30yr Old Australian, FUE HT, 5300 grafts, Dr Maral Klinik - Istanbul, TR

Hi again everyone! Back for my final 18 month post-op update. :) Can't believe it's been 6 months since the last time I was on here! Guess uni has been keeping my hands full more than I thought. Speaking of uni, apologies for my horrible tired looking skin/face in these pics. Haven't been sleeping well for the last few weeks and these anti-histamine based sleeping pills have been making me look even worse, giving me puffy red skin. But meh, that's the last of my worries right now lol. x)
Onto my hair. So, I'll start with what I'm not particularly happy with from this procedure. And really, this is the only thing. It seems the hair that I've had transplanted, for whatever reason, loves to curl up after having a shower. Particularly if I just dry with a towel and then comb. As soon as it naturally dries it just wants to curl. I'm guessing this is something to do with the cell maybe being a little dryer than the others because of the trauma they went through? I dunno... but I think they are here to stay. Anyway, not the end of the world lol. I rocked the curls for a while, but have recently had my female housemate introduce me to a straightener and the blow dryer, so this is what I will be using in the future. I don't feel very manly using them, but stuff it haha. Actually I haven't tried doing the straightening myself yet, just the blow drying, but I think I will be trying in the future after just getting home from a much needed haircut and style about an hour ago. So thought I may as well do my update while it's probably looking it best haha. :P However, I have also included a pic of when it was at its worst, so you know what I'm talking about with the curls. I think it was raining that day too, which makes it even worse, so it's not normally that bad haha. That's level extreme right there and I'm not sure if I had even combed it lol. Then I included a pic directly after my housemate straightened it. The rest are from today's haircut, which I'm very happy with. :) Also, please excuse my dry scalp in the fringe close up. Just a symptom of my current average health lol. xP Ok, so that's all that I've got to say that's bad. The rest is great! :)
To be honest there is not a whole lot else to say since my last update. I haven't noticed any drastic changes, besides it possibly getting a bit more of a shine and maturing with a little more volume, like everyone else's reviews have mentioned in the 12-18 month period. Don't think there has been any new growth as expected, but it probably looks like I have a bit more hair because I have been growing it out the last 3-4 months so that I could try pulling off a haircut like the one I got today(in pics). So if it looks like I have more hair, I probably don't. It's just longer haha. ;P As I'm sure you'll agree, I'm extremely happy with the outcome, especially when comparing to pre-surgery, (also included in pics) and I can highly recommend you go ahead with the surgery if your thinking about it. :) Oh and in a few of the back of the head pics, it looks a bit yellow down the bottom. That's just a camera/lighting issue I've been assured haha. It almost looks like some sort of bruising though, but yeah, it's not. Just weird lighting. ;)
Scalp is maybe still a slight tinge of pink, but I think it really is very slight. If I shaved my head, I don't think it would be an issue. I also think the receiving areas of my scalp may still be a touch more numb than it was pre surgery, but I consciously never notice it, unless I'm prodding my scalp and trying to notice it. Even then, it's hard for me to tell, but I will just say that it doesn't quite feel like the sides of my head. Don't let this scare you away though. It's seriously not an issue and very very minimal. :)
But yeah, apart from that, it's great and I continue to get the occasional comment of how good it looks now, from the ones that know how it used to look during this transitioning process. And wow... just making the comparison pics... I just blew myself away! The results are amazing! Incredible work from the team at Maral Klinik. Those pics really make you appreciate what I've got out of this. Thankyou! :D
I think I will leave it there anyway. If you have any questions, please feel free to throw them at me and I will try and answer eventually. I haven't been receiving notifications from realself anymore though it seems, and with uni in crunch time, I apologize if my reply isn't very swift. :)
Apart from that, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone that has commented and wished me well on this journey. It has been a great source of support and even more importantly to me, hopefully an even greater source for you guys to be able to make a confident decision in taking the plunge on such a procedure, just as the other reviews on this site did for me. :) All the best to everyone's future hair transplant journeys! It's been a pleasure! :D
Peace out!

Hi guys,
Was just answering some of the comments on here and someone asked what thickening shampoo and conditioner I'm using. So I thought I would just post a picture of it up so everyone can see it. :)
I'm not going to comment on it too much. Just that I know it visibly does work. I feel like it even makes the density of hair feel a bit thicker too while in use of it. The only thing I wasn't a real fan of was, it gave me a bit of a dry scalp/dandruff. However, I have tried countering this by mixing an amount that I can't remember, of moisturiser into the shampoo bottle (i believe it was the shampoo doing the damage) that was supplied from Dr Maral to be used after surgery. I believe any natural moisturiser would work fine though. Anyway, I have not noticed any noticeable dry scalp issues since, so I guess it's worked. :) I also didn't really like how it made my hair frizz a bit too. Not sure if I've just gotten used to it, or if the moisturiser and rogaine that i added to the conditioner had anything to do with it, but I feel like it is less frizzy than before. I really can't be sure though.
Anyway, take it or leave it, here it is. However, I believe there are better, more natural ingredient thickening shampoo and conditioners out there, which are perhaps more costly too, but will be what I look to upgrade to in the future once these run out. Can't remember what they are called anymore, but a quick google of the forums will sort you out, as it did me a few months back.
So please take note, this is not really a recommendation of the product, but for what it is, I believe it works as advertised and what I currently am and have been using for for the last 11-12 months. I just think there are better options out there that are no doubt much better for your overall hair follicle health. Anyway, hope this is of some help.
Cheers guys! :)

Hi everyone! I bet you were beginning to think you would never hear from me again, but here I am, right on the 1 year mark TODAY! Woo! :) Those first few months were slow, but dahm, the rest of the year has gone quick and has been one of my best years yet! I'm sure the renewed confidence in my hair has played a solid part in that. ;)

So one year later and how do I feel about the procedure you may be wondering? If you've been following my posts, then you probably already know that I'm really happy with the results Dr Maral's team has achieved for me. Of course, as I'm sure almost everyone must feel after a hair transplant, it would be nice if it was a little thicker haha. But we need to be realistic and just remind ourselves where we've come from before the surgery. I looked back again today at my pre-surgery pics, and I swear ever time I look at them, I'm more and more shocked to believe How long I lived contently with my slowly balding look. It's really hard to put into words how much confidence you lose in your appearance, even if I feel a lot of it was in my sub-conscience. Maybe it's just in my head that I feel the opposite sex is noticing me again lol, but I have received enough random "handsome" comments from lady friends that I'm 99% certain I wasn't receiving before (that I took on board anyway...) to atleast instill that perhaps the way I feel around people now is not just in my head. So that's pretty amazing and something you just can't put a price on. :D

Oh and I'm sorry my hair is a little "un-groomed". I normally like to have a fresh haircut before an update, but have been busy at work and just haven't had time. Plus I had the time today and it is the day of my surgery a year ago, so seemed fitting to give the update today, and while I could. :)

All of these pics were taken outside in natural light, however, some were slightly undercover on the verandah and others were actually outside in direct sunlight. I did this so you can see the difference a slight change in lighting can do to the look of your hair. It can look nice and thick even in a somewhat lit area, but given the right (or wrong angle? Lol) angle and light, you can only then see some scalp and how thin it is. But even in these cases, I think you'll agree it's looking pretty dang good. :)

Changes since my last update? Hmm, not too many really. If my scalp looks a little pink, it's probably more from being in the sun a lot the last couple of weeks and being a tad burnt. If it's still pink from surgery, I'm yet to have it short enough to notice it.

I don't think I've had any new hair come through since my last update and if there was, it would only be a very small percentage. However, looking at my last pics, I think it may have matured a little and it perhaps a little shinier and thicker looking, as many have mentioned happens around this timeframe. Hopefully it gets a little darker looking over the following 6 months too, but I honestly won't be too upset if it doesn't. As you can see in the pics, you can only really notice the thinning when my head is facing down and in direct light, as I try to do in most of my above photos. Pretty much anything under normal circumstances, I really doubt you could tell I was thinning very much up there, if at all. Except, for when it's wet after getting out of the shower or swimming or something. It does still look quite thin then, but let's compare that to what it was like and it's not worth even talking about. I'm cool with that haha. ;)

Still just been using the bed head thickening shampoo, with the generic style Rogaine liquid I put in my conditioner I think in my last update. No idea if it's had any influence on my hair, but it isn't noticeable and it's of no hassle to me to just continue using it that way for now, so that's what I'll do until I run out. However, I have noticed my hair getting some curl action going on at the front as you can see in the pics, which I don't particularly like, but it may be growing on me(pardon the pun lol). Girls like curls anyway, right? :P It's partly probably just cause I've let it get a bit longer than usual too and it does do that a bit if I let it get a bit long lol. I haven't noticed it like that in the front though for yearss.

Still loving that I can get normal haircuts again though. Well normal as in, I don't have to think about what is and isn't going to work with my balding anywhere near as much.

I have noticed I've become a lot more self conscious of telling others that I've had a hair transplant now too, as opposed to wanting to tell almost anyone about it before... I guess that's because I feel like I don't need to explain to people why I may look a bit sunburnt or something, like you are in those early stages haha. After all, we do it to look and feel like our old selves again and I guess once it's done and your at this stage, you just want to carry on with life like you never lost it in the first place and to tell new people you meet what you've done, it almost feels like your defeating the purpose of the procedure. Well, I wouldn't until I got to know the person anyway. By no means a big deal. It's more so just that I see myself as a down the line and honest person (maybe too much at times... like now? Lol), and this kinda conflicts with that moral trait a little haha. It's an interesting little bit of psychology going on there haha. Maybe you can or will relate? Anyway, take it or leave that little psychological insight haha. xP

Back to what's on top of my head and not in it lol... 12 months on, I believe my scalp has restored to atleast 90% of its sensory feeling, if not 100%. it's that close, I can't even tell anymore haha. If it's less, I don't notice it.

Well, that's all I've got. Thankyou for everyone patience. It's been a hectic year, but as I mentioned, a great one! Looking forward to what comes of 2017. :)

Will probably make only 1 or 2 more updates. Whether that's at the 15 month mark or 18 month mark, I'm not sure. If there aren't any drastically noticeable changes in 3 months, to be honest, it'll probably just be 18 months for the final assessment.

Best of luck to everyone that has had or going to go ahead with a HT in the future! Do your research and you won't regret it! Peace out. :)