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Hint: this was posted initially at alopezie.de
Who I am
I am a scientist in the 40ies. I have family, a nice job and am a happy man, as long as I dont grieve about how mankind is ruining our beautiful planet. I was not desperate about my outlook, but thought that a little refreshment might be nice. This summer (2005), I decided to give a small hair transplantation a try and choose Hairline Clinic in Ankara, Turkey. Here is my report. It starts with some general remarks for the layman like I was some time ago when I (unsuccessfully) tried to collect serious information about hair transplantation technology and clinic adresses to sort out which might be serious clinics and which technologies are available. To start with the corollary: Hairline Clinic Ankara was a good choice.
Technology: Stripe vs. FuE
In stripe technology, a stripe of varying width (usually 1-2cm width and 5-10cm length) is extracted from the donor area, cut into pieces and put back in at the recipient area by different techniques. The resulting cut at donor site is clamped and sewed, so the head skin area is actually reduced. There is good likelihood for a visible, lasting scar.
Hairs to be transplanted need to be extracted about 0.5 - 0.6 cm deep. Think about this for a moment. Think what it means to extract an oval tissue piece of size 0.5 x 1.0 x 10.0 from the backside of your head by stripe technology. Its almost a steak. Just dont.
In the FuE technology, needles of 0.3-0.6mm diameter are used to extract individual grafts, i.e. pieces of 1-4 hairs. Grafts are collected in sterile solution, inspected under the microscope and sorted out for transplantation. A needle of same size is than used at the recipient area to put individual grafts back in.
It is claimed that after FuE hairs can regrow in the donor area at extraction sites. Biologically, this would mean that stem cells at the bottom of that hair root become acivated to give rise to the production of new hair roots. I have seen photos at Hairline Clinic Ankara that seem to support this claim: hair density at donor site was not visibly different one year after operation compared to area proximal donor. If this is true and regrowth of hairs at acceptor site is successful (that is more than 90%) this would mean that FuE can (sometimes ?) provide an increase of total number of hairs, while with stripe technology you can expect at most a zero gain situation, and practically less since some fraction of hairs will inevitably die.
FuE was without alternative for me.
How to find the right clinic
Folks, lets face it: hair transplantation is a young discipline which evolves outside regular research. So, we must anticipate many quacks in the field. After googling around one is swamped by best doctors and best clinics. How to judge ?
Here is my advice: filter out non-FuU - this will eliminate most european clinics in one stroke - and judge clinics whether they offer series of photos of individual patients with photos before, shortly after, long (i.e. one year) after operation. Check that ears are identical within a serie to reduce the chance of fake. Once you have boiled the number of potential clinics down to a few, request email or phone number of previous patients - if possible, at least one year after his operation such that final outcome can be estimated - and talk to some of them personally. A serious clinic will have a list of references available on request. Likely you have worked month to collect the fee - why not invest a few hours to substantiate your final decision ?
Pre-payment
You may be asked to propagate a considerable fraction of the final expense in advance. Hairline Clinic Ankara requests a 15% pre-payment to be delivered to their bank account some weeks before operation, other clinics have similar arrangements. I assume this is to avoid customers with a floating mind to cancel the operation on short term, however, I guess a 5% pre-payment would be enough for this purpose. Ask for a contract or clinic guideline in which it is defined what will happen with the pre-payment in case of unforeseen customer disease or accident. Hairline Clinic Ankara ensured me that the pre-payment will never be lost but kept for a later operation date in case you are hindered from coming.
Prior lab investigation
Hairline Clinic Ankara aks for the results of some laboratory blood tests before operation, the most important are HIV and HCV. This will cost you some extra money but is imperative to protect the operator.
My visit to Hairline Clinic Ankara
After the flight someone catches you from the airport holding a signpost „Hair Line Clinic - Your Name“ (for me the name would have been enough). You are transported to the hotel, have some rest and go for a meal and a first chat with physician and manager afterwards. They hand you some pills of penicillin, which you are requested to take during the next days as prophylactic antibiotic. I rebuffed this for personal reasons, you probably should not. Next day you are again picked up to the clinic. The clinic is housed in a non-spectacular building in a living quarter of the town, but rooms and facilities look appropriate. There is a rest room with TV, two operation rooms, offices a.s.o.
Your personal hair situation will be discussed with you carefully and an operation plan is made. The width of the needle is determined according to your hair width, in my case 0.5mm needles were used.
Typically, in half a day 200-400 grafts can be transplanted. They are extracted in one batch and put back in in a second batch, separated by a break. During the break grafts rest in a sterile cold salt solution and are inspected by a nurse under the microscope. Some might be removed. Between morning and afternoon session you are offered a meal together with the team on the sunny balcony. In the evening, you are again invited into a good restaurant. All transportation is arranged by the Clinic without additional cost.
My impression
It is my impression that technically these guys have a lot of experience and know what they are doing. According to management, new medical stuff is trained for month on volunteers until each physician in the team has perfect FuE-skills. It is not in their interest to generate unsatisfactory results. Gossip on the web is a powerful force these days.
You are a real customer here, all your wishes are respected.
At no point I had the impression of people desparately gasping for money. To the contrary, it may happen that unreasonable expectations will gently be down-tuned, even to their financial disadvantage.
Expense
Initially I was wondering whether 3.50 Euro per graft, which amounts to 2100 Euro for a one day operation with 600 grafts, would not be a little high. However, I can afford it, so I decided to give it a try. But when you consider that they have stuff of manager, 2-3 medical doctors, 3-4 nurses, part time barber and driver, I must now say that I consider this a reasonable price. And lets be crystall clear, this is beauty industry, its your own choice to go or abstain.
The operation
The procedure hardly hurts, except the first injection of anestetic (procaine) which is not more than a little peek. But dont expect the entire operation to be a stroll in the park. Consider a needle of 0.5mm thickness punched into your head 0.5cm deep, with a tiny but ferrocious sound, and this hundreds and hundreds times. With each extraction your head is pressed on the bed since the tissue on the head is quite dense and it takes some force to inject the needle. My advice: bring earphones, your laptop and a funny film on DVD with you, or better: several. Be prepared to lay down for many hours per day, so be in good physical shape, or, better, take only 300 grafts per day, i.e. take half a day for operation and half a day for sightseeing. This will be more comfortable both for you and operator. Ankara is a modern 4 million capital which has a lot to offer, and due to its altitude its not too hot. Konya, the capital of sufism, is two driving hours away, the south coast 6 driving hours, so maybe you can add a few relaxation days at the beach. Otherwise, if you decide to take two sessions per day, dont plan for more than three operation days in a row. You will be quite exhausted on the third day. I have heard of operations with 800 or even 1000 grafts per day or of more than 3000 grafts in total. I consider this a torture which must be forbidden. Rather come back next year. Last hint: dont come alone, bring someone with you to hold your hand. |
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