FUE Hair Transplant 4300 Grafts at Transest in Istanbul

Hello all to all contemplating for a FUE hair transplant and everyone looking for reviews/results just like I did for many months to decide if it was worth it and where to go. Based on a lot of research, I was set going to Istanbul Turkey to due to FUE hair transplant and did my research on the different clinics there. I contacted 2 different clinics there through email and I picked out the Transest clinic due to the reviews they had and the quick response time.

The person I communicated with from the beginning to the end was Aytec. Even thou it is a 7 hour time difference from New York, he usually responded very quickly and promptly and his english communication skills were clear. He asked for pictures to estimate the amount of grafts that I would need and originally said that they will try to do their best to get 4000 grafts as my hair is light and I have thinning hair and he was very honest since the beginning about the whole procedure including all the risks and explained that obviously if I had darker non-thinning hair that the results would be even better but he said that he expected my results to go well. I was given a set price that includes the consultation, procedure, pickup and dropoff from the airport and a 3 night stay at a 4 star hotel. However, I asked him that I wanted to arrange my own stay since I was traveling with my wife and wanted to stay in the Sultanahmet Istanbul area which is the center of Istanbul so I can go sightseeing a bit which everything is pretty much walking distance. He had no problem with that but wanted to make sure that I arrived at the clinic at 9am on January 29th.

Off I went, I booked my procedure a few weeks back for Jan 29th and airline tickets were pretty cheap around $700 round trip from NY to Istanbul. Booked my own hotel and took the taxi there with my wife and arrived Jan 28th in Instabul. The people in Turkey were very friendly and I got around very easily. One tip that I could give you is if you don't have your data plan enabled there, I suggested to have Google Maps on your phone and download the Istanbul map in your Google Maps app for offline use, and one huge tip is that even thou I had my data plan off, the GPS (at least on the iPhone) works without any data so you can always see where you are currently located. The time difference is 7 hours, so I wasn't able to get much sleep in since I was told that I should have breakfast before the procedure, so I was up at 7am their time which is 12am NY time. Ate breakfast in the morning and wasn't really nervous about the procedure, just wanted to get it over with but I was a bit jetlagged. Took a 30 mins taxi ride to the clinic and I was there.

The clinic seems nice from the outside and easily met Aytec. He took me in immediately, sat down with him, he explained everything from the beginning how the procedure works, what I should expect, etc and looked at my hair again and the donor area and confirmed that they will try for 4,000 grafts to extracts as it varies from person to person. Made my payment as agreed prior with no surprises or additional costs. Off I went into the procedure room, quickly changed because we wanted to get the procedure under way as he said it will take time to get the procedure done correctly about 8 hours. They trimmed my hair, and they had a technician come in and draw out the lines on my head and explain what will be done and showed it to me on the mirror. I was worried that once I made my payment that things wont be rushed just to get the procedure done, but I must say they went much out of their way to get everything done carefully and not just rush it. Once the plan was done, I laid down on the chair (looked like a dentist chair pretty much), the room seemed very clean which I was happy with. They gave me anesthesia injections on the top of the head first to open up the channels where my hair will be implanted. I was told that I will feel some small pain for the injections and will feel a bit of pressure, but nothing too painful and it will take about 10-15 minutes to get this done. One tip I can give you is make sure that when they give you the anesthesia and when they go around your head to test all the parts that to see if the anesthesia has kicked it, make sure that you're very honest with them about that as 2 smaller areas towards the back of the head weren't fully numb and I've told them about it which they had no problem to add additional anesthesia. Once this has kicked it, I guarantee you, that you will no pain at all for the rest of the day. I had a TV in front of me to watch while they were opening up the channels on top of the head. I think roughly this took about 1.5 hours. Once that was done, anesthesia was now added in back of my head which I had to lay on my stomach now. Once that was done, the technicians switched and now came the part where they extract the hair while they had a helper on the side. It seemed like they had a technician(s) for every step of the procedure. Once the extraction was done which took a little while, about 2 hours, Aytec confirmed with me that they were able to extract 4300 grafts! Which I was very happy about, since originally I was estimated for 4000 grafts and was worried that they won't be able to extract even that much due to my thinning/light hair. I was happy to hear that they went another 300 extra grafts!

Once the extraction was completed, they asked me to sit up and take a lunch break. Lunch was provided for me and my wife in a different room. They gave me about a 30 minute break and now it was around 1:30pm-2pm. I was actually glad for the break as I needed to stand up a bit because laying down for a long time gets your body stiff but at least I didn't feel the pain. Off I went back into the room and was ready for the hair to be implanted. Laid on my back now, turned on news and off we went. Now 2 technicians were there to implement the hair and a helper on the side. Aytec, visited me many times throughout the day to see how I was doing and kept checking up on the technicians and the procedure to make sure everything was going well. Now this last part took a little while to do which at one point I started falling asleep on the chair due to the jetlag, not enough sleep and being on a chair all day. Originally we were suppose to be done at around 5pm, but they took their time to do everything correctly and stayed until 6pm to get everything done even thou I started getting inpatient that I wanted the procedure to be over with already.

And finally 6pm kicked it, everything was done, they cleaned up my head, showed me what they have done in a mirror and wrapped up my head. Sat back down in Aytec's office and he asked how I was feeling. He explained the next steps, what to do and not do, how to sleep etc, and to be back to the main office tomorrow at 11am so they can look at my head and remove the wrapping around my head and clean it out again. He gave me medication which was included in the price that I already have paid.

Once I got back to the hotel, I was a bit tired kept looking into the mirror and my head to see how everything came out. Sleep was a bit rough the first day as you have to be careful not to lay your head down fully on the bed. Next day, took a taxi and I went to their main office which is very nice and clean and was given their famous Turkish tea without having an option not to have it. They looked at my head, removed the old wrapping and cleaned it up. Now they explained the rest what I need to do, not to do, when to take showers etc. Also I was given shampoo which was included in the total price so I did not have to pay for it. But I was given the option to purchase additional shampoos there or he told me that I can buy them in the USA. So I just bought additional shampoos there. I was a bit worried as I saw on one review that apparently there were extra costs after their procedure, but I had 0 extra costs besides purchasing additional shampoos which was my own choice. However, Aytec recommended that I should do a PRP therapy, if you don't know what that is, look it up. I researched PRP therapy before in the USA and was thinking to get that way before the hair transplant. He explained that the PRP therapy will help me out with my current existing hair that it will make it stronger since I have thin hair. I really did not have much time but wanted to do it, he said they can have that done quickly if I wanted to. I said sure, let's go ahead with it. Again, this wasn't an extra cost was required. It is an extra procedure that I wanted to do anyways back in the states, back he recommended it and it was much cheaper then in the states itself. That took a total of about 30 minutes and the injections were made and I was all done and ready to go.

Overall, I was very happy with the Transest hair clinic experience and will certainly send over some of my friends/family members to get it done there as well. They were honest since the beginning, explained all the steps/risks ahead of time, no surprises regarding the pricing and no additional costs were thrown at me any point. Staff was very friendly and fluent in English. Now I am just hoping that I see good results and hoping that my thin hair will be reduced and filled up more. Let me know if you have any questions for me or regarding my experience. Will try to post more photos.

Hey everyone, here is my 10 day progress update. A lot of the redness has gone away but not fully yet. A lot of the dried up skin has fallen out and I've had minimal shock loss so far if any. To be honest, I can't tell the difference between the implanted hair and my existing one as I've never had my hair this short. I haven't had any ingrown hair/pimple problems yet, still felt small pain on the sides of my donor area as it's still a bit sensative to touching but that has drastically reduced in the recent days and I am almost able to sleep without any pain finally. Started shampooing my hair a few days ago, being extremely careful with it and been wearing a sports cap when going outside with any issues, and been applying the h20 anti bacterial spray on my donor area only to reduce the redness but I am not really sure if it really helps, could of done without it. So to recap this, I am not really sure of my progress so far as obviously it's only been 10 days, keep in mind that I have light and thinning hair, so hopefully you will have better results. I am just glad that I don't have any skin irritation or rashes around my head as things are settling now. Saw some comments about prp if it helps or not, not sure if you need it but it didn't hurt to get it.

Just figured i'd post a 2 week progress post since i had my procedure done.