Heva Clinic - Istanbul

I spent weeks researching clinics and their services. Each time, I kept coming back to heva for their expertise with my type of hair transplants. On contacting them, they agreed with me that we could address my thinning with the FUE method, which is essentially a follicular unit extraction. I wanted it for the precision and I wanted the team at heva because they had done this a thousand times over and counting. My surgeon extracted 3,800 individual grafts and used them to fill in my crown and temples. The surgery was surprisingly calm. I had read some horror stories and thought I would be seething in pain but here I was, reading a book as they worked on my now numb scalp. Healing was also quite easy. I had my wife with me and she was very particular about following every single instruction the clinic had given us, including wearing the headband, staying off salt, and moving to avoid edema. Having her there was the best decision I made as I needed her, especially for the first wash. We tracked my progress via heva's mobile app. We are a few weeks past our 6-month check-in and everything looks good as my crown is almost fully filled. All I can say is that it’s a process and you need to trust it and your surgeon.

I went back to Heva Clinic for a beard transplant after I had done my hair transplant with them a year ago. All it took was 2,400 grafts from the back of my head to finally give me the beard that I wanted. The only thing I would note is that the face is much more sensitive than the scalp. I looked like I had mumps that first week! But the results are worth it. Thanks!

You know that your hair transplant has been a success when your barber can’t even tell where the new hair starts and where the old hair ends. So, I would just like to give heva a big thumbs up for the great work they did. You see, I work in the music industry and while I may not be on stage, my appearance still matters as I have to meet people in parties, the studio, and whatnot. It’s at these times that you start noticing when something looks off, especially if someone makes a comment about it. My off thing was my edges which were slowly thinning and disappearing which was making my haircuts uneven. But with afro hair, most of the advice I received from other people was to use more hair treatments and not to mess with my hair so it could grow. But I wasn’t doing my hair and all I would do is comb it out whenever I had to leave the house. So, I just started spotting a durag because it protected my hair and got people off my back, though it did nothing for my edges. I was not even planning to get a hair transplant at Heva. I remember thinking about it this one time we were doing a set in the UK and a few guys were talking about hair transplants. Since they were black and had similar hair to mine, I just had to ask if that was even an option for me, and I was shocked to find out that people had been doing this for ages. I think that’s what gave me the confidence to even make that call. Other people had done it and it was clear that oils were not doing anything. My experience with Heva was incredible. I didn’t know much about afro hair transplants as I had done this on a whim but they were very kind to explain everything. They also showed me what tools they would be using. We did an afro FUE hair transplant which took about 6 hours. For the life of me, I cannot remember the number of grafts. But I remember the healing. Month one was hard because I was sore and I also had these small bumps all over my scalp. I had to use steroid cream to get rid of them. I also had to avoid wearing my durag for the first 6 weeks so that was fun. But after that, I was able to go back to normal and once the shed had taken place, I could not believe what I was seeing. It’s only been 11 months so I have one more month before my final review. But already, I can tell that I got the real deal because people cannot even tell that I have had a hair transplant. The new hair looks so real and so curly just like my hair and I cannot be happier with the results. The only thing I would change is staying a few extra nights because the breakfast at Radisson Blu was worth every penny I spent!

When my daughter got engaged a year ago, I was on top of the world and I started thinking of ways I could make her day even more special. I was walking her down the aisle, my wife was helping with the planning, and we were thinking of a thoughtful present we could give her and our son-in-law on their big day. But most importantly, I did not want to wear a hat to the wedding. I had been hiding my bald crown from people with my assortment of hats but something felt wrong about wearing one with my suit as I walked my daughter into her new life. It had been 15 years of this and I was ready to do something about it. So, my wife and I planned a trip to Turkey. She had always wanted to see Istanbul and was eager to buy wedding gifts for our daughter. As she toured the markets with our guide, I was with Dr. Seda getting my FUE hair transplant. An advanced Norwood 5 hair loss pattern is no joke and we had to pace ourselves by working my head over in two days. I was uncomfortable and under a lot of pressure for the first two nights but the swelling kept coming down the more I rested and took the painkillers that my nurse had given to me. I was also in contact with the clinic and would seek their advice whenever something felt off. My daughter is getting married in March this year and my excitement keeps growing the more I look in the mirror. To be honest, it has been a long time coming. The first 3 months were tough because I went back to being bald again. But in the months that followed, people started noticing that I was looking younger and more vibrant – their words, not mine. Now that I am a few weeks shy of the big day, I feel like a new man. My wife even jokes that I may be more eager than the bride but I don’t think that is remotely possible.

Now that I have my edges back and they look so natural, I wanted to give a word of encouragement to anyone who wants to get an afro hair transplant. I had mine a year ago because I had ruined my edges with my tight buns. And even if I was worried that the hair transplant would not take or would not look right, Heva Clinic was fantastic. It’s obvious that they have a lot of experience with afro hair, and I am happy I gave them the chance. They also helped me with the aftercare to ensure I did not get keloids, as I was at a very high risk.

The thought of anyone knowing that I had work done was my biggest fear. It was not just about me being very conscious about my image but also the reality of my job where people judge each other based solely on appearance. So, shaving my head was not something I could consider as I had to maintain my perfect image. At the same time, I had receding temples and these were becoming a point of concern. Heva understood me very well as they had dealt with many other clients who had the same concerns. We agreed that we would not shave the recipient area or the donor area but they would work around it. Of course, this was a way more complex surgery than the standard hair transplant but they had done this enough times to know the perfect way to execute it. While I still felt sore and had some swelling, I was able to be back in the office within a week. With some styling, I was able to cover the crusting along my hairline and went through all the healing stages with people being none the wiser. It was as if I was the only one in on a very big secret. My density at 18 months is perfect and it feels surreal to think back to a time when this was just a dream.

"I got a DHI hair transplant at Heva Clinic 10 months ago and the density around my crown continues to impress me and my wife. I used to have such thin hair that my scalp was always showing. We even started joking that I could save money on shampoo by using a facial cleanser on my scalp since most of my hair was thin, except the hair at the back. But underneath the jokes, I wanted a change, which is why I got the DHI. My review will be more of advice as I learned a lot of things along the way. First, research is very important. Even before I approached Heva, I had done a lot of research about the differences between hair transplants and had understood where each one was most suitable. Without this prior knowledge, I would have had trouble understanding the ins and outs of the surgery. I have to give credit to the team at Heva, though, because even if they knew I understood the processes, they still went out of their way to explain what would happen and why we were doing the DHI. Secondly, as much as information is good, avoid the alarmist content out there. In my research, I would often come across people who were sharing their terrible experiences with hair transplants that would derail me from booking my appointment. But the more I learned, the more that I realized that most bad experiences were a result of choosing clinics with no expertise. If you go for a clinic with good reviews, you can avoid this. Third, you have to be very careful during the healing stage. I learned the hard way not to wear tight clothes at the time that my grafts were still fresh. Opt for wider clothes that you can pull over your head easily. Finally, give yourself time to heal. I was overly ambitious and wanted to go back to work in 2 days even if my surgeon had advised me to take some more time off. He was right and I ended up taking the week off. It is a surgery after all. I know this is quite a lot of information but it is stuff I wish someone had shared with me at the beginning of my journey."

When I say that I had lost 3 inches of my hairline, I am not joking. I knew I had to get a hair transplant to start looking 30 again, but knowing where I could get a good afro hair transplant was easier said than done. Heva checked all my boxes, and we did an FUE hair transplant with 3,500 grafts in December 2024. My fade is now perfect, and I do not have visible scarring. I did use vitamin E on my scalp during healing, so that probably helped with the pigmentation, so that’s worth taking into consideration.

At 50, I had not had surgery ever since I was a child and had to get my tonsils out. Even then, I remember fighting my parents over it as the thought of going under the knife was overwhelming. I did not win that fight, but once I was an adult, I stayed out of surgical rooms as if my life depended on it. For the most part, I was afraid of the after-effects, having seen people go into surgery okay, only to develop complications later. But then came the divorce and my balding head, and I felt the urge to do something about my appearance so I could feel better about myself. It sounded cliché to my friends and family, but I went through with the FUE hair transplant, somehow unbothered by the needles, sedation, and more. Everything was actually fine until the second day when the anesthesia wore off, and the scabbing started. Saying that I fell into a panic would be an understatement. I was worried that I would do something wrong and that the risk I had taken would not be worth it. Doing a Google search worsened my panic as I was coming across different medical terms that sounded quite serious. On speaking to my coordinator, she asked me to go through the aftercare instructions that the clinic had given me, which I had somehow (and foolishly) ignored. It turned out that the guide had everything I needed to know, and even included images of what to expect on a day-to-day basis. My sanity was immediately restored as I now knew that the scabs were part of the process. Later on, I went in for my first wash, and the nurse offered me even more information on how to take care of my scalp. I have just finished the shedding phase without losing my mind, and I am ready to see the new growth.

I wasn’t planning to get a hair transplant for the past four years because the shaved head look would not match my line of work. For context, I work in luxury real estate, and my work revolves around meeting wealthy clients, so presentation is key to success. Our bosses pretty much drum this into us to make sure that we always look our best as we are a representation of the brand as a whole. If you have watched shows like Selling Sunset, you get the gist. So, you can imagine just how pleased I was to hear that a no-shave hair transplant could address my balding woes and allow me to get back into the swing of things at work within a week. But the thing that stood out to me, though, was not the technical skills at Heva Clinic. Instead, it was the amount of work that went into coordination. I was feeling worried about navigating a foreign airport, both due to the jetlag when arriving and the bandaging while leaving. I was happy to realize that this would not be a hurdle, as the team was there for me at every stage, and they had a driver waiting for me there with a placard when I arrived, and the same driver took me to the airport on the last day. They took care of everything, including my check-in at the hotel, and I have to say that they were very professional at all times. At the end, I felt like I had been on a mini vacation while in reality, I had been getting a medical procedure done. Of course, the best part was the improved hairline, which I am sure will help me score some more sales as I now feel more confident in my appearance.