Dr Yaman. 4040 grafts. 21/10/2023

[bobbos2020]

I went to have my hair transplant with Dr. Yaman on 21st Oct 2023. The whole process from start to finish was very straight forward, I'm someone who never travels abroad and I managed to get there and back on my own without any problems. I contacted a few of the turkish Doctors and Doga (Yaman's representative) was the first to respond with a very good price so I decided to go with him. I did look through Yaman's results on here first and although they were hit and miss they were no different to the other Turkish Doctors I'd contacted who also had some hit and misses so I think it's just a bit of a risk you have to take when going to Turkey.

 

Before I set off Doga told me the driver picking me up would be at gate 9 holding a sign with Dr Yaman on it but when I got there I couldn't find him so at this point I was panicking as I had no way of contacting Doga as I could only contact him using whatsapp and I had no internet. Luckily after about 10 mins walking back and forth I caught a glimpse of a man's fleece top with a logo on it just as he was turning round so I approached him and asked to see the logo and thankfully it was Dr Yaman's. So my advice to anyone else going there would be if you don't see a sign then look for the fleece jacket. Not much advice but it would have helped me out if I'd have known that, so hopefully it helps someone else.

 

The day of the surgery I got picked up about 8.30am with one more guy and we headed to the hospital. We both paid and got our bloods taken then parted ways as we both went into surgery. Had the injections by one of the nurses which were very painful then Yaman came in to open the channels. After that I think I had more injections and then the process of extracting the hairs started. After about 4 hours or so it was dinner time and I went into the little dinner room only to see a different guy from the one in the taxi with me in the morning, this was a bit of a surprise as at the time I didn't know Yaman did multiple operations in one day, then after a few minutes the original guy who I was in the taxi with came in so at this point there were 3 of us all having operations. After dinner I think the implantation started, tbh I'm not sure as nobody talks English so it's hard to ask what process is being done. This was done for maybe another 4 hours, then towards the end and this is the only complaint I have and that is I was starting to feel pain from them placing the hairs in my head and I was making noises to hint of my pain but they were't giving me any more injections so I eventually said "This is hurting now" and the technician said "only 10 minutes then we're done" so after hearing that I was buzzing and I said ok let's push through as I just wanted it to end. Well 10mins came and went and it must have been half an hour until they finished, they just stood up and walked out and I thought that was it, but no, after being left for about another 20 mins wondering what's going off, two techs came in and carried on working on me and I could clearly tell it was a trainee being shown what to do, this laster approx another 30 mins. I was pissed off as I was in pain, it had been a long day and I didn't pay for a trainee to put hairs in my head.

 

After the operation was done, we all sat in the taxi ready to go back to the hotel and a 4th guy came in the taxi who had also had an operation that day, so all in all that was 4 people being operated on on the same day. Some might say that's ok because some top surgeons have multiple operations in a day but it all comes down to how well the techs are trained and I think it can be a bit of luck of the draw if you'll get good techs or not with Yaman, but that's why his prices are so cheap.

 

So I'm now 6 month post op and thought I'd upload my photos of my progress so far. I was a norwood 6/7 ish, pretty much slick bald and I don't think my donor was the best so I think my results are ok from where I started, I had the grafts put into the frontal third and then I'll go and finish the rest at a later date. Yaman said 6k grafts ( 4k in front and 2k at back) in total to cover my head but I know I'll need at least 8k as I need the front more dense than it is now. I think my donor is looking a bit patchy and supposedly I had the best "Extractionist" according to Doga.

 

Before operation:

 

 

 

 

After operation

 

 

 

Please note that the photos were taken outdoor so the lighting is as harsh as it can be. some people on this forum take photos in very flattering light to make their hair look better but that's not a true representation of what their hair is really like.  I also shaved my head for the first 5 months so this is approx 6 weeks growth.

[Hairwolf]

Doesn’t look too bad considering your starting point and your anxiety with the techs and multi-patients. Hairline looks pretty natural and has more time to densify further. Did the doc recommend any medication? Maybe Oral minox may give you a boost here, but of course speak to your Dr first.

Edited April 18 by Hairwolf

[bobbos2020]

cheers mate, I know I need further transplants to thicken the front up as it's not as thick as I'd hoped but I was very bald before so I think for the price it was prob the best I could achieve. I think I have a decent amount of hairs come through it's just they aren't thick so it makes it look crap lol, so I'm hoping they mature and thicken up in the next 6 months. I am actually on oral minox and dutasteride for the past year so the only thing I can do is just wait and cross my fingers it keeps getting better.

[Hairwolf]

2 minutes ago, bobbos2020 said:

cheers mate, I know I need further transplants to thicken the front up as it's not as thick as I'd hoped but I was very bald before so I think for the price it was prob the best I could achieve. I think I have a decent amount of hairs come through it's just they aren't thick so it makes it look crap lol, so I'm hoping they mature and thicken up in the next 6 months. I am actually on oral minox and dutasteride for the past year so the only thing I can do is just wait and cross my fingers it keeps getting better.

Well then you are doing everything you can now. As you mentioned, realistically, this is a decent result and the 2nd time around should give you a significant cosmetic improvement. 

[Stoner]

I feel I have to state this for people who may be reading this but there are many doctors who can produce a far better result with the use of 4.400 grafts. The survival rate does not look great. It's ok-ish (probably a bit better if hair are left to grow) but it's not great. I really don't like the fact that Yaman uses these big number of grafts with mediocre results.

Good luck in the next steps of your journey!

Edited April 18 by Stoner

[bobbos2020]

cheers Hairwolf, yeah I have a long way to go in my battle against baldness and this is just the first step.

 

Thanks Stoner, I appreciate your feeback, It was only 4k grafts (4040 total) and yes of course there are better surgerons out there who can produce better results but I doubt I would get anything much better from any of the Turkish doctors in this price range (£2.7k) . I just couldn't afford an elite doctor and I always knew it was a gamble going to any of the Turkish doctors but that was a risk I had to take. I would genuinely like to see photos of better results from 4k grafts at 6 months, with photos taken in daylight like mine are, and who also was as bald as me to start with. I can take photos indoors or in my car and it looks like I have a lot more hair but that doesn't help anyone on here.

[Jupiter_]

Considering your hair loss problem, the huge area that you had to cover with only 4000 grafts your result does look pretty good  to be honest.

in general I have seen that other doctors zarev and pittella implant 10.000-12.000 grafts for Norwood 6 patients and you only had 4000…so it does look ok for 4000 grafts.

Also your donor wasn’t good even before procedure and the sides of your donor were weak before procedure too. So with a weak donor and with a big hair loss problem you can’t expect miracles but your appearance has changed compared to the before. 
 
Another factor that affects the result is that you have very short hairs now. In hair transplants you need long hair to get better coverage. So  you need to let your hairs to grow in order to have better coverage and Comb your hairs to the back.   

Anyway you still have 6  more months for more thickening. I wish you all the best 👍

 

Edited April 18 by Jupiter_

[bobbos2020]

Thanks Jupiter, I appreciate the kind words. I was realistic going into this knowing this was the first of either 2 or 3 transplants and it would look crap especially with just 4k grafts, I told everyone I know that the first one always looks crap lol. I agree my donor isn't great and tbh I actually didn't expect a doctor to take me on as a patient because of this so I was happy Yaman did. Yes I think Yaman designed the hair to be slicked back as he did it thicker at the hairline so I'll try grow it out a little and see how it looks. Tbh it looks ok shaved on 1 guard so if all else fails and it looks crap grown out I will just keep it shaved.

[bobbos2020]

I just thought I'd add an update with some photos taken indoors so you can see the difference lighting makes. I wanted to show my hair warts n all in the harshest of lights so people have a realistic expectation of what to expect. Most people seem to post photos of their hair in light that makes their hair look better than it is and I think that's why people get transplants and then aren't happy they haven't got a full head of hair from 5k grafts when they were NW6 to start with.

 

So anyways, here are the photos, as you can see the indoor lighting makes me look like I have better density, which I do indoors, but outdoors or under harsh lighting that isn't the case as you can see in my first images.

 

 

[BillyHopkins88]

Love your honesty mate 😉 

[go4hair]

Wish you the best!

[bobbos2020]

cheers guys

[Lenzman]

I love the way you presented your photos. Never seen this style before haha. Hope you get the result you want!