 

The result is wayyyyyy below what I'd expected. I was all psyched after my procedure as well.

 

In any case, I really hope you'll get awesome results.

[TillerMaN]

Hey everyone,

 

Here's an update with pictures from the first few days following my 2500 graft FUE procedure. I'll try to make these compilations as high resolution as this website offers, so feel free to zoom in with the magnification button.

 

These were taking after my flight back from Istanbul to LA, and as you can see, my head was still very red and scabby. I knew the airport security would look at my head in a "what the hell happened" way when I had to remove my cap while going through security, but I decided not to care about what they thought. Turns out they didn't care at all - honestly they probably have seen worse.

 

I'll follow up with pics to this current day in the next post.

 

Hope you're well.

[TillerMaN]

Pictures from April 13th - 17th attached. Here is what I'm also doing to try and maximize my results:

 

Hair Routine:

 

-1mg Finasteride daily (If you're worried about this drug, I've been using it off and on (due to supply) for about 5 years and have always seen amazing results using it with no side effects. I've read people's testimonies about this drug, and I personally think people just drive themselves insane and blame this drug for the problems in their lives. You'll read things like, "Finasteride made me depressed!" No, I think you were already depressed for other reasons [maybe their hairloss?] and use Fin as a scapegoat.)

 

-1 mL mixodial twice daily, morning and early evening. (I use Kirkland, it's cheap AF on Amazon. Strongly recommended - I've rarely heard of any side effects to this drug and it's too cheap not to use daily. This with Fin is a 1-2 killer combo at making your remaining functional hair follicles healthy enough to spew forth thicker hair. Worked really well for me - you can look at my first post on this thread on before Fin / Minox and compare to one year later. Big difference.)

 

-10,000mcg Biotine pill (I use Nature's Bounty from Amazon. I use this because it supposedly feeds the healthy follicles what they need to produce hair. Super cheap, easy, why not try.)

 

Nioxin System 4 shampoo and conditioner every morning (Honestly I don't know how necessary this one is. Sure, I feel that scalp tingle when showering... "ooOo cool" right?? But seriously, I don't know if that's a good thing or not. People swear by it, but I've never seen great results just by adding this product. I suppose I have to use something, so I'm using this over priced product.)

 

On the 17th, I very carefully trimmed my head with a plastic 1.8mm guard. I read that you're not supposed to use a trimmer or buzzer on your head for the first few weeks... but I *highly* doubt I did anything to affect my already in place follicles.

 

I did this because with my already fine hair and now that I'm starting to get my 2 week shed, I personally think it just looks better super short for now. People just assume I've shaved my head, and maybe I have subtle rash or sunburn from the redness. (I've kept my head completely out of the sun btw, I've read that it can cause some SERIOUS pigmentation issues) Some people even say they prefer the shaved head look on me, so I guess I'm lucky with the right type of head shape lol thanks mom

 

QUESTION: Has anyone experienced their redness taking a while to fade in both the donor and recipient area? I've seen some people that lose the post-OP redness in a week or two. I'm just over two weeks and still quite red (and my recipient area is still numb, but I think that's common) I've always had some redness on the base of my neck which I don't know what it is, but I've seen others with it. You can see that in the pictures as well.

 

Thanks for hanging with me through this journey!

 

And a little side note - I didn't think I was going to tell anyone I had this operation done... I was going to wear a hat and the miraculously just have hair in 9 months. But I told a few close friends and their reactions have been nothing but incredibly positive and encouraging. I've become more open about it now told many people in my circle and honestly no one has sent any judgement my way. Yeah, maybe there are a few scoffing behind my back, but let's just open I have good results, or else everyone will think I'm a dumbass for spending a lot of money to fly to Turkey to get my head butchered! lol :eek:

[Spring15]

Looks good. I'm still pinkish on my recipient area, normal for Caucasians?

 

I must disagree with you on Finasteride though, I definitely had sexual sides taking it.

[Rinaldi363]

Hey man any updates? I'm looking to set up an appointment soon!

[lukeyb1687]

Any updates? How js your growth coming along? I'm based in LA too and would love to see the results in person if possible?

[Misterpete]

I am interested because I like the idea of a professional team that facilitates the experience and procedure.

 

However, all i keep seeing is that people have been looked after well by the team, Dr Cinik is a gentleman etc; I am not seeing real reviews where we can see the results i.e. how well the hair has been transferred etc after a full year. There are some but they are few and far between..

[lukeyb1687]

Bumping to see if there are any progress photos. How has everything come out so far?

[Ramoscosta]

Hi Tillerman

 

When inserting the grafts what was used forceps or implanter pen?

 

Who implanted the grafts Dr or the techician?

[lukeyb1687]

How did your result turn out? I'm hoping the lack of activity is due to you not worrying about your hair anymore!!

[richermain]

Okay so I'll talk a little about the operation in this section.

 

After I decided on Dr. Cinik, I worked with a wonderful woman named Ozlem. She helped me through all the finer details about my trip. We set a date for April 4th, I used skyscanner to find plane tickets that cost me $930 instead of the typical $1,500-$2,000 I would have paid for tickets on such short notice. Bought them March 22nd for a April 2nd flight :eek: Skyscanner for flights is awesome if your dates are flexible btw. 13 hour flight to Moscow from LA, 7 hour layover, and a 4 hour flight to Istanbul. That much traveling SUCKED but reminded myself again I'm saving $17,000. WORTH.

 

Ozlem had set up ground transportation from the airport to the hotel that I was staying at (literally 2 minutes from the hospital). She gave me directions for everything. The hotel is VERY nice and there are bunch of men walking around with a bandage on they back of their heads lol. Seemed like half the hotel was there to get the operation. I slept for 4 hours, woke up, got a call from the front desk saying my English speaking driver had arrived at 7:30am, we drove 2 minutes to the hospital, and that's when I met Sara.

 

Sara is basically there as a translator / guide for Dr. Cinik. She's great and honestly made me feel better about everything. A lot of the doctors didn't understand English, (which I expected) but as long as she was there, I felt a little safer in case something happened. She introduced me to Dr. Cinik who also spoke great English. He looked over my head, drew some lines which I trusted him making. He obviously is the expert, and I know there are limitations to a HT (pretty much impossible to gain ALL of your hairline back), so I decided to just trust him on everything.

 

I was then taken to a room to get my blood drawn for PRP. PRP is said to help with post OP recovery and they were giving it to me for free.... (it's $1,000 in the USA) so I was like yeah okay do it. Next, upstairs for the operation. They shaved my head and then I had to lay face down onto a medical table. They gave me local anesthetic which hurt pretty fucking bad...

 

Not gonna lie, I was expecting it to hurt, but something about getting large needles jammed into your head was not sitting well with me. My heart was beating fast, but I laid there in silence getting super sweaty, but next thing I knew, my head was solid as a rock and couldn't feel a thing. Zero pain after about 5 minutes of agony. I hated it but it's doable. If you're worried about pain, you can do it, just know it's gonna hurt like a bitch for a sec! :eek:

 

Not much to say about the operation because you honestly cannot feel a thing. I even fell asleep for part of it hah! It lasted 8 hours and I slept for about half. One time, I woke up by surprise and grabbed at the eye covering they had on me! Luckily the nurses stopped me before I did any damage to myself. Dr. Cinik personally crafted my hairline, then the nurses filled everything in with the grafts from my donor area.

 

On a side note, I think that's why they're able to charge such a small price... Dr. Cinik only does the super technical parts 6 times a day. 3 patients in the morning, 3 in the afternoon. (that's 6 x $2,000 so $12,000 a day, 6 days a week) Some doctors in LA were saying they only do 1 operation a day to give you special attention... but honestly? I'd rather go with the guy that has been doing this 6 times a day for 6 days week for 10 years. Think about it seriously, Dr. Cinik has to be a master after that many transplants.

 

They finished, wrapped me up, and Sara called for my car to bring me back to the hotel. When I was getting into the cab... they told me to watch my head, but I stupidly didn't and bumped my head (you can see the splat on the back of my head) - luckily it ended up being nothing, and I didn't feel it when it happened (papa bless the anesthetics), so that was good!

 

Got back to the hotel, and tried my best to fall asleep on the inflatable neck pillow they gave me so my donor area wasn't squashed by my head all night. I was tired enough that I was able to sleep a few more hours before they picked me up the next morning.

 

Okay that's all for now. Thanks for reading. I'l respond again with the rest and my day 1-6 pictures soon!

OMG my friend your photos are horrible and it is showing that very amatuer job very bloody.:confused:

There is no bad review for this doctor because many people are working for him and writing fake comments also reviews..He has many forums around the world and there is Manipulation of Internet Opinion Forums , he is trying to be famous on internet forums but he has no good results...He has cheap price therefore he is taking 4-5 patients a day like butcher..Ofcourse it is your chosen just this is my opinion if you are searching cheap job and result ...

[lukeyb1687]

OMG my friend your photos are horrible and it is showing that very amatuer job very bloody.:confused:

There is no bad review for this doctor because many people are working for him and writing fake comments also reviews..He has many forums around the world and there is Manipulation of Internet Opinion Forums , he is trying to be famous on internet forums but he has no good results...He has cheap price therefore he is taking 4-5 patients a day like butcher..Ofcourse it is your chosen just this is my opinion if you are searching cheap job and result ...

 

I'm confused the progress/healing photos look great, yes the post op photos look bloody but so do all post op photos. I've seen several good results from Dr. Cinik but there does seem to be a lack of input/forum on this thread which makes me nervous.

 

Anyone else on this site been to Dr. Cinik and recorded there results recently?

[sunger10]

I'm confused the progress/healing photos look great, yes the post op photos look bloody but so do all post op photos. I've seen several good results from Dr. Cinik but there does seem to be a lack of input/forum on this thread which makes me nervous.

 

Anyone else on this site been to Dr. Cinik and recorded there results recently?

totally i agree with richermain !

ok go and see with your eyes and write..i do not recommend Dr.Cinik too

[lukeyb1687]

totally i agree with richermain !

ok go and see with your eyes and write..i do not recommend Dr.Cinik too

 

@sunger sorry I'm confused, do you want me to search for "I do not recommend Dr. Cinik"?? I searched and nothing came up. Is there any evidence as to why you don't like Dr.Cinik's results? Ive only seen good/great results.

[sunger10]

@sunger sorry I'm confused, do you want me to search for "I do not recommend Dr. Cinik"?? I searched and nothing came up. Is there any evidence as to why you don't like Dr.Cinik's results? Ive only seen good/great results.

it is normal mate very big manipulation on forums %70 %80 are not real patients ..not only Dr.Cinik all Turkish doctors are mostly using that to hide low quality services and results...

who has more workers and spend more money for the manipulation they are begin to more famous and becomes to best doctors...

now Dr.Cinik number 1 for that ..

For example All Doctors have own forums for manipulation only share good results and they comment themselves some doctors are paying for good comments to some forums i am serious ...Cosmedica (operation perform by technicians not doctor) Dr.Serkan Aygin (all his life he did not perform operation, technicians clinic also) they are good for manipulation too forexample i know some doctors are working good and clear like Dr.Erdogan Dr.Keser but ofcourse them prices are not cheap they are taking maximum 2 patients a day ..One award winner best doctor how can receive 4-5 patients a day ? is there 4-5 doctors there ?

Also some doctors are writing bad comments for the other doctors very dirty job i mean 0 respect ..But now the most prof is Dr.Cinik for that job i mean for the manipulation therefore you can not find bad result or review...when you go to the there you will understand what i mean , 1990 euro All inclusive price is it normal for you ? compare with your own country for the prices, Award winner doctor also working like technicians low prices which kind of award ? :D:D

 

(sorry for my bad english)

Edited November 26, 2017 by sunger10