BaldingBosnian's Story: 2500-2600 grafts with Dr. Dogan Turan (FUECAPILLAR)

[baldingbosnian]

Hello everyone, I finally got my hair transplant. I was originally quoted 1500-2000 for the the hairline reconstruction and density and 250 for the crown.  My other option was Dr. Gur, who proposed 1300-1700 for the hairline and and 200-300 for the crown.  I decided to go with Dr. Dogan Turan because I like the result of his work more and he seemed more into density by looking at his work, while Dr. Gur seems conservatives. This thread will be my story from Day 1 of arriving at Turkey and my personal experience with the staff and clinic. I would also like any input you may have on how my recipient and donor area looks, since many of you are experts and have had hair transplants. 

 

A little about me: 33 years old. On Finasteride 1mg and Topical Minoxidil since age 20. Always wanted a hair transplant, but I didn't think I needed until now, when my hairline really recessed and I couldn't style my hair the way I wanted it.

This is what my hairline looked like before surgery, many people including other doctors quoted my saying I would need much less, Turan said I need more after initial quote.

 

Here is what my crown looked like

Sides

 

 

I arrived to Istanbul on October 24, and was greeted with my driver who took me to get my bloods, afterwards, I stayed at the hotel until my surgery the next day on October 25th. 

I then met my translator Amed (John) who took me to see Dr. Turan, the interaction here was very brief, we didn't even discuss what type of hairline I wanted, it was just a few questionnaires regarding my goals for my hair and how long I have been on meds, etc. Questions I already submitted a while back to Dr. Turan. I was then taken to have my hair shaved and wash. I was then taking back to a room for payment, this is where they told me I would need to pay more then what I was originally quote for because they said I needed more grafts, about 500 more. This took me a bit by surprise, since my hair didn't change from July when I submitted my consult. 

They then took me to the room to draw my hairline, which I would say took about 10-15 minutes, they use metal calipers to check each side while drawing with a marker and also utilizing a laser for the middle point, to me it seemed a bit uneven on the right side, but I didn't get a chance to speak up until later because I was rushed to the operating table. They never at any point asked me what design I wanted, I had a lot of picture I wanted to show. It seems Dr. Turan used a standard design for his hairline, because the next day after surgery I saw the other gentleman with the same design.

 

 

 

Anyway, back to the story When I go the to operating table this is then I told them that my right temple didn't look the same to my left, so they proceeded to measure it again and fix it while I lay on the table. This time I believe it looked even. 

 

The surgery took roughly 10 hours (I had two sessions), this is including the 45 minute lunch break. The most painful parts were numbing injections, which I will not sugar coat, they were 9/10 to 10/10 in pain. I had several. At one point during the implants I was feeling the implantation pen, which hurt, I was grimacing but Dr. Turan continue through the procedure, eventually he gave me anesthetic when I raised my hand. He seemed almost annoyed in a way.  Here is some things I didn't like, toward the end of the surgery when my hairline was finished Dr. Tur left, never to be seen again. Didn't even bother to say bye. He just seemed tired.  And the translator told me that one of the nurse or assistance would work on my crown, even thought my paperwork said Dr. Turan would do all implantation. I did notice throughout the procedure he did seem annoyed and didn't want to be there, not sure why. Also, a few of the techs weren't very sterile. For example, one dawned sterile gloves on, took them off to leave the room, and put the same sweaty inside out gloves on and just sprayed some saline on them. This I found uncalled for, and my translator was nowhere to be found, even on the other techs looked funny at them. They also had to keep re-opening my channels throughout the whole surgery to get more grafts, because they never seemed to get the right amount, I had 3 different techs open my grafts, so I didn't like this either, I expected more consistency

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what it looks like the day after surgery, thoughts, does this look like 2500-2600 grafts? Is it packed nicely?

 

 

 

 

They said they put 241 grafts in the crown (this is the assistance work I told you guys about when Dr. Turan left)

 

Edited October 27, 2023 by baldingbosnian

[baldingbosnian]

Day 2: This is after wash and when I made it home. 

Currently very itchy, so unbearable itchy, actually. Was trying to sleep but couldn't, in fact I would accidently try to itch myself in my sleep but would catch myself, that's how bad it is righty now.. Kept spraying the saline they gave me. 

Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated, does this look good? How is density? Does this seem like 2300 grafts for hairline?

 

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2023 by baldingbosnian

[baldingbosnian]

This is what donor area looks like, I took this today on day 3.

 

Let me know your thoughts, the translator told me they took 16% of my donor area.

 

 

[Melvin- Admin]

The work looks super clean 🙏

[baldingbosnian]

Day 8 Wash, scabs finally came off.

 

 

 

Crown

 

Left side and right side

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by baldingbosnian

[mxnprettynice]

The first week will seem lengthy, @baldingbosnian. For me the following months 1 and 2 passed fast, only slowing down noticeably after I shed and then started seeing new hair growth.

I wish you that time passes quickly!

[baldingbosnian]

8 hours ago, mxnprettynice said:

The first week will seem lengthy, @baldingbosnian. For me the following months 1 and 2 passed fast, only slowing down noticeably after I shed and then started seeing new hair growth.

I wish you that time passes quickly!

You as well! Will be following your thread closely since we had the same surgeon. 

Edited November 2, 2023 by baldingbosnian

[Stefaniwicz]

Typical Turkish service, I thought that this only happens in the worst clinics, I had a better opinion about Turan,

I wish you best result, 

I will follow your updates, by the way, in a month I will also have a transplant, I will go to Dr. Gur

[FUEnator]

Is this only me or those temples look like done, by two different persons? The right one looks little bit less dense as well... And the crown coverage wtf. I know there is a risk of transections etc.  But this will probably not produce any effect 

Edited November 23, 2023 by FUEnator

[baldingbosnian]

On 11/13/2023 at 11:14 AM, Stefaniwicz said:

Typical Turkish service, I thought that this only happens in the worst clinics, I had a better opinion about Turan,

I wish you best result, 

I will follow your updates, by the way, in a month I will also have a transplant, I will go to Dr. Gur

if I could do it all over again, I would definitely go with Dr. Gur. 
 

Also, my case manager contacted me a few days after I made this thread, stating someone reached out them (former patient, must be from this forum, or maybe themselves saw this thread)  about some of my hygienic complaints, he said I should keep things confidential.  He told me because I was under a “muscle relaxant” I would misinterpret things, such as seeing one of the nurses take off their gloves and put them back on. He said they checked with all the nurses and none admitted they did removed the same gloves and put them on.  First of all, I was given Xanax 1mg for surgery, I have Xanax prescribed PRN, so it’s not like I’m very drowsy, I still interpret and see things clearly. I was clear headed but relaxed. I definitely did see one of the nurses take off the sterile gloves and put them back on. Also, the same nurse had her surgical mask under beneath her nose, so her nose was sticking out and only covering her mouth. Toward the end of the surgery other nurses then had their masks off while still working on my grafts. I work in the medical field, so I know what a sterile field is. They did followed it very poorly, luckily I didn’t get any infection. 
 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by baldingbosnian

[baldingbosnian]

On 11/22/2023 at 9:10 PM, FUEnator said:

Is this only me or those temples look like done, by two different persons? The right one looks little bit less dense as well... And the crown coverage wtf. I know there is a risk of transections etc.  But this will probably not produce any effect 

Yeah, I’m not happy about the crown coverage at all. Dr. Tur left for the night and they had another person do the crown. Which isn’t right because I paid for the service of the Dr. Tur doing the implantation. As for the temples, Dr. Tur did them, he seemed in hurry for the right side, so that’s probably why it looks less dense. Also, it doesn’t even look close to the 241 or grafts they mentioned they did on the crown. (I count a little over 100). It seemed toward the end of the procedure everyone was in a rush to leave. 
 

anyway, time will tell how results will look, I will post an update when I hit 3 months.

Edited November 29, 2023 by baldingbosnian

[general-etwan]

Was intrigued to hear about a FUE Capilar experience; disappointed to read your description of the professionalism and Turan leaving before crown work was done. That crown work to me looks very pointless. It's almost nothing. You'd need a lot more grafts there for it to have any significant improvement in appearance.

Edited December 9, 2023 by general-etwan

[baldingbosnian]

On 12/8/2023 at 10:35 PM, general-etwan said:

Was intrigued to hear about a FUE Capilar experience; disappointed to read your description of the professionalism and Turan leaving before crown work was done. That crown work to me looks very pointless. It's almost nothing. You'd need a lot more grafts there for it to have any significant improvement in appearance.

Yeah crown work look extremely bad, if you look at my crown with my full head of hair, they would just needed to hit small areas tightly. Not in random places so spread out apart, they placed  graft  where I always have air. 

Turns out my grafts placed is 2823, which I find really hard to believe, I did tend paying more after surgery consult.  No one quote me more than 2000 for the whole case, including 4 other doctors. Again, if anyone is planning to use FueCapillar go with Gur. 
 

but yeah, what really bothered me was Tur not finishing up the transplant, which was part of agreement. He left and didn’t say anything to me. Next day he look at my hair for 10 seconds and said “good no infection” and never saw me again. If  I was a doctor I couldn’t imagine not giving a patient 100%, especially if I came all the way from overseas. That really rubbed me in the wrong way when he just left without a word and not explaining anything. He just seemed and annoyed toward the end of procedure. 

I even refuse to follow up with their case manager for photo because I’m not traveling to Istanbul again to have them do any type revision. The hygiene practice of the assistance\nurses and Turan not doing crown implant is all I needed to know about his team.

 

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by baldingbosnian

[Stefaniwicz]

On 11/28/2023 at 1:34 PM, baldingbosnian said:

if I could do it all over again, I would definitely go with Dr. Gur. 
 

Also, my case manager contacted me a few days after I made this thread, stating someone reached out them (former patient, must be from this forum, or maybe themselves saw this thread)  about some of my hygienic complaints, he said I should keep things confidential.  He told me because I was under a “muscle relaxant” I would misinterpret things, such as seeing one of the nurses take off their gloves and put them back on. He said they checked with all the nurses and none admitted they did removed the same gloves and put them on.  First of all, I was given Xanax 1mg for surgery, I have Xanax prescribed PRN, so it’s not like I’m very drowsy, I still interpret and see things clearly. I was clear headed but relaxed. I definitely did see one of the nurses take off the sterile gloves and put them back on. Also, the same nurse had her surgical mask under beneath her nose, so her nose was sticking out and only covering her mouth. Toward the end of the surgery other nurses then had their masks off while still working on my grafts. I work in the medical field, so I know what a sterile field is. They did followed it very poorly, luckily I didn’t get any infection. 
 

 

 

Dr. Gur nurse is not better, hygiene standards were not the best, each of the nurses was sick with a cold, I constantly heard coughs and snot when they took the grafts from me, one of the nurses sneezed closed to my donor area, it was terrible, and when the nurse placed the grafts, he constantly wiped nose, because he constantly heard snot and cough, he put on a mask only after he saw my dissatisfaction, by the way, he only put the mask on his mouth, lol, everyone in this clinic was sick with a cold, even Dr. Gur, but no, only my translator didn't cough and looked healthy

: / 

Edited December 12, 2023 by Stefaniwicz

[Stefaniwicz]

On 11/28/2023 at 1:34 PM, baldingbosnian said:

if I could do it all over again, I would definitely go with Dr. Gur. 
 

Also, my case manager contacted me a few days after I made this thread, stating someone reached out them (former patient, must be from this forum, or maybe themselves saw this thread)  about some of my hygienic complaints, he said I should keep things confidential.  He told me because I was under a “muscle relaxant” I would misinterpret things, such as seeing one of the nurses take off their gloves and put them back on. He said they checked with all the nurses and none admitted they did removed the same gloves and put them on.  First of all, I was given Xanax 1mg for surgery, I have Xanax prescribed PRN, so it’s not like I’m very drowsy, I still interpret and see things clearly. I was clear headed but relaxed. I definitely did see one of the nurses take off the sterile gloves and put them back on. Also, the same nurse had her surgical mask under beneath her nose, so her nose was sticking out and only covering her mouth. Toward the end of the surgery other nurses then had their masks off while still working on my grafts. I work in the medical field, so I know what a sterile field is. They did followed it very poorly, luckily I didn’t get any infection. 
 

 

 

But now I’m fine, I don’t see any problems, I hope for a good result 🤞

[romeo_gent]

Pal, I'm sorry to hear about your experience on Turkish clinic. At the early stage of my research, I was considering some other clinic not even used by any forummer here. So, in a way, I'm glad that I didn't go there. However, looking at the photo, I feel that the result of the temple and front hair line are not bad. Perhaps the crown area looks a bit scattered. So, I got a feeling that besides not so pleasant experience during the surgery, the end result will look good. So, best of luck to you and me. the forummers here are always best supporters. 

[Divinehair]

Happy growing man. I would say you to relax and be patient. Dr Turan is a great surgeon and in general @FUECAPILAR is a an ethical clinic giving consistent good results. Dr Turan's results are all great ones, so you dont have to worry.

[general-etwan]

11 hours ago, Stefaniwicz said:

Dr. Gur nurse is not better, hygiene standards were not the best, each of the nurses was sick with a cold, I constantly heard coughs and snot when they took the grafts from me, one of the nurses sneezed closed to my donor area, it was terrible, and when the nurse placed the grafts, he constantly wiped nose, because he constantly heard snot and cough, he put on a mask only after he saw my dissatisfaction, by the way, he only put the mask on his mouth, lol, everyone in this clinic was sick with a cold, even Dr. Gur, but no, only my translator didn't cough and looked healthy

: / 

This is terrible and very poor operation by this clinic.

[Stefaniwicz]

5 hours ago, general-etwan said:

This is terrible and very poor operation by this clinic.

it wasn’t that bad, the clinic was clean, but this moment ruined my thoughts about this clinic :/)

[Jackdaniels]

22 minutes ago, Stefaniwicz said:

it wasn’t that bad, the clinic was clean, but this moment ruined my thoughts about this clinic :/)

Do you have a thread showing your hair transplant ?
well anyone can get cold and doctors and nurses are normal people which of course must be careful during surgery.  
I think even if you didn’t like something specific during the surgery, if you have the result you want you will be satisfied at the end and this is the most important thing.

To be honest I hadn’t seen any other similar complaints from other patients of dr Gur, but they were satisfied with the whole process. So I suppose that they did have good hygiene for these patients ??

Edited December 13, 2023 by Jackdaniels

[Stefaniwicz]

16 minutes ago, Jackdaniels said:

Do you have a thread showing your hair transplant ?
well anyone can get cold and doctors and nurses are normal people which of course must be careful during surgery.  
I think even if you didn’t like something specific during the surgery, if you have the result you want you will be satisfied at the end and this is the most important thing.

To be honest I hadn’t seen any other similar complaints from other patients of dr Gur, but they were satisfied with the whole process. So I suppose that they did have good hygiene for these patients ??

for me the most important thing is the result, judging by the first weeks and my observations of my hair, I think that I will get a good result, I have no complaints about the Gur, some points were not very professional, for example, in the consultation I was told that I needed a maximum of 1800 grafts, but how I arrived 15 minutes before the operation, they told me that you need 2800 grafts, and I prepared money only for 2000 grafts, this took me by surprise, I felt discomfort because of this because Gur insisted that he only accepted cash and I didn’t have that much cash , another annoying thing was that the tool for removing the grafts was wrapped with electrical tape, it looked very old, lol, everything else regarding Gur’s work specifically was cool, he quickly removed the grafts and opened the canals, he looked confident and his movements seemed to me to be incredibly professional , I’m not complaining about Gur’s work, this is not a completely negative review, I just wrote about things that I didn’t like, by the way, I paid for the VIP package, this means that many things will be controlled by Gur, but after the channels were opened I didn’t see him anymore , he didn’t check how the grafts were placed on me, also the next day when he was supposed to examine me before letting me go, he wasn’t in the clinic, no one examined me further, they only took photographs after the operation and that’s it, it was a little dishonest because I paid for the VIP package, only so that the doctor whom I trust would control everything, but again, returning to my words, everything looks very good, the donor area recovered quickly, the scabs disappeared quickly, I fanatically followed all the recommendations that I found in on the Internet about hair transplantation, I follow a diet, I treat transplanted grafts as my children ☺️

[Jackdaniels]

1 hour ago, Stefaniwicz said:

for me the most important thing is the result, judging by the first weeks and my observations of my hair, I think that I will get a good result, I have no complaints about the Gur, some points were not very professional, for example, in the consultation I was told that I needed a maximum of 1800 grafts, but how I arrived 15 minutes before the operation, they told me that you need 2800 grafts, and I prepared money only for 2000 grafts, this took me by surprise, I felt discomfort because of this because Gur insisted that he only accepted cash and I didn’t have that much cash , another annoying thing was that the tool for removing the grafts was wrapped with electrical tape, it looked very old, lol, everything else regarding Gur’s work specifically was cool, he quickly removed the grafts and opened the canals, he looked confident and his movements seemed to me to be incredibly professional , I’m not complaining about Gur’s work, this is not a completely negative review, I just wrote about things that I didn’t like, by the way, I paid for the VIP package, this means that many things will be controlled by Gur, but after the channels were opened I didn’t see him anymore , he didn’t check how the grafts were placed on me, also the next day when he was supposed to examine me before letting me go, he wasn’t in the clinic, no one examined me further, they only took photographs after the operation and that’s it, it was a little dishonest because I paid for the VIP package, only so that the doctor whom I trust would control everything, but again, returning to my words, everything looks very good, the donor area recovered quickly, the scabs disappeared quickly, I fanatically followed all the recommendations that I found in on the Internet about hair transplantation, I follow a diet, I treat transplanted grafts as my children ☺️

It could be good to see your hair transplant progress with pre op, post op pictures from clinic and yours, which really matters. Have you made a thread ? 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Jackdaniels

[Stefaniwicz]

3 hours ago, Jackdaniels said:

To be honest I hadn’t seen any other similar complaints from other patients of dr Gur, but they were satisfied with the whole process. So I suppose that they did have good hygiene for these patients ??

The clinic looked clean, although it seemed to me that it was very cramped, in fact everything happens in one small room, everyone had gloves, the room looked clean, pal I didn’t say anything about hygiene being grossly violated, I just said that almost every one of the employees had a cold, I heard coughing and snot, no one used a mask at the same time, one of the assistants was involved in planting grafts, from him I constantly heard snot and small coughs, he was as close as possible to me, I showed my indignation and only then another assistant, a girl, told him something in Turkish and he put on a mask, when I had the opportunity to turn around I looked at him, his mask was only on his mouth, during the procedure I heard when his mask was on his face and not, when there was a mask on his nose I heard worse his snot, and then he put a mask on his mouth and I heard his snot every few minutes, every nurse looked like he had a cold, one of the nurses was coughing not far from my donor hair, I did not say anything about the general hygiene of the clinic, basic things were observed , I’m generally satisfied with the hygiene, but I had a few questions, I’ll create a topic about my process later, when I take a photo for the first month, I sent you a photo of the current progress in private messages, so far I’m very pleased with the result, the most important thing I see on the head and not what was on the operation 🙃

[translator]

@baldingbosnian I'm scheduled with dr Turan in April 2024 and this concerns me a bit

[luckyg]

Long tine lurker here for reseach purposes and have Dr Turan booked  for February. This is not good to read and I'm now concerned and on verge of cancelling. It seems that the patient is treated like another number, no personal attention. Doctor doesn't want to be there

I wish someone from a recent visit could allay my fears. A doctor is only as good as their last operation so what reputation that is built up is immediately forgotten for a doctor who seems to not care anymore.