4610 FUE with Dr. Yaman 11/08/2020

[London Geezer]

Hello people,

A few days ago I returned from an amazing 3 night trip in Istanbul where I underwent FUE surgery with Dr. Yaman and I thought I should share my results to similar people like me out there as I have learnt a lot from this forum.

I'm 34 years old and have been suffering from hair loss gradually since the age of 25. It's mainly been diffuse thinning on top so I've used minoxidil for the past few years but I haven't seen many positive results from it. More recently (4 months ago), I have been using finasteride as recommend by my Doctor before surgery and so far I have not experienced any negative side effects. My diet is good, I weightlift daily and have been getting optimum sleep each night (8 hours) so these may also be contributing factors.

I originally looked at various clinics like Asmed and Dr Cinik, but I decided to go with Dr. Yaman after seeing some fantastic results from other people here on the forums who had similar male pattern baldness to me. I decided that Turkey would be the best for me as I'm half Turkish myself and I have family in Istanbul so it made sense for me to make a trip from London to visit this wonderful city after many years. Previously, I'd also looked at London doctors but the results seemed somewhat average compared to specific Turkish doctors like Yaman who seemed more experienced and who were also considerably cheaper so I booked my flights.

From the moment I landed in Istanbul at 6am I was picked up by my driver and taken to a lovely 5* hotel where I checked in and had 3 hours sleep before my consultation with Dr. Yaman as I was very tired from the night time flight from London at midnight with no sleep. A few hours later, I was then notified by hotel staff that my driver was outside and I was then off to see Dr Yaman for my consultation.

Upon arriving at the clinic, I was welcomed by Fikret who was my contact at the clinic and also my translator as I'm not fluent in Turkish. He's a good guy and has helped answer all my questions on my hair loss journey this past year. I was actually meant to have my surgery booked in for April but due to the pandemic with covid I had to postpone it to August. This was actually better for me as it was quiet and the clinic were only seeing 2 people per day. It also meant that the airport was quiet which was nice and I ended up having a whole row to myself on the aeroplane both arriving and departing.

The clinic looked clean and professional and had many floors for different plastic surgery procedures. From meeting Dr Yaman in person, I knew I made the right decision in choosing him to be my doctor for the hair transplant... he seemed very trustworthy and genuine and I liked his attitude.

Dr. Yaman first looked at my hair through a computerised microscope and told me my donor area was strong and that I was a good candidate for the hair transplant because I had lots of double and triple grafts and he thought I wouldn't lose the majority of the remaining native hair left on my head. After analysing my hair he suggested I needed roughly 4500/4600 grafts and that the majority would be in the mid scalp area as he said I had a strong hairline so only single grafts were needed there. He also recommended that I do not use minoxidil for some time as my scalp seemed damaged from it. This was fine by me because I think minoxidil has had no positive effect on my hair from the moment I started using it. I've never actually seen any positive results from minoxidil, I used to think it actually made my hair loss worse in the past.

Grafts: 4610

Single: 705

Double: 2863

Multiple: 1042

Surgery:

On the day of my surgery I was picked up at 9am after having breakfast at my hotel and then met Dr. Yaman at the clinic who designed my hairline with me before taking me through for surgery for the incision phase. Before the incision process, Dr Yaman administered several anesthetic needles into my head to numb the area so I wouldn't feel any pain from the incisions he does with the sapphire blade. The only way to describe it is a crunching sound you hear as the blade penetrates your head several times as the doctor makes the channels in your head where the grafts will later be implanted. My hairline around my ear was slightly pointed and I wanted a more curved look so Dr Yaman even made some incisions there for me (see photo).

The only pain I felt was from the needles and also the anaesthesia from a staple like machine which feels like your head is being stapled. You don't feel any pain from the incisions thankfully.

After the channels were made I was given lunch containing koftes (Turkish meatballs) which were lovely and gave me the energy I needed for the next phase which was the extraction.

The extraction phase was done by a great guy called Ufuk who was friendly and made me feel at ease straight away. More anaesthetic was given with the staple like machine which was uncomfortable before another round of injections were given to numb the pain

During this process, holes were punched in my donor area with a motorised machine in order for my grafts to be extracted later by the implantation team. The extraction did not hurt but it was uncomfortable laying in the same position on your front for so long. After the holes were made by Ufuk, some members of the tech team entered the room and extracted my grafts. It basically felt like all your donor hairs were being plucked out in big batches.

The last stage was the implantation process which was the longest part of the experience and took almost 3 hours by 3 women in the implantation team. They used Dr Yamans implantation tool to transfer my grafts into the incisions in my head which was very time consuming. At this point I was very tired after 9 hours and was given IV to help me through the last stage and this was also a painkiller. After they finished, my head was bandaged up and I was given some instructions on how to sleep with the inflatable pillow provided.

The following day I returned to the clinic for my bandage to be taken off and then the next day I had my first hair wash by the clinic before being transferred back to the airport with my aftercare medications and shampoo for the next 10 days.

I am very pleased with the whole experience and the doctor seems to think I will have positive results after seeing my transplanted hair after surgery. Thank you to Dr Yaman, Fikret, Ufuk and Tuncay for making my trip smooth and easy. I highly recommend Dr Yaman if you're thinking about a hair transplant in Turkey. They take care of everything from start to finish and the customer care is brilliant. I am still in contact with Fikret who has been great in answering all my queries after my operation.

Today is day 8 and since day 4 I've been in excruciating pain day and night in my donor area (which has only allowed me to get an average of 3 hours sleep per night). The pain is a mixture of a burning and electric shock sensation. Apparently this is uncommon in people but is due to the severed nerve endings during the extraction process which takes a while to regenerate so right now all I'm taking is ibuprofen to help ease the pain but it isn't really helping. Hopefully the pain will subside soon because it's pretty unbearable.

Below are some before pictures of my hair loss condition in normal and harsh lighting conditions aswell as my hair transplant result pictures on the day.  I would like to say thank you to the forum mods for how this site is run and to the members/doctors who contribute to help spread knowledge on the battle against hair loss.

[ITA]

@London Geezer Good luck for your post-operative path.  Resul Yaman is strong in mega sessions, I have seen excellent results, the fact that he checked your donor area with  computerised microscope is great, Cinik no, he looks at it only by lifting your hair with a pen or a ruler, what can he understand , I don't know.

Edited August 19, 2020 by Egy

[London Geezer]

7 day update photos immediately after a wash

[LonelyGraft]

What did yaman mean by your scalp was damaged by minoxidil? Was it flaking or red?

[London Geezer]

He just said it looked like it was a bit damaged from using something topical. It didn't look red or flaky on the computer under the microscope from what I saw though so I'm not sure. Unless my scalp is damaged from the use of Nizoral twice a week for the past year. 

I'm in two minds on whether to resume minoxidil use in the upcoming months

[Melvin- Admin]

I would get more clarification on that, it sounds like perhaps you have a dermatological condition. I would be surprised if minoxidil has anything to fo with it. Happy growing, I’ve seen good things about Dr. Yaman.

[London Geezer]

24 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I would get more clarification on that, it sounds like perhaps you have a dermatological condition. I would be surprised if minoxidil has anything to fo with it. Happy growing, I’ve seen good things about Dr. Yaman.

What's your thoughts on minoxidil post HT if one never really saw the benefits from using it in the first place? Is it worth continuing? Thanks for the input Melvin, seeing your video on YT is what brought me here in the first place

 

[aaron1234]

Work looks quite good!  Good luck growing!  Minox can do a wonder on people's skin.  When I tried it my ears got chapped.  I didn't put it on my ears, don't know why that happened.  Also, my scalp was extremely irritated, so I had to stop.  You might be allergic to it, or maybe not.  Check with Dr. Yaman to see if you should resume it or not.  If you saw no benefit from it, then I would consider stopping it altogether.

[London Geezer]

1 hour ago, aaron1234 said:

Work looks quite good!  Good luck growing!  Minox can do a wonder on people's skin.  When I tried it my ears got chapped.  I didn't put it on my ears, don't know why that happened.  Also, my scalp was extremely irritated, so I had to stop.  You might be allergic to it, or maybe not.  Check with Dr. Yaman to see if you should resume it or not.  If you saw no benefit from it, then I would consider stopping it altogether.

Thanks mate. Also, from just noticing your signature I'm a bit confused on the number of grafts I had haha. Basically the number of single, double and multiple hairs I had transplanted resulted in the sum of 4610. Does this not meah I had 4610 grafts?

[aaron1234]

Yeah, that sounds right.  Remember that the graft and hair counts are distinct from each other.

[jimcraig152]

Good lord man, that is some outstanding looking work!

Everything is diffuse and random. That machine and Ufuk did a whole lot better job than the surgeon that did the extractions during my procedure. Also, you have twice as many grafts as I did (I had 2337). Also the punch used in my procedure was a 0.9-1.0 punch and the site on my donor is larger than yours. Subscibed to your thread and will follow it closely.

[London Geezer]

7 hours ago, jimcraig152 said:

Good lord man, that is some outstanding looking work!

Everything is diffuse and random. That machine and Ufuk did a whole lot better job than the surgeon that did the extractions during my procedure. Also, you have twice as many grafts as I did (I had 2337). Also the punch used in my procedure was a 0.9-1.0 punch and the site on my donor is larger than yours. Subscibed to your thread and will follow it closely.

Thanks my friend. Do you know how doctors actually calculate how many grafts were made based on whether it's single, double etc. Does the machine automatically count it when hairs are extracted?

Edited August 23, 2020 by London Geezer

[Gatsby]

London Geezer your donor looks excellent as does the work done. I look forward to following your progress. Thanks for sharing!

[jimcraig152]

8 hours ago, London Geezer said:

Thanks my friend. Do you know how doctors actually calculate how many grafts were made based on whether it's single, double etc. Does the machine automatically count it when hairs are extracted?

For hand extraction and consultations, doctors use experience and skill at a minimum for the calculation. The better doctors will use some sort of scope to be more precise. On procedure day, better doctors will map out the extraction site and perform the extraction homogeously for best aesthetic result.

In your case, the incisions were made first. Once the incisions were made, they know the exact amounts of extractions to make. So the machine doesn't actually do the counting. It is programmed right in how many extractions are to be taken because the amount is known.

I can tell you (without bias and with absolute honesty) your donor site looks infinitely better than my donor site. Hand extraction is said to still be the gold standard. But your thread and another thread in the past week where there was a machine used is definitely better than the hand extraction performed by my surgeon. The chance of overharvesting and assymetrical harvesting IMO is greatly recuded when the incisions are done before the extractions. Trust me when I tell you, you have nothing to worry about with your donor site. Something I wish could be said about patients that went with my surgeon.

Will follow your results closely. Happy growing sir!

[triqqy]

On 8/20/2020 at 7:48 AM, London Geezer said:

7 day update photos immediately after a wash

Hey I have been following your case, any updates?

[RandoBrando517]

27 minutes ago, triqqy said:

Hey I have been following your case, any updates?

Second this

[London Geezer]

Morning gentlemen,

Here is my updated pictures as requested. In just over 2 weeks I'll be at the 10 month mark where 90% of results are supposed to be achieved. I'm hoping the midscalp and crown area gets filled in more and becomes more dense... let me know your thoughts as I thought it would be a little thicker by now 

Edited May 21, 2021 by London Geezer

[Britanium]

Looks really good. Having short hair will usually show up the less dense areas.

What does look really dense is your frontal third. 👌

[London Geezer]

I was told the midscalp area lags behind the frontal area by Dr Yaman so I'm hoping it picks up in the last 2 months

Edited May 21, 2021 by London Geezer

[Britanium]

6 minutes ago, London Geezer said:

I was told the midscalp area lags behind the frontal area by Dr Yaman so I'm hoping it picks up in the last 2 months

Fingers crossed 🤞 for continued improvements! 

[joki96]

@London Geezer What's now? How your result is?

[Britanium]

@London Geezeryup be good if you could give us a update 🙏

[Mir_a_Mir]

Hello @London Geezer hope you are seeing some great results by now, would love to see any updated pic of your hair now.