Which clinic you would choose? ASMED (Dr. Erdogan) or HLC

[MeetYourMaker]

Which one is superior one at the moment? 

I already had a transplant (2000 grafts) and this one is really important for me, probably will be my last major surgery so i want to pick the best option between these two. 

ASMED was the best since late 2018 right? Now it has mixed results, how does HLC do at these days? 

Thank you. 

[Britanium]

Unless it’s Dr Erdogan doing the channel opening I would opt for HLC. Although I would also consider Dr Bicer and Dr Pekiner as possible alternatives. 

[A Fue Good Men]

HLC over asmed any day. At hlc you have doctors working on you the entire time and they use stick and place which is superior imo to what asmed uses. Asmed is a mill.

[Gatsby]

Dr Bicer or else I’d forget about Turkey (but that’s just me). There are enough variables in surgery at the best of times.

[MeetYourMaker]

8 hours ago, JohnAC71 said:

Unless it’s Dr Erdogan doing the channel opening I would opt for HLC. Although I would also consider Dr Bicer and Dr Pekiner as possible alternatives. 

do you think Erdogan's channel openning and his assistants' transplanting equal to HLC? 

[MeetYourMaker]

8 hours ago, 5BetaReductase said:

HLC over asmed any day. At hlc you have doctors working on you the entire time and they use stick and place which is superior imo to what asmed uses. Asmed is a mill.

could you explain "stick and place" ? 

[MeetYourMaker]

2 hours ago, Gatsby said:

Dr Bicer or else I’d forget about Turkey (but that’s just me). There are enough variables in surgery at the best of times.

never head of Dr. Bicer,

This is going to be my second operation and when i was getting first one there were "Three Big" of Turkey : Dr. Keser, Erdogan and HLC. That's why i needed to compare two of them. 

[A Fue Good Men]

2 minutes ago, MeetYourMaker said:

could you explain "stick and place" ? 

https://www.hairtransplantmentor.com/stick-and-place/

[Britanium]

6 minutes ago, MeetYourMaker said:

do you think Erdogan's channel openning and his assistants' transplanting equal to HLC? 

Tough one to call, I have seen so many good hairlines over the years from Dr Erdogans input. Yes HLC have a unusual model in the use of their Drs… difficult choice. When we see HLC results it’s not really accredited to one Dr in particular. 

Edited July 10, 2021 by JohnAC71

[A Fue Good Men]

1 minute ago, MeetYourMaker said:

never head of Dr. Bicer,

This is going to be my second operation and when i was getting first one there were "Three Big" of Turkey : Dr. Keser, Erdogan and HLC. That's why i needed to compare two of them. 

IMO HLC and keser are miles ahead of asmed. There’s a reason asmed got removed from here…

[Britanium]

Dr Bicer is a very good choice in my opinion. 22+ years experience. Involved in all stages of the transplant procedure. Only one patient per day. And still manages to be affordable. Now recommended by the forum too. 

[MeetYourMaker]

2 minutes ago, 5BetaReductase said:

https://www.hairtransplantmentor.com/stick-and-place/

Thank you

"In addition, stick and place (in most cases) is not carried out by the surgeon and for years, even before the climax for FUSS, technicians would have the sole duty of making the incisions as well as placing the grafts thus giving complete control of the final outcome to the technicians and not the doctor."

Is this true for HLC? 

[A Fue Good Men]

6 minutes ago, MeetYourMaker said:

Thank you

"In addition, stick and place (in most cases) is not carried out by the surgeon and for years, even before the climax for FUSS, technicians would have the sole duty of making the incisions as well as placing the grafts thus giving complete control of the final outcome to the technicians and not the doctor."

Is this true for HLC? 

From the videos I’ve seen the doctor makes the incision which is very important as the angle and depth is controlled by them and right when they remove the needle the assistant places the grafts. Look up some of their videos on YouTube.

Edited July 10, 2021 by 5BetaReductase

[Britanium]

Would you consider travelling anywhere else ? Just curious 🧐 as there are some excellent choices in Spain/Portugal/Belgium etc.. 

[MeetYourMaker]

1 minute ago, JohnAC71 said:

Would you consider travelling anywhere else ? Just curious 🧐 as there are some excellent choices in Spain/Portugal/Belgium etc.. 

I live in Turkey and just want to visit the best Turkish option to be honest; EU prices are really high especially when you consider Turkish Lira against Euro  

[MeetYourMaker]

9 minutes ago, JohnAC71 said:

Dr Bicer is a very good choice in my opinion. 22+ years experience. Involved in all stages of the transplant procedure. Only one patient per day. And still manages to be affordable. Now recommended by the forum too. 

How can i check all recommended surgeons? 

When did ASMED got removed? i didnt know that 

[Britanium]

5 minutes ago, MeetYourMaker said:

How can i check all recommended surgeons? 

When did ASMED got removed? i didnt know that 

https://www.hairtransplantnetwork.com/Consult-a-Physician/hair-transplant-surgeons.asp?sr=HRN-MOB

[BLE123]

1. Pekiner
2. HLC
3. Bicer
4. Demirsoy
5. Asmed

That would probably be my order of preference if going to Turkey, it depends on your specific case though. The thing with Asmed is that some of the best results I've seen have been from them but they've also had plenty of shoddy ones too, I think most of those were around the time they opened up their new mega clinic and were just trying to cram in as many patients as possible. Their more recent results have picked up again from what I've seen but that could just be the impression I get from those cases posted on here. The most recurring problem I see with their results is a lack of density behind the hairline, which is surprising as they also typically use a higher number of grafts compared to most - yet their donors pretty much always look immaculate so it's kind of confusing to me. Demirsoy is the "budget" option but despite that I hardly if ever see a poor result from him, always good growth and natural looking results. Bicer and HLC are both very reliable, again I can't recall seeing many poor results. Pekiner's hairline work just tips it in his balance for me, I would say he's the best option for lower norwood patients and he's very conservative with regards to the donor.

Keser I'll leave out for now. His results were among the very best but I haven't seen any recent cases of his and there have been some complaints about him not using microscopes which for some wouldn't be acceptable.

Edited July 10, 2021 by BLE123

[Britanium]

32 minutes ago, MeetYourMaker said:

I live in Turkey and just want to visit the best Turkish option to be honest; EU prices are really high especially when you consider Turkish Lira against Euro  

Definitely look at Dr Bicer and Dr Pekiner. I agree with @BLE123that Pekiner really is a master of crafting excellent hairlines. 

Edited July 10, 2021 by JohnAC71

[MeetYourMaker]

22 minutes ago, BLE123 said:

1. Pekiner
2. HLC
3. Bicer
4. Demirsoy
5. Asmed

That would probably be my order of preference if going to Turkey, it depends on your specific case though. The thing with Asmed is that some of the best results I've seen have been from them but they've also had plenty of shoddy ones too, I think most of those were around the time they opened up their new mega clinic and were just trying to cram in as many patients as possible. Their more recent results have picked up again from what I've seen but that could just be the impression I get from those cases posted on here. The most recurring problem I see with their results is a lack of density behind the hairline, which is surprising as they also typically use a higher number of grafts compared to most - yet their donors pretty much always look immaculate so it's kind of confusing to me. Demirsoy is the "budget" option but despite that I hardly if ever see a poor result from him, always good growth and natural looking results. Bicer and HLC are both very reliable, again I can't recall seeing many poor results. Pekiner's hairline work just tips it in his balance for me, I would say he's the best option for lower norwood patients and he's very conservative with regards to the donor.

Keser I'll leave out for now. His results were among the very best but I haven't seen any recent cases of his and there have been some complaints about him not using microscopes which for some wouldn't be acceptable.

Thank you for detailed feedback mate, really helpful. 

[MeetYourMaker]

9 minutes ago, JohnAC71 said:

Definitely look at Dr Bicer and Dr Pekiner. I agree with @BLE123that Pekiner really is a master of crafting excellent hairlines. 

Is there any Pekiner topic that he transplanted more than 5000 grafts (vertex / hairline area) ? 

[SD1984]

From what I've gathered over time it seems like Asmed was at one point the best clinic in Turkey but then something happened where he was no longer heavily involved in the surgeries and it was more of a technician spot. Not a hairmill but definitely not what it used to be. To the guy who said Bicer or bust in Turkey no offense but that is ridiculous. Dr. Khan Pekiner imo is one of the best if not the best there is over there. 

[A Fue Good Men]

9 hours ago, BLE123 said:

1. Pekiner
2. HLC
3. Bicer
4. Demirsoy
5. Asmed

That would probably be my order of preference if going to Turkey, it depends on your specific case though. The thing with Asmed is that some of the best results I've seen have been from them but they've also had plenty of shoddy ones too, I think most of those were around the time they opened up their new mega clinic and were just trying to cram in as many patients as possible. Their more recent results have picked up again from what I've seen but that could just be the impression I get from those cases posted on here. The most recurring problem I see with their results is a lack of density behind the hairline, which is surprising as they also typically use a higher number of grafts compared to most - yet their donors pretty much always look immaculate so it's kind of confusing to me. Demirsoy is the "budget" option but despite that I hardly if ever see a poor result from him, always good growth and natural looking results. Bicer and HLC are both very reliable, again I can't recall seeing many poor results. Pekiner's hairline work just tips it in his balance for me, I would say he's the best option for lower norwood patients and he's very conservative with regards to the donor.

Keser I'll leave out for now. His results were among the very best but I haven't seen any recent cases of his and there have been some complaints about him not using microscopes which for some wouldn't be acceptable.

Pekiner has had a number of sub par growth cases posted here. He’s also notorious for aborting operations for various reasons. His rep that used to post here tried to get the mod to remove bad reviews…Personally, I wouldn’t rank him as high

Edited July 10, 2021 by 5BetaReductase

[ITA]

I have no doubts about doctor Pekiner's skill, I don't know why, but I believe that the doctor is not even aware of the "modus operandi" of his consultant.  I haven't seen many poor results from Pekiner, quite a few results here, but I also understand why: his consultant is also a moderator of an Italian forum, so Pekiner's patients are mostly Italian and European because on that forum, there is no thread of dissatisfied patients.  A few months ago, there was a patient who underwent the transplant in May 2020, and in December 2020 he wrote that he noticed a thinning and accentuated hair thinning.  Well, that post lasted a few hours on that forum.

[JayLDD]

Personally I wouldn't take anyone that puts Bicer or Demirsoy above ASMED seriously. Put simply, their eyes aren't functional or they certainly aren't using them.  Or put more socially acceptably, they lack good aesthetic judgement. Even off the sole basis of success rate. For hairlines Pekiner appears to do good work, although there's not a huge body of work to go off and as others have said he seems to have a larger than average track record of aborted cases (for better or worse) and there are a number of poor results. I would put Keser who he worked with at a clearly higher standard and Keser also has a broader track record to judge from.  HLC is a world class FUE clinic however they have a range of surgeons. 

For the OP, if you're looking for a megasession that covers the entire balding scalp (hairline/mid/vertex) and graft numbers that are potentially 3k+ I would absolutely consider ASMED primarily. If you're looking for mainly hairline refinement Keser and HLC have earned their strong reputations for this.