Overcoming Hair Loss With Hair Transplant Turkey
Nov. 24 2023, Published 2:07 a.m. ET
Androgenetic alopecia is a condition that affects nearly half the global population. It’s one of the most common forms of hair loss that affects men and women of all ages, resulting in male pattern baldness and female pattern hair loss.
Although androgenetic alopecia doesn’t typically affect your physical health, it can significantly affect one's mental well-being, undermining self-esteem and sometimes leading to the development of anxiety and depression.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a cure for the condition, but you could overcome androgenetic alopecia with a hair transplant Turkey.
Hair transplants are a permanent solution to hair loss and balding, and while they’re certainly available in the UK, more and more people are opting to have them done in Turkey.
Why get a hair transplant in Istanbul?
Medical tourism in Turkey has experienced a massive boom in the past few years. While the country is a popular destination for vacations, millions of travellers visit it not only for sightseeing but also for advanced cosmetic surgery treatments that can be life-changing.
But why Turkey specifically?
In a nutshell, it’s all due to how the medical industry is regulated. The Turkish Ministry of Health enforces strict standards that both public and private clinics, as well as medical professionals, must adhere to. Every clinic needs to meet the highest international standards, delivering exceptional patient experience and ensuring the utmost patient well-being.
Clinics undergo regular inspections, and every doctor goes through years of training and skill-building to be able to receive the necessary permits and licenses to start working in the medical industry.
All this has turned Turkey into a true hub for medical tourism. Furthermore, it doesn’t hurt that the country has comprehensive visa support for all medical tourists looking to schedule healthcare or cosmetic treatments there.
How to choose a clinic
While the country has certainly gained a reputation as one of the best places to get a hair transplant procedure, that doesn’t mean you should walk into any random hair transplant clinic in Turkey that offers the maximum number of hair grafts.
Thorough research is still essential to ensure you find the highest quality hair transplant clinic in Turkey to guarantee satisfaction with the results.
While the surgery is generally deemed safe with a quick recovery, an inexperienced surgeon can make mistakes that will ultimately impact your appearance – creating the wrong hairline for your facial features, inserting transplanted hair at the wrong angle for your natural hairstyle, etc.
To ensure you select the right clinic, it's advisable to delve into the clinic's history, research the credentials of the doctors and medical staff, and familiarize yourself with the experiences of previous patients.
One of the most renowned clinics for Turkish hair transplants is Hair of Istanbul. Established in 2013 and located right in the heart of Istanbul, the clinic has, to date, successfully treated over 13,000 hair transplant patients.
The medical team, led by hair transplant surgeon Dr Ahmet Dilber and medical aesthetics specialist Dr Fikret Ödoğlu, offers advanced hair restoration treatments customised to suit each patient’s needs and preferences.
Price differences between clinics in the UK and those in Turkey
In the UK, an advanced hair transplant costs upwards of £30,000, depending on the condition of the donor area and the number of grafts needed for the surgery. Considering how expensive it is in the UK, it’s easy to assume that the surgery would be even pricier in Turkey with the added costs of transportation and accommodation. However, that’s not the case.
With the lower costs of living and added currency devaluation, the same surgery with cutting-edge tools and equipment and highly experienced surgeons can be as much as 90% cheaper.
While the price still depends on the condition of the donor and recipient areas, the precise hair transplantation technique used, and the number of follicular units that must be transplanted, the average cost still stands at around £3,000 to £4,000.
What’s more, clinics like Hair of Istanbul also offer all-encompassing hair transplant packages that bring the price further down. Included in your package will be the costs of hotel accommodation, airport-hotel-clinic transfers, necessary pre and post-op medications, lotions, and shampoos, as well as translation services and free consultations before and after your surgery.
Your only additional expense will be the airfare.
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Hair transplant services at top Turkish clinics
Different clinics will offer different approaches to hair transplant surgery. At Hair of Istanbul, for instance, you can have an FUE hair transplant or a DHI hair transplant, available for head and beard hair.
FUE hair transplant Turkey is an advanced procedure best suited for those with extensive hair loss that impacts a larger area of their head. The surgeon first takes each individual hair follicle out of the donor area and then creates room for transplanted hair in the recipient area by making small incisions in it. Finally, they insert follicles into the incisions and bandage everything up so that it’s set into place.
No incisions are necessary for the DHI procedure. After extracting follicles from the donor area, the surgeon inserts them into a specialised Choi pen tool. The Choi pen simultaneously makes room in the recipient area and inserts follicles into their new position.
The DHI approach is recommended for increasing hair thickness in smaller areas of the head.
Before and after hair transplants
Hair transplants are relatively simple surgeries with surprisingly fast recovery times. Within a couple of days, you can already go back home and return to work and life as normal. However, you shouldn’t expect new hair growth the day after the hair transplant.
It will take a few months for the transplanted hair to start growing, and you should expect to see the full results within a year/a year and a half.
To learn more about the recovery process and the expected results, you can explore Hair of Istanbul’s hair transplant Turkey before after pictures and find out what the clinic’s previous patients have achieved.
Final thoughts
Hair transplants are fast, safe, and effective procedures that can restore your natural hair and help you boost your confidence levels. However, considering how expensive they are in the UK, it’s certainly better to have such procedures done in Turkey.
With experienced surgeons, rigorously regulated clinics, advanced equipment, and competitive prices, Turkey has earned its reputation as the hub for medical tourism.