Dr. Kaan Pekiner - Ankara, Turkey - 3004 Grafts, Norwood 5 - 02.12.2021

[Ali4981]

Hello Everyone,

So after countless amount of cancellations due to covid, I finally managed to get myself to Ankara for an FUE surgery with Dr, Kaan Pekiner. The surgery took place over 3 days from 02/12 to 04/12, exactly 1 whole year from my original planned date.

Background Characteristics

-         28 years old male

-         Norwood 5

-         Fine hair

-         0.5mg Finasteride per day for 1 year

Pre-op consultation

After assessing my situation via a video call with Dr. Pekiner, I was advised that I would need two surgeries to fill the whole head. The first surgery would involve re-constructing the hairline, temples and mid scalp and then the second surgery for the crown. Dr. Pekiner concluded that I would need 3700 grafts in total for the first surgery, being 3000 from my donor area and 700 from the beard. In addition, I was advised to start finasteride to stabilize the hair loss.

After taking finasteride for the year as instructed, I can confirm that although it didn’t work wonders, it definitely halted the hair loss and I gained some hairs back in the mid-scalp region.

Transport & Accommodation

I went to turkey with a friend and we were picked up from the airport by the driver and taken to the Atakosk hotel, where we were staying. The clinic has an affiliation with the clinic and as I understand, patients stay at this hotel for the days of the surgery. The hotel was absolutely amazing, big spacious rooms, SPA + Sauna + Hammam and the staff were very accommodating. Breakfast was included in the price every morning.

Surgery:

I was picked up from the hotel by the clinic office manager and was taken to the clinic. It was just a short walk of about 5-10mins. I met Dr. Pekiner and the rest of the team and was explained how the days would run. My head was shaved, hairline planning underway and then it was time for day 1.

Each day I was in the clinic from 8am to 5pm with the days planned as follows:

-         Extraction

-         Break

-         Implantation

-         Lunch

-         Extraction

-         Break

-         Implantation

After reading countless reviews of Dr. Pekiner on here, I can say he definitely lived up to his reputation and expectation. An incredibly skilled surgeon, ethical and full of knowledge. I instantly felt that I was in safe hands and made the correct choice of choosing him.

Now, as the days were progressing and my receipt area was being filled with grafts, I predicted that Dr. Pekiner may be able to complete the surgery without the need of 700BHT grafts. Either way, I was not fussed if he needed or didn’t need to use them. In the end, I was right and my hairline, temples and mid-scalp was filled with 3004 grafts, saving the need to use my beard. As a result, I was able to save around £1400 pounds.

Graft count as follows:

6,503 hairs using 3004 grafts = average graft count 2.164 per graft.

Post-op debrief

After the surgery was completed on the 3^rd day, I had a sit down with the Dr. Pekiner in his office where he went over a few things which I will bullet point below:

-         My donor area was average, he has seen worse and he has seen better but he is confident I will achieve a satisfactory result.

-         I am to continue taking finasteride ( I purchased some proscar from the pharmacy at the airport and I am now cutting them into four pieces and taking 1.25mg MWF.

-         I am to consider starting oral Minoxidil after a few months. ( I am happy to try this and see how I get on. Dr will confirm dose.)

-         Biotin daily

-         Aspirin daily for the first 30 days.

-         Sebamed shampoo daily until scabs come off

-         Bepanthol for donor area and Saline Solution for the recipient area.

-         I was then given a post-operation aftercare document detailing the above and additional do`s and don’ts.

Conclusion

It was an amazing experience, one that I will never forget. The team is outstanding and the patient care is second to none. I am 3 weeks post-op and would very much appreciate any comments.

I have posted some pictures below with various lighting including Pre-op, post-op, week 1, week2 and week 3.

I don’t think I have started shedding, am I correct in understanding that these hairs (week 2/3 pics) will all fall out, which will start the ugly duckling phase?

Thank you for reading.

 

Donor Area

 

 Pre-Op

 

 

Post OP

 

 

 

 

Week 1 Post OP

 

 

 

Week 2 Post OP

 

 

Week 3 Post OP

 

 

Graft Count Board

 

[Vann]

This look really clean actually. What did your donor area look like after the procedure? Also your donor area looks pretty dense to me? was he talking about the sides as well when saying it looks pretty average?

Post updates when you can I am excited for you and I also was considering going with Dr. Pekiner since I see he does a lot of work with diffuse thinning patients. 

[Davy773]

Love the hairline design. Hopefully you recover fast. 

How is it communicating with Dr.Pekiner? Does he speak English? Do others on his team speak English? I'm also considering him and going somewhere English is spoken is very important to me. 

[Gatsby]

Congratulations. This looks like it’s going to be a killer result! 

[Ali4981]

On 1/24/2022 at 2:24 PM, Vann said:

This look really clean actually. What did your donor area look like after the procedure? Also your donor area looks pretty dense to me? was he talking about the sides as well when saying it looks pretty average?

Post updates when you can I am excited for you and I also was considering going with Dr. Pekiner since I see he does a lot of work with diffuse thinning patients. 

Thank you! I will be posting every month on the 4th

To be honest I thought the same thing, I thought my donor was pretty dense too but Dr. Pekiner seemed to think it was average.

The donor area grew back pretty quickly and you cant even tell I had the procedure done! i got my first haircut today and its made no difference to how the fade looks

[Ali4981]

On 1/26/2022 at 10:09 PM, Davy773 said:

Love the hairline design. Hopefully you recover fast. 

How is it communicating with Dr.Pekiner? Does he speak English? Do others on his team speak English? I'm also considering him and going somewhere English is spoken is very important to me. 

Thank you! Yes Dr. Pekiner is fluent in English although its not his first language. His team can also speak English including the patient advisors and clinic manager so communicating was no problem at all.

[Ali4981]

On 1/26/2022 at 11:21 PM, Gatsby said:

Congratulations. This looks like it’s going to be a killer result! 

Thank you! I am hopeful too and will post here with updates.

Starting oral Minoxidil next week

[Vann]

1 hour ago, Ali4981 said:

Thank you! I will be posting every month on the 4th

To be honest I thought the same thing, I thought my donor was pretty dense too but Dr. Pekiner seemed to think it was average.

The donor area grew back pretty quickly and you cant even tell I had the procedure done! i got my first haircut today and its made no difference to how the fade looks

That’s awesome man thanks for the update. Overall how was your experience in contacting the clinic? Did you reach back every once in awhile with updates while using finasteride? Or did you just go “heeyyy it’s me” a year later?

 

Also could we see some pictures of the hair cut and donor area now? And if you don’t mind me asking how much did you have to pay for the hair transplant? You said you saved 1400£ which is definitely a lot did you have a discount since you waited a year?

[Falconary]

Any update?

[Britanium]

8 hours ago, Falconary said:

Any update?

+1 👍🏽

[Chilifight]

On 3/27/2022 at 10:54 AM, J.A.C said:

+1 👍🏽

Updates?

[Z--]

Hi! Any updates?

[Vann]

Any updates?

[THE TRUTH]

Hope you doing well bro. 

No offense but just curiously did Dr. Pekiner give you a discount or ask you specifically to post your detailed journey on the forum ?  

[BaldDude]

"Looking clean" after the transplant means nothing.  I've seen poor results with "clean-looking" photos taken immediately after an HT.

[THE TRUTH]

6 minutes ago, BaldBobby said:

"Looking clean" after the transplant means nothing.  I've seen poor results with "clean-looking" photos taken immediately after an HT.

Totally agree. 

The outcome of a hair transplant is extremely unpredictable. 

I've seen guys looking excellent between the surgery and the 2-3 weeks mark after removing the scabs and before shedding. 

And yet ending with very low graft survival. 

I've seen guys looking so so after surgery, dealing with infections and sunburns and at the end growing just fine. 

You never know.

SUPRISE baby ! 

 

[sukh123]

1 hour ago, Let me botch you said:

Totally agree. 

The outcome of a hair transplant is extremely unpredictable. 

I've seen guys looking excellent between the surgery and the 2-3 weeks mark after removing the scabs and before shedding. 

And yet ending with very low graft survival. 

I've seen guys looking so so after surgery, dealing with infections and sunburns and at the end growing just fine. 

You never know.

SUPRISE baby ! 

 

Three weeks after you get a idea about the density and how it. Will look . But as you said the big caveat is graft survival , if atleast 90 percent survive your in for a good result. If you don’t shed as much is that a sign of increased graft survival ?

[THE TRUTH]

2 minutes ago, sukh123 said:

Three weeks after you get a idea about the density and how it. Will look . But as you said the big caveat is graft survival , if atleast 90 percent survive your in for a good result. If you don’t shed as much is that a sign of increased graft survival ?

Yes that's right. 

At 2-3 weeks you see your "best case scenario" buzzcut look with the density. 

Survival is a whole other story of course. 

Yes the less you shed the better off you'll be. 

[RTC]

5 minutes ago, Let me botch you said:

Yes that's right. 

At 2-3 weeks you see your "best case scenario" buzzcut look with the density. 

Survival is a whole other story of course. 

Yes the less you shed the better off you'll be. 

Really? I've never heard this. I thought shedding was completely normal and there was no correlation to future graft growth 

[sukh123]

14 minutes ago, RTC said:

Really? I've never heard this. I thought shedding was completely normal and there was no correlation to future graft growth 

Yeh it’s absolutely normal and in fact inevitable , what we’re saying is that if you have grafts that don’t shed it a good indicator for more grafts that have shed to survive. Tbh I don’t know if this is the case but makes sense if you think about it.

[Dryasin]

Hope u will have a great result! Any updates bro ?

[Ali4981]

Hello everyone.

very sorry for the extremely late response, life got in the way!

I will be uploading updated pics hopefully later this week, currently on month 8 and in my opinion I would go as far as saying the result has been phenomenal.

Sometimes, I still cannot believe the result so far and I cannot wait to share with you the updated pictures.

Watch this space.

[Ali4981]

Hello everyone, first of all I do apologise for the late update.

I have gone through my progress pictures and I have month 1, month 2, month 3 and month 8 to share (I am currently in month 8).

There was some slight numbness on my recipient area which faded away around month 6.

My donor has completely healed and I am still able to have it faded at the barbers.

Little reminder, I only got the frontal third done. As a result my crown area is still very much bald and I plan to visit Dr. Pekiner again sometime next year or the year after to have a 2nd surgery.

[Ali4981]

Month 1

 

[Ali4981]

Month 2