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My Turkey FUE Experience with Dr Ilhan Serdaroglu
I just returned home from Turkey where I received my first hair transplant at 45 years old performed by Dr. Ilhan Serdaroglu. I started losing my hair my freshman year in college and after Rogaine and Propecia did nothing to stop my hair loss, I often considered getting a hair transplant. Two main reasons that kept me from getting a transplant sooner, the cost and the fear that it would not look natural.
Last year, I visited a doctor here in the U.S. who quoted me approximately $14,000 to transplant up to 3,500 grafts to rebuild my hairline (I am a Norwood 7). He then told me I could come back six months later and have a second procedure to add density into my crown. Had my work scheduled allowed, I would have done the procedure with this American doctor, but I was traveling a lot and couldn’t fit the procedure into my schedule. A few months back, I saw something on social media about traveling to Turkey for hair transplants and decided to do some research into this.
It was very easy to find several clinics with fancy websites and slick advertising campaigns offering package deals. There were warning signs with many of these clinics, some offered higher prices to have the doctor more involved in the procedure and other confusing pricing scales. When I asked one clinic if extracted grey hair would grow out grey once transplanted, they told me not to worry and promised to only extract nongray hair. This seemed odd to me. Also, I also felt uncomfortable with clinics that did multiple transplants in a single day.
After a lot of web searching, I came across Dr. Ilhan Serdaroglu on realself.com. I was attracted to his great reviews and emailed him for a consultation. I was very happy to see he personally responded to all my emails promptly and took the time carefully answer all my questions. He did not offer unrealistic promises and the recommendation he made to address my hair loss situation was exactly what the U.S. doctor had told me. We would rebuild the frontal hair region with approximately 3500 grafts, and I could return in six months to fill in the crown region. I also felt comfortable with his level of his participation in the procedure and the fact that he only sees one patient a day.
I arrived at the SAW airport and was greeted promptly by a driver standing outside the customs area. From there, the hotel was a quick 20 minutes or so drive through the city. The hotel was very nice and modern, and I collapsed from exhaustion as soon as I hit my bed. The next day, the receptionist called me a taxi, I showed the driver the address and 20 minutes later, I was in a Rodeo Drive like neighborhood pulling up to a Starbucks. Behind the Starbucks, I found the entrance to Dr. Serdaroglu’s clinic and headed up to his office.
Dr. Serdaroglu’s office is very modern and professionally maintained and I was met by his friendly staff upon walking off the elevator. I was fairly nervous and Dr. Serdaroglu and his team immediately put me at ease. Dr. Serdaroglu and I then spent the next few minutes going over the procedure and designing my hairline. After our conversation and I had asked all my questions, my head was shaved, and I was given a gown to wear and led into the procedure room. Dr. Serdaroglu spent the next few minutes numbing my scalp, by far the worst part of the day as I hate needles. Next, he began the process of extracting the grafts from my donor region.
I slept during large parts of the procedure; I remember breaking for a delicious lunch before having the grafts implanted into my new hairline. I will say it would have been nice to speak Turkish so I could have followed along with what was going on but that is a small price to pay for saving so much money. We started around 10:30AM and finished up by about 5:30PM. I ended up with 3200 grafts transplanted into the frontal region of my hairline. After meeting with Dr. Serdaroglu and reviewing post-operative care over a cup of coffee, I threw on my adjustable cap and headed out do so some shopping.
Travel home was a bit of a pain when I had to remove my hat to go through security, but it was only ten seconds or so of anxiety. At the time of this review, I am at one-week post procedure and so far, so good. I haven’t had any swelling, just some mild itching and thank God, no bleeding. It will be a while before I can write about the results but as far as the experience of working with Dr. Serdaroglu, I could not have been happier. I am already looking forward to going back in the summer for my second procedure.
Last year, I visited a doctor here in the U.S. who quoted me approximately $14,000 to transplant up to 3,500 grafts to rebuild my hairline (I am a Norwood 7). He then told me I could come back six months later and have a second procedure to add density into my crown. Had my work scheduled allowed, I would have done the procedure with this American doctor, but I was traveling a lot and couldn’t fit the procedure into my schedule. A few months back, I saw something on social media about traveling to Turkey for hair transplants and decided to do some research into this.
It was very easy to find several clinics with fancy websites and slick advertising campaigns offering package deals. There were warning signs with many of these clinics, some offered higher prices to have the doctor more involved in the procedure and other confusing pricing scales. When I asked one clinic if extracted grey hair would grow out grey once transplanted, they told me not to worry and promised to only extract nongray hair. This seemed odd to me. Also, I also felt uncomfortable with clinics that did multiple transplants in a single day.
After a lot of web searching, I came across Dr. Ilhan Serdaroglu on realself.com. I was attracted to his great reviews and emailed him for a consultation. I was very happy to see he personally responded to all my emails promptly and took the time carefully answer all my questions. He did not offer unrealistic promises and the recommendation he made to address my hair loss situation was exactly what the U.S. doctor had told me. We would rebuild the frontal hair region with approximately 3500 grafts, and I could return in six months to fill in the crown region. I also felt comfortable with his level of his participation in the procedure and the fact that he only sees one patient a day.
I arrived at the SAW airport and was greeted promptly by a driver standing outside the customs area. From there, the hotel was a quick 20 minutes or so drive through the city. The hotel was very nice and modern, and I collapsed from exhaustion as soon as I hit my bed. The next day, the receptionist called me a taxi, I showed the driver the address and 20 minutes later, I was in a Rodeo Drive like neighborhood pulling up to a Starbucks. Behind the Starbucks, I found the entrance to Dr. Serdaroglu’s clinic and headed up to his office.
Dr. Serdaroglu’s office is very modern and professionally maintained and I was met by his friendly staff upon walking off the elevator. I was fairly nervous and Dr. Serdaroglu and his team immediately put me at ease. Dr. Serdaroglu and I then spent the next few minutes going over the procedure and designing my hairline. After our conversation and I had asked all my questions, my head was shaved, and I was given a gown to wear and led into the procedure room. Dr. Serdaroglu spent the next few minutes numbing my scalp, by far the worst part of the day as I hate needles. Next, he began the process of extracting the grafts from my donor region.
I slept during large parts of the procedure; I remember breaking for a delicious lunch before having the grafts implanted into my new hairline. I will say it would have been nice to speak Turkish so I could have followed along with what was going on but that is a small price to pay for saving so much money. We started around 10:30AM and finished up by about 5:30PM. I ended up with 3200 grafts transplanted into the frontal region of my hairline. After meeting with Dr. Serdaroglu and reviewing post-operative care over a cup of coffee, I threw on my adjustable cap and headed out do so some shopping.
Travel home was a bit of a pain when I had to remove my hat to go through security, but it was only ten seconds or so of anxiety. At the time of this review, I am at one-week post procedure and so far, so good. I haven’t had any swelling, just some mild itching and thank God, no bleeding. It will be a while before I can write about the results but as far as the experience of working with Dr. Serdaroglu, I could not have been happier. I am already looking forward to going back in the summer for my second procedure.
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