3170 Grafts Fue at HLC Ankara

[T95good]

 

;dr at the end

I am a 25 year old with what I consider to be reasonably aggressive hairloss. I have never liked my hair, it has always been on the thin side and I have always had a high hairline. When I noticed at the age of 19 that I was losing hair at the temples and front I started taking minoxidil. When I noticed continued loss at 22, I began finasteride. I believe finasteride has slowed my loss and improved the quality of my hair but I don't think it has put a complete halt to the loss. I have been researching HT for the past year and am very grateful to everyone who participated on this forum because it has been very helpful in finding the right clinic. 

The clinics/surgeons I reached out to:

bisanga

Ferriera

HLC

Eugenix

I briefly considered FUT but decided that I would rather have a little less donor capacity if it leaves me the option to shave my head in the future without a big scar. 

I wanted to have my transplant during winter break because I have 5 weeks off before my next semester starts. Covid simplified my options because bisanga and Eugenix were off the table. Dr. Ferreira did not have availability until February. So my option became HLC which was my original choice. 

For anyone who isn't familiar with HLC, they are a turkish clinic that is more expensive than the typical clinic in turkey (2.7 euros a graft). They see 2-3 patients a day between 6 surgeons. You may be worked on by 3 different surgeons throughout your stay. All extractions, and implantations are done by the surgeons.

My consultation lasted about 45 minutes, I was in the room with 3 surgeons who all looked at my donor area and all participated in discussion with me about goals, expectations, and long term planning. My hairline was designed and redesigned multiple times until myself and all the surgeons were satisfied with it. I received 50 grafts sq/cm at the hairline and 20 grafts sq/cm behind hairline where I had some more hair though it was thin. I received 3170 grafts in total with a hair to graft ratio of 2.3+ (any graft with more than two hairs is designated as a multiple rather than triple or quadruple.)

The procedure took 2 days and was broken up into 4 sessions, each session was about 800 extractions then implantation as soon as grafts were organized. Procedure was mostly painless.

Cons:

Driver was more than an hour late picking me up from the airport and did not speak English, very friendly guy though.

the surgeon did not communicate with me much during procedure, this was a little unnerving and I wish they updated me on how things were going

After my first session, one of the surgeons said that my implantation pattern needed more of a gradient between 50/20 density, the surgeon who performed implantations agreed and corrected it next session. I am glad the surgeons hold each other accountable but I wish it were a mistake that was never made, not noticable now.

Flying from houston Texas to Ankara kind of sucks, no way around that though.

 

One of the common comments about this clinic is poor post op communication, I have little trouble believing this though I can't comment on it for myself yet. This isn't a big deal to me as long as they did a good job I shouldn't need to be in frequent communication with them.

 

Pros:

 

Price, I think the price is reasonable for the high level of surgeon involvement.

 

Housing is provided right next to clinic, all meals are paid for.

 

I thought living with other patients would be a con but it was the highlight of the trip. Made friends with the other guys and we shared our experiences with our surgeons

 

Head surgeon is very attentive to detail and assigns you a surgeon who he thinks is best qualified for your situation. Each surgeon is very focused on the work and I found that my experience matched the experience of the other guys.

 

Little time is wasted, this clinic moves quickly from start to finish. Grafts are extracted and quickly implanted, you get lunch then more grafts are extracted then implanted.

 

Surgeons were all incredibly knowledgeable and would give detailed answers when questioned about their plan for my hair and their process.

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting note: I met 10 patients there, no turkish patients all german, swiss, canadian, italian, and american. This clinic doesn't try and compete with the turkish hair mills, they don't market much because they don't want too many patients, they are methodical and treat each patient with careful consideration. No one was rushed and everyone was listened too. 

 

Tl;Dr excellent experience, feeling confident in the care I received and I believe it was at a fair cost.

Edited December 17, 2020 by T95good
Added graft breakdown image

[Melvin- Admin]

I’ve always been curious about how HLC operates, apparently it’s not one surgeon and lead techs, but rather a team of surgeons. Do they all work together in every case? Or can you pick and choose? Thanks for posting and happy growing 😎 eager to see your progress.

[T95good]

15 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I’ve always been curious about how HLC operates, apparently it’s not one surgeon and lead techs, but rather a team of surgeons. Do they all work together in every case? Or can you pick and choose? Thanks for posting and happy growing 😎 eager to see your progress.

Good question. I believe that all of the surgeons involved in the consultation and hairline design are all the surgeons that are available to work on your hair, in my case 3. I believe the head surgeon ozgur oztan leads every consult though. They want every doctor who may work on you to be familiar with your goals and expectations and they each have an opportunity to give their input that is why multiple surgeons are involved in every patients consult. You don't request doctor, they choose. I know Dr. Akin typically is picked to lead patients who use beard grafts because that is his specialty. Dr. Elif was chosen to lead the procedure on a patient who needed 6200 grafts because she is the fastest. Dr. Umud and Dr. Oztan worked on me. I believe dr. Oztan wanted to lead my first extraction because I was bleeding slot (forgot to stop taking oral minox before procedure). I believe they also tag team just to avoid surgeon fatigue, which I think is good, it's hard to keep the same level of focus and discipline for extended periods especially with such a monotonous task.

[Britanium]

1 minute ago, T95good said:

Good question. I believe that all of the surgeons involved in the consultation and hairline design are all the surgeons that are available to work on your hair, in my case 3. I believe the head surgeon ozgur oztan leads every consult though. They want every doctor who may work on you to be familiar with your goals and expectations and they each have an opportunity to give their input that is why multiple surgeons are involved in every patients consult. You don't request doctor, they choose. I know Dr. Akin typically is picked to lead patients who use beard grafts because that is his specialty. Dr. Elif was chosen to lead the procedure on a patient who needed 6200 grafts because she is the fastest. Dr. Umud and Dr. Oztan worked on me. I believe dr. Oztan wanted to lead my first extraction because I was bleeding slot (forgot to stop taking oral minox before procedure). I believe they also tag team just to avoid surgeon fatigue, which I think is good, it's hard to keep the same level of focus and discipline for extended periods especially with such a monotonous task.

Thanks  for this informative post ! 

[PizzaWolf]

@T95good I think HLC's work looks stellar. You made a good choice. Do you have any info on the doctors' background or training? They don't give bios on their website for anyone but the head doctor.

[T95good]

No, I wish I did. When Dr. Umud invited me into his office to discuss post op, he had a bunch of textbooks about hair transplants all over his office, but that's the extent of what I knew about him. Surgeons were not talkative or warm. They are just business. They will answer any question you have with detail but will not go out of their way to get to know you.

Yes I am impressed with how clean it looked even right after. And every patient I lived with had the same feeling no matter their surgeon. Seems like they stick to a strict process to ensure consistency across surgeons

[UnbaldEagle]

@T95good, looks great and very neatly refined, happy growing. 🙏

Great to read such a detailed review of the clinic too, I've always been impressed with them. 

[UnbaldEagle]

1 hour ago, T95good said:

 I believe dr. Oztan wanted to lead my first extraction because I was bleeding slot (forgot to stop taking oral minox before procedure). 

Oh, wow, a fellow oral minox user. How long before you'll start taking it again?

[T95good]

They said I could begin right away. With topical you have to wait 4 weeks because the alcohol is bad for grafts

[UnbaldEagle]

1 minute ago, T95good said:

They said I could begin right away. With topical you have to wait 4 weeks because the alcohol is bad for grafts

That's great to know!

I'll tell you something, but this is just my own speculation. I was one of those rare non-shedders (well, most of it didn't) with my first HT and I always thought it had something to do with taking oral minox. 

[PizzaWolf]

How did your 45 minute consult go, and what was your input into the design?

Did they give you donor numbers and things of that nature?

[T95good]

@UnbaldEagle interesting, I guess we will see how I respond

 

@PizzaWolf they said ai had 7500-8000 donor before my first procedure but I am always sceptical of those numbers, could be more or less

[T95good]

@PizzaWolf I had input on how low hairline was, and the general shape, also if I wanted temple points done

[PizzaWolf]

@T95good What made you decide against doing temple points?

[giegnosiganoe]

Work looks great. How many nights are you staying in Turkey before flying back? How has sleeping and protecting the grafts been going? Time difference not too big of a deal?

[T95good]

@PizzaWolf@PizzaWolf I considered it but surgeon didn't think it was necessary, my temple mounts are thinned but not lost, they are also naturally blonde so they appear thinner.

 

@giegnosiganoe sleeping was no trouble, I left two days after procedure but honestly felt like I could have flown back to America that same day. Hope I'm doing a good job protecting grafts, not wearing a hat even though it is permitted

[T95good]

1 week update, very happy with how donor area looks. Recipient area looks okay, will be curious to see how it looks without scabs.

[Britanium]

Healing fast ! That’s a very impressive looking donor area 😜

[T95good]

Thanks, can't see any scarring in sunlight or without camera flash.

My biggest concern is if the hairline density is good enough, especially the right side

[Britanium]

Looking back at your pics I think you will be fine 👏 

[T95good]

10 day post op, scabs are off. Also added a buzzed before pic so you can see the difference. Still a little worried about the density on the right side but we will see. Merry Christmas everyone

[MachoVato]

Hairline is looking good! Nothing to worry about at this point, for sure!

[T95good]

16 days post op. Everything seems okay so far. 

[Gasthoerer]

Very nice report, thank you.

Works looks as clean as it can be. HLC is one of the Top3 clinics in Turkey for sure and IMO on the level of the best clinics world wide for a very fair price tag. The "collective" approach is very uncommon, but obviously successful. HLC is very popular in Europe especially in Germany and Italy. 

Happy growing. 

[T95good]

Thanks for the feedback, I agree, I am very impressed that they are able to pull off the revolving door of surgeons without sacrificing consistency