Introduction & Background:
The purpose of this thread is to document my experience with receiving 4326 grafts FUE from Dr. Demirsoy in in Istanbul, Turkey. I intend to provide as much realistic detail as possible in hopes that it will help inform others exploring the possibility of the procedure for themselves. This will include every dollar spent (and misspent), pro tips on travel and lodging, regrets, successes, the specific medications I was on, the specific hotel I was at, how I communicated with Dr. Demirsoy's office before, during, and after the procedure, etc. I will continue to update this thread through 15 months, which is the time that I was told I can expect to see full results.
About Me:
I am a 29 year old male with light brown/dark blond hair. I live in America. I have been struggling with hair loss for the better part of a decade. I used Rogaine and Propecia on and off for a few years without a ton of luck, but I wasn't good about being consistent with my usage. In the last 6 months I have been taking Propecia, Biotin, and pumpkin seed oil (pills) every day and using Rogaine almost every day (usually only 1x / day, but sometimes 2x /day). I work a ton, mostly from a computer this time of year. In the last 6 months I have been lifting weights every day and have gained 20 lbs of muscle. I am ultimately hoping to gain another 20 in my overall ambition to radically improve my appearance. I am 5'11. I weigh 185. See photos Below.
Why Turkey and Why Dr. Demirsoy:
For the details that lead me to choose Dr. Demirsoy's clinic and all of the background about me, please see my original forum post here:
https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...orporate-or-turkey.119417/page-2#post-1768245
In a nutshell, I was debating between doing the procedure in America at either a big brand corporate clinic (Bosley), a private practice, or traveling to turkey having the procedure done there (here as I am currently typing this a few days after surgery from my hotel room in Atasehir). I was originally leaning towards Bosley because I trust big brands to have the best talent and technology available, but found so many negative reviews online about Bosley that I just couldn't shake it. It was also extremely expensive and the final results didn't seem concrete. I found it hard to navigate the private practices in America as well. There was large fluctuation in the pricing and many different opinions between doctors. It was hard to know what was objective science and what was marketing jargon.
I ultimately chose Dr. Demirsoy in Turkey because another forum member recommended him. Upon further investigation I found a user who documented his results from Dr. Demirsoy in great detail. He seemed to be happy with using Dr. Demirsoy, so I sent his office an email. It took a couple tries, but I got a response Dr. Demirsoy's assistant Muzaffer. Despite being in very different time zones, Muzaffer was a really excellent communicator. I sent him several questions about the procedure and probably crossed the line between curious potential client to neurotic and annoying patient a few times, but he always did a great job fielding my comments/questions/concerns.
It's very possible that I should have done more research. Identifying a good surgeon in another country blindly is hard to do. Ultimately the before and after photos on
Dr. Demirsoy's website (which are remarkable), the positive reviews of Dr. Demirsoy in online forums, and the responsiveness of Dr. Demirsoy's assistant Muzaffer were enough for me to go ahead and submit the 500 euro deposit and schedule the surgery.
Setting up the Surgery and Travel:
I purchased the cheapest ticket I could find during a week that worked for me (February 10th -17th) and after a few emails back and forth w Muzaffer, had my surgery booked for Tuesday, February 12th. Apparently patients normally get the surgery and fly back home the next day, but tickets were between 30-40% cheaper if I stayed for a week, so that's what I bought. The clinic offers to book you a hotel, which includes free breakfast every morning, and transportation from the airport to the hotel and back, back and forth from the clinic, etc. Normally this is 200 Euro, but since I stayed for a whole week instead of 2 days, my cost was 380 euro. I foolishly made the mistake of booking an Air B & B to cover the anticipated gap between my original hotel stay and my flight home, which was basically non refundable.
The hotel itself is really nice. The breakfast is great. There are also other hair transplant patients lodging here, so despite feeling super self conscious about my appearance, the staff is very used to seeing surgical patients. It's located on the Asian side of Istanbul and is a little far from where all the touristy stuff in Istanbul is, but Uber is super easy to use here and you can get wherever you want to go very easily. Very few people in the hotel itself actually speak english, which made ordering things kind of complicated
I'm going to come back and edit/add to this post in a little but, but here's a photo of me on the day of procedure itself
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