'Hair of Istanbul' butchered me, ruined my donor area & left me out to dry

[Offthawall]

Hey all.

So before I begin, this is a long read.

I recently underwent 2 HT procedures in Turkey (I know...) and it ended like a walking nightmare. They took grafts with a huge hole punch, only 4k total (both procedures) basically stripping me thin from ear to ear.

I can't lie and say since I underwent my 2nd HT I haven't been depressed, heartbroken & borderline losing my will to carry on with life.

Anyway, I wanted to share my experience with you all and see some recommendations on what I can do from here because I know repairs need to come from reputable and skilled surgeons. And I will most likely need SMP into my donor after another procedure just to get that area looking respectable again.

So I went to Istanbul last year, around this time, and got 2800 grafts with HOI, who have a very LARGE marketing / social media presence on Instagram. I was all set on heading to Cinik clinic until my GF (who lives with me and was researching about HT once I told her I was thinking of going) showed me the HOI profile. The hairline was THICK. Their results FULL. Everyone so happy, taking videos pulling their hair back to reveal a luscious Fabio mane!! It seemed too good to be true.

Probably because anything that does is.

I headed to their clinic after speaking to their Manager, Mehmet, who informed me of the name of their surgeon (I don't remember because since he never uttered his name to me again). He told me their hairline specialist would draw my line, then the surgeon would extract and place my grafts. That for one set price ($5k USD, a total I didn't have so I put half on credit) I could get as many grafts as needed.
I was sold a pipe dream.

Once I got there, I never even met the "surgeon". This should have set off alarm bells. He only introduced me to techs, wearing tech uniforms, who he called 'doctors'. I asked when I was going to meet the surgeon and he said "Don't worry, he will come in when we are placing the grafts, the team is very experienced with extraction"...

I figured plenty of Turkish surgeons have specialty DHI teams like Cinik, and that even Demirsoy has his trusted team of assistants who extract clean, precise manual or very small punch grafts. I was excited to finally have a hairline, luscious full forelock and vertex again like my early 20's.

I was given a drawn hairline FAR TOO LOW for my forehead. I asked them to raise it a couple of times after it was drawn on (it's still very aggressive). I was told they couldn't transplant to my crown, vertex or forelock, only my hairline because I had "too much existing hair" and they don't want to "experience necrosis" (which I guess they meant shock loss?).

I ate the explanation because I figured they get great results, they know what they're doing!!

I was taken to the procedure room and 2800 grafts were extracted and placed in under 3 hours (wtf, how? Never looked like that much but the donor sure did).
Not once did I see the surgeon in the room. I heard him come in once but he never grabbed the knife, it was all techs. I asked Mehmet why the surgeon wasn't working on me and he said "He is!" despite the fact I could see him in the mirror just near my eyeline. I wanted to tell them to stop. Everything in me said this wasn't going to end well.

I asked them to please pause the procedure and think about giving me some grafts on my crown and vertex where I was diffuse thinning. They obliged with a tiny sprinkle of like 10 grafts. Seriously.

I should probably mention at this point that I went for a SMP procedure about 3 years ago but only got in one session before I realized it wasn't the right look for my head shape / face. So I lasered off the hairline below my natural one and let the ink on my forelock, crown and vertex stay. Big mistake, I guess? Because their techs who do incisions DEFINITELY do not know how to tell a follicle from a mark of ink.

They filled in my hairline pretty dense, really straight and as I said, a bit thrown in the crown cause I begged. I went home feeling disappointed but hopeful somehow I would still end up with a full head of hair. I waited a year. I was met with a thick, full hairline with a big gap in the middle of it, spotty coverage in the left temple, and a nonexistent forelock so I had an island of no hair right behind this new hairline.

I was gutted. I couldn't style my hair any way but slicking the hairline back to hide the lack behind it. I swooped the thinning parts of my vertex to the side and prayed noone looked at the back of my head.

All the while realizing that the Punch graft they used was really large, thus it left me with some pretty sizeable 'moth bites' on my back of head, sides, and even behind my ears! They even took from the lower neck and up to near my 'swirl' in the crown, areas you're told are outside the safe zone. Once again, I should have ran and never returned.

But I did.
I spoke to their owner / manager. He told me I should be happy with this result--he sees nothing wrong. I pleaded with him to please give me my money back so I could go elsewhere. He said he could arrange another procedure with me so they can "fix it right for me".

I really should have just cut my losses and the eaten-up donor to this point and went elsewhere. I should have went back to Cinik (who I paid a deposit a month prior to HOI, but a flashy IG shown to me by my Girlfriend was like catnip).

I should have gone to a reputable surgeon or clinic in the states. Or the UK. Or Belgium, India, really anywhere but back to Turkey.
But sadly this past month, that's what I did. I returned to 'Hair of Istanbul' with the promise this time, they would listen to my concerns. They would fill in the areas I needed.

I was proven so wrong once again. Once I came in--the same deal. Only techs, no surgeon. The hairline guy refused me saying I wanted grafts in my completely diffuse crown and vertex that stopped me from most styles but 'swoop forward and hope wind won't blow'.

I was taken back to a procedure room in the basement, and this team of techs took nearly 5 hours to extract a mere 1k grafts and place them. All the while I had no translator present, no mirror to look in and no way to supervise if they were doing the job I had asked for.

Instead of giving me density in my vertex or crown, they just reinforced my already super thick hairline. They filled in a bit in the forelock / lower vertex, but not densely packed--random smatterings of hairs here or there. And a few sprinkled hairs going back to my crown.

Around the time they wanted to feed me and get me on my way, I put my foot down. I tried to tell the GM I wanted this done right and I wasn't happy. So he called the team back and they extracted an extra 200-300 grafts (idk, noone ever gave me counts, I had to demand them--and they put plenty of triple grafts in my HAIRLINE ffs).

This was the most rushed part of a very traumatic experience, I had a couple of young ladies from the next door esthetics clinic punching my grafts. A nurse from the clinic rushing the 'doctor' back in for incisions. They just wanted to get out of there. And this was when the fear really set in. I felt them pulling flesh out of my donor area, pulling more than just the graft and trying to pack it back in like it would just settle its way back down.

I felt them tug at my donor without giving me another round of anasthesia. I felt every single stab of the blade as they made their 100-200 incisions (into an area I ALREADY HAD DONE THE 1st TIME despite me pointing out precisely where I wanted on my vertex and crown). It was agony. I felt powerless because everyone acted like they were acting expediently to help but it was just so they could pass the buck and go home.

I really wish beyond anything in my life that hadn't ever found the Hair of Istanbul clinic.

I went back to my hotel, feeling drained and defeated. In the airport on my way home I ran into plenty of patients from all over other well-known clinics with neatly packed, tidy sections of grafts placed perfectly. Crown and vertex placed by clean graft extractions leaving a nearly unrecognizable donor area scar.

And I sat there, mangled. Feeling disfigured.

The few days since this procedure is the lowest I've ever felt in my life. And I've had suicidal ideations when I lost the love of my life. I had grief and loss hit me at the age of 20 when my mom died unexpectedly.

This week has been the most difficult and emotional of my life without compare.
And I'm not sure where to go from here.

So I need you all in this community to please, please try and help me. Tell me what I can / should do. What surgeons are the best for repairing this sort of case, filling in a vertex area with diffuse thinning and SMP already existent.

Should I get SMP on my sides, neck, back of head?
I really don't think I can live with it as pock-marked as it is.
I used to love styling my hair in a mohawk with shaved-down sides. Or having a nice skin tight fade.
And now I'm just thinking of the fact I'll never get to have that again.
I may not even have enough donor area to fully fill the areas I need for my diffuse thinning vertex.

I just wanted to have a full head of hair. To escape the balding that eroded my social life all throughout my 20s.
I just wanted what seemed too good to be true. And I suppose that's where I failed.

I placed trust in a place with little to no research but pictures and social media appearances.
I trusted hype over a reputable surgeon. And it cost me dearly.
Now I don't want to look at myself in the mirror.
I don't want to leave my room, nevertheless my house.
I cry basically every time I speak to my girlfriend and the kid we're raising together.

Because I can't be fully present, this is consuming my every waking moment.

Thus, I really need your help, guys.
I've been a long time lurker of the forums because I've contemplated a HT since 2011.
And I would always read the reviews on here to make my shortlist.
Sadly, my budget never stacked up to that wish list.
And I settled on Turkey because of budget.
And paid for it in many other ways.

Thanks for making it all the way through my story.

I wanted to vent because it has been really crippling keeping it in.

I feel like I don't want to read my poems anymore because I have to be seen.
I don't want to teach or host events like I usually love to.
My first book came out last year & I don't really want to have a proper launch in person because I'm afraid of the obvious wear and tear on my head & hair.

So I'm doing what I don't usually do--put myself out there and ask for a lifeline.



I've attached some images below.
Please offer me your advice, experiences, etc.

I appreciate you all.

Img 1-5: Vertex & crown area, post HT1, pre HT2.

Images 6-10: Immediately after HT 2. Bloodied, damaged donor & extensive scarring. Not enough grafts placed for coverage.