Botched Hairtransplantion by HLC clinic in Ancara

[Gasthoerer]

I am sorry, that you have to go through this. Even though I see your case I little more ambiguous than you (which is of course normal). 

1. You are a poor HT candidate from begin with (high NW, mediocre hair to skin characteristic, mediocre hair diameter, skin disease)

2. You had poor growth from several transplants from different clinics and different methods. 

Without medication the HLC maybe should not have made a transplant performed to on you or should have stopped after their 1st. 

Maybe the thought the same as I did:

- The damage was already done (by the earlier transplants), therefore: why not be more aggressive?

To give a perspective: 

1. I think you will look better and more natural than before your HLC journey when this is said done and you optimize your hair style.

2. The extraction looks clean and nicely patterned after both procedures. 

3. Also the recipient looks clean.

4. Even though the growth is not a homerun, and the recipient looks affected it is not a botch job for me. 

I cannot comment to the poor communication of the clinic as this is highly subjective, therefore I see the following points: 

1. HLC might have stopped after 1st procedure (see possible explanation above why they thought to go ahead). 

2. They might have spread the second extractions more across the donor. More pics are required to evaluate if your status (NW, skin disease) limited the extraction zones.

3. In one of the pics the donor (on the right side) looks infected or inflamed. This could trigger shock loss. Please visit a specialist and have this checked. 

4. Think about medication. 

5. Optimize your hairstyle/length. 

6. From pure mathematical point of view, the donor has to get better over time not worse (even though shock loss can make it worse temporarily) as some of the hairs in resting phase come back. If after 8 month it is still worse, than there is some underlying thing going on. 

All the best and I hope you will find a good solution/peace. 

 

 

[michael hofmann]

13 hours ago, Gasthoerer said:

I am sorry, that you have to go through this. Even though I see your case I little more ambiguous than you (which is of course normal). 

1. You are a poor HT candidate from begin with (high NW, mediocre hair to skin characteristic, mediocre hair diameter, skin disease)

2. You had poor growth from several transplants from different clinics and different methods. 

Without medication the HLC maybe should not have made a transplant performed to on you or should have stopped after their 1st. 

Maybe the thought the same as I did:

- The damage was already done (by the earlier transplants), therefore: why not be more aggressive?

To give a perspective: 

1. I think you will look better and more natural than before your HLC journey when this is said done and you optimize your hair style.

2. The extraction looks clean and nicely patterned after both procedures. 

3. Also the recipient looks clean.

4. Even though the growth is not a homerun, and the recipient looks affected it is not a botch job for me. 

I cannot comment to the poor communication of the clinic as this is highly subjective, therefore I see the following points: 

1. HLC might have stopped after 1st procedure (see possible explanation above why they thought to go ahead). 

2. They might have spread the second extractions more across the donor. More pics are required to evaluate if your status (NW, skin disease) limited the extraction zones.

3. In one of the pics the donor (on the right side) looks infected or inflamed. This could trigger shock loss. Please visit a specialist and have this checked. 

4. Think about medication. 

5. Optimize your hairstyle/length. 

6. From pure mathematical point of view, the donor has to get better over time not worse (even though shock loss can make it worse temporarily) as some of the hairs in resting phase come back. If after 8 month it is still worse, than there is some underlying thing going on. 

All the best and I hope you will find a good solution/peace. 

 

 

I have already told what happened. Before HLC there was no damage done and no big surgery. The reason for an overharvested donor area in no other but the gread of the doctor there to get more grafts and more money out of a patient. Unfortunately there are many scammers who pretend to be the doctors and the hair spezialist.

[Xanadu]

On 7/23/2022 at 8:27 PM, Z-- said:

Holy damn. That's a brutal result. Absolutely disgraceful behaviour and treatment -- I'm so sorry, OP. It's 6 months, so hopefully some of the sides will recover (but tbh, looks like a classic case of overharvesting) and the result grows in a bit more in a few months, but your concerns are 100% warranted. Can you post pre-op photos, like from before your surgery with them and maybe a frontal hairline shot?

So the first operation got you 4,200 (2.2k head, and 2k chest) grafts and the second operation was 2,500 grafts (all head), right? So did they not use your beard? I don't understand why they started with chest before beard? That's super bizarre. 6,700 grafts should look way more than what you have (even 4,200 alone should, esp for the front which is most critical). I'm sorry to say, but I think this doesn't look good. 

This won't be an easy fix, but you will need to reach out to an elite repair doctor. Email one of the following: Bisanga, Konior, Mwamba, Zarev, and Sethi specifically (Eugenix) ASAP. Don't go back to the clinic. I'm sorry bro - I won't be mentioning these guys in the same breadth as the rare few decent Turkish clinics.

Which are those rare ones?

[LookMaxx]

On 9/18/2022 at 12:43 PM, michael hofmann said:

I have already told what happened. Before HLC there was no damage done and no big surgery. The reason for an overharvested donor area in no other but the gread of the doctor there to get more grafts and more money out of a patient. Unfortunately there are many scammers who pretend to be the doctors and the hair spezialist.

Can you please post pictures of your donor area ? Not the sides of the head but back donor area.

Just want to see what overharvested donor looks like.

Thanks

[LookMaxx]

On 9/18/2022 at 12:43 PM, michael hofmann said:

I have already told what happened. Before HLC there was no damage done and no big surgery. The reason for an overharvested donor area in no other but the gread of the doctor there to get more grafts and more money out of a patient. Unfortunately there are many scammers who pretend to be the doctors and the hair spezialist.

Just to clarify my previous post, I asked because I am curious how to judge donors and the info on it is seriously lacking. You say your is overharvested so want to see how that looks like. I am also planning to get surgery with them so that’s another reason why I want to see what an overharvested donor from this particular clinic looks like. 

I think we’re past the point of you having to prove anything, it’s clear they did a bad job with you. You would be really helping me out here 

[Alphaone]

It looks bad from initial impression but this is what my thoughts are

- Lacks clear pre-surgery and post surgery pictures. No monthly updates

- Missing information about recipient growth and donor area. 

- Missing Norwood information. I don’t know what Norwood the patient was and is now.

- Multiple surgeries done before. 

- Only picture he posted are on areas he wants to show us zoomed in. And it appears from the latest picture that he had shockloss that has improved. 

- Missing transplant information. Did the hairs grow? Was it a complete fail? 

- Lack of information, I NEED TO KNOW MORE

I can’t form an opinion, there’s just not enough information to form one. HLC is spoken so highly of and was recommended to me everywhere on Facebook, Reddit and even here. They have results that make you go wow. For such a high quality clinic, there has to be more information to prove they did a bad job. 
 

I really wish OP provides this information and saves me and other potential clients from getting a bad result if it is true.

[HappyMan2021]

@michael hofmann any updates to this? I sincerely hope you have found peace or some sort of resolution with all of this

 

[michael hofmann]

17 hours ago, HappyMan2021 said:

@michael hofmann any updates to this? I sincerely hope you have found peace or some sort of resolution with all of this

 

Hi, thanks man. No, unfortunately i did not found any solution to this. I am in a stage were i am scared to leave the house or look myself in the mirror. I wish i would have found you guys before making any decisions.

[HappyMan2021]

14 minutes ago, michael hofmann said:

Hi, thanks man. No, unfortunately i did not found any solution to this. I am in a stage were i am scared to leave the house or look myself in the mirror. I wish i would have found you guys before making any decisions.

I am sorry to hear. My advice is to find a therapist or other real life mental health resource. 

There is only so much support the hair transplant forums can provide, and to some extent spending too time on these sites can negatively affect your mental health. 

At the same time, you always have the option to consult with elite repair surgeons. No matter anyone's situation, I am 100% confident there is room for some level of improvement at least. 

You may also want to experiment with a hair system, I don't see what you have to lose by perusing the option. 

[Melvin- Admin]

I’m surprised they didn’t offer a repair. Unfortunately, cases like this exist at every clinic. But how these cases are handled is what matters. Op are you saying you’ve been given NO options? 

[michael hofmann]

4 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

I’m surprised they didn’t offer a repair. Unfortunately, cases like this exist at every clinic. But how these cases are handled is what matters. Op are you saying you’ve been given NO options? 

The whole story with this clinic 6-7 months after the surgery is  little bit of a joke. They invited me to their consultations in berlin and i went just because i wanted to hear what they have to say to me. 

They offered my to do a repair with 150 grafts, that means they wanted to take 150 grafts from the area above the Depletion and put them in the donor area. I have talked to many doctors after the surgery and they all told me that another hairtransplant is very difficult, i need at least 5000-6000 bodyhairs which i do not have and the result is not guaranteed.  This concept with 150 gafts was straight up bullsh*t.

I asked the guy why he told me that with my donor area they can go up to 6000 grafts ant their rep. answered me that he did not meaned that, he meant 6000 grafts counting the previous op that i had. This is straight up lie. 

I asked the guy why he did not checked my donor area at the first or at the second surgery and i did not get any answer.

I sawed him pictures of my donor area and asked him how did he came up with this idea doing two surgeries and he did not answered. Their rep. told me that they cannot evaluate this pictures, the pictures that they took at the day of the surgery.

After that their rep. came with another idea to do a repair with 500 grafts from the beard and some chesthairs too. He did not bothered to check the beard, which is also depleted, or if i have any chesthairs too.

Anyway i dont want to get more into details but the whole thing was sketchy and premeditated. Their rep. told me after the consulting by mistake that they were reccording the conversation. Probably being afraid of a lawsuit and after legal advice they invited me there and told some more lies to me. The director of the clinic even told me that from where i begin until now i have made a big progress, that he is the prasident of fue europe and i cannor question his ethics. 

Well a big liar and a real snake is what he is.

A couple of weeks after this consulting i got a call from their rep. asking me about my decision if i wanted to do the repair or if i wanted some money back. Otherwise we will have to go through the court because i went public with this and i should not because they did not did this intentionally. I explained the guy what the director was doing by the consulting in the second surgery, he was joking with the other doctor about the poor growth that i had, told me that i had to pay 2,7 euros for the unshaven op and never bothered to check my donor area. He then told me that he was ashamed too for what he did, which i do not believe by any means.

Melvin, this is not a bad case that every clinic has. This is fraud from the very beginning. At my first surgery by them the guy saw that i had severe Dermatitis and that needed to be treated before the surgery. He did not told me anything about it because de did not wanted to cancel the surgery. He checked my donor area with naked eye after they shaved my head and told me that it looks great, that they can go up to 6000 grafts, no serious doctor does something like that.

The second part of my surgery with them, making the incisions ant the implantation of the grafts in the crown which is supposed to be the difficult par, was not done by a doctor of this clinic but from a young guy who was there to do a training on fue. How can this be ok?

I have a big responsibility too because i believed everythig this guy told me and did not realise where i was getting myself into. This was all done for the money.

 

[Vann]

17 minutes ago, michael hofmann said:

sions ant the implantation of the grafts in the crown which is supposed to be the difficult par, was not done by a doctor of this clinic but from a young guy who was there to do a training on fue. How can this be ok?

If you don’t mind me asking who was the second guy or the person training? 

[michael hofmann]

2 minutes ago, Vann said:

If you don’t mind me asking who was the second guy or the person training? 

I really do not know. He is not working there

[Melvin- Admin]

@michael hofmann

I’m sorry to hear this, would you mind posting updated pictures? 

[GeneralNorwood]

On 1/17/2023 at 8:30 PM, michael hofmann said:

Hi, thanks man. No, unfortunately i did not found any solution to this. I am in a stage were i am scared to leave the house or look myself in the mirror. I wish i would have found you guys before making any decisions.

Hi, i just read this topic from the beginning. When i was considering Turkey for HT, i only thought about Bicer to be honest based on reviews on this forum.

If someone goes to HLC after reading this topic, must be crazy. Poor outcome, ugly looking donor is one thing. Every clinic sometimes has some fuckups from various reasons. Obviously what differs top clinics from hair mills is that fuckups are rare. 

But the way that they handle this situation is laughable. And now they threaten you with court? It's easy win for you, when judge is unbiased, so they won't go this route. 

 

Now speaking of solution. I presume that your donor still look similar like in september 2022, because common, there is no magic. With hair like that, i can imagine why you are scared to go public, it just looks very bad, harsh truth."Seeing therapist" advice regarding your problem is bullshit, you will only lose money and still look bad in the mirror. 

So you have to ask yourself the question, what can you do to look better in this situation. 

If you would like to still fight for the hair, i don't see it considering that you don't take any medication, no finasteride and no minoxidil. There is no stabilization, even if you did research, found top clinic that would top repair that propably wouldn't provide head full of hair anyway, but some kind of balding look. And then few years later you will lose more hair because of no medication and you will be sad again. 

Seeing cases like @Bandit90, i am pro hairtransplant even for cases like Norwood 6, providing that they have good donor  and take meds. In your case i would recommend shave completely bald, Jeff Bezos style. Yeah, it can be little pain in the ass, because you have to shave head every 2 days completly to mantain it clean, but if you can embrace this look, you will feel better about yourself. Don't worry about FUT scar at the back, it's not important. The most important is clean look at the front and sides. Being bald better suits men that have some muscles, so going this route, you will have to go to the gym too. I personally tried bald look before my HT journey and i feel good about it. One day i am prepeared that i can shave off all hair and embrace this look.  So you have to make firm decision. Considering SMP to strenghten this shaven look is another thing. Now you propably learned your lesson, that research is important. 

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by GeneralNorwood

[Nisa88]

On 7/23/2022 at 8:32 PM, michael hofmann said:

I think it is best that you seek therapy first, before any hair transplant. Maybe you are going through depression or anxiety especially related to your hair. It would do you some good. Help get you through anguish that this situation has caused. Just telling you from my own experience. I am dealing with the same thing you have gone through as well. I am a lady and I shave my hair of completely bald, not because I want to but I feel more in control of my life when in shave it off. Stop being so hard on yourself! Remember you are still loved by many around you with or without hair!

[mr_peanutbutter]

you could get smp even with the fut scar

[Ray fitzy]

On 7/23/2022 at 7:13 PM, michael hofmann said:

Hey buddy, could you try a tight haircut to minimise the look of the patchy areas i wonder? I know this isn’t the answer but May alleviate your embarrassment, hope your doing ok

[Mohammad Hussen]

Daam man I hope you are doing better, I am planning to get an HT in near future and posts like this scare me, but nevertheless I am thankful that you shared your experience with us, and I wish you all the best brother.

[FutureHT1208]

Just read through this thread, so sorry for your experience Michael, how are things going? Hows it looking after another 3 months and hows your mental health?

 

[KSA91]

I read through the whole thread, sorry to hear about your experience with HLC. They shouldn't have taken you on to begin with because you were not a suitable candidate for a Hair transplant. You were already a repair case! They didn't manage your expectations properly and there was miscommunication from the beginning. HLC is a top clinic and if I go to Turkey it'll either be them or Pekiner. But my priority is Dr. Munib Ahmad or Dr. Bisanga! Thankfully, I have done three years of research before having a hair transplant.

[jjalay]

Hi, i am really sorry for your bad experience and what you went through. Have you found a solution or a way to work this out with repair surgery? Once again really sorry for your results..

[hairlossexpert_HH]

Hello Micheal,

I would say that you only need a small repair operation for your donor area. Because I think that the most critical zone is only above your ear. You can look for another clinic which is specialized on repair cases. 
 

I think you will only need a smoothed transition on the donor area above your ear.  And then your donor area would look ok again.
 

I don‘t think that HLC isn‘t that bad - I was also there for a HT. But your result is of course disapointing for this level (one of the most expensive clinics in Turkey).

But don‘t worry, I think the solution I suggest would really work for you. There is for example Dr. Feriduni in Belgium. He is also famous for his repair skills.

 

I wish you only the best my friend!

[hairlossexpert_HH]

I noticed another detail, which could be important here… they took only 4000 grafts in total from your head, right? Your donor looked good before the surgery… 

 

How could it be that you look overharvested if only 4000 grafts (in 2 surgeries) were taken? So I think it could be a reaction of your skin. Maybe you should also go to a dermatologist and let it check.

[duchaine]

As an old HLC patient looking for a second HT, I can say I won't go there and I won't consider turkey in any case.
My HT was not bad but at same time it could be better.
The post op care was very poor and, just like you, I waited months to receive my pics.