FUE 2400 Grafts With Dr Hakan Doganay

[falco]

Hi Guys,

After reading and researching for the last 5-6 years, i realized about 2 years ago the transplant is the way to go eventually. Tried Propercia a long time ago had some side effects, so stopped using it. I used Hairmax Laser Comb for more than 6 months last year. Nothing happened .

So after doing a lot of research, i finally made an appointment with Dr. Hakan for next month for FUE. As per the initial feedback, i'll need around 3000 grafts. They said that donor Area will definitely have to be shaved, but recipient area is upto me if i want to shave or not. It will cost extra if i don't shave it.

So here is what i need help? I have a 3 weeks vacation from office. And i'm not completely bald. I have quite thin here especially on my right side but still not the bald look. I feel that if I cut my hear really short in the recipient Area 1-1.5 cm and then have the surgery, i can almost pull off an unnoticeable look after 3 weeks. The plan is to cut the hair short to around 2-3 cm, a couple of weeks before the surgery so people in office and friends will not get not notic the short hair after the surgery.

Is hair transplant without shaving is less accurate than with shaving? I would think with shaved head Surgeon has much easier access.

One more question, My hairline has receded but i'm happy with it and only want more density, should i go ahead with just that or should get the hairline fixed a little bit as well. I'm having the HT, with the idea that all of the current hair will fall off and i'll just have to live with the transplanted hair. The idea was never to have full head of hair but just enogh to have a moderate coverage and not go completely bald. I might get another HT somewhere down the road as my donor Area is quite good, but at least next 3-4 years, i won't have the budget for it. So that's the reason of keeping the current hair line. I don't don't hair sticking on the new hairline and in between everything falls off.

I'm attaching some pictures of top, left, right and back here. Would really appreciate some advice.

[gillenator]

falco,

Your handle "falco" looks familiar from possibly other forums but either way, it sounds like you have done some research.

The reason for shaving the recipient area is so that the surgeon can see the natural direction and angulation of your existing hair. When the hair is longer, the weight of gravity can potentially pull the hair shafts downward or the direction can be altered by the direction that you groom your hair.

It's critical for the surgeon to readily see and know the natural angulation of your hair shafts because if they make the recipient incisions incorrectly, they can potentially transect the underlying follicles. When the existing hair is cut short or buzzed down, the smaller hair shafts tend to present their natural angulation and hair direction better, visually speaking.

You do have some diffused thinning going on so it's very possible that your surgeon will first draw a mature placed hair line with a marker, get your consent and approval and then reinforce your hairline with single hair grafts, again properly angled.

Your proposed graft count sounds appropriate to me as you still have some existing hair volume in the frontal zone. That should give you a nice result so feel free to keep us in the loop post-operatively.

Congrats on your upcoming procedure!

[gillenator]

Also, the more single hair grafts that are used, the less visual coverage because obviously a two or three hair graft is going to provide more visual coverage than singles do.

Remember, you can always go back for more once your budget allows for it..

[falco]

When the existing hair is cut short or buzzed down, the smaller hair shafts tend to present their natural angulation and hair direction better, visually speaking.

Thanks for the reply. The current hair length of my recipient area is around 4-5 cm. Based on your comment above, if i buzz it down to 1 cm (or even less than 1 cm), would it give the doctor appropriate visual? Or do you suggest i shave it down. If keeping the hair even compromises the results 10-15%, i would rather shave. This is once in a life time thing for (or at least it feels now. Maybe i'll get addicted to it ). The only reason i wanted to have around 1 cm because i know the growth rate of my current hair. And i feel keeping them around 1 cm at the time of surgery and having 3 weeks down period afterwards, will have a decent coverage of the post-op redness or any marks.

Btw i'm not on any such forums . So the falco name might be a co-incidence.

[gillenator]

falco,

I would check with your surgeon first before you buzz or shave.

It may make a difference to him but I think many would want the length under 1 cm.

I know there is a lot of dialogue with the issue of how short one can wear their hair length after their procedures yet a very high percent of guys that I know who had substantial work done want to grow their hair longer...

[falco]

Ok so finally i had the surgery on 8th March. I decided to make a vacation out of the whole thing and came with the family to Antalya for 8-9 days. Hotels are dirt cheap during this season and i found a good hotel with breakfast and dinner buffet for less than 300 Euros for 7 nights which is like the cheapest vacation i have ever had.

So we arrived in Antalya on 7th March. At the airport, we found a lady with AHD clinic board. She welcomed us and took us to the hotel. At first i though she might be just for the pick and drop. But she is part of Dr Hakan's team and knows all medical details and the HT process. She knew everything about my case and told me if i need to ask anything i can ask her. It was a very nice touch to find someone who can immediately help you and calm you down a bit. I asked her some basic questions. And then she dropped me and my family at the hotel and told me to be ready 8:30 next morning. So we had our breakfast and went to sleep as we had spent 6 hours from (from 1 AM to 7 AM) on Istanbul Airport in Transit.

So next morning she was there on time. We went to hospital and met with doctor. Dr Hakan doesn't speak that much english but 2-3 of his staff member speak very well. As per the initial online consultation, i was suggested 3000 grafts but aftering consultation with Dr. Hakan, he decided that i still have some native hair so anything around 2300-2500 would be sufficient. He asked me about the hairline and i told him that i'm quite OK with my hairline. I don't expect to get the hairline of an 18 years old. I just need density. I also told him the fact that i had side effects with Propecia so i'm expecting all my native hair to fall in 4-5 or more/less years. So i asked him to do the procedure not by filling the gaps only. Because if that's the case, when i lose my native hair, the transplanted hair would be like patches on different areas and would look worse than being bald . He understood that and told me they will make the transplant as uniformly as they can.

So then came the shaving part. I had already asked them if it would be possible not to shave the precipitant area completely and keep hair in recipient area to around 1 or less than 1 cm without compromising the quality of transplant procedure. Dr was quite generous to offer me my request. So they didn't shave the recipient area completely kept it around 1 cm.

So they took some before pictures and then shaved my head and afterwards take some more pictures and then took me to the procedure room. And then did the procedure. I will update the procedure in next post. But here I'll post some pictures of day 1 post Op after the washing of hair.

[falco]

By the way this clinic is not just transplant clinic. It's part of a decent size hospital which was quite re-assuring to me as i was thinking if anything bad happens we have other doctors available to attend to it.

So they took me to the procedure room. Dr was there and i was told to lie face down as they were taking grafts from donor area. They gave me anesthesia so i was out of it for initial 30-40 minutes. I woke up after sometime (can't be sure how much but wasn't long i think). So they were busy taking the grafts. I didn't feel any pain in the scalp. The only pain i had was in my arms as lying on your back with your arms along side your body can be painful after sometime . Anyways after taking the grafts, they told me to lay face up as it's tranplant time finally. Dr was there. Again i was in and out of it through the whole process. No pain and arms were not hurting as well. So eventually they told me that procesure is finished. It took around 6-7 hours. One of the nurses put some strip of cloth around my donor area and cicling through my forehead. They shifted me to a seaparate room. With a bed & a TV. The Nurse put some kind of IV medication in my left arm which i assume was some pain killer. So the same lady who picked me on airport, brough me some snacks as i hadn't eaten anything since last night. She gave me 2 pain killer tablets, in case i need it and 4 tablets to reduce swelling which was expected and i was supposed to take them next morning. After tha she said goodbye and told me that she'll come next morning. She had been my liason or translator throughout this whole process.

Around 7 PM they brough me dinner which was not heavy but quite appropriate. I had dinner and then talked to my wife for a while. Then watched some TV but there wasn't any single english language entertainment channel. Only thing was CNN and BBC. So i tried to pass time by watching Russian Invasion or Ukraine and Malaysian Flight crash which actually ended up making me more depressed . I kept waiting for the pain to start but fortunately it didn't. So i took 1 tablet anyway just in case. After that i fell asleep. kept waking up during the night as i was sleeping on an inclined bed on my back and trying to keep my chin up. It's not a normal position for me but somehow i was able to get a good 6-7 hours sleep

Next morning breakfast came at 7 AM. I was already awake. After the breakfast the same lady came at 9 AM. Took me to floor where Dr's operating room is. A nurse open the bandage from the donor Area and that's the first time i felt pain. After that she put a lotion on my donor and recepient area. It's supposed to make both areas soft and ready for wash. Then they washed my head with an organic shampoo. It's supposed to be herbel with no other chemicals. They gave me a bottle of both (lotion and shampoo) and told me to wash my head 2-3 times daily for the first 4-5 days. Also the washing was in a way not to expose grafts directly to water. Rather than to pour the water on crown area and let it flow on the grafts area. and with hand push the grafts down slowly for washing. Not move them left and right. While i was doing all that, i saw the next patient and talked to him. It was some guy from US. After the wash, I was all ready and waiting out side for the payment and everything. The lady brought the Dr in the waiting area and told me that if i have nay questions about this procedure or anything else, the Dr will be happy to answer. I had asked most of the questions already. So there wasn't much. I just asked the Dr that in case i need a future procedure, 3-4 years later, how much grafts he think they can extract, assuming my donor area is good and no hairs were extracted from sides, only from back. He said that i have quite a good donor area and hopefully they can easily extract around 2000-2500 grafts. They also gave me a paper which showed how many single, double or triple hair grafts we had. I had

725 Single Grafts
1475 Double Grafts
200 Triple Grafts

So after that i made the payment. They gave me some medicine. A pack of Biotin capsules. A medicine for 3 days to reduce swelling. Another medicine for quick healing of donor/recepiant area (6-7 days). Proscar in case i wanted to use it which i won't most probably. A gel to be put on donor area after 5 days to reduced scarring if any. Shampoo and Lotion as mentioned above. And later on one of their collegues dropped me off at hotel.

It was quite good and painless experience. The tougher part lies ahead. The fact that i had the transplant with around 1 cm hair in recipient are makes me really happy. I have 3 weeks holiday and i know my hair growth. I think by the end of 3rd week i will have reasonable hair to cover up everything. They told me the redness would probably finish in 15-20 days as though i'm fair skinned but no blonde. So that fits in very well with my 3 weeks window.

So i'll be posting weekly updates here for the first 3-4 weeks and then maybe monthly. Based on the results, some of you guys who might be confused about travelling to another country, might be able to make up your mind. I was also very confused but now I'm very happy that i made the decision in time. God knows how much growth i would get. But my expectation is My expectation for worst case is around 15-20% coverage of my adult hood days. I know i will lose all my native hair as i can't use Propecia. But I assume 4000-4500 grafts (2400 from this surgery and remaining from next surgery in 4-5 years if i need) will at least give me 20-25% coverage, which is more than enough for me. Thin hair is OK with me but complete baldness is something I'm not ready for

[R2D3]

Hi falco,

Thanks so much for your rundown. I am considering Dr. Hakan or Dr. Demirsoy for a summer 2015 HT. How is your hair coming along, and are you still satisfied with Dr. Hakan's work?

[falco]

Hi falco,

Thanks so much for your rundown. I am considering Dr. Hakan or Dr. Demirsoy for a summer 2015 HT. How is your hair coming along, and are you still satisfied with Dr. Hakan's work?

Here you go. It's been exactly 8 months yesterday. Growth was quite minimal in the first 6 months and I was quite worried. The fact that I can't propecia was also a reason I didn't expect much growth as I'm still losing my native hair.

7th month started and growth kicked in. I have had some good growth in 7 month and some in 8th as well. As i mentioned below, that my expectations were a little low because of not being able to use Fin. Now the situation is that hair density is not that much. With the wet hair, you can still see the scalp and some blank areas but the good thing is transplanted hair are quite thick. So in dry conditions i have a good cosmetic change and looks OK. I still have around 2 months more of growth. So I hope I get more

I have added 6 pics here. The first 3 are with wet hair and the last 3 are with dry hair.

[asianguy]

Falco,
I have surgery in December w/ Dr Hakan. Will be flying in from the US. Did you shave your head prior to surgery? Do you wish you shaved or not now?

How hard was it to locate the AHD clinic lady at airport? Any other tips?

[falco]

Falco,
I have surgery in December w/ Dr Hakan. Will be flying in from the US. Did you shave your head prior to surgery? Do you wish you shaved or not now?

How hard was it to locate the AHD clinic lady at airport? Any other tips?

Actually I didn't shave it completely. I buzzed it down to around 1 cm before Surgery. Depends if you are a diffused thinner or not. If you are a diffused thinner, then i would recommend you should shave it off, if you can. The issue is when scabs/crusts dry down & fall off, they take some of the native hair along with them. You are not supposed to shampoo the grafts properly by massaging them like you shampoo with normal hair. So sometime it doesn't get washed properly and the grafts and the native hair get stuck together with scabs after hair are dry. And when the scabs fall off, it sometimes have 2-3 native hair with them. It's not a big issue as the native hair come back but I feel shock loss is also high in this case. I might be wrong.

It's quite easy to locate the lady. She will have the AHD clinic sign board. And since you are going in December, which is the off season, it will be very less crowded there. So you can easily locate her.

Take the neck pillow with you. The night of the surgery, it's difficult to fall asleep in an awkward position.
Also keep some food with you in a bag with you when you go for surgery. I felt quite hungry at midnight in Hospital and the cafe in hospital closes at around mid night. They gave me general anesthesia not local. I have no issues with that. But if you have, you should inform them beforehand.
There are a lot of beautiful places in and near Antalya. If you have sometimes, it would be nice to travel there.
Try to get a hat, baseball cap or whatever you prefer from US. Clinic will give you a hat but i think they have a standard size for everyone. It was quite tight for me. So I had to buy one from outside after a lot of searching. Try to get one, which doesn't directly touch the areas of your head where you are planning the tranplants ....

They will give you an organic shampoo which i was not able to find. They say that you can used any shampoo after the first month. But try to get 1-2 extra bottles from them or from a drug store in clinic if possible. Trying a new shampoo so early is a headache as you always keep worrying if this shampoo has some harmful stuff. Better to stick with the shampoo clinic gave you for the first couple of months

And lastly best of luck. Hope you get fantastic results. How much grafts have they suggested you?

[asianguy]

Actually I didn't shave it completely. I buzzed it down to around 1 cm before Surgery. Depends if you are a diffused thinner or not. If you are a diffused thinner, then i would recommend you should shave it off, if you can. The issue is when scabs/crusts dry down & fall off, they take some of the native hair along with them. You are not supposed to shampoo the grafts properly by massaging them like you shampoo with normal hair. So sometime it doesn't get washed properly and the grafts and the native hair get stuck together with scabs after hair are dry. And when the scabs fall off, it sometimes have 2-3 native hair with them. It's not a big issue as the native hair come back but I feel shock loss is also high in this case. I might be wrong.

It's quite easy to locate the lady. She will have the AHD clinic sign board. And since you are going in December, which is the off season, it will be very less crowded there. So you can easily locate her.

Take the neck pillow with you. The night of the surgery, it's difficult to fall asleep in an awkward position.
Also keep some food with you in a bag with you when you go for surgery. I felt quite hungry at midnight in Hospital and the cafe in hospital closes at around mid night. They gave me general anesthesia not local. I have no issues with that. But if you have, you should inform them beforehand.
There are a lot of beautiful places in and near Antalya. If you have sometimes, it would be nice to travel there.
Try to get a hat, baseball cap or whatever you prefer from US. Clinic will give you a hat but i think they have a standard size for everyone. It was quite tight for me. So I had to buy one from outside after a lot of searching. Try to get one, which doesn't directly touch the areas of your head where you are planning the tranplants ....

They will give you an organic shampoo which i was not able to find. They say that you can used any shampoo after the first month. But try to get 1-2 extra bottles from them or from a drug store in clinic if possible. Trying a new shampoo so early is a headache as you always keep worrying if this shampoo has some harmful stuff. Better to stick with the shampoo clinic gave you for the first couple of months

And lastly best of luck. Hope you get fantastic results. How much grafts have they suggested you?

Thanks for the response. I will be going for 1500 hairline repair from a previous bad procedure

[boricotico]

Hey asianguy, I did have my HT with Dr Hakan in September and as you, I flew from US, quite a trip (24 hours more or less to get there). For me, shaved is the best way because then you'll have your hair the same length. Not shaved head looks awful in my opinion. You have your donor totally shaved and some parts of your top with long hair, others with transplanted. It looks much better a uniform length.

And you don't have to shave it, they're going to do it there.

[monty1978]

Hi Falco,

did you wear a cap on the plane or just walk around with a your head exposed?

Cheers

[fitnessisgood4u]

Wow that is awesome I would love my hair to look like that