Warning: avoid Hakan Doganay (AHD Clinic)

[atomicbullet123]

Hello everyone,

I just want to warn people about the bad experience I had with Hakan Doganay so you can all avoid going to his clinic.

I previously had a well performed fue surgery with Dr Feriduni, which left minimal scarring. However I decided to get a second proceedure with Hakan Doganay who was getting really great feedback on the forums and was recommended on another well known site - known for their high standard of surgeons. So I booked a procedure for only 800 grafts with Hakan Doganay.

I flew to their clinic in Antalya and immediatly there were red flags - they previously told me they only performed 1/2 proceedures a day, but when I asked their sales co-ordinator he told me they did at least 4/5. The second red flag was this tiny purple mirror they asked me to draw the hairline on. It was comical because i could hardly hold it and draw the hairline. I wish I´d just left at that moment.

Anyway I got 800 grafts, and they grew fine - as expected. Anyway it wasn't until 8 years later that I decided to shave my hair down and realised how badly they had scarred me. And it was not just the donor hair but also the reciprient area. When I researched further I saw that there were loads of bad reviews from 2015/2016, around the time I went. Hakan Doganay was quickly removed from that hair restoration forum.

Why could this of happened? Poor quality surgery skills, or needles that were too big, or rushed. I don´t know, but it has left me scarred in my donor hair and everytime i cut my hair short I can see these scars which makes me very sad. And i get reminded of this everytime I got to the barbers. And it really hurt my donor hair.

My recommendation is please research the surgeon before going. If it is too cheap, it is likely the techs who are performing the operation and not a doctor.

What is interesting about my photo is you can see the difference between a great surgeon like feriduni and his extraction zones, verses someone like Hakan Doganay,

 

[Bigmac]

Thanks for sharing your story.
Do you have any pictures from your surgery?
Also pictures showing your hair longer.
Was it Dr Doganay that did the fue punching?
Some extractions look too close together which has resulted in a larger scar area.
If you do want to have a shaved look I would consider having some grafts placed back into these larger sites to help camouflage the area.

 

[atomicbullet123]

Hey bigmac - I think it was the techs doing the punching. Although the procedure was meant to be done by him, there was absolutely mention that the techs would be performing the surgery. I can't remember who inserted the grafts - again it should have been him.
I understand Hakan Doganay's team frequent this forum - perhaps they can explain what went wrong?
I did get SMP a couple years ago and that has certainly helped reduce the contrast, but maybe you are right and I put some grafts in there.

 

[Bigmac]

If you are willing to privately messaged me your personal details and surgery date I can ask the clinic to respond. No guarantee they will on here. They may reach out to you directly. Have you reached out to them?

 

[atomicbullet123]

Hey bigmac, it’s ok.

They did invite me for a consultation free of charge but I declined. After seeing all the negative reviews and after my own experience I wouldn’t want Hakan doganay anywhere near my scalp again.

Also it was painful communicating with them. Long wait to get a response, telling me that there is nothing wrong with the results - it’s just that my hair is apparently super short and I shouldn’t cut it so short. Although this was never advised at the time and also i know there are plenty of great procedures done by other surgeons where the scarring is hardly noticeable and they can cut their hair super short.

It’s clear that hakan doganay sacrificed his early clinical reputation to chase the high-volume "hair mill" model. Once those bad reviews started stacking up on the forums, it became structurally impossible for him to go back to a premium, doctor-led setup. He essentially trapped himself. Now, he's stuck in the budget, technician-led market. Because Turkey is completely oversaturated with these factory clinics, he’s locked in a permanent race to the bottom—forced to compete solely on cheap prices to attract uneducated buyers who only care about the cheapest price .

 

[atomicbullet123]

O sorry they actually offered to fill the scars they left free of charge but refused to say the original procedure was incorrectly done.

Which doesn’t make sense. (And obviously we are not blind, those extraction scars are not normal) if we were going by their logic -and they added grafts to the scars then I would just get new scars the same size in other places.

But as I mentioned earlier, I wouldn’t let him touch my head again. Same goes when I see people who have had been procedures with surgeons being given free surgery - no! Please don’t do this - research and research and research and go somewhere else.