ASMED Clinic (K Erdogan) 5033 grafts

[youngnbald]

Hello,

I had a HT in Asmed in the end of October, I used this forum for gathering information and making my decision so I'll post my progress here.

My stay in the clinic was very pleasant. There are already a number of very detailed posts here about the procedure at Asmed, mine wasn't too different so I won't go into detail about that. It's true that you only get to interact with Erdogan for about 20 minutes and the technicians are young women. Also, everyone at the clinic seemed very busy. I only care about results so I won't make judgements based on that, maybe they've managed to systemise the process enough so he doesn't need that much time to evaluate the patient.

My details:

Eastern european, 26 years old. My hairline started receding when I was 16 and at 21 my hair started thinning aggressively.

Total donor capacity estimated by Erdogan was 8000 grafts. My HT involved 5033 grafts.

Hair thickness: 56 microns; Hair/graft: 2.34

Single: 587

Double: 2380

Triple: 1834

Quadruple: 223

Quintpule : 8

Sextuple: 1

The bad news - some of the extracted grafts with 3 or more hairs already had 1-2 hairs which are dying.

Day 1 after the transplant: Anesthetic was still leaking out of my donor area. I had the most insane swelling, my head turned into a balloon and I looked like a total freak show.

Day 2-3: Swelling reduced significantly, by day 4 it was gone.

Day 5: 80% of the scabs fell off. The rest fell off gradually over the next week.

Day 10: I don't remember clearly, but I think it was around here when my donor area stopped being super sensitive.

Week 2: The redness in the scalp was mostly gone

Month 1: After I hit that mark my hair started shedding a lot

Month 2: The hair in the transplated area is thin, however the hair in my donor area still feels very dense.

One thing worth mentioning - even just a few days after the HT, there were absolutely no signs in my donor area that I've had HT. That was a pleasant surprise as I expected at least some visible scarring when my hair is super short.

 

Medication:

Oral minoxidil, Saw palmetto and Biotin.

They gave me one year worth of finasteride. I started taking 1mg a day but from the second day I started feeling very uncomfortable testicular pain, which freaked me out so I stopped it after a week. I was rather hesitant to try this drug to start with, so it might have been a placebo effect, but even just stressing over the potential sides is not worth it for me.

Without finasteride I'll most certainly lose a lot more hair on the crown in the next years. If this HT is successful I won't be too worried about that as I'm happy to keep my hair very short and I have very dense beard and body hair in case I run out of hair in the donor area.

 

I will upload photos later.

Edited January 6, 2020 by youngnbald

[Raphael84]

@youngnbald

Congratulations on your recent procedure and thanks for your informative write up.

That is an impressive graft count so I look forward to seeing your photos and following your evolution.

I wish you the best. Heal and grow well!

[youngnbald]

Before the HT:

 

Day 1:

 

Edited January 6, 2020 by youngnbald

[youngnbald]

Week 1:

[youngnbald]

Month 2:

[LonelyGraft]

How did u find out ur grafts had miniaturized hairs? How long into the procedure did they let u know?

[KM90]

Looks good so far, impressed with the donor area healing.

I'm also a new member here even though I have been reading a lot of posts here the last years which also led me to book with ASMED. I am going there myself next week and will be staying at the clinic too.

Do you have any shaved pre-op pictures which shows the marked hairline and distribution of number of grafts on the front, mid and crown area?

I assume that you agreed on 5000 grafts. Did you have to pay for the extra 33 grafts?

Had you been on minoxidil before (oral or topical) or was that provided by the clinic? What is your plan for medications going forward?

Looking forward to follow your progress and hope you get a great result!

[CosmoKramer]

Hi

Good post and it looks like you’re seeing some nice early growth from looking at your 2 months photos and your donor looks great post op. Good luck with your progress! 👍🏻

[youngnbald]

19 hours ago, LonelyGraft said:

How did u find out ur grafts had miniaturized hairs? How long into the procedure did they let u know?

Hi @LonelyGraft

They told me that after the transplant.

9 hours ago, CosmoKramer said:

Hi

Good post and it looks like you’re seeing some nice early growth from looking at your 2 months photos and your donor looks great post op. Good luck with your progress! 👍🏻

Hi @CosmoKramer

I'm not sure if there's any growth yet, these are just the hairs that haven't shed.

 

18 hours ago, KM90 said:

Looks good so far, impressed with the donor area healing.

I'm also a new member here even though I have been reading a lot of posts here the last years which also led me to book with ASMED. I am going there myself next week and will be staying at the clinic too.

Do you have any shaved pre-op pictures which shows the marked hairline and distribution of number of grafts on the front, mid and crown area?

I assume that you agreed on 5000 grafts. Did you have to pay for the extra 33 grafts?

Had you been on minoxidil before (oral or topical) or was that provided by the clinic? What is your plan for medications going forward?

Looking forward to follow your progress and hope you get a great result!

Hi @KM90

I didn't pay extra for the 33 grafts. The minoxidil is mine, I've been taking it for 7 months prior to the operation. I'm not sure if it has any effect, but at least I don't have any noticeable sides. I'll stick to it, I may also look into topical finasteride.

There wasn't really an outline with how many grafts go into which zone.

 

This was immediatelly post op:

[Ash05]

On 1/6/2020 at 12:36 AM, youngnbald said:

Hello,

I had a HT in Asmed in the end of October, I used this forum for gathering information and making my decision so I'll post my progress here.

My stay in the clinic was very pleasant. There are already a number of very detailed posts here about the procedure at Asmed, mine wasn't too different so I won't go into detail about that. It's true that you only get to interact with Erdogan for about 20 minutes and the technicians are young women. Also, everyone at the clinic seemed very busy. I only care about results so I won't make judgements based on that, maybe they've managed to systemise the process enough so he doesn't need that much time to evaluate the patient.

My details:

Eastern european, 26 years old. My hairline started receding when I was 16 and at 21 my hair started thinning aggressively.

Total donor capacity estimated by Erdogan was 8000 grafts. My HT involved 5033 grafts.

Hair thickness: 56 microns; Hair/graft: 2.34

Single: 587

Double: 2380

Triple: 1834

Quadruple: 223

Quintpule : 8

Sextuple: 1

The bad news - some of the extracted grafts with 3 or more hairs already had 1-2 hairs which are dying.

Day 1 after the transplant: Anesthetic was still leaking out of my donor area. I had the most insane swelling, my head turned into a balloon and I looked like a total freak show.

Day 2-3: Swelling reduced significantly, by day 4 it was gone.

Day 5: 80% of the scabs fell off. The rest fell off gradually over the next week.

Day 10: I don't remember clearly, but I think it was around here when my donor area stopped being super sensitive.

Week 2: The redness in the scalp was mostly gone

Month 1: After I hit that mark my hair started shedding a lot

Month 2: The hair in the transplated area is thin, however the hair in my donor area still feels very dense.

One thing worth mentioning - even just a few days after the HT, there were absolutely no signs in my donor area that I've had HT. That was a pleasant surprise as I expected at least some visible scarring when my hair is super short.

 

Medication:

Oral minoxidil, Saw palmetto and Biotin.

They gave me one year worth of finasteride. I started taking 1mg a day but from the second day I started feeling very uncomfortable testicular pain, which freaked me out so I stopped it after a week. I was rather hesitant to try this drug to start with, so it might have been a placebo effect, but even just stressing over the potential sides is not worth it for me.

Without finasteride I'll most certainly lose a lot more hair on the crown in the next years. If this HT is successful I won't be too worried about that as I'm happy to keep my hair very short and I have very dense beard and body hair in case I run out of hair in the donor area.

 

I will upload photos later.

What dosage of oral minoxidil are you taking?

[youngnbald]

Hi @Ash05

I take 5mg daily.

[KM90]

Any update?

[youngnbald]

Hi @KM90, congrats on your HT.

 

I'll be posting updates once a month.

 

Month 3:

Edited February 2, 2020 by youngnbald

[Panamera13]

I always wonder why ASMED has so many 5000+graft procedures - Is this a good practice that others are not following or is it overharvesting?

[Gasthoerer]

Wow, looks extremely clean (like almost always at ASMED), and the early growth is really promising. 

Considering you age and the feedback of the miniaturised grafts, you should re-consider FIN IMO.  Oral MINOX is a much higher risk from my point of view. 

Anyway, I hope you growth continues like that! Best wishes. 

[youngnbald]

Hi @Gasthoerer,

Can you elaborate on that? Why do you consider oral minox to be higher risk ?

 

[youngnbald]

2 hours ago, Panamera13 said:

I always wonder why ASMED has so many 5000+graft procedures - Is this a good practice that others are not following or is it overharvesting?

In my case I think Erdogan was conservative. I had consulted with other top doctors and they also told me that I'd need 2.5-3k grafts for the front, that's also what Erdogan did + 2k in the mid section and crown.

Here I am just speculating, but my impression of ASMED is that they want to achieve the best possible result in one go assuming there would be no further hairloss. That's why they seem to insist a lot on all of their patients starting fin. I think that's also why you see from ASMED cases with 5k grafts transplanted super densely packed on a small area, which does tend to lead to a pretty good result ( again, this wasn't my case).

In comparison, my impression of doctors like Feriduni, who I also visited and seemed like a super nice and honest person, is that they are super conservative and try to come up with a plan for the next 20-30 years.

Edited February 2, 2020 by youngnbald

[Gasthoerer]

39 minutes ago, youngnbald said:

Hi @Gasthoerer,

Can you elaborate on that? Why do you consider oral minox to be higher risk ?

 

Minox is a heart pressure medication which is hardly used any more due to the severe side effects including heart rhythm issues etc. I am not saying you should stop using it, but FIN is more effective longterm and side effects are not as common. 

[duchaine]

@youngnbald "The bad news - some of the extracted grafts with 3 or more hairs already had 1-2 hairs which are dying"


Do you mean that 1 or 2 hairs were in telogen phase or that the hair was follicles were miniaturized?
In the first case, do not worry. Telogen in a minor issue if the doc can handle the problem.
In the second case, it is better not to get HT and having fina for 1 year and then having the surgery (look for doctor Lorenzo video on DUPA and BUPA).

anyway, oral minoxidil is great but, if you have miniaturized hair, fina or duta are mandatory.

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by duchaine

[youngnbald]

It's the second case unfortunately.

If I have DUPA, I might just as well give up on the idea of having hair. Time will tell.

[duchaine]

33 minutes ago, youngnbald said:

It's the second case unfortunately.

If I have DUPA, I might just as well give up on the idea of having hair. Time will tell.

I can't tell if they acted correctly. When DUPA is present, the surgeon should stop the HT and suggest the patient to take fina for a long period.
Only if the DUPA improves, he could transplant hairs.
Anyway, do not discourage and look for an effective treatment to keep your follicles healthy.
 

[youngnbald]

To be honest, I don't think it was DUPA or that  they acted dishonestly, it could also be due to bad habits like smoking.

As I mentioned, I had consulted with other top doctors too and they would also go ahead with the HT.

Edited February 3, 2020 by youngnbald

[duchaine]

1 hour ago, youngnbald said:

To be honest, I don't think it was DUPA or that  they acted dishonestly, it could also be due to bad habits like smoking.

As I mentioned, I had consulted with other top doctors too and they would also go ahead with the HT.

I’m missing something.

you said that you have Dupa and you need to give up on the idea of having hair.

now you say you do NOT have Dupa.

[youngnbald]

I said IF I have it, since you implied that it's a possibility.

[duchaine]

On 2/3/2020 at 12:42 AM, duchaine said:

 

 

14 hours ago, youngnbald said:

I said IF I have it, since you implied that it's a possibility.

If you have miniaturized follicles in the back of your scalp, you have DUPA or BUPA by definition.
anyway, because I had a similar experience, my 2 cents tip is: do not think about it. Wait and see what happens in one year.