It’s D-day! I’m about to get my baldy head sorted!

Well, after 18 months of research I’m about to get the job done.
I’m sitting here in my Istanbul hotel room counting down the hours till my procedure at the Maral Clinic tomorrow. I’m quite jet-lagged after 23 hours of travelling from Sydney Australia. I’m not overly nervous, but rather excited about ditching the comb-over once and for all tomorrow, and getting started on a new head of hair.

Wow! That was a LONG day. I have just been delivered back to my hotel after a 6.5hr FUE procedure at the Maral Clinic in Istanbul . My head looks like a blood-orange; one that’s been kicked through a cactus bush for the entirety of the aforementioned six and a half hours. I ain’t pretty right now, I can tell you, but I’m thrilled to have had the procedure done. The staff were great. I was the only one in there today being treated, so I had a number of the staff coming and going, working on my melon. Dr Maral wasn’t there at all, but I was in the safe hands of His 2ic (whose name I can’t remember right now). I had my head shaved first, and she -the lovely 2ic doctor drew me a new hairline. At first i felt it was too much like a V, so I asked her to make it less so. I’m 49 years old, so I certainly don’t want a hairline that looks unnaturally low, but also I have quite a big head (and most of the acreage is above my eyebrows) so I don’t want to have a hairline that makes my forehead look twice the size of the rest of my face. Anyway, with the Doctor’s expertise with such matters, and her artistic talent, she redrew a hairline that I was happy with.
We then got underway with the job. It’s a 3 stage process. 1. Extract the hair from the donor area. 2. Punch the baldy area full of holes to accommodate the new tenants. 4. Relocate the 4600 refugees to their new homes.
I was completely knackered at the end of the procedure, and glad to see the end of it. But I did enjoy it.
The staff were great, but if you’re expecting absolute clinical professionalism as per US, UK ..(add country as required) you might be in for just a little shock. Don’t get me wrong, it’s clean, and the Doctors know their stuff and are very professional, but the cultural difference between a professional, clinical work environment at home, and this, means you’ll notice things such as the staff chatting to each other in theatre, some of them sitting about watching telly in the patient area, mobile phones in their pockets receiving txts throughout the time they’re working on you, some of them chewing gum( behind face masks of course) while they’re operating on you. Again, I don’t want to give the wrong impression, none of it bothered me, but I did notice it, and hey, this forum is a means of providing others with ALL the info, right?
So anyway. After 6.5 hours I was bundled into Sime, the delivery guy’s car, and whisked back to the hotel.
Overall my experience was EXCELLENT. I would certainly recommend the MARAL CLINIC to anyone considering FUE.
Now for the fun part: recovering from the procedure over the next few weeks, and growing new hair over the next 18 months.
Bring it on!