Hi all, 30 yo patient who finally took this life-changing decision.
I chose Dr. Demirsoy because he was the one doctor from my very narrow list of good FUE doctors to offer me a convenient date for my operation, and managing downtime is very important. He's surprisingly cheap for someone with good results(1.25 euros per graft), only does one patient a day and does the extraction and incisions alone, his technicians place the grafts.
On the day of the operation, I took a couple pictures, to say good bye to my bald temples, and to keep track of where I was before the operation:
Dry and how I would normally look during the day if I'm not wearing any concealers:

And wet:

Muzaffer showed up to drive me to the clinic at 8am. He is as described by everybody here, and as you would expect him to be from his very nice and patient emails: genuinely friendly, honest and dedicated to the patients.
I kept asking him questions he probably hears every day and I already knew most of the answers, being a hair loss geek, but you need to be reassured when things are about to get real after years of planning and hopes. He always answered in details, probably aware that I was pretty knowledgeable, but he never seem annnoyed and always went in-depth.
The consultation: Dr Demirsoy inspected all of my scalp, and found that my hair was frizzier than on the pictures(I had sent him pics of my wet hair).
We agreed not to touch the crown because the thinning is barely noticeable and to focus on the front.
He first asked me about my hairline wishes. I was very anxious about him wanting me to have a high hairline like many HT patients, it looks weird and I don't see the point. But I had seen some of his hairlines that looked reasonably juvenile which was one of the reasons I picked him.
So I drew my ideal hairline with a thin stick, adamant about having narrower corners just below the temples.
He took some measures and told me about how low he could go, according to my forehead shape, and measured the distance from the eyebrows.
I was extremely pleased with the design, it was almost exactly what I had in mind. It looked slightly uneven but Dr Demirsoy insisted because of the temple points being slightly lower on one side apparently, but it really didn't matter.
We then took some pictures with the hairline design, here are a few of them:


I was expecting them to wet my hair first, to make better before/after pics, because I had read that about many clinics, but they didn't, I expressed my surprise to Muzaffer who told me they wanted to keep a honesty policy.
Muzaffer took me to his office and as soon as I signed, things went quickly. I was shaven by the nurses/technicians and we took another set of pictures:

The black stains are toppik remnants I thought I had washed away with the many shampoos I had since the weekend.

The operation was very long, Dr. Demirsoy did the extractions and the incisions and the technicians(3 nurses) placed the grafts.
Dr Demirsoy was pretty positive because there were many grafts with 2,3 and even 4 hairs. It's one of the variables that are part of the equation that makes the final result.
Here's a couple post-op picture:


One day post op:
The upper forehead swelling was very extreme and painful. But I could already see I wasn't going to experience much redness and Muzaffer commentated on that.
A nurse did the first shampoo and Muzaffer gave me all of the instructions for the upcoming days.
In the next few days, the swelling slowly went down from my forehead to my eyes and cheekbones (I felt better at this point and that's why I stopped wearing the headband I was given). I bumped my head a few times in random places but there was no bleeding so the grafts should be fine.
I had planned to hide in London at a friend's place(only person who knows) until I could be presentable and come back to my hometown in France.
We went to a Turkish restaurant and all of the waiters were balding turkish guys who immediatly asked me about all the details because they were planning on having a HT. It was surprisingly funny to talk in such a casual fashion about this usually embarassing topic.
After 5 days, my appearance became bearable despite the scabs because the swelling went away.
Day 5:
Still extra paranoid about bumping my head, but the swelling went away and I no longer look like a circus freak in public places. I can finally appreciate how my hairline was designed and hope for the best possible yield.

Day 8,9,10:
I was instructed to start removing the scabs at day 8.
It took me three attempts to remove nearly all of them. I finally get to see my temporary NW1.5 hairline with a buzzcut.
It looks really thinned out, but mostly because the recipient area is considerabely shorter than the rest of the hair. Here's a pic of the hair with the scabs being washed away:

Day 11: Return to my hometown, and I have almost no visible redness, no one can tell a thing. My best friend told me that it seems that my hairline got better thanks to fin.






Going for my first jog when the night falls. I can finally wear hats and t-shirts.
Now it's time to wait for the dreaded shedding.
I was instructed to avoid concealers for two months, which is a lot longer than most recommendations, I'll start using them very sparingly at 45 days.
I still can't believe I finally took the plunge.
I chose Dr. Demirsoy because he was the one doctor from my very narrow list of good FUE doctors to offer me a convenient date for my operation, and managing downtime is very important. He's surprisingly cheap for someone with good results(1.25 euros per graft), only does one patient a day and does the extraction and incisions alone, his technicians place the grafts.
On the day of the operation, I took a couple pictures, to say good bye to my bald temples, and to keep track of where I was before the operation:
Dry and how I would normally look during the day if I'm not wearing any concealers:

And wet:

Muzaffer showed up to drive me to the clinic at 8am. He is as described by everybody here, and as you would expect him to be from his very nice and patient emails: genuinely friendly, honest and dedicated to the patients.
I kept asking him questions he probably hears every day and I already knew most of the answers, being a hair loss geek, but you need to be reassured when things are about to get real after years of planning and hopes. He always answered in details, probably aware that I was pretty knowledgeable, but he never seem annnoyed and always went in-depth.
The consultation: Dr Demirsoy inspected all of my scalp, and found that my hair was frizzier than on the pictures(I had sent him pics of my wet hair).
We agreed not to touch the crown because the thinning is barely noticeable and to focus on the front.
He first asked me about my hairline wishes. I was very anxious about him wanting me to have a high hairline like many HT patients, it looks weird and I don't see the point. But I had seen some of his hairlines that looked reasonably juvenile which was one of the reasons I picked him.
So I drew my ideal hairline with a thin stick, adamant about having narrower corners just below the temples.
He took some measures and told me about how low he could go, according to my forehead shape, and measured the distance from the eyebrows.
I was extremely pleased with the design, it was almost exactly what I had in mind. It looked slightly uneven but Dr Demirsoy insisted because of the temple points being slightly lower on one side apparently, but it really didn't matter.
We then took some pictures with the hairline design, here are a few of them:


I was expecting them to wet my hair first, to make better before/after pics, because I had read that about many clinics, but they didn't, I expressed my surprise to Muzaffer who told me they wanted to keep a honesty policy.
Muzaffer took me to his office and as soon as I signed, things went quickly. I was shaven by the nurses/technicians and we took another set of pictures:

The black stains are toppik remnants I thought I had washed away with the many shampoos I had since the weekend.

The operation was very long, Dr. Demirsoy did the extractions and the incisions and the technicians(3 nurses) placed the grafts.
Dr Demirsoy was pretty positive because there were many grafts with 2,3 and even 4 hairs. It's one of the variables that are part of the equation that makes the final result.
Here's a couple post-op picture:


One day post op:
The upper forehead swelling was very extreme and painful. But I could already see I wasn't going to experience much redness and Muzaffer commentated on that.
A nurse did the first shampoo and Muzaffer gave me all of the instructions for the upcoming days.
In the next few days, the swelling slowly went down from my forehead to my eyes and cheekbones (I felt better at this point and that's why I stopped wearing the headband I was given). I bumped my head a few times in random places but there was no bleeding so the grafts should be fine.
I had planned to hide in London at a friend's place(only person who knows) until I could be presentable and come back to my hometown in France.
We went to a Turkish restaurant and all of the waiters were balding turkish guys who immediatly asked me about all the details because they were planning on having a HT. It was surprisingly funny to talk in such a casual fashion about this usually embarassing topic.
After 5 days, my appearance became bearable despite the scabs because the swelling went away.
Day 5:
Still extra paranoid about bumping my head, but the swelling went away and I no longer look like a circus freak in public places. I can finally appreciate how my hairline was designed and hope for the best possible yield.

Day 8,9,10:
I was instructed to start removing the scabs at day 8.
It took me three attempts to remove nearly all of them. I finally get to see my temporary NW1.5 hairline with a buzzcut.
It looks really thinned out, but mostly because the recipient area is considerabely shorter than the rest of the hair. Here's a pic of the hair with the scabs being washed away:

Day 11: Return to my hometown, and I have almost no visible redness, no one can tell a thing. My best friend told me that it seems that my hairline got better thanks to fin.






Going for my first jog when the night falls. I can finally wear hats and t-shirts.
Now it's time to wait for the dreaded shedding.
I was instructed to avoid concealers for two months, which is a lot longer than most recommendations, I'll start using them very sparingly at 45 days.
I still can't believe I finally took the plunge.
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