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What are the biggest factors when choosing a clinic?

E

Elliot

member
Hi all,

I'm 39 years old and my hair loss hasn't been too extensive. No one would call me a bald dude. I'm maybe a Norwood 2. But my hair has been slowly receding since college. After some reflection and finally being open about the issue with my family, I've decided I want to proceed with getting a hair transplant.

I've only been researching for about a week now and I've realized that I still have a lot more to do. I'm wondering what the most important factors are when making a decision. Based on what I've seen on this forum, here are some of my takeaways:

- If the clinic offers a remarkably low price, stay away. Any reputable clinic is going to charge what they're worth. I shouldn't go cheap with something like this.
- The involvement of the doctor is critical. Ideally, the doctor should at least be present for the whole procedure.
- Apparently, the best surgeons are from Turkey. I'm willing to travel to Turkey from the US to get the procedure as long as I have the peace of mind of knowing that I chose the right clinic.
- It seems better to choose a doctor, not a company. Choosing a company can result in getting involved with a hair mill.

I've been in contact with a handful of clinics in Turkey. Each of them requested photos and most of them have communicated via WhatsApp (which as an American seems very strange for a professional company to use WhatsApp). So far here are my results:
- Longevita: quoted me £1,350 ($1,860) which seems way too cheap. I did some digging and almost all of their Google reviews are fake. This seems like a hair mill.
- Asmed with Dr. Koray Erdogan: quoted me 4,750 euros ($5,686) to 6,250 euros ($7,483) depending on how involved I would like the doctor to be. They seem reputable based on my research but the price seems a bit high.
- Hair of Istanbul: quoted me $5,500. They seem like a legit operation.
- Dr. Serkan Aygin: I read an article in Men's Journal about a week ago and that article is what finally pushed me over the edge to have the HT. The article chronicled the experience of a patient of Dr. Serkan and it was inspiring. I received a quote of 2,500 euros ($3,000) for 3,000 grafts which seems extremely reasonable. And based on this article and based on my research, Dr. Serkan seems like the real deal. However, for that price, I have a feeling that a technician will do the operation, not the doctor.

If you've read up to this point, let me say thank you. I know it's a lot.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Am I on the right track? Do you have any recommendations?

If anyone is willing to speak to me on the phone, I would be forever grateful. I would like to love to speak to someone who has traveled to Turkey to have their procedure done.
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Take your time researching, look through the patient posted journeys and results posted by clinics. Whatsapp is very popular with clinics based in Turkey and other countries.
Have you checked into hair loss meds? With them, you may not need surgery if you respond well but if you do still have surgery, they can help prevent further hair loss.
Do you have a picture showing your current level of loss?
 
E

Elliot

member
I've considered using meds but it seems like meds only slow the loss; they don't necessarily result in more hair – especially if it's a frontal receding hairline.
If I do decide to give the meds a try in earnest, should I see a local doctor and see what he/she recommends? Or is there something I should try immediately?

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Techno1

Techno1

member
I don't see any hairloss on you unless your hairline has receded. Medications are a better option before a hair transplant. What graft estimates go with the pricing from the clinics you reached out to?
 
E

Elliot

member
I finally met with a local hair restoration clinic and he agreed that meds should be the first step before diving into a hair transplant.

Regarding your question about the number of grafts:

Longevita: quoted me £1,350 ($1,860) and would transplant "up to 3,500 grafts"
Asmed with Dr. Koray Erdogan: quoted me 4,750 euros ($5,686) to 6,250 euros ($7,483) and would transplant 2,500 grafts
Hair of Istanbul: quoted me $5,500 and just said "maximum graft quantity"
Dr. Serkan Aygin: quoted me about $3,000 and would transplant "about 3,000 grafts"

I met with Dr. Burka locally here in the DC area and he quoted me about $10,000 to transplant about 2,000 grafts.
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Good to hear you have had an opportunity to have an in person consultation. Hopefully, you respond well to the meds and then you can decide on your next move.
 

Philw

member
My opinion u dont need a transplant
If u go on meds it will save the hair u have now also it could thicken up the hair u have at the front making it look like u have a nice thick hairline
 
MCAN Clinic

MCAN Clinic

member
Dear Elliot,

When choosing a clinic in Turkey, you need a checklist to choose the right clinic. Eventhough the prices are very reasonable in Turkey, there are also many Black Market Clinics. So our advice will be to make sure that the clinic you choose has;

- Accreditation from Ministry of Health Turkey. You can check Clinic's accreditation on the bottom of their website where many clinics located their accreditations on the footer. Or you can check from Turkish Ministry of Health website.

*It would be also great if Clinic has also some international accreditations.

- An experienced medical team consists of a Surgeon, trichologists and nurses. One of our Surgeon states that;

"Hair Transplant is not a one-man operation. A successful hair transplant requires an experienced medical team including a doctor, a trichologist and a medical team along with a sterilized environment to reduce any kind of risk of infection to a minimum. As a doctor, I would like to emphasize the importance of a doctor supervising the whole process. Although hair transplant is a safe treatment, any kind of malpractice may lead irreversible results on the appearance.”

- An aftercare process that never leaves you alone during your recovery process. Even recovery process of hair transplant is more smooth than the other plastic surgeries there should be always someone who you can get in contact immediately in any case of dissatisfaction.

- real reviews (as i can see, you already did spotted some fake ones) . You can check reviews sites such as trustpilot.com or reviews.co.uk to have a broader perspective on real patient reviews. These kind of review sites are checking if the review is real or not.

- "It seems better to choose a doctor, not a company. Choosing a company can result in getting involved with a hair mill." You can think over this sentence again. A Medical Company works with many surgeons and evaluate them regularly based on their results. When you proceed with a Doctor please be sure that he will be at your Operation. There are many good Doctor's Clinic as there are many good, accredited and decent Medical Companies.

- I can understand that contacting through Whatsapp can be a problem. There is no data security of your pictures and your health conditions. There is a company called DrEthos. They created a Virtual Consultation Chatbot for Hair Transplant. In 10 minutes you can learn how many grafts you need and if you are eligible for hair transplant. You can reach it from "drethos.mcanhealth.com" and have a free consultation for hair transplant. And get a treatment plan for free as you can see on the attached files.

Best of luck during your Hair Transplant Journey:)
 

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Techno1

Techno1

member
I`m perplexed as to where these grafts would go! Where did the clinics indicate these graft numbers would go?
 
MCAN Clinic

MCAN Clinic

member
I`m perplexed as to where these grafts would go! Where did the clinics indicate these graft numbers would go?
Hello,

The system is about an online hair transplant consultation driven by Machine Learning Algorithms. The system makes the graft calculation by learning from the past treatments.

During the online consultation the patient choose his receding areas. So the areas you saw on the treatment plan is actually chosen by the patient during the online consultation.

The system propose the necessary graft number by taking account ;

  • patient's receding areas,
  • strength of his donor area,
  • hair thickness
  • hair color and
  • prioritization (frontal or crown area)

and gives the result by comparing this inputs with the past treatment records.

Best regards,
 
bullitnut

bullitnut

4 awesome repairs with SMG
I've been on the forums a long time and I'm not of the opinion that all the very best surgeons are only in Turkey like you think dude. Turkey is very popular I agree and tbh there are some truly world class surgeons there your right...but in my honest opinion from yrs of research there are equally talented surgeons in the US and the rest of Europe. If your considering Turkey due to cost I understand the price is usually cheaper but if your travelling to Turkey to get what you believe is the best there is then I'm certain you don't have to leave the US.
 
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