VERY MIXED RESULTS FROM BUDGET FOLLICLE TRANSPLANT IN TURKEY
Painful, but I have new hair and beard
FOR ME, having a hair transplant for the price I paid was a nobrainer. Yes, the procedure was seriously painful, but now my hair has grown back, it was worth it. I still look at before and after photos and can’t believe the transformation.
My hair had never really bothered me until I watched a video of myself in January last year and noticed my receding hairline at the sides and thought I looked older than I should.
I didn’t want to be like Prince William, going bald in my 30s, so I decided to do something. But the decision to go ahead was made on a whim — I was looking at prices and a few weeks later flying out to Turkey for surgery.
I wanted to get it done so the hair had time to regrow before the summer, as my girlfriend Valentina and I had some trips booked. But everyone I mentioned it to said I didn’t need it and thought I was being silly. Even Valentina called me stupid, but I think it’s no different to women getting lip fillers.
After a bit of Googling I chose EsteNove clinic in Istanbul, as it had good reviews and a surgeon would do the procedure.
Plus, I could also have a beard transplant at the same time. My beard was patchy in places and the ‘after’ photos on the website looked really full — so I got both my hair and beard done as part of a package: €2,900, which included a hotel stay and taxis.
I sent the team a few pictures over WhatsApp and we had a video call, then a week later I flew out. Valentina and I spent a few days there seeing the sights; it was just like a mini holiday.
But it’s fair to say the eighthour procedure was painful, like torture. The worst bit was the local anaesthetic injections, which felt like being stabbed in the head over and over.
That’s mainly because I had my hair and beard done at the same time. They put around 1,000 grafts (taken from the back of my head) into my hairline at the front, and roughly 4,000 grafts into my beard. Afterwards my head felt sore and my face was swollen to almost twice its size for a week. But because lots of people go to Turkey for this type of surgery, I didn’t stand out.
When flying home, I saw lots of men at the airport with the distinctive red spots on their heads where they’d had a hair transplant, which made me smile.
You hear horror stories about people who go abroad for hair transplants, but thankfully mine healed perfectly and the hair grew back gradually from about a month after. By summer, it looked completely normal.
All in all, it wasn’t necessary, but has helped my confidence and gave me a bit of a ‘glow-up’.