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3200-3500 Grafts (DHI) with Dr. Cinik


Bax

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Hello everyone,

 

First time poster in this group! I have greatly appreciated being able to follow along with the many men who have taken the time to share their experiences in real time! Based on my research, I have decided to go to Turkey to Dr. Cinik’s clinic to have the procedure completed.

Little bit of background on me:

I am from Alberta, Canada (lived here most of my life) and I started experiencing hair loss when I was 18 (hair loss is very prominent in my family, unfortunately). As you can imagine, that definitely felt awesome 😂. I am 26 now and throughout the years my hairline has set to a III on the Hamilton-Norwood scale and I’m left with what you can see in the photos. I’ve always wanted to have a hair transplant, but could never justify the cost. A friend of mine told me that he went to Turkey for his procedure and that he was extremely happy with the results and the price he paid. I am planning on getting married in the next year and a half, so that’s why I want to have it done now. I’ve been taking 1mg Finasteride daily for the past few months, but other than that, I haven’t done anything else.

With all of that being said, I want to do my part to contribute to this community and help other men who are deciding on having this procedure done as well. I want to update everyone on my journey as I go through the procedure and what my experience has been with the clinic, recovery, etc. I am a doctor, so these forums are a God send when it comes to being informed and having direct patient-reported experiences vs clinic testimony’s!

Now, time to get into it...

I will be flying to Turkey on March 8 and will be flying back March 13 at Dr. Emrah Cinik’s clinic. The procedure I will be having is Direct Hair Implantation (DHI) and I have been quoted for about 3200-3500 grafts to cover the front baldness.

So far my experience with the clinic has been great! The rep I have been communicating with is Esin, who has been great at answering all of my questions and responding in a very timely fashion. Everything about the encounter has been very professional and legit so far, which puts the consumer at ease. 

Additionally, I would love to hear some input/advice from others who have done the procedure about what things I should being to enhance comfort after the procedure. I have heard that the neck pillow they give you isn’t very comfortable and that you should bring your own. The clinic has also told me to make sure I wear very comfortable clothing for during the procedure! Anything else that I should bring?

Very excited to see how everything goes and looking forward to being a part of this great community!

Chat soon!

Bax

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1 hour ago, Pauls said:

Good luck mate, I’m in the same boat as you and hoping to visit Cinik later in the year,  I’ll look forward to following your story. 

Thanks Paul! I’m really excited about it too! Let me know if you have any questions about anything :)

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Hi

Youre donor looks good, I think 3k or more grafts in your frontal 1/3 should be good in you’re case.

My advice, bring along older photos of yourself with less hair loss to show them as well as any photos of hairline examples that you would like.

Good luck!

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7 hours ago, CosmoKramer said:

Hi

Youre donor looks good, I think 3k or more grafts in your frontal 1/3 should be good in you’re case.

My advice, bring along older photos of yourself with less hair loss to show them as well as any photos of hairline examples that you would like.

Good luck!

Thanks man! I appreciate it!

And good idea! I will definitely do that. Also, I’ve read that some people said to bring your own neck pillow because the one they provide is not very comfortable. Is this true?

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it's an inflatable one, very practical, I prefer it to the fluffy ones because I want that stiffness, the fluffy pillowy ones will just make your head go down and research says you should have it in a 45 degree angle. 

 

I went with cinik too and so far so good! seems like I'm a fast grower too. I'm on the 2nd month mark, I'll update my post asap.

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1 hour ago, CanadianPT said:

it's an inflatable one, very practical, I prefer it to the fluffy ones because I want that stiffness, the fluffy pillowy ones will just make your head go down and research says you should have it in a 45 degree angle. 

 

I went with cinik too and so far so good! seems like I'm a fast grower too. I'm on the 2nd month mark, I'll update my post asap.

Thanks for the input! So they provide you with one of the inflatable ones? That’s good to know!

And that’s great! Looking forward to following along on your post as well and comparing progress!

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1 hour ago, CanadianPT said:

it's an inflatable one, very practical, I prefer it to the fluffy ones because I want that stiffness, the fluffy pillowy ones will just make your head go down and research says you should have it in a 45 degree angle. 

 

I went with cinik too and so far so good! seems like I'm a fast grower too. I'm on the 2nd month mark, I'll update my post asap.

Was just reading through your post and I saw that you needed to have a visa to go to Turkey?

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2 hours ago, Bax said:

Was just reading through your post and I saw that you needed to have a visa to go to Turkey?

yes you do! aty least if you're canadian you do. you can get it here or in the airport over there. cost me 50 euros. I had euros and canadian $ on me.

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2 hours ago, CanadianPT said:

yes you do! aty least if you're canadian you do. you can get it here or in the airport over there. cost me 50 euros. I had euros and canadian $ on me.

Thank you! I’ll do what you did in that case!

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13 hours ago, TorontoMan said:

Goodluck dude, seen some great results with Cinik. 

What did they say about your donor area? How many grafts and what sort of density? From your photos you look well covered. 

Thanks man! Yeah, so many great results so I’m really looking forward to it!

They said my donor area is great and has nice and consistent density. They’re saying about 70 grafts per cm and ranging from 3200-3500 grafts in the front and temple area. 

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11 hours ago, ThomasMatthews said:

Good luck ! I am also from Alberta and looking into Cinik. How much did you pay for your flight ? 

Hey Thomas! I was actually lucky and I was able to get my entire flight on points! The total cost to fly would have been around $1100 for a round trip

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22 hours ago, ThomasMatthews said:

That’s awesome, good for you , where did you book your flights threw like WestJet or air Canada or somewhere different.

I booked it through the RBC Rewards platform, which put me on a flight with KLM!

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Good Luck Bax!

I hope your flight today goes well and that the start of your journey to more hair starts off good :)

 

I will also follow you and I keep my fingers crossed. 

All best, Yzerman

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4 hours ago, Suede said:

Good Luck Bax!

I hope your flight today goes well and that the start of your journey to more hair starts off good :)

 

I will also follow you and I keep my fingers crossed. 

All best, Yzerman

Thank you so much! That truly means a lot and I’m excited to share my experience with the rest of the men on this forum!

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Alright gentlemen, today was the day! I’m wanted to make a post today so I could be honest about my experiences and how I felt during it 😂

DISCLAIMER: I first want to start off by saying if you are considering this procedure, to NOT take it lightly. This is a major surgical procedure and it’s a very lengthy process. So make sure you are all in because you’re going to need all of your mental strength to work through the pain and the uncomfortable positions you need to put your body in.

So, let’s get started by going through a play by play of my day!

I’ve been staying at the Points Hotel, which has been awesome! It also includes breakfast, which is an all-you-can-eat buffet, which is especially great for the first morning when you’re going to be in surgery for the day.

Anyways, I was picked up this morning at 7:30AM with two other gentlemen (one was from France and the other from the UK). All of us were chatting and looking forward to our procedures. At this point, I wasn’t nervous at all, just more-so excited and still feeling like this whole experience was so surreal. We were greeted by the very hospitable and personable staff who talked us through how the day would look. We were then taken into a room to have blood taken for our PRP treatment after the implantation process was completed.

Then we each had our consultation with Dr. Cinik. I was very happy with how this played out and was very impressed by his demeanour. He answered my million questions and let me go through the old pictures of myself as well as talking about the options of hairlines I was considering. He then drew one, which I wanted some modifications done on it, which he happily did until I was satisfied with the results. Didn’t once feel rushed or like I was just a sheep walking through a processing plant. He talked about the grafts again (which was still quoted at around 3200), He was very attentive to my concerns. After this, we had our before pictures taken and payment was made. As mentioned by another member above, make sure you bring old pictures of yourself and desired hairlines you are interested in and it will be way more customized to your interests.

Then I was moved to another floor where we had our head shaved and then awaiting surgery. Once my head was shaved, I noticed my hairline was a bit off from what I had imaged, so I brought it up to the technician and Dr. Cinik and we modified it again. Once again, he was more than happy to do this and wasn’t upset at me and assured me that my satisfaction was paramount to anything.

Now, this is where the fun begins hahahaha!

I go into the treatment room and I was very happy with the set-up! The table you lay on looks like a massage table and I found it to be very comfortable. Because I’m 6”3’, they even rolled another chair to the end of the table to prevent my legs from hanging off the edge the whole time (and thank God for that because you will be there for 7-8 hours!). The most painful part of the extraction and harvesting process was definitely when they were injecting lidocaine. That hurt like a bitch, but it was short-lived (around 10 mins), The harvesting was pain-free other than having to turn your head for a time while they extracted from the side of your head. That part took about an hour and a half and then they gave me a sandwich, a juice box, and a Turkish chocolate pastry. This was well-received and also allowed a break from the procedure.

Then we begun the actual implantation (I went with the DHI option). Now once again, having the lidocaine injected sucked and was very painful, yet short-lived. Then we begin the 5 hours of implantation and let me tell you, this part sucked the most! Everything felt fine until some areas had the lidocaine wear off and I started feeling everything again. BUT the technicians were very attentive and kept checking-in and reapplying the lidocaine to make sure I was comfortable. I started to feel very uncomfortable from having to lie down for so long and found it hard to find a comfortable position for myself to be in and the pain was becoming unbearable. So we took another break and they gave me some more snacks. I apologized (like a good Canadian should do 😂) and they laughed and said not to worry about it and I was doing well. We got back into it and after a few more hours they finally told me that they were going to be another 45 minutes, which a piece of me died on the inside because I was so done with this haha! Side note: Dr. Cinik came in to see me multiple times and asked how I was doing and rechecked the hairline and had me check again and ensure I was happy with it.

 

Finally we finished and then started wrapping things up. I felt very light-headed from laying down so long so they didn’t rush me and got me some more juice and water until I felt ready to move again. Then they brought me downstairs were I received my very thorough post-op instructions, which were written for me (thank God because I felt so out of it haha) and the was sent back to the hotel. I was so wiped after the procedure, I got back to my hotel room and crashed for a few hours before writing this.

Attached are some photos from throughout the day as well as the end product, which I am SUPER happy about it! However, with that being said, I can never go through something like that again in my life, so let’s hope this is it or me 😂

Overall, great experience with a great surgeon and great team and very happy I ended up here!

Will be posting throughout the weeks with more updates on progress photos and possibly reaching out about certain questions that pop-up.

Ciao for now!

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Good to hear it went well even though it was a long day haha. I am sure you will be able to do it again once you see your results. 
 

Whats the plan for the upcoming days? Will you go back to the clinic for cleaning your head etc? And how long until you go back home?

Looking at your Pictures it looks good and it also looks like you got some great density in the front. Now the hard part kicks in waiting for the final result but I am sure you will be handling that better than laying down for another day haha!

Congrats on your progress Bax!

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