I Will Tell My Story And Here Is How It Goes...

[the smoking baby]

At the age of 20, my hairline began to recede and boy, did it start to kill my confidence. In my mid-twenties, I grew my hair out, dyed it and left it messy in the front to cover the loss. By the time I was 30, I was shaving it down to a number 2 with clippers. The dreaded V-shape was so deep as was the thinning in the front where I still had my hair. By the time I was in my late thirties, most of the front was gone and the horseshoe pattern was clearly defined. By my mid-40's, I was a full-blown Norwood 6 and hated it.

A couple of years back, I decided to go for scalp micropigmentation (or trico - the temporary version of SMP). The result was brutal (posted a pic). Not only did it not blend well but now I was forced to shave my scalp each day plus wear a tinted concealer (BB cream) along with my moisturizer to try and blend the tattoo in with the rest of my scalp. Plus the daily shaving with either a razor or an electric shaver leaves red bumps along the nape of my neck. After 2 years, the SMP has not faded much at all as the technician told it would so I am forced to continue to hide it as best as possible. I have a great skillset and a solid education but I am driving a truck at a low wage because I don't want to work inside and have to take off my hat - I feel that humiliated.

Although I'm making a low wage, I've decided I can't continue on like this and now I am going to take the risk by going to Turkey and have the first of 2 hair transplants to turn my situation around. I know that one transplant won't be enough and for at least 6 months after the transplant, I'll have to live with growing my hair out (since it is not recommended to shave or use an electric shaver with a transplant after the first few months) plus the SMP will still be evident.

I'll update as I go along. For anyone else that has suffered from hairloss: it is not life-threatening but it is life-changing.

 

[Devop911]

Good Look to you my friend!
Can you give us some more details like day of surgery clinic and so on?

Keep us updated!

 

[the smoking baby]

So I've already been in contact with two reputable transplant clinics in Turkey: Dr. Hakan *********'s clinic and Dr. Ekrem Civas' clinic. After sending pics of the front, top and back of my scalp, I received responses from both clinics saying that I would need around 5000 grafts (which is what I anticipated the number would be to restore my scalp). Dr. Civas' office, in a response email, said that they can perform a mega session to get the 5000 grafts. I have since sent off an email to both doctors asking if mega sessions are done in one or two days and if I can choose to do less than 5000 and just focus on the front and mid-scalp with 3000 grafts.

Already I feel alarm bells going off because I've done so much research and, in doing so, mega sessions seem controversial. The longer the grafts sit in the petri dish waiting to be transplanted, the lower their chances of survival.

Will keep updated as to their responses.

 

[the smoking baby]

After consulting with the 'Big Three' in Turkey (Civas, *********, Erdogan), I've decided to go off the board and go with Dr. Emre Karadeniz in Istanbul. Now starting to get my plans ready for a treatment in December.

 

[hanginginthewire]

The amount of suffering caused by hair loss... People just don't get it. Silent epidemic.

 

[soitbegins]

any reason why you decided to go with karadeniz?

 

[the smoking baby]

He has a number of affiliations (ISHRS, ABHRS); it's a doctor-only clinic which (they claim) means the surgeon does the extraction and recipient site incisions. He also does a lot of FUE and FUT repairs which is what attracted me the most. His clinic has offered me 2 packages: a one-day session of up to 5000 grafts for 3000 euros or a two-day session up to 8000 grafts for 4500 euros. That's very competitive.

 

[brohawk]

Are you on an AA, or planning to start?