Tugrul Maral, MD

I just wanted to say a massive thank you!! I had grade 6 hair loss and had 5000 grafts. I’m now 8 months in and I’m so happy with my results, I have recommended Dr Maral to friends who will also be having the proceedure, it was pain free and my only regret is that I didn’t have it done sooner!

Let me start by saying to anyone researching hair transplant, the whole process is shockingly easy, it’s not painful, and it is totally worth it. Keep in mind that the photos of the process look much worse that it actually is.

Dr. Tugrual Maral and his team of professionals have this procedure down to an exact science and they do this everyday (except Sundays). They handled all the details, from my initial email consultation, to arranging the hotel and all transportation, so the only thing that I had to do was to book my round trip flight to Istanbul and bring the payment for the procedure. I will go into detail about the procedure later, but just had to start this review by saying that I was so happy that I chose Dr. Maral and that I highly recommend them for anyone considering a Hair Transplant.



My experience: I’m 47 and I’ve always had a high hairline (big forehead), but I have a Grade 3 hair loss meaning that the crown is starting to show in the back and my hairline is receding. It’s not terrible, but seeing the history of hair loss in my family (my father & cousins who have all lost most of their hair) I know what the future holds for me.



Living in Los Angeles, I went to the Bosley hair clinic for a consultation. They still do the procedure by removing a strip of the scalp for the donors, which leaves a scar, unless you pay 25% more to do the MicroFUE for individual grafts. For 1800 grafts, it was going to cost over $12,000. This was out of my budget, so I stopped thinking about doing Hair Transplants. Until my friend found someone who had flown to Turkey and had the procedure done there (with Dr. Maral).



Turns out that several people here had followed suit and also done it there with great results. Based on these recommendations, a friend in his 30’s went to Dr. Maral. After I saw his results (about 5 months later), I was convinced this was a great option for me.



I emailed Dr. Maral my photos and got an immediate response with a detailed analysis and recommendation to do 3500 grafts at a cost of 1800 Euros (about 2100 USD). I booked my flight to Turkey on Turkish Airlines (pay the extra fee to sit in the exit row for more leg room!) and sent them my itinerary. From that point they scheduled my appointment, arranged the hotel and all the transportation.



When we arrived in Turkey, I got a text message as soon as we got off the plane telling us where to meet. Within 5 minutes, they were there to take us off to the Hotel. The airport in Turkey just opened in April 2019 and it is spectacular. The largest in the world (except the China airport that just opened) and it has every high end shop you can imagine. Anyway, the Dedeman Hotel was nice, but not quite the 5 star hotel that you might find elsewhere. The rooms were clean but the beds were quite firm. Breakfast was included each morning and offered a large selection of good food.



Procedure day: It began with a quick transport to the clinic and consultation with Dr. Maral who inspected my hair (for the growth pattern) before they shaved it all off. I have never shaved my head, so this was a little scary. Then, he took photos and marked the areas for the transplants. We discussed and agreed to his suggestions, as I fully trusted his professional opinion as to what would look the most natural.



I took a couple of pills they gave me (probably for pain & to calm down) then we began. The clinic was very clean, bright and everyone was very friendly. I felt very comfortable and in good hands. Jasmine worked on me first. Based on the Dr’s outline, she measured and made more exact marks of transplant areas. Her years of experience in doing this were evident as she was very detailed in making sure that the hairline was not too low where it would move with my facial expressions.



Then, we moved to the operating table. I was expecting this part to be painful, but surprisingly it was not bad. They used a little thumbtack like device to click around the marked areas. Then, followed with injections around the outlined areas, much like you would get at the dentist when getting a filling. I felt a little pressure and slight sting, but it was over very fast.



She began by removing a sample of grafts to determine the size of the donors. Then she proceeded to cut the holes in the transplant area to count how many grafts they would need to fill in the areas. This took a while and she determined that I could handle 4100 grafts. (Wow, that would have cost me close to $28K at Bosley!)



After she finished, the next team moved in. One technician drilled the grafts and then another removed them. She had a device that sounded like a vacuum that drilled a small circle around the hair follicle. Again, this didn’t hurt at all as the anesthesia had kicked in, but it sounded like a knife cutting a crisp apple. It was kinda weird. I was laying face down for this process and it took several hours. The Dr checked in on the process from time to time. After they finished removing all the grafts, they bandaged up the donor area and we took a break for lunch. They brought in a very nice lunch for me and the other person who was also having the procedure done in the next room.



After lunch the two technicians went to work inserting the grafts into the transplant area. Each started on the outsides and worked their way to the center. They finished by filling in the crown area. This part took another 4 hours. (I was there from 10am to 6pm!) They bandaged up my donor area, gave me a set of pills to take for the next 3 days and gave me care instructions for the evening. Then, the driver took me back to the hotel.



The funny thing is that this procedure is so common in Turkey, we saw over 2 dozen men in the hotel and walking around Istanbul with bandages on their heads. Nobody says anything about it. We did order room service that night and stayed in. The USD is so strong that our room service meals for 2 including desserts cost only $20!



The hardest part of this whole process turned out to be sleeping because you can’t let your head rest on the donor or transplant areas for the first night. So, they gave me a travel like neck pillow that raises my head off the pillow. It still didn’t hurt any, but was a bit uncomfortable on the neck.



No washing or touching the head on next day, but the shower had a handheld which made it easy to wash my body. They picked me up in the morning to go back to the clinic for the follow up where they removed the bandages. It bleed a little and this was a bit uncomfortable at first, but then it stopped. They gave me washing instructions, lotion and shampoo to use for the next two weeks and a special hat to wear in case I was self conscious about the new look. Nothing can touch the grafted areas for 4 days. No more bandages needed. The Dr. inspected everything and then we were off to explore the city of Istanbul.



The next night I was able to sleep on a regular pillow and let the donor areas in the back touch, but not the grafts on the crown or the front. This night was better (but the beds were still too firm for my taste). The next morning they were there to take us back to the airport. The drivers were great and so friendly. I couldn’t have asked for better service!!



The Istanbul airport was incredible. Tons of high end shops, lots to see, and secure!! We went through 9 security check points before arriving at our plane. It was great. And, Turkish airlines was awesome, the best food and service I’ve ever had, even in economy class, it was better than Business or First on many other airlines.



After returning home, I was greeted with an email from the clinic with all the detailed instructions on my follow up care, which is a good thing because I had forgot some of the details.



The days following the procedure, the donor areas and the transplant areas began to scab. It didn’t itch, but sometime felt like a fly was crawling across my head, ha! I had to wait 3 days before touching or washing. On the fourth day, the process is to dab on some lotion and let it sit for 10 minutes to soften the scabs. Then, lightly dab the shampoo and rinse with low pressure water.



After the first week, then I was able to gently massage the shampoo. The hair was already starting to grow back and the transplant areas felt a bit crusty, like I was wearing a cap. At about 12 days, most of the crusts/scabs had come out in the shower and my head now looks like I just trimmed it short. The transplanted hair looks just like the rest of my head and nobody would even know that I had anything done.



I will post some photos of the process and continue to follow up as my hair grows back. Again, to anyone contemplating doing this, I would recommend you contact the Maral clinic for a consultation. It is worth flying to Turkey to have the best people perform this procedure. I highly recommend Dr. Maral and his team of professionals!








Updated on 5 Oct 2019:
The hair feels good and is beginning to grow. Super excited to see how it comes in. There are a few scabs still in the back donor area, but they are not really visible. They should go away soon. The donor area looks a little more sparse now since there was so many hairs removed. Hope that the other hair grows in to cover it.

Will follow up in a few weeks.

Updated on 27 Oct 2019:
My normal hair is growing back in a regular pattern and it is beginning to cover the donor area in the back. This area was looking a little thin at first due to all the grafts that were removed. The transplanted hair is going through the expected trauma stage where after growing for a few weeks most of them have broken off and that area is looking pretty sparse. I'm not worries, as this is the normal process and the follicles are all still there and will regrow after a while.
I just colored the gray in my hair (after these photos were taken) since it was starting to come in quite gray. I was told to not color any of the transplanted areas, but that is fine since there is not much there right now. I can really see a distinct difference in my hairline, from the previous (which is growing) to the new hairline which is sparse. It is going to be a big improvement once it all grows in.
The transplanted area in the front is beginning to have a few pimples (whiteheads) as the new hairs are trying to come in. It's hard to leave them and not pick at them, but I'm trying to just wash with shampoo and some acne face wash at night.
The donor area has been a little sensitive to the touch, not is a bad or painful way, just a weird kind of sensation, most likely due to so many follicles removed and the nerves in the skin adjusting to this change.
Most people have told me that they really like the short hair cut and most don't know that I've had any procedure done, unless I tell them. But, I've been very open about it with everyone as I don't want to hide it or be ashamed by doing this. On the contrary, I feel like I am being proactive, doing the best thing to keep my hair, and I'm happy to tell everyone about the procedure.
I hope the political situation in Turkey doesn't deter anyone from going to the Maral Clinic. I would still go!!

I would like to thank Dr. Maral for his talent. He managed, like a magic wand, to get my hair to grow back when it was a desert area. The team is professional, the staff competent and Dr. Maral is realistic and talented. I'll never have my hair back from my 20s, but now I have a lot more on my head. The trip takes place in a fantastic setting and everything is so easy, you just have to decide to do it...

As far as I am concerned, I have been performing my second operation to complete my hair transplant for a month now. You have to be patient, but the result will be there, I'm sure!

I am infinitely grateful to Dr. Maral and his medical staff for the incredible work they did on me. Treating my Norwood 5 type hair loss, I received 4750 transplanted grafts.
Additionally to this awesome result, I have to thank them also for their pick up-drop off ponctual service and for the great 5* hotel that they accomodated me at. Lastly, I want to thank the staff of the clinic for their hopitality and top notch professionalism.
I have now a natural whirl patter over my crown area, which impressed me greatly since I had heard that it was very tricky to mimic and accomplish with a hair transplant procedure. These days, I am considering getting a 2nd procedure soon to receive more thickness and density over the crown area. My point so far is that I am absolutely thrilled with the results, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Dr. Maral to anyone wishing for cost-effective, state-of-the-art hair transplant.

I am very grateful to Dr. Maral and his staff for the incredible work they do. In treating grade 4 vertex type hair loss, I received 4000 transplanted grafts. The hair at the top-crown area of my scalp has a natural whirl pattern, which is very tricky to mimic with a transplant procedure. I am absolutely thrilled with the results, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a consult with Dr. Maral to anyone desiring state-of-the-art treatment for hair loss.

Hello realself followers, I am a 39 years old man from the Slovakia, about one a year ago, I received my fue procedure at Dr. Maral hair transplant clinic. I would first like to say thanks to Dr. Maral and his team so much. I think I had a stage 2 or 3 hairloss over my front areas and a very thin and receeding line. Five or six months later, I began to see hair growth in areas that I had none before. Now, I have a very smooth, natural and strong hairline. This procedure has not only restored my hair but also my self confidence. I received 3100 FU grafts I believe. I would like to show you my pictures before and about one year after the surgery. I hope it would give an insight to the realself community about what a hair transplant can provide you and also many thanks to Dr. Maral, Yeshim -his chief of team, and all others who helped to change my life.

Here are my results of the first session and post ops of 2nd session

1st sesson was 22 April 2015 with 4600 grafts.

2nd session was 07 February 2019 with 3250 grafts

Dr. Maral just said: "Amazing donors"

Hello all, my name is Cengiz, i m 46 year old, turkish guy living in Germany. 5 years ago i did a fue hair operation in turkey in a fue clinic, i dont know how many grafts they put, but the result was not good for me and i was disappointed. 1 years ago, i came to maral hair klinik because my friend told me that they were good, everything was good with them.

They take me from airport and take me to the hotel, i liked the hotel and also the service, on my operation day, i came to the klinik, dr maral and his team was very friendly, the operation take about 6 hours and i get 3700 grafts, after operation i come back to the hotel, and the next day i come back to the klinik for take the bandages.

After one year, the result was very good, i am very happy. Like you see from pictures, everything is good. This year, more than 1 month ago now, i came back for second operation, this time also everything was good, my medical team was the same also, i came only for top of the head, and they take 1700 grafts from head, and 500 grafts from beard, dr maral says that becaue it is my third operation, he need to take from beard, for man who has lot of beard, it is a good thing to make good dense hair like me. i trust what they say because they gave me good result last time, i want to say that the experience with maral klinik, it is very enjoyable, the work is good, the time that you spend there is also good, you dont feel as a stranger since everybody is friendly, i highly recommend it.

Here my before photograps before i go maral and after i had FUE in another doctor 5 years ago, and my operation with 3700 grafts 1 year ago in maral klinik.

Updated on 11 May 2019:
my after pictures of about 1year after my 3700 graftFUE with maral. i love to cut the sides short but keep the upper parts longer. i will come back to show the pictures of my second FUE was done about 3-4 weeks ago.

Hi everyone! I have just completed my hair transplant operation today, May 9th, 2019, and writing from the hotel.

I have been reading this forum for a long time and it helped me a lot to learn about hair transplants and gain confidence to get the procedure done myself. I've always loved reading about other people’s hair transplant stories, day to day experiences and their feelings after having a renewed self-esteem. The main reasons that finally persuaded me to take the big step was positive experiences that I have read about from many Maral Klinik patients, the very good curriculum vitae of Dr. Maral's education and practice in Aesthetic plastic surgery and fast response time, the level of information given through mail, Whatsapp and finally the full flexibility to arrange my trip.

I am a doctor myself specialized in pediatrics. I started losing my hair in my 30s. I am 54 yo now and my bald area got bigger and bigger over time as you will see in my photos.. I talked to many doctors and they told me that I needed at least 2 operations to cover the whole area and also not to have very high expectations right away due to the sheer size of my bald & bright top of the head.

I have arrived in Istanbul yesterday and was picked up by a pleasant English/German speaking driver. He was on time and took me and another patient to our hotel. The drive from the airport was about an hour. The driver helped me check-in which took just a few minutes. I am staying at the Dedeman Hotal (a 10 min drive to the Clinic depending on traffic). I Just had time to eat something at the hotel, watched tv and then went to bed.

Maral Clinic's driver picked me up at 9:00 and brought me straight to the clinic.

I met Dr. Maral at the clinic and he gave me detailed information about the procedure. He took my before operation pictures first. He told me that they will try to extract as many grafts as possible and that the procedure was gonna take around 6-7 hours. We also agreed on the hairline and he outlined the targeted area and discussed it with his Chief technician - named Yeshim. He was very organized and straight-forward, seemed and talked like he knew what he was doing which made me feel at ease. Considering my advanced baldness of Norwood 6/7, he emphasized on the necessity of a 2nd session 1 year after the first operation. That was okay with me.

The procedure started at 10:00 am. After the normal preps I was given local anaesthetic. I just felt some pressure from the shots of the anaesthesic gun that they used, it was a totally painless and acomfortable experience.

The next stage was extracting the donor grafts. There were two technicians who worked on my head at the same time, and the other 2 were separating and organizing the grafts. It took about 2 hour, apart from the stiffness that you get from lying in the same prone position I would say it was fine. I was pretty amazed with their cooperation and organization. The chief technician told me that she had been doing it for more than 12 years and with the same team for several years. This becomes obvious once you see how they work like bees.

The final count was 4600 grafts. Dr. Maral and his chief technician congratulated me on the capacity of my donor areas which gave such high graft number. They were happy, and of course so was I. They allowed me to take the graft layout pictures, I have posted a snap of these also. They said the grafts were kept in a speficic nutrient solution to keep them moist and prevent them from drying.

Afterwards, the head technician returned to make the incisions where the grafts would go. It seems that she is specialised in this task and would do that to all the patients of the clinic. She was pretty good and fast in her task using the special sapphire tipped microblade to incise and open the channels.

Once the incisions were done, it was time for a 30 min break to use the toilet and to have a quick lunch. I was asked about any preferences regarding the meal and got the famous Turkish doner and salad, both had an amazing taste.

During the next stage, I had again two technicians at either side who had the laboriious task of placing the grafts one by one in the recipient area. During all this time I went through some music channels using the TV remote control. It was the longest part but also the most comfortable one laying down on my back and watching some of my favorite music channels.

Dr Maral was in the next room all the time and came to check up on me a few times and explained in a bit more detailled way about the quality of the grafts that had been extracted. What, how and where they would place them.

The two technicians completed their task and were monitored closely by the Chief Technician who had made the incisions.

The hair transplant was completed and my head bandaged up by around 17:00. They told me that it was a very good and succesful operation, since they extracted more grafts than they initially expected and that my donor area would allow more in the future.

Before leaving, I was again given instructions by Dr Maral.

Given the pack of meds (antibiotics, painkillers, etc…). He asked me to take the first dose straight away before leaving.

Precautions given on how to safely protect the recipient area, how to sleep and some general info.

A different driver (much younger than the one who picked me up from the airport) was ready to drop me off at the hotel. I was back in my room by 17:30.

At this moment, I an resting in my room after having dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, this was a quick review about my experience and I am attaching some pictures here now showing my pictures. I Will be back in a couple of days.

The only hard part about the hair transplant process, was actually making the decision to go. My research led me to choose Dr. Maral, which turned out to be a great choice. The photos show the results after one year.
The day I left home for Istanbul, I felt like I was off on an adventure. There was a minor glitch when my driver did not show at airport arrivals. I eventually found him 50 metres away, after a text saying he was waiting outside the Vodafone store.

I was whisked away in a very nice car to an equally nice hotel (the Levent), tucked down a quiet side street. My room was very comfortable with a small balcony. I met three other middle-aged guys who also had appointments at the clinic the next day. Dinner and breakfast at the hotel was good, and I went to a salad bar nearby for lunch.

There are three operating rooms in the clinic, and my procedure was scheduled for the afternoon shift. At 3pm (15:00) I was at the clinic for initial photos and a head shave. I chatted with Dr. Maral who immediately put me at my ease, then it was down to business. A hairline was drawn, and I met my team. Each and every one was upbeat and friendly, and clearly enjoyed their job.

The entire process was very pleasing experience except injecting the anesthetic, which felt like a series of bee strings. A tool about the size of an electric toothbrush is used to remove grafts, and you quickly get used to the buzzing sound as it works.

Using Tv's remote control I watched many music videos, and I have to say the female singers were easy on the eye. Eventually, 4,200 grafts were removed, and it was time for dinner, brought from a nearby restaurant. Dr. Maral appeared occasionally, but mostly he left the work to his staff. They are university educated, surgical assistants, so you are in good hands.

Eventually, by about 10.30pm, we were done. A bandage was applied and I was taken back to the hotel. I had been supplied with an inflatable neck pillow for sleeping, but found that uncomfortable. Instead, I rolled the bathroom towels into a long sausage to support my neck and keep my head elevated.

The next day after removal of bandages, Dr. Maral gave each patient a very cool Blues Brothers felt black hat. This later saved me a nasty head injury, when I accidentally walked into a head-height piece of angle iron, while looking at my gps.

The package with Dr. Maral included everything except the flight. He even provided shampoo and moisturiser. I have never used any hair loss meds since the procedure, and experienced almost no shedding. The first three months is tedious, but once the hair starts to grow, it is amazing to look in the mirror each day. The HT changed my life for the better and will surely change your's too.