Scottish 34male - 4500 Grafts! - Turkey - MARAL CLINIC

I've been shaving my hair short for the past 8 years. I always had receding hairlines and they never bothered me. I truly never thought that I was going thin on top....at least I never consciously thought about it since I was shaving it down to grade 1 because a) it suited me and b) it's low maintanence! Last year at a work reunion a colleague made a comment which kinda stuck and since then I have been paying attention to the ever thinning top! Last August whilst on holiday in Rio I took an obligatory selfie at Christ the redeemer and since seeing that pic I knew that something had to be done! I saw a bald man in myself!!
After spending days,weeks and months researching the ever informing World Wide Web I stumbled across many potential solutions. However medication was never going to be one of them in my opinion. So a HT was my only option. Forums like this one played a huge role in my decision making process and for that reason I will also share my experience to perhaps help someone make that decision!
Today is the day I undertook a HT with Dr Maral in Istanbul and I have to say that up to now the experience has been an amazing one. From the first contact to meeting Dr Maral today I have felt nothing but fully supported at every stage. The questions I had were answered promptly and were informative. After my flight was delayed due to snow storms by 3 hours it was refreshing to see Saim the driver meet me with a friendly smile and sincere welcome. I had a very relaxed and friendly conversation with him as he took me to the hotel and I was informed when I'd be picked up for the OP a few days later. (I'd booked a couple of extra days to see the year in in Istanbul!). The day of the OP I was collected and taken to the clinic. Once there the paperwork was dealt with and procedure was paid for then it was time to have the consultation with Dr Maral. Since I didn't have any questions and since I fully trusted his judgement and advice it was not much longer before I was put in my op robes and hair was shaved down to grade 0. The technicians at the clinic are super friendly and were always asking how I was. We then got started with those dreaded local anesthetic injections. Perhaps I have a high pain threshold because I didn't really see what all the fuss was about! Then the team got stuck in to remove the grafts from doner area. I was thrilled to hear that they had safely extracted 4500 grafts with a good number of 2 and 3 follicles. The new holes were punched and then I had lunch. After lunch the grafts were placed in their new homes and this took quite a long time but at no time did I have any pain the only tough part for me was staying still for so long! Got back to the hotel and took some pics(see above) and am just about to hit the sack.....lets see if I'm able to get any shut eye!! The entire experience until now with the Maral clinic has been nothing but positive and I'll keep u all updated as the days and weeks and months go on!!

Just a quick update on the 4days since my hair transplant. Remarkably I've had no pain whatsoever throughout the entire time....I have managed to sleep well every night to, so that's a bonus! I wore socks on my hands the first 4 nights to stop me itching and scratching in the night-this helped a lot because it's the only issue ive had up to now! I think I was a bit timid whilst washing because after leaving the moisturizer to soak in for 45 mins I struggled to wash it out-but only because I was tapping my head far too softly. Tommorow I will be a bit more courageous! Anyways I attach fotos b4 and after wash and I'm really pleased with the results so far and I think it's healing well. I didn't see any grafts come out as I washed so I'm praying they are holding on for dear life up there! LOL

Just a quick update about the "de-crusting" period. I was, I'm my opinion being far too gentle when washing my head in the first few days. I was struggling to rinse out the moisturizer lotion and after afew attempts i ended up just leaving some of it in. Exactly on day 9 the last bits of skin and blood finally washed away and it felt good and less tight! The above pics are directly after washing so the redness is a bit more exaggerated than an hour or so later but all in all I think I'm more than pleased with the results and amazed how little pain or discomfort I've had throughout the whole process! I'll keep you all updated throughout as they inevitably shed....then it's another waiting game!