Maral Klinik - 2000 Grafts - Istanbul, Turkey 30 Y/o Male

I will try and update this as much as possible, and try and give my experience as honestly as I can.

I am a 30 year old Caucasian male who suffered from receding and more than a little bit of vanity. I read about Dr.Maral and decided to take the plunge, leaving about a week after the initial email to Dr.Maral. It seems to me that given the nature of the business and medical tourism, that the Maral Clinic is especially geared towards European travelers who need to pass through quickly and get back to their lives.

Transport:

As promised in the email, I was picked up from the Ataturk airport by one of the Clinic's drivers. It was easy and convenient. I will warn you if you're from the states, that when you're talking back to the parking garage, you'd better be fast on your feet. Turkish drivers are incredibly aggressive and it basically requires you to walk in traffic for them to stop.

Facilities:
I stayed at the Levant Otel. A very nice three star hotel with attached restaurant, room service, reasonable prices, and wifi. All of these are good things when you look like a mummy post-op.

Procedure:
On the day of the operation, Dr.Maral will meet with you, discuss with you your options while evaluating your scalp. You'll negotiate about the new hairline in a sense. If you're like me, you're going to try and ask for a lower hairline, but given the texture of transplanted hairs as well as age (and potential future receding concerns) Dr.Maral suggested a more conservative hairline. In my case it was 2000 grafts. I know given that the procedure promises "unlimited grafts" that the other folks I saw there were typically Norwood 5/6s who were getting 5000-6000 grafts. I would imagine their options were considerably more conservative than mine. There is a lot of rumor mongering among the community of online hair restoration community, but the doctors also made mention of the fact that the average donor has only so many grafts they can supply, which typically amounts to a maximum of three surgeries. In my case (at this point in time), this is not an issue, but may be for people with more advanced hair loss.

Once he gets an idea of what he wants to do he'll send you to get your hair buzzed, not completely shaved but probably about a centimeter of hair. At this point he'll draw on you with a wax pencil and make your head look a bit like one of those diagrams of how you're supposed to cut up cows. This will be your first indication of what kind of hairline you are agreeing to. In my case he was rounding the front of my hairline which had the effect of bringing it down a bit. We agreed and moved on.

Next they buzz your head all the way down, draw the lines again, and begin the procedure. The first step is the anesthesia, so a series of pricks which will eventually numb everything. They collect some sample donors to check the "donor quality" and, assuming it's good, begin retrieving the grafts. Then they'll "open the channels" which is basically poking your head to get places for the hairs to go.

As you should probably well know, this is a long procedure, mine taking about 6 hours from check in to check out with a break in the middle for a meal. This will be longer if you're getting more grafts, presumably.

Post Op
You're instructed to be very, very, very, painfully careful about your grafts, obviously. You're given your medicines, instructions, and taken back to the hotel to rest for the remainder of the day.

The next day you'll be picked up and given a second block of instruction regarding the next few days / weeks, which is actually why I wanted to write this review.

In addition to the washing instructions which are catalogued all over the place, they also express that you should avoid doing things that raise your blood pressure for some time. This includes drinking significant amounts of caffeine, exercise and sex. They tell you to avoid significant exertion from exercise and sex for a *month*. Now, they mention you can do light to moderate exercise, but if you have a very physical job or are a competition athlete, you may want to consider this before you pursue this surgery. Now, I am a personal trainer, and having said that, I recognize this is a surgery that is received by many individuals all over the spectrum of conditioning and age, and a conditioned, athletic individual will more than likely be more physiologically adapted, but I am just sharing the information that was shared with me.

As far as your sex life, no one will probably want to have sex with you while you look like you have mange anyway, but hey, you do you.

Recovery:

Another thing I want to point out is that while I am very optimistic for the next few months and my new hairline, that my head does not look like some of the pictures I'd seen of recovery. If you look online, there are many images that show a 1 day post, 3 day post 7 day post type timeline. Many of these are taken in such a way to downplay significant amounts of redness. I'm on day five and the front of my head is still very scabbed up and rust brown. The back of my head (the donor site) is still very red and pockmarked. Perhaps if you have dark hair it isn't so noticeable, but in my case it very much is. I'm notdiscouraging the surgery, I am, however, warning folks that their recoveries are probably going to be a little less pristine than the best, cherry picked marketing images.

Overall:
So far I am remaining optimistic and trying to enjoy the wear of hats. Dr.Maral is very professional and courteous and I will attempt to remember to update this, but again, really wanted to cover down on some of the things that came as a complete shock to me.

Good morning,

I am writing a bit of an update. I am including a terribly unhelpful picture. I need to see if I can get my hands on the post op pictures.

I had a very small procedure done to fix up the hairline more than anything else. I was the smallest procedure done that day at only 2000 grafts.

I have to say that I am recovering well. The back of my head no longer looks like it's pock-marked. From the pictures Ive seen the donor site looks like it's still pinkish and visibly thinner, but that may be an illusion of the lighting. However it doesn't look scabby and diseased, lol.

I intend to get my first haircut soon to trim up the back and the sides so I don't look like a chia pet.

The recipient site is thinned, but that's as expected. Fortunately because this was sort of a maintenance thing more than anything else, any hairs that stick around until the three month mark will already improve my appearance I think. The recipient area has been scab free for about ten days (really big amounts of scab removal after about the 5 day mark of washing with the medicated lotion, just as predicted).

Ultimately I am still very optimistic and may update with pictures of the back and the sides after I get it cleaned up.

A note that I think I forgot in the original review: I talked about how you're told not to exercise or have sex for a month post procedure due to blood pressure concerns, but alcohol is okay. I'm not a doctor and certainly it is better to err on the side of caution, but I also want to note that blood pressure spikes temporarily when you're drinking moderately (3+ drinks in the average male). Also I would like to mention that if you're a lifter, lifting in a lighter weight range (and higher reps) doesn't spike blood pressure the way heavier lifting does. This is what where we start clients that have high blood pressure. Now, obviously with an expensive surgery it is up to the individual how much risk you're willing to assume, but I want to add those facts in there.

Obviously immediately after (10 days while the grafts are rooting) you probably want to be more cautious (to the point of not exercising at all), but I've started getting back at it. Again, as I did mention previously, if you're in a profession where this is going to impact you, you should schedule it carefully (police, military also with headgear, but laborer professions or athletic professions)

We now officially have completed month 2. It seems like it flew by and is taking forever at the same time. I get haircuts every two weeks or so to trim down the sides so I didn't look like a Chia pet, and we're now getting to the lowest point of where I usually keep my hair.

The recipient site still looks really scrubby. I could argue that it looks thinner than it did before, but the reason why I got the transplant was to reinforce that area, and I've read that the shock of the surgery can be the last thing that a number of the natural hairs need to finally kill them.

I have hit the point that many men do: the point of fear and anxiety in the long recovery process that this will actually work. My scalp is very itchy (though it's very itchy all over, it may be something else), and I get pimples in the recipient site as well as the donor site. The only lingering redness I have is right at the forward edge of the recipient site. I am slightly concerned about this, but I imagine it has something to do with perhaps that there is a greater concentration of grafts there.

I am seeing a number of little hairs popping up that are thicker and way behind the majority of the other hairs, but I could probably count them on two hands. Still, these majority of the growth happens in months three and four (so I've read), so I am not terribly concerned.

Overall I'm still optimistic. In my case it was a minor operation so I still look mostly presentable even if the donor site is a little thinner than before.