Just been to Asli Tarcan (shouldn't have) and now nervous that I have made a big mistake.

[Elias]

I received surgery at Asli Tarcan 2 days ago. I'm a 23 year old, who admittedly should have researched more thoroughly. I'm both studying at uni and working a lot, and coming from a western country I was probably naive in thinking that if they're so "succesful" then they know what they are doing. Anyways, I've had my surgery, and they have been somewhat shady trying to sell one post surgery treatment after the other, while also constantly being late to pick me up and so forth. All in all quite annoying, but not something that can't be dismissed as cultural differences.

What made me really nervous was going home and reading reviews of over harvesting on the donor area. Thankfully, I have (had) really thick hair on the back of my head, and beforehand they told me that I had enough grafts for 3 surgeries. But having read the bad reviews online, I am now the most nervous I have been in my life probably, and would love to get some feedback, have I been overharvested or are there any other issues?

[JDEE0]

Can you post some clear, higher def pictures of your donor area post op as well as some photos of your hair loss situation prior to surgery?

[Elias]

Maybe it's just the red skin making me overreact. I did have very thick donor hair, and they "only" did 4k, but it is making me nervous, especially on the right side. 

[Melvin- Admin]

There’s no use worrying now. It’s the waiting game. Try not to stress yourself out. 

[Elias]

I also realised that the area is shaved, and that it is normal for shaved areas to be transparent. 

Thinking that the reason I'm feeling this way is because it feels rushed no matter what. I let my dissatisfaction with my hairline cloud my decisionmaking. 

I booked all the plane tickets two weeks ago, because I'm going to spend the next two weeks just preparing for exams anyways, but now I'm also realising that there will be no way to hide it from family during the vacation period... I went a bit in over my head...

[Melvin- Admin]

5 minutes ago, Elias said:

I also realised that the area is shaved, and that it is normal for shaved areas to be transparent. 

Thinking that the reason I'm feeling this way is because it feels rushed no matter what. I let my dissatisfaction with my hairline cloud my decisionmaking. 

I booked all the plane tickets two weeks ago, because I'm going to spend the next two weeks just preparing for exams anyways, but now I'm also realising that there will be no way to hide it from family during the vacation period... I went a bit in over my head...

There’s no use worrying now. Like I said what’s done is done. At this point, just wait it out. That’s all you can do.

[pomloe]

13 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

There’s no use worrying now. It’s the waiting game. Try not to stress yourself out. 

I agree, but just to be transparent, the Asli Tarcan clinic is such a bad place. Probably one of the most consistent clinics for over harvesting in Turkey.

[HappyMan2021]

I can't speak to overharvesting or the clinic's reputation, but what stands out to me is 23 is awfully young to get a hair transplant. 

[Elias]

Yeah you're right. I think it stems from me always getting compliments for my hair when I was younger. Was blessed with incredibly thick hair, but cursed with horrible balding genes. So decided to do finasteride and get the fronts covered, to hopefully have a full head of hair again. 

[Berba11]

4 minutes ago, Elias said:

Yeah you're right. I think it stems from me always getting compliments for my hair when I was younger. Was blessed with incredibly thick hair, but cursed with horrible balding genes. So decided to do finasteride and get the fronts covered, to hopefully have a full head of hair again. 

Hi mate,

You should have a better indication of the donor area within a few days when things have settled down. I'm 12 days post op and my donor was looking really healthy by day 3 (albeit not from this clinic!). There's no real indication of surgery that anyone not actively looking/knowing what to look for would notice now and by next week I suspect it'll be completely fine. So you should start to get an idea yourself quite soon. 

That said, 4,000 grafts seems quite a lot at your age, but the good news in a way is that a lot of these type of clinics are blatantly claiming to have done more extractions that they actually did. I'd not be surprised to learn you actually had less than 4,000 grafts done and if nothing else that should stand your donor area in decent stead.

[Elias]

I’m not sure if the difference in the donor area and the surrounding areas is due to the donor area being so red or if the surrounding hair is not shaved as short? Because if I will have to have such a huge difference between the two areas I’d rather just shave it all off. 

[AlexMeister21]

Can't see your forehead pre-op, but your hair looked good from the photos. Not sure if 4,000 grafts was needed to cover that area.

[Elias]

The forehead had become so bad that it was beginning to look kinda desperate/like being in denial to keep my hair. 

[Elias]

I think maybe it's just the fact that my skin is red/white spots plus the fact that the back area is completely shaved is making me panic.

[AlexMeister21]

Yeah I do think you're panicking a bit. Your donor area looks similar to mine and I was told I have around 8-10k lifetime donor hairs. I think the right surgeon would be able to make the most of your fue-operated donor area if you need future procedures done.

[Elias]

Yeah I'm probably getting away jail free on this one, since I wasn't in as desperate of a situation as the guys who come here with already thin donor area looking for a 6 k transplant. 

Just a bit shocked from my own decision making 😮 Should never do this kind of thing without proper research ffs. 

[AlexMeister21]

Actually, now that I think about it, I think I had about 4k total grafts transplanted to my forehead and I pretty much had a five head where all of my fingers including my thumb fit between my eyebrows and my hairline. After surgery, I'm down to a three head where three fingers cover my forehead from my eyebrows to my hairline.

[Elias]

And does your donor area look good now?

[Drish]

Don't usually see betadine applied onto the recipient. Have seen it being applied onto the donor though.

[AlexMeister21]

I had FUT so my donor area is fine. The scar is not the best but manageable.

I know this is a different surgeon, but this guy had 3,300 grafts taken with FUE and his donor still looks good for more procedures. I think your donor area looks normal from the post-op photos, but I'm not an expert.

 

[Elias]

I don't even care about future procedures, just don't want to have bald patches in what I already have. Thanks for taking your time to calm me down a bit!

[digi23]

14 minutes ago, Elias said:

I don't even care about future procedures, just don't want to have bald patches in what I already have. Thanks for taking your time to calm me down a bit!

How did you find this clinic?

I know alot of Youtubers are promoting this clinic and it makes me sick. They should be ashamed of themselves.

I really hope you dont get overharvested but oh my god the donor areas I have seen from this clinic is devastating. It is too early to say anything right now, you can see for sure in a month or so when its grown out abit.

Edited December 9, 2021 by digi23

[Elias]

I found it through Google I think. 

Now that I think about it, my scalp should definitely have been able to take 4k and I don't see why they would've taken more than that. But yeah it is ridiculous how many they are willing to do. 

[JDEE0]

The issue isn't so much whether they took 4000 grafts or not (although it is still an issue generally as this is a lot for one sitting, only a select few clinics can pull this off without harm imo), but whether or not they extracted in a sensible, homogenous manner. 

Whether it be 2000, 3000 or 4000 grafts taken, if too many follicles are extracted from too small an area, over-harvesting will occur and the donor will be unnecessarily scarred and patchy. 

I still can't really tell from the pics you've provided whether or not it's likely to be the case or not, or even if it looks like 4000 have actually been taken from your scalp, so I can't really help too much. But, as Melvin says, there's little use in worrying about it now, hopefully things will work out for you. Whilst they are a pretty bad clinic who do regularly over harvest as @digi23 correctly points out above, I have seen a number of people who've gone to them on YouTube whose donors didn't look too bad after one session with them. 

Obviously, temporary shock loss is a factor which could make things look worse than they actually are going to be in the end, but you'll most likely be able to get a feel for how your donor has been handled in the next week or two. As your hair grows out, if it's been noticeably over harvested, it will likely be pretty obvious, so hold out a couple weeks or so and report back then.

 

Edited December 9, 2021 by JDEE0

[Elias]

Okay thank you for a detailed reply. I'm happy to hear that I am atleast not an obvious case of surgery gone wrong. I seriously doubt they actually did 4k since I was the first person done at the clinic and they probably up the estimates to sound "better".