Sapphire Hair Clinic - "4500" grafts - Bad Results

[jakob1427]

12 month result of an "alleged" 4500 grafts at Sapphire Hair Clinic in Istanbul.

• Glaring low density patch on one side (not that the rest is exactly high density, but that one side is especially bare)
• The pretty unnatural hairline: straight, multi-grafts and very harsh.

Clinic has stopped responding to me after making excuses that "Dr is on holidays" and "we will get back to you". I had a video consultation with a reputable hair transplant Dr. who has commented on all the aspects I mentioned above and said it also does not look like 4.5k grafts. He also commented on the hairline shape and that I'll probably want to have some of the transplanted grafts punched out and re-transplanted to make it look more rounded.

As a note, Sapphire Hair Clinic only drew the hairline AFTER they did the graft removal and after I was already under all the antibiotics and drips they fed me.

In summary, I guess I went with the wrong chop-shop and have the results to show for it.
Will cost a bunch to repair it now, but hopefully can get it softened out and denser in the repair process.

[Melvin- Admin]

Sorry to hear about your experience. It certainly looks like poor growth. The good news is your donor looks in decent shape. Have you consulted with any surgeons for a repair?

[Rawkerboi]

This is really sad and poor results how I wish you had found this forum before jumping into HT especially in Turkey! 

So did you had in person consultation with your repair surgeon? 

How much donor grafts is available now? 

 

[jjalay]

Sorry for your experience, this is really bad work. I suggest to take your time and do a really good research before deciding for a repair surgery.

Your donor area looks overharvested after the surgery. How is it looking now? Can you post some more pictures?

Edited September 3, 2023 by jjalay

[Gatsby]

I'm so sorry to see this. I'm not a doctor but going on medication might be a good idea (if you're not already). You want to save as many hair grafts as you can.

[AndrewF.]

Looks like they did a sparse hair transplant. I hope you fix this in the second session. Sorry to hear about your experience.

[Balding Bad]

Yikes, hate to see this. Please keep us posted on your journey.

[Britanium]

Damn man this is some poor work, and yeah you’re donor does not look to be in good shape at all. Not a good situation, it’s going to take a elite Dr to get this back on track. As mentioned above it’s definitely worth considering a med regime to hopefully retain the hair you have at present.

Please let us know which Drs you’re now consulting with ?

[Turkhair]

Seems like your grafts survival was very low.

Please choose a good surgeon next time. There’s hope for you yet but will be a painful journey. Also start medication.

Name the doctor who did this to you. They can just rename the clinic and get away. This really looks like the work of amateurs

[Britanium]

13 minutes ago, Turkhair said:

Name the doctor who did this to you

No way was any Dr involved with this procedure, the only time a Dr is seen at this clinic is during the consultation. 100% tech driven procedure from inexperienced/junior staff. 

[jakob1427]

Thanks for the support guys.

Indeed as @BRITA-XL mentioned, I saw the "Dr" for a whole 15mins the day before the procedure and then the first 10mins on the day of the procedure and that was it, never saw them again. Everything was 100% done by techs. I never got the Dr's name and when I have tried pressing Sapphire Hair Clinic to get it they have initially refused saying they didn't have it, followed by giving a female Dr's name after I insisted - I never saw a female Dr however, but they say that's what is on my record. I don't trust Sapphire Hair Clinic one bit, so I guess I'll never get the real answer.

In terms of the repair, I am going with a renowned repair surgeon: Dr Edward Ball at The Maitland Clinic in the UK, who seems to have incredible results fixing botched transplants. I've had my in-person consultation with him, and he has advised about 400 grafts available to use from the untouched sides of the scalp (and if I wish potentially some more very carefully selected from my current donor area), along with re-drawing my hairline to be far more natural which will require punching out the already-transplanted hairs on the sides of my temples to bring those temples softly back (200-300 grafts from those areas). He is confident that with one or two corrective procedures, he can certainly correct this by:
1) bringing the temples back a bit to round back the hairline and mimic a slight natural recession, which will then also look natural into old age.
2) increasing the frontal density, focusing specifically on the more low-density side.
3) adding a slight rounding to the front of the hairline with extra hairs.
4) softening the hairline with natural singles and irregularity.

I have included a proposed hairline shape that Dr. Ball has drawn, taking the 4 points above into account.
He has also proposed I start on medication going forwards, so I have topical Fin/Min solution that I will be starting.
Will keep you updated on the progress 🙂

Edited September 24, 2023 by jakob1427