Advice on FUE, Recommendations in Turkey?

[Tres]

Hey guys,

I also am looking for advice on where to get my FUE hair transplant. I’m based in Germany and have so far looked into Istanbul/Turkey only as my budget is around 3k Euro. I’m 42 y/o and basically had the same hair line for the last 10 years, I’d say I’m a Norwood 3.

Here are a few pictures:

My questions would be:

- How many grafts do you think I need? My first consultation said 3500 which felt like a lot.

- I’m usually getting a skin fade and would like to do so again after my donor area is healed up. Even with a close shave I guess the donor scars would be visible so I’m considering SMP afterwards. How long after the transplant should I be able to get SMP on my donor?

- Any recommendations on clinics in Istanbul for my budget? So far I only got a consultation at Elithair which quoted me 2700 EUR for 3500 grafts.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, super happy for any general advice as well.

Thanks a ton in advance!
Tres

[Britanium]

Please consider saving more for a decent choice of Dr/Clinic, this is not a procedure to be basing purely on cost. If you are going to consider affordable yet still decent Drs/Clinic's then consider Dr Bicer, Dr Turan, Dr Gur, Dr Demirsoy + Dr Yaman, but be aware the last couple of names have the occasional poor result. 
What you don’t want is a tech based procedure/hair mill. You need a Dr doing at least the incisions, and you want to be choosing a clinic that you have also seen lots of actual real reviews, not cherry picked ones. 

[Britanium]

As you mentioned elithair, I’m sure @SeanTomancould comment as he had a Ht with them. 

[SeanT1]

27 minutes ago, J.A.C said:

As you mentioned elithair, I’m sure @SeanTomancould comment as he had a Ht with them. 

Had a great time with these guys,
Lovely bunch of people.  The procedure is done in an actual hospital.

I haven't seen or heard of a bad result from Elithair yet, but it's very important to note that tech's do the transplant itself, not Dr. Balwi!
He just draws the hairline and gives a brief consultation.  We don't know the tech's names or how long they've been doing transplants.
For all we know there could be a whole new team since I was there.

They seem to preform on two clients per day with two separate tech teams in separate rooms.

Edited April 3, 2022 by SeanToman

[Fue3361]

There's not a single clinic from my understanding on these forums where you can get 3-4k grafts or 3k euros.  I don't see it happening.

There are clinics at these price points, but nobody here will consider them "recommendable" clinics.

That said, some are better than others.  But I'd at the MINIMUM save up to have about 5k euros.  At that point, your options open up (still not to recommended clinics, but much better than before).

Ideally yoou go with 10k euros and go to a reputable clinic.  But at 5k, I can imagine a few alright places you could try.  I know a clinic in Brazil called "Smart Hair" and their rate starts from 3,900 euros+.  I'd trust them not to screw up in any significant way, as they're all doctors doing the surgeries (not random technicians like you may get in Turkey).  

[Tres]

Thanks a lot guys, that’s not what I wanted to hear, but I think I had to!

On 4/3/2022 at 5:46 PM, Fue3361 said:

There's not a single clinic from my understanding on these forums where you can get 3-4k grafts or 3k euros.  I don't see it happening.

There are clinics at these price points, but nobody here will consider them "recommendable" clinics.

That said, some are better than others.  But I'd at the MINIMUM save up to have about 5k euros.  At that point, your options open up (still not to recommended clinics, but much better than before).

Really, really appreciate this advice. I was aware that going with a technician-based clinic adds this element of uncertainty in regards to quality, but I guess I was hoping to maybe get recommendations for “a better” or “the best” lower cost clinics (or well, mills). But I will absolutely try to stretch my budget to 5k.

On 4/3/2022 at 5:16 PM, J.A.C said:

Please consider saving more for a decent choice of Dr/Clinic, this is not a procedure to be basing purely on cost. If you are going to consider affordable yet still decent Drs/Clinic's then consider Dr Bicer, Dr Turan, Dr Gur, Dr Demirsoy + Dr Yaman, but be aware the last couple of names have the occasional poor result. 
What you don’t want is a tech based procedure/hair mill. You need a Dr doing at least the incisions, and you want to be choosing a clinic that you have also seen lots of actual real reviews, not cherry picked ones. 

Thanks for this as well. I will contact some of your recommendations.

On 4/3/2022 at 5:45 PM, SeanToman said:

Had a great time with these guys,
Lovely bunch of people.  The procedure is done in an actual hospital.

I haven't seen or heard of a bad result from Elithair yet, but it's very important to note that tech's do the transplant itself, not Dr. Balwi!
He just draws the hairline and gives a brief consultation.  We don't know the tech's names or how long they've been doing transplants.
For all we know there could be a whole new team since I was there.

They seem to preform on two clients per day with two separate tech teams in separate rooms.

Happy to hear you had a good experience with them. They were really nice and tried to assure me that their technicians have years of experience in FUE and are well trained as teams. But when reading that Dr. Balwi is not involved in most of the surgeries at all and then saw the mixed reviews online, it did put me off. I do expect this to be mostly the same at the other less expensive clinics though.

Budget aside, maybe you guys also have some insight on my questions regarding graft count and SMP:

Originally from what I saw online, 3500 grafts sounded a bit much for a more conservative hairline and some added thickness, but now I think it’s actually quite realistic. What do you think?

I usually do get my hair cut quite short in the back and sides and would like to be able to do that after the HT. As I expect the donor scars would be visible I am already planning with SMP afterwards. How long after the transplant should I be able to get SMP on my donor? Or would you say it's unrealistic to expect to be able to get a shave like that after the procedure at all?

Thanks again!

Edited April 7, 2022 by Tres

[SeanT1]

Well, I personally had 3500 grafts and my hair prior to surgery looks quite similar to yours, feel free to check out my log thread for reference and post operation images.

For SMP you're talking like £1500 for the back/sides and another £1500 for the top if you're wanting to add density. 

What matters the most is how many grafts a doctor can place per square centimetre.  

Edited April 7, 2022 by SeanToman

[MachoVato]

Shaving your hair that short... even with SMP... probably isn't a good idea. It's easy to grow it out, of course. But you need to manage your expectations.