Dr. Özlem Biçer HT. 2750 grafts/ 16.06.2021

[juancbz45]

 

Hello everyone,

After thinking about it for two years, and having done an extensive research, 17 days ago I finally took action and had my hair transplant.

I’m 25 years old , and just like for everyone else here I guess, hair fall has been one of the biggest obstacles I have stumbled upon so far. I still remember that “turning point” moment 3 years ago when I found out that I was losing hair, and that it was a genetic trait just like skin color. My grandfather was a NW7 when he passed away aged 67, so you can imagine my sadness when I found out that my very prized hair could potentially gradually vanish in the course of the next 15-20 years.

I tried minoxidil for 6-7 months in 2018-19 with no success (I actually think it made my hair status worse), and finasteride is simply a risk ( though small, according to studies) that I’m not willing to take.

So, after having seen I was left with no options, I told myself that I would had a HT once I was 25 (Recommended age to do it).

When I started my research, I was shocked with a huge number of clinics and surgeons worldwide, and I noticed a good portion of them were from Turkey. As a student with a student budget, put my focus on just on these clinics; however, the more a learned about HTs, the more I realized the risks of trusting my head to unexperienced techs.

I discovered then Dr. Biçer, and I was immediately attracted by many points: good and natural results (this and german and italian forums), one patient treated per day, qualified team of nurses that work with her for many years already, and her professionalism and etic.

I did then the consultation with her and she estimated that 2750-2950 grafts would be enough to cover my temples and hairline.

After being convinced, I booked the surgery for the 16^th of June. I was at every moment in contact with her assistant Özen, who was always available and willing to answer all my questions.

The operation itself went smooth, and the whole office and surgery room is basically yours for the whole day (very clean and nice place). It all in all lasted around 9- 10 hours, and all I have to say about the procedure is that it was flawless; the grafts angles and treatment of the donor area was also fantastic.

I know that without fin I will most likely need another procedure in the future (as long as I still want to have hair on my head), but for the moment, I’m confident that I will be happy with the results.

Juan Carlos.

(The pics attached are before the op, after the op, and 12 days after with the scabs off)

 

Edited July 3, 2021 by juancbz45

[Spring15]

Looks like pristine work. I can see Dr Bicer offers two options , FUE Automated at 1.5 Euro per graft, or FUE Manual at 3

Which method did you use?

[juancbz45]

3 minutes ago, Spring15 said:

Looks like pristine work. I can see Dr Bicer offers two options , FUE Automated at 1.5 Euro per graft, or FUE Manual at 3

Which method did you use?

Micromotor (automated)

[NDAustralia]

Looks like very clean work. Excited to see how this one turns out!

[Melvin- Admin]

Looks excellent thanks for sharing your review. Look forward to seeing your updates 🙌🏼

[Britanium]

Looks to be very nice and refined work. Will be following 👍🏽 Thanks for posting 👌

[JDEE0]

Work looks good, I'm sure you'll be a happy man come next year.

Word of advice though, I'm in a somewhat similar situation as you, except I'm a few years older and my loss is a little bit less severe than yours was here, but you should really re-consider the use of fin. You said you only realised you were losing hair 3 years ago - what do you expect to happen in another 3? Even if it slows down and you're still ok in 5 years, you're pretty much guaranteed to lose more hair as time goes on and no one knows to what extent. Maybe you'll run out of donor, who knows. Not to mention the aspect of potentially chasing your hair-loss through surgery every X amount of years and having the financial and emotional burdens (recovery time etc) that this will incur.

Just a thought, I see no reason not to give it a go and see how you get on. I understand you're afraid of sides but you should go and look at all of the long term clinical studies on finasteride. There are a fair few,  up to the span of 10 years, with thousands of participants collectively involved - you can look up the incidence of side effects vs placebo, drop out rate due to sides etc and gain a more rational understanding of the likelihood and actual severity of side effects as opposed to reading horror stories in the echo chambers that are most hair loss forums.

No one who is rational is saying sides don't exist, of course there's a possibility, albeit statistically slim. But if you took it and were really are convinced you truly had sides, then just stop taking it. The idea that they can be permanent has no scientific proof, and even if this was true (which I obviously do not believe) the chances would be so slim that they would be insignificant statistically speaking. Lots of drugs that people routinely take and don't bat an eye lid at have the (slim) potential for catastrophic consequences. An example being I had to have an anti-coagulant injection after breaking my leg a few years ago, right before being administered the Dr. casually informed me that there is a very small chance it could lead to fatal internal haemorrhaging of the organs, including the brain and leading to a massive stroke and causing death very quickly, and advised me to ring an ambulance straight away if I have any strange symptoms such as a severe headache etc. I still took it of course - as I'm sure tens and tens of thousands of people do every day across the world. 

Bit of a tangent, and I don't wish to have any debate about fin with anyone as it's been done to death a million times, but you see my point. It's ultimately your choice, but you might live to regret it big time. 

All the best with your growth anyways!

Edited July 3, 2021 by JDEE0

[Alshe]

Congratulations! Results will be killer.

 

P.S. Couldn't help but notice small white areas on your head. Don't mean to be rude, but is it bepanthol or seborrhea/something else?

[juancbz45]

11 hours ago, Alshe said:

Congratulations! Results will be killer.

 

P.S. Couldn't help but notice small white areas on your head. Don't mean to be rude, but is it bepanthol or seborrhea/something else?

Thanks  . Yeah, I notice those small spots the moment they shaved my head, however they seem to be just small empty spots. No hair is there .

[juancbz45]

13 hours ago, JDEE0 said:

Work looks good, I'm sure you'll be a happy man come next year.

Word of advice though, I'm in a somewhat similar situation as you, except I'm a few years older and my loss is a little bit less severe than yours was here, but you should really re-consider the use of fin. You said you only realised you were losing hair 3 years ago - what do you expect to happen in another 3? Even if it slows down and you're still ok in 5 years, you're pretty much guaranteed to lose more hair as time goes on and no one knows to what extent. Maybe you'll run out of donor, who knows. Not to mention the aspect of potentially chasing your hair-loss through surgery every X amount of years and having the financial and emotional burdens (recovery time etc) that this will incur.

Just a thought, I see no reason not to give it a go and see how you get on. I understand you're afraid of sides but you should go and look at all of the long term clinical studies on finasteride. There are a fair few,  up to the span of 10 years, with thousands of participants collectively involved - you can look up the incidence of side effects vs placebo, drop out rate due to sides etc and gain a more rational understanding of the likelihood and actual severity of side effects as opposed to reading horror stories in the echo chambers that are most hair loss forums.

No one who is rational is saying sides don't exist, of course there's a possibility, albeit statistically slim. But if you took it and were really are convinced you truly had sides, then just stop taking it. The idea that they can be permanent has no scientific proof, and even if this was true (which I obviously do not believe) the chances would be so slim that they would be insignificant statistically speaking. Lots of drugs that people routinely take and don't bat an eye lid at have the (slim) potential for catastrophic consequences. An example being I had to have an anti-coagulant injection after breaking my leg a few years ago, right before being administered the Dr. casually informed me that there is a very small chance it could lead to fatal internal haemorrhaging of the organs, including the brain and leading to a massive stroke and causing death very quickly, and advised me to ring an ambulance straight away if I have any strange symptoms such as a severe headache etc. I still took it of course - as I'm sure tens and tens of thousands of people do every day across the world. 

Bit of a tangent, and I don't wish to have any debate about fin with anyone as it's been done to death a million times, but you see my point. It's ultimately your choice, but you might live to regret it big time. 

All the best with your growth anyways!

@JDEE0 , This is by far the best advice I ever got concerning fin.  Taking fin is for me a way harder decision than deciding for a HT. There was a point when I was really decided to take it, but then I read some anecdotal experience saying that if one tries to have children when being on fin, there is a chance the child could come with some genetical malformation. That simply demotivated me. 

Plus, I have some very mild gyno that I have been carrying with me since I was 15, and I'm afraid that maybe fin  could make it worse (I have managed to hide it with a lot of chest workout at the gym). 

But your are extremely right, I could potentially save (or slow down the progression of my baldness) my hair if I start taking it as soon as possible. I have to admit that this message of yours push me a bit more to the side of taking it. 

Thank you dude!

Edited July 4, 2021 by juancbz45

[JDEE0]

I'm glad I could help out in some way. 

As far as the possible birth defects go, there is no evidence to state that this is possible scientifically speaking or that it happens in any way. Studies have shown that, whilst some levels of finasteride can indeed be measured in the sperm of a man who takes it, they are in very small amounts and aren't going to transfer over into the DNA passed on and cause issues. There are zero (confirmed) cases of birth defects linked to the use of finasteride, I'm sure you can find the odd anecdotal story online of people who say that they unfortunately had children with birth defects whilst on fin, but you have to remember that even if true, there is an incidence rate of this amongst the general population, just like anything else in life (not that these stories are common or anything, I've never personally seen any, but I'm sure you can find if you look).

I'll say this, I'm sure that with tens and tens of millions (probably more) of guys having taken this drug over the course of numerous decades at this point, the number of babies that have been conceived whilst the father was using fin must be extremely high; I don't see how there wouldn't' be some sort of causal link noted by now. It's a possibility in theory, yes, but it's really not something you should worry about.

Now if the mother were to take fin, then that's a different issue, it would certainly be extremely harmful and potentially cause birth defects, same as if a developing child were to (I'd imagine it would have to be on a regular basis to actually cause real harm realistically) ingest finasteride - it would permanently halt the development of many important things. So those two things are a clear no no - keep fin away from kids and women who might become pregnant for sure. But at the end of the day, if you want to just play it safe, I can respect that. But instead of never taking it, just simply take a break from fin when trying to have a baby - it's really that simple. As long as there's no issues and you're not trying for years or something, you shouldn't lose much ground over the course of a number of months and you can just re-start after.

Hmm, the Gyno is potentially something that fin could affect - you're still very likely to be just fine - but if I was you I would just get a blood test before taking fin and during taking fin to measure Estrogen levels - it's that simple. The only reason fin can potentially cause Gyno (rarely) is because once you take it, you have more testosterone floating around your bloodstream due to the fact that finasteride blocked whatever proportion of it from being converted into DHT. But, Testosterone doesn't just convert into DHT, it also aromatizes (turns into) to Estrogen, higher levels of which in a male will cause Gyno over time. So, if you were really concerned, just get your bloods taken periodically and check your Estrogen levels (get a blood test before hand and compare to baseline), if they rise significantly, then you know you're at risk. If they don't, then you're not at any risk, at all. 

Here, read this article, it should cover absolutely everything you need to know in regards to this: https://moreplatesmoredates.com/finasteride-gynecomastia/ 

Hope that helps you and anyone else that comes across this in the future!

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by JDEE0

[juancbz45]

Yo everyone, 

Here is my one month update. I think around 50% of the transplanted hair has fallen out already, whereas the remaining kept on growing . The shedding phase is still active, so I think I will lose some more transplanted hairs before it stops.

Recipient area is still red, hopefully it will fade away within the next weeks/months 

Donor zone has healed pretty well already. 

All in all, so far I think it has been a pretty smooth recovery process. 
 

Edited July 16, 2021 by juancbz45

[Britanium]

Thanks for the update. All looks totally on track ! The redness will indeed carry on fading. It doesn’t look too bad in the pics. Your donor area is recovering very nicely. Your definitely going through this nicely 👌

[juancbz45]

Hello everyone, here is my 2 months update. 

For the last weeks most of the transplanted hair kept falling out, but now I think I can safely say that the shedding phase is over. The hairs that did not shed kept on growing. 

To be honest, I can now understand why this is called the "ugly-duckling phase" 😅; but honestly I think it could look waaaaay worse, so I'm thankful.

On the positive side, the redness on the recepient area is slowly fading away , and the donor area is fully healed. 

I can already see small dark hairs making their way through the recepient area; I don't expect early growth though. 

Now it is just a waiting game. Thankfully I have many things that keep me occupied. 

[Britanium]

Your donor area is looking superb. And yes this is the worst stage of waiting… give it another couple of months and it’s going to start growing 👌

[juancbz45]

Hello people, here is my 3months and 10 days update. 

There is no much to report. The hair that didn't shed kept on growing, but apart from that, I'm still waiting for my new hairs to sprout  : ) 

Waiting is the toughest part , definitely. Also I think that comparing one's progress with that of others is never healthy. 

Greetings to everyone

 

Edited September 27, 2021 by juancbz45

[Britanium]

Thanks for the update 🙏 Your looking fine 👍🏽 And yes everyone follows a different growth pattern, your grafts will soon be sprouting in to life ! 

[digi23]

Looks good, very similiar procedure as mine so I will follow and fingers crossed you will have a great result 🙂 You are more than 2 months ahead of me so will be interesting to follow you!

[Gatsby]

It's looking good and your donor region looks excellent! Thanks for sharing!

[juancbz45]

Aloha everyone  . I wish to all of you first of all a happy new year , and I hope the god hair will bless us all this year. 

I somehow forgot about this thread (due to job and thesis); so today I decided to update my case. It is exactly 7 months from my procedure, and of course there is a big change from my last update. 

It just got better silently without me noticing it, but I'm happy that at the end everything turned out well  

There is however a small patch on the right side that is still lacking a proper density, but it is still something that can be solved with a small touch up in the future.

 

I'm happy so far, since this was a huge booster to my confidence, and at the end that is the end goal. 

Kind regards to everyone!

 

Edited January 17, 2022 by juancbz45

[ProspectII]

Wow! This is looking fantastic and it's safe to assume that things will still thicken up even from here. You must be delighted.

[Curious25]

Looks great , good for you! 

[MaasterK]

Damnnnnnn, your result looks amazing!

[ProspectII]

Be good to see an update man

[RTC]

Amazing progress