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Bad hair transplant experience at the CLINIC CENTER ISTANBUL

L

luke1994

member
This is going to be a long but an in depth review. Here is my honest experience of my hair transplant at the Clinic center, Istanbul. Upon arriving into the arrivals area in the airport, it took us 20 minutes to find other people that were having treatments with the clinic and then a further 15 minutes to find the person that was organising our transport. We arrived at the hotel, checked in. I'll leave the hotel out of the review as it's a separate business but the hotel they provide is dirty, it looked great on pictures but I suppose that's standard. On the day of the transplant I was originally supposed to go to the hospital at 8am but then it got changed to 11am on the day. We got a taxi to the public hospital and the only way I can describe the place is dirty, dull and unsafe. The area was just somewhere you didn't want to be. Going into the hospital and seeing it full of locals waiting for a&e instantly sent my anxiety through the roof. I got taken into a room, had my blood taken, my hairline drawn on. At first, they drew me a hairline that looked a little like a McDonald's 'M' but I asked them to change it as this wasn't the look I was going for.

My op starts and the injections for the anaesthetic begin. These injections are very painful I don't know how people can say they don't hurt, they do. The "trichologist" as they called her started punching the holes around the grafts, I felt slightly worried considering the speed she was doing this. After a couple of hours, the grafts were taken and I had more injections in my front. The incisions were done and the "trichologist" started to implant the grafts, after around 20 minutes, the trichologist went, never came back and left the young technician to do the rest, she must have been about 20 years of age. After the operation had finished, she took some pictures. At first, I thought that looks dense but then I realised the grafts were actually not that close together but they had a lot of skin around each graft which suggests the punch size they used was too large. I got put in a Y reg Corsa that felt like it was going to fall apart (called by the technician) and went back to the hotel fearing for our lives as the driver had no hands on the wheel at one point going down a bypass, nightmare.

I had my hair wash the next day, then the day after that went back to the UK. I did everything they told me to do for my aftercare. After 4 months had passed, I saw literally no growth. I was worried but was told this was normal, so the months went by, it got to 6 months, not much growth, the months went on 8 months 10 months then finally I got to 11 months with very thin hair. They kept telling me it was ok but it obviously wasn't I'd had enough so demanded they did something about it. They said for me to get a refund I needed a malpractice report from a PUBLIC hospital, not a private one, which just isn't something you can get from an NHS public hospital. They then offered to do me another transplant for £500 plus my flights which I declined. They eventually refunded me with £400 after I said I was going to post my review online and warn other people.

The total cost for my transplant was £1250 plus my flights at £250. I haven't spoken to them since and I wish I'd have done more research before jumping in and trusting reviews on what clinic from people who have only had their transplant for a week and not seen the end results before posting. I'm now nearly 14 months post op and I've been lucky enough to be offered a fix for my hair transplant by The Hair Dr, close to Leeds in the UK. I'm having this op on Monday the 2nd of March so I will be sure to keep this updated with my results. I'll post some pictures of my hair after my first transplant in Turkey.


Day of operation.

POOR HAIR TRANSPLANT  CLINIC CENTER ISTANBUL Day of operation.png



Day after operation

POOR HAIR TRANSPLANT  CLINIC CENTER ISTANBUL Day after op.JPG



3 months post op

POOR HAIR TRANSPLANT  CLINIC CENTER ISTANBUL - 3 months post op.JPG


5 months post op

POOR HAIR TRANSPLANT  CLINIC CENTER ISTANBUL - 5 months post op.JPG


POOR HAIR TRANSPLANT  CLINIC CENTER ISTANBUL 5 months post op.JPG


11 months post op

POOR HAIR TRANSPLANT  CLINIC CENTER ISTANBUL- 11 months post op.JPG



This is 14 months, my final result.

POOR HAIR TRANSPLANT  CLINIC CENTER ISTANBUL 14 months post op.jpeg


POOR HAIR TRANSPLANT  CLINIC CENTER ISTANBUL 14 months post - op.jpeg


Here is my video documentation.

 
TOMMYTWO

TOMMYTWO

Valued member
Wow, sorry to hear you had a bad experience mate but for that money im not surprised as sounds super cheap.

I too went to Turkey and had a great experience tbh with cosmedica, but like you say its all about the end result so time will tell here

Good luck on the 2nd of March, Im sure it will be a walk in the park
 
T

Todd

member
It doesn`t look like the density was very good when they planted those grafts. How many did they say you got? Your donor looks scarred and thinned out, it is scary that these clinics exist. That young girl who took over was probably inexperienced. I`ve looked at the results and patient testimonials from the clinic in Leeds that you`re going to, they look good. How many grafts have they said you will need to put this right?
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Luke. I`m sorry you had to go through this disappointment and end up with a poor result. The graft placement does not look very dense, this and possibly the inexperience from the technician or the Dermatologist or both may have resulted in the poor yield. Your donor looks a little depleted too, a lot of extractions compared to what was planted. I`m happy that you have your repair surgery booked for March, not long to go. I`m sure you will be able to have your hairline fixed and possibly some SMP in the donor area to conceal the scarring.
Stay positive, you`re on the right path now.
Thanks for being brave and telling your story.
All the best.
Bm.
 
@luke1994 story is unfortunately not unique and he´s decided to tell it because he fell into the trap many do and wants to try and help others from making the same mistake he did. @Bigmac should be applauded for all his hard work behind the scenes helping hair loss sufferers and especially hair transplant repair patients. It was Bigmac who first drew attention to Luke’s youtube story and contacted him to discuss his experience in detail. It was after this Bigmac asked whether we could help him in repairing his situation. We agreed to take on the case as a pro bono. Dr Arshad has in the past performed reconstructive surgery under similar circumstances and felt he wished to do the same here.

We met Luke for a consultation to properly assess his situation. His donor area has obviously been seriously over harvested. The recipient area regrowth is poor with larger units and angles incorrectly placed. A fortunate is his hairline, although has the odd rogue larger hair unit the design was not too low or incorrect shape.

The donor will require a great deal of care and attention to the extraction pattern. The plan is to balance the look of the extraction when healed to give a more even looking hair density around the back and sides. The recipient area, using the existing line for the most part and then increase hair density behind. As a result, it will save on grafts not having to place a totally new front line. Longer term we will look at maybe scalp pigmentation to help the appearance of the donor area, but the immediate focus is to improve the aesthetic look.
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Thanks HairDr.
It is very generous of you to offer this surgery pro bono, it is greatly appreciated by me and Luke.
I`m looking forward to seeing his transformation.
 
L

luke1994

member
Hi everyone, had my surgery today and feeling positive, here are some pictures from the day. A total of 1137 grafts were transplanted today. I’m hoping I can get SMP on my donor to hide the scarring as this still really gets me down, but hopefully, one issue solved and one to go Can’t praise the hair dr enough they looked after me so well and made the day all about me. Completely different experience compared to my time in Turkey. I can’t wait to see the end results now.


Hair transplant with The Hair Doctor Leeds.jpeg


The Hair Doctor Leeds Hair Transplamt.jpeg


The Hair Doctor Leeds FUE Hair transplant.jpeg


The Hair Doctor Leeds.jpeg
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Luke.
Those grafts should add the much needed density, hide the multi graft units and with the staggered planting pattern, give you a natural looking hairline. The doctor looks as though he spread out the extraction pattern which is good. Clinic center, Turkey did a lot of damage in your donor area leaving you with scarring and possibly damaged grafts.
Anyhow, this is the road to recovery for you now. Once the donor has healed sufficiently, some SMP on those FUE scars Will help camouflage the area.
I`m looking forward to following your journey.
Here`s to a positive one from now on.
All the best.
Bm.
 
M

Malik

member
Hello Luke. I’m thankful I have come across your post about Clinic Center Istanbul. I was on the verge of booking up with them because they guaranteed the hairs would grow and had loads of positive reviews on Trustpilot. The price was good, 2000 grafts for £1400. Everything looked and sounded great until I asked them if I could speak to one of their reviewers who lived in my town. They said they did not have his contact details even though the review said he could be contacted via the clinic.
They said I could speak with someone from Turkey on WhatsApp which is not what I wanted. Then the review was gone. I thought something was not right so I began to search online and here I am. Your story has confirmed my suspicions that their positive reviews are made up and their guarantees are worthless.
I can’t thank you enough for being brave enough to post what happened to you, it has saved me from making a big mistake. I’m still wanting to do something but I’ll take it slow from now on.
Big thumbs up from me, you’re a good guy. It looks like this surgery with the hairdr will give you the hair you initially wanted.
Good luck bro.
 
L

luke1994

member
I’m glad I could help you mate, they're crooks and want to do anything I can to stop people making the same mistake I did as it’s irreversible what they did to me especially my donor area
 
M

Malik

member
I nearly fell for it. To be honest, I was not thinking about a hair transplant but for some strange reason I start getting ads for them which led me to Clinic Center. I didn’t know they could be so cheap.
I feel bad for you mate, having them mess your head up with all those scars. I didn’t even know it left scars like that. Good for you letting everyone know what they’re about. Have you seen all the positive reviews they have, way too many when you think about it.
I’m not that sure I want to do anything now. I’ve been reading on here about hair loss medicines that can help, I might give them a go.
 
MrPierre

MrPierre

member
Good look Luke, I hope you get the outcome you deserve. Keep us updated.
 
Thanks Luke for the updated donor healing pictures. Besides the obvious over harvesting from your first experience you have healed very nicely. Thanks again for the update, all the best.
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
It has healed well. Maybe let the hair grow longer to see how the donor looks.
Heres to great growth for you.
Bm.
 
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