Hey guys, In this thread I am presenting my 2835 FUE procedure with Hakan ********* (AHD CLINIC). My surgery took place in January over the course of 2 days.
Introduction
I am 25 years old. Mainly active on other forums like bth, hairlosshelp, hairlosstalk and stopaga under the same username. Been around for like 2+ years on these forums. What started as a search to explore my possibilities of battling androgenetic alopecia it also became an interest for me. As much that after finishing a degree in economics I started a study in bio science. I am working on a paper for the NCBI about Androgenetic Alopecia & senescence currently.
Nonetheless, aside from that obviously the journey began primary to reverse my baldness. I managed to maintain and regrow a bit using compounds, while I was definitely happy with that it wasn’t enough. I wanted a better hairline and so did I chose to go for a FUE treatment.
Choosing the doctor
I quickly narrowed my choice to Dr. Hakan ********* and Dr. Koray Erdogan. I lost some confidence in Dr. Koray Erdogan though. First of all because the communication through e-mail was incredibly slow and abrupt. Funny enough I spoke to someone from the United Kingdom on the last day of my stay at the AHD clinic and he said exactly the same. Secondly I feel that he takes the “safe road” by working with a overestimation and usage of graft numbers.
On the other side the communication with Dr. Hakan ********* was very good and quick. They answered all my questions in detail & transparency. Not only that they were very open to input from my side which I liked extremely much.
I had 2 important requests prior to scheduling my FUE procedure; First of all that is splitting the surgery in 2 days. They were open to that and it was no problem I liked that because especially with FUE when the grafts are extracted it puts a massive amount of oxidative stress on the hair follicles. The hair follicles reside in a generally moderate to severe hypoxic state (low oxygen) in your skin, removing them from that optimum environment is detrimental. Even if adequate mediums are used like hypothermosal with ATP, mixed with PRP etc. I still think the best option is to minimize the time the grafts are outside the body. Which can ultimately only help with achieving a higher yield. Aside from that there are other positive sides with it too as I experienced in during the 1st operation day which you will read further in my story. The 2nd request of me was that all implantations were performed by Dr. Hakan ********* himself which they agreed upon too. So the choice was set; a surgery with Dr. Hakan *********.
Arrival 1st day;
Landed in the evening in Antalya was picked up by Muslum (representative of Dr. Hakan *********), plus another guy of the clinic forgot his name. All went smooth. Arrived at the private hospital, was escorted to my room and I went for a nap as it was becoming late and I had surgery the next day.
2nd day;
Was woken up quite early like 6:30 AM and a nurse came in to take blood of me. They measure your blood for around different values to make sure you are healthy etc. Then later I was supposed to have surgery that day but Muslum came to me that there was a problem. The problem was that a very good friend of Dr. Hakan ********* passed away and if we could re-schedule my operation. I was fine with that, they gave me 2 options either do a 2x a session in one day. So extract half of grafts the first session, implant them take a break and then resume with the other half. This would still cope with my request of having the grafts stay the minimum time outside of the body. Or they gave me an option to stay 1 day longer and they would obviously compensate the new tickets I had to book. I chose for the first option. Dr. Hakan ********* also drew my hairline this morning and said I needed 2500 grafts. I had enough donor but I have quite fine hair in the donor area, which I already knew. Dr Hakan ********* doesn’t really speak good English but Muslum always made sure every question or request I had was translated correctly.
So there I was expecting to have my surgery that day, but unfortunately that wasn’t possible anymore. Muslum came to me and said don’t worry I’ll show you around Antalya today. He picked me up at like 12AM at my room and we went on a tour through Antalya. The weather was like 17 degrees really lovely. We had a drink, walked around the old & new city and enjoyed some Turkish cuisine later. I actually felt like I was on vacation instead going for a trip to Turkey for a hair transplant. Muslum is a really good host and really a relax guy to hang around with. At like 6PM we headed back after a nice day of sightseeing & relaxing in Antalya.
3th day (1500 grafts);
So I woke up in the morning and ate some breakfast. Muslum picked me up and brought me to Dr. Hakan *********. Again he inspected my hair, and started drawing the hairline again. We agreed upon 2.5K grafts and opt for a high density because of my thin hair. Then my hair was shaved, blood was taken for PRP etc. and I was brought to a room were the extractions began. All went smooth. They always made sure I was comfortable and Muslum was there often to make sure If I needed something or had some questions. After 1500 extractions there was a quick break and Dr. Hakan ********* started to implant them all. However during the implantation (almost halfway through) Muslum said that my grafts were popping out too much if the Dr. tried to place the hair follicles in a high density. So I was like damn, and asked Muslum if after all I can stay one day longer and we can split the surgery in 2 days. Hakan ********* agreed with me that this was the best option. I was quite happy anyway because of that, as you see such problems may also arise. Waiting an extra day would ensure the blood coagulated properly so that popping shouldn’t be an issue anymore. I still don’t know why it was an issue in my case, perhaps because I was a bit too excited and my blood pressure was higher than normal. Nonetheless it didn’t matter anyway. I felt great aside from a brief moment when my anesthesia worked out on my right temple. I stupidly didn’t ask for extra anesthesia but just bit through the pain which felt like a sort of burning coal on my temple for 15 minutes. The injections themselves were less painful for me. After everything was done I was a bit tired though so I just went to my room and relax to prepare for the next day.
4th day (1335 grafts)
Same story, I ate some breakfast and was brought to a room where they started extracting. They extracted 1335 grafts instead of 1000 grafts to my surprise but I didn’t care. We took a break and then Dr. Hakan ********* started implanting them. There was no problem of graft popping now, which was obviously very nice to hear. This day was very comfortable, I learned from the first day and asked for some extra anesthesia on my right temple after the initial one when I felt the burning again. It immediately relieved the pain and the operation day was comfortable for me. When all grafts were extracted I headed to my room again for some rest and Muslum kind as he is ordered a big pizza for me and him. After that I just laid down and went to sleep.
5th day (washing day and leaving)
Woke up had some breakfast again. Went downstairs to have a wash of my hair. They basically explained post operative care and gave some stuff. Paid the remaining of the surgery and was brought to the airport later.
Conclusion
They handled the problems extremely well and always provided me enough options. They refunded all extra costs I had to make because of this and to my surprise I did not need to pay for the extra 335 grafts, extremely kind. I can really recommend Dr. Hakan ********* and his staff. Special thanks also to Muslum, he is really a relax kind guy who took care of me and had a real fun day with him in Antalya. I felt they all tried to put their maximum effort into obtaining the best possible result for me.
That was my story guys, I didn’t go over to much detail because the story would have gotten way too big for that. If you have any questions about anything, shoot them and I will respond to you. I’ll be also updating this topic with pictures. Hopefully my result will turn out to be to my expectations.
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Graft breakdown
Single: 835
Double: 1200
Triple: 800
Total: 2835
Punch size: 0.7mm , 4mm length
Implantation: Choi pen 0.6 & 0.8mm
View attachment 73679
14 days (already shed quite some tiny hairs with scabs)
View attachment 73680
17 days wet condition right temple;
View attachment 73681
