International hair transplant prep and planning

[davidk]

I am flying from the US to Istanbul in a couple weeks for my hair transplant. I am curious from people who have gone through this if there is anything they wish they knew ahead of time. Any prep I should do? Anything I should bring with me that might not be obvious? Any advice? Given the procedure is in a different country and involves a lot of flying, I just want to make sure I make it as "easy" as possible for myself. 

Thanks everyone! 

[HappyMan2021]

-bring a travel pillow, snacks, and aloe vera. while all these items are likely available in a Turkish convenience store, you are going to have limited free time and you probably don't want to spend it shopping (especially if you don't speak Turkish)

-I personally got a Valium prescription from my US primary care doctor, to take for all the flying and traveling. I must say my traveling and the international flights were very relaxing, and dare I say even enjoyable lol 🤣. 

[Rafael Manelli]

A neck pillow.

And try to not ‘look suspicious’ if that makes sense. Airport security may hassle you and ask you to remove any head covering protecting the grafts. If they do, tell them you’ve had surgery. If they insist on checking you, ask to go somewhere private.

and don’t bang your head on the plane.

[AlexMeister21]

33 minutes ago, Rafael Manelli said:

A neck pillow.

And try to not ‘look suspicious’ if that makes sense. Airport security may hassle you and ask you to remove any head covering protecting the grafts. If they do, tell them you’ve had surgery. If they insist on checking you, ask to go somewhere private.

and don’t bang your head on the plane.

Reminded me of this video:

https://youtube.com/shorts/kG6d_kC3wjI?feature=share

[HappyMan2021]

1 hour ago, Rafael Manelli said:

And try to not ‘look suspicious’ if that makes sense. Airport security may hassle you and ask you to remove any head covering protecting the grafts. If they do, tell them you’ve had surgery. If they insist on checking you, ask to go somewhere private.

At least in my experience, I've flown for 2 different surgeries now, and no one security or passengers have cared at all about how I looked. 

[Rafael Manelli]

3 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

At least in my experience, I've flown for 2 different surgeries now, and no one security or passengers have cared at all about how I looked. 

Good, maybe you were lucky.

I'd like to know statistics on this. Just how many people are stopped and questioned about it? Unfortunately I'm sure no such stats exist. 

[hairlines]

How much of the consultation process have you had done beforehand? It's hard to dial in exactly what we're doing without the surgeon seeing the hair in person I guess, but also scary to spend so much and fly overseas without having the details dialled in.