Izmir, Turkey

So the first thing I have to say is that I have never been bothered about hair loss, and never even considered a hair transplant (or a hair restoration procedure). I have no vanity but, if you asked me a straight question, would you prefer to have hair or not, the answer would be hair every time, and so that question brought me along this journey. It all started with my brother who currently lives in Australia coming to the UK for a visit, but whilst he was here he told me that on his way back to Australia he had booked a 5 night stopover in Istanbul, Turkey for a hair transplant. Wow, I was really surprised, but also interested to see how well it went. My brother had now effectively become my guinea pig! On his way back he had the procedure, which he described as lengthy and brutal! However he was pleased he’d had it done and couldn’t wait for the results and over the next few months sent me pictures of his new crowning glory , an emerging full head of hair, just like magic!

Prompted by this, a little research and a recommendation by a previous patient, I decided to take the plunge and opted to book a six night stop in Izmir in Turkey with RevitalizeInTurkey, a well established company with great reviews. Normally you would book a 5 night stay, but by adding a day I actually saved around £125 overall as flight prices fluctuate so much on different days. The day finally came to fly out. I flew from Manchester via Dublin on a Sunday morning, which was a bit of a disaster as the connecting flight was delayed and I was forced to spend 11 hours in Dublin airport before finally arriving in Izmir in the early hours of Monday morning. My Airport transfer was waiting, arranged by RevitalizeInTurkey and took me to my accommodation, the Mandarin Grove Retreat near Urla owned by RevitalizeInTurkey, about 35km outside the city. I finally go to bed at around 4:00am, knowing that I had to be up at 7:00am for my transfer to the city hospital and the transplant.

So with minimal sleep we were up and off in the morning to fight through the city traffic arriving at the Ozel Su private hospital at around 9am. I was accompanied by a lovely lady, Nana from RevitalizeInTurkey who was there to assist me through the day. We went through the usual paperwork, signing your life away and admonishing the hospital of all responsibility if it all goes wrong, pretty standard stuff anywhere in the world these days. Then blood samples were taken and tests carried out. I was told they tested for things like clotting agent so that you wouldn’t bleed to death whilst they operated, but the team would not proceed until the tests returned favourably. This took around two hours. In the meantime I met the head nurse on my team of four, and the clinical director of the unit we were on. Between them they examined my hair (and the lack of it) and explained the procedure and the best case outcome. It was explained to me that as I had quite a large area to cover I might not get full coverage towards the back, and in the future if that bothered me I could come back to have that completed, but they were only allowed to do a maximum of around for thousand graft from any donor area at a time, but they assured me they would do their best. They then drew on my head marking out the distinction between donor areas and graft areas because of course the were just about to shave my head. Bloods came back ok and after a quick blood pressure test my head was promptly shaved. At this point thought I looked ok with no hair, so if the grafts fail, the Walter White look won’t be as great a shock to me in the future. I was then lead into a room for the transplant, more like a consultation room, but with the correct equipment (what do I know?) and a suitably comfy looking place to rest my bones.

All advertising for these sorts of procedures quite clearly says “no pain procedure”, but let me tell you now it is a country mile short of pain free. One of the nurses starts to inject the donor area with local anaesthetic, but considering its being injected into the very thin strip of flesh only a few mm thick and right against you skull it is incredibly painful, and incredibly repetitive. No doubt it saves you the main pain of the procedure, never the less it hurts like hell, I think some of my fingernails may still be embedded into the steel frame of the bed! These injections continue for the duration of the extraction which is around 3 1/2 hours long. The extraction process is simple but effective. One nurse cuts into your scalp around follicles with what can only be described as a Dremmel drill with a specialist hollow bit on the end that cuts around the follicle. Then another member of the team plucks the follicle out with the speed and accuracy of a ninja warrior, placing them into a liquid filled dish to the side whilst a third nurse sorts them into thickness. Apparently each follicle can contain between 1 to 4 hairs and they take around four thousand. Once this process is complete you are allowed a fifteen minute break for lunch, I was provided an interesting rice, veg and mince dish, accompanied by a nectarine and yogurt, all slightly colder than I would have liked, but with my three hour sleep the night before and my hundred or so head injections, I didn’t really care, the toilet break was worth it on its own.

Straight after eating my lunch the team were eager to go, again taking my blood pressure before getting started. Now was the time to pop my newly liberated hair follicles into their new home for life, a home that was created by a new member of the team (I like to think of her as stabby nurse). The whole area of my former shiny spot was now injected with those lovely pain numbing injections whilst my knuckles lost all their blood due to the tightness of my grip on the bed, but she was quick and finally the moment of promise came, and the pain free procedure promised could actually continue pain free. The nurse then repeatedly stabbed my head, I’m guessing at least four thousand times, or at least as many times as there were little hair follicles waiting for a new home. She did this to create tiny slits in my head where the first two nurses, (the extraction team turned insertion team) meticulously took each follicle previously sorted by size, and inserted them individually into the newly created holes, trying to ensure an even coverage throughout. This process again took around 3 1/2 hours. Whilst this was being done I was hooked up intravenously to a luminous yellow bag of something loosely described to me in Turklish as Vitamins, I assumed it was a bag of something to replace the blood I had lost during the procedure and return my will to live.

Finally after all my little hair follicles had been returned to their rightful owner and the bag of bright stuff had entered my bloodstream I was sat up and given a final blood pressure test. My head had a dressing applied, but only the donor area and all the little holes left by the extraction, the rest was exposed, I’m sure just to make me look like a plonker and to gain them a little free advertising on the way out!

I was given five instructions, 1. Do not touch, 2. No sun, 3. No hat, 4, Take drugs given back at the retreat, 5. Come back Wednesday! And out I went, back to the retreat wondering how the hell I was going to sleep that night!

I did as I was told and returned to the hospital on the following Wednesday morning and was greeted by three of the same nurses that carried out the transplant, however only one of them looked after me that day. My head was sprayed in an expandable Panthenol lotion especially designed for post transplant care, it felt a bit like shaving foam, this was left for around 30 minutes to soak. This also helped to release the dressings that were a little blood soaked and stuck to the back of my head.

My whole head was then washed, again with the specially developed shampoo and finally an antibiotic cream was applied to the donor area as this was now exposed to the world. Stabby nurse then made a re-appearance to take a closer look at my newly buffed head. She gave me instructions on how to care for the areas over the next fifteen days or so and finally said that I was good to go and didn’t need to come back again. The final thing she gave me was a fit to fly letter that apparently all passengers that have had any sort of surgery need to be allowed onto an aeroplane home. Its a good job really as on the way back to the hotel I received a text of my airline that said they had “re-scheduled” my flight for three days later that it was booked! I had no way of staying the extra three days as I needed to be back in the Uk for at least the Saturday night so quickly hit the internet and managed to book a new return flight for the following evening, unfortunately cutting my break down by two days, but at least getting me home!

I’ll have to say the hospital was very clean and  very professional and explained each process as they went along. They kept checking I was ok and in no pain (apart from the injection bit). The staff at RevitaliseInTurkey are second to none, they were absolutely brilliant from arrival, throughout the transplant and the after care. The RevitaliseInTurkey accommodation, the Mandarin Grove is exceptional, a real hipster (but in a tasteful and professional way) feel about it, lovely food, private pool and aircon, you couldn't have asked for more. If you asked me if I would I do it again? The answer would be easy, absolutely, it’s only one day and a little bit of agony after all and now I should have a thatched roof until fate finally decides to demolish the cottage below! Oh and I know you are all wondering, but the price I paid included all airport transfers, 5 nights half board in the Mandarin Grove retreat, all hospital transfers, a personal chaperone whilst at the hospital throughout all procedures, the transplant itself, all post operation medication and the lotions and potions for the aftercare, all for £1750 cash!

Post operation hair growth photos to follow, watch this space!

Click on the images and follow the links to Revitalise in Turkey's Web Site and Official FaceBook Page