Life totally destroyed after a horrific hair transplant.

[Dersim62]

Hello everyone I’ve finally found some courage to post my experience with a clinic in Turkey which ultimately has totally ruined my life.

so in September 2023 I went to a clinic named American Aesthetics in Istanbul to a so called Dr named Gizem Kagitci,

upon arrival I had mentioned that it was my third procedure and to take this into consideration when choosing the amount of grafts needed, my donor area was still in a very good shape, she looks at my donor and says max we can do is 2500 grafts and we’ll use some beard grafts for extra density.

two previous surgeries had left me ignorant into researching thoroughly rather than relying on Google reviews, what a total disaster this would end up to be.

so agreeing to this I was sent into a room with two young guys who performed the procedure,

I’ll cut this short and explain where I’m at today, so I had been severely over harvested, multiple grafts used on hair line and no other results including the beard grafts came through.

i have deleted all pictures which I had with my hair that looked normal because it sends my into tears, I have gone into deep depression and consequently lost a job and a relationship, there are days where I think to end my life solely because I can’t accept the mess I’m in, I will share pictures but please do not ask previous pictures because I do not have them, 

recently I have been to see dr mwamba to start a repair process of the donor using beard grafts, we used 1300 beard grafts and  I will be going again in September to continue the process,

Now the next plan is to use nape and some scalp from the sides along with more Bht to Improve the Donor and Bht on crown vertex and lateral humps, 

I want your honest opinions on going forward with this and what to expect, I’ve tried smp but the gaps on the donor are to big to create good results also once the donor grows out it looks odd in my opinion, now I’ve accepted fact the it may never look perfect but that’s not what I’m trying to achieve, I’ve seen a few repair cases to homogenise the donor which is giving me hope.

thank you and I look forward to everyone’s help.

the picture with red dots on my donor are from the first pass with Dr Mwamba and the rest are from the results of the hair mill in Turkey. 

[baddecisions]

The amount of people getting their life destroyed by this industry is enormous.

What I can tell you is just don't give up. There is always something to do, there is always room for improvement. You are already in good hands, Mwamba is well known for his repairs, and you will find here many support.

All the best and keep on.

[Dersim62]

@baddecisions thank you, honestly means a lot.

[ScottishGuy21]

Thanks for being so brave and sharing your story on here.

You’ve picked a good Dr in Mwamba, he’s well known for re stocking donor areas after poor procedures. It will take time and a few surgeries but you’ll get there. Keep the faith. Im rooting for you 🙏🏼🙏🏼

[Dersim62]

@ScottishGuy21 I hope so my friend, I just want my life back I’m totally devastated, thank you for your encouragement 🙏

Edited Wednesday at 05:03 PM by Dersim62

[HappyMan2021]

so you had 2 good first procedures and then you went with a Turkish hairmill? who were your first 2 procedures with? Both with Mwamba or just the first one?

To me it sounds like your successful surgeries made you wildly overconfident and made you think you could cut costs but get the same result by going to a hairmill

As long as you have donor remaining, you can be repaired, but just note that repairs are almost always multiple procedures and very costly and time consuming.

[Dersim62]

@HappyMan2021 my two procedures were with Turkish clinics, the first with a dr called alp arslan and second was with Swedish hair clinic also in Turkey, looking back now they were both hair mills and I think I was extremely lucky, the third procedure was again planned via google reviews and ignorance which I’m paying the price for.

[kajl]

hey man - i have a rough idea on what you're going through - i am looking to reverse mine and just shave everything completely off knowing that I will never have a normal looking head ever again. My skin is screwed at recipient and donor is not homogenized. I got into a deep depression this year and very close to losing my job. If I may throw my 2c here and something that is helping me is to try and stay positive and also realise there is much so much more to life than appearence. Also as you have extracted 1300 grafts from beard and also went to a good surgeon shows all is not lost and you should get a good improvement. Your scar colour at the extraction site is very close if not the same to your skin colour so that will help mask things up, if you get some good coverage with beard hairs, better homogenization and keep hair short at the donor site you should have a relatively normal looking head. 

[Dersim62]

@kajl Thank you, I’m so sorry you had to experience a similar situation and also hope you are in a better place, your right in saying not everything is appearance but you goto improve this with these clinics which ultimately put you into a position to regain normality. Peace to you friend.

[BaldReaper]

I think the recipient looks fine and there is some ovreharvesting in the donor but you make it sound 100 times worse than it is, people outside of hair transplant forums dont notice hair that much, have you tried shaving it all off?

[Dersim62]

I appreciate your view, the pictures don’t do justice to how bad it really is, my aim was to utilise the third transplant to the best I could but to no avail, I don’t really want to shave my head but if all repairs fail the I think I have no choice.

[Berba11]

15 minutes ago, Dersim62 said:

I appreciate your view, the pictures don’t do justice to how bad it really is, my aim was to utilise the third transplant to the best I could but to no avail, I don’t really want to shave my head but if all repairs fail the I think I have no choice.

Dr Mwamba is as good as any one at donor restocking, so you’re in good hands. Hang in there - you’ll get through this!

You said you had multi graft hairs along the hairline as well… Are you able to share some photos that show this? And does any part of your repair invoice the hairline? Makes sense to start with the donor of course. Slow and steady wins the race here. 

[Grouse]

I'll echo other posters and say that it really doesn't look bad here. Not to diminish your suffering - more to reassure you that others may not see what you do at least judging from these pictures.

 

Look into getting SMP on the donor. I think it'll help a ton. Look into @mustang's journey, I think he had a great SMP job done.

 

All of this can be fixed IMO, including the multi grafts at the hairline. Worst comes to worst you wear a hair system or get full SMP. Pushing for ya buddy

[Nobaldscalp]

54 minutes ago, BaldReaper said:

I think the recipient looks fine and there is some ovreharvesting in the donor but you make it sound 100 times worse than it is, people outside of hair transplant forums dont notice hair that much, have you tried shaving it all off?

I agree, to me it sounds like overreaction without important reason...Recipient area looks pretty good to be honest. Donor looks thin but it is not something that people outside forums observe and focus on. Many people trim their sides anyway...

I dont understand how a life could be destroyed with that result, since it looks pretty decent. What would bald people do then? They should all suicide lol

[Dersim62]

@Berba11 the hairline design isnt too bad, dr mwamba said there’s only a few that may need removing but he advised me to fill in behind the hairline to make it more dense with 500 grafts, 

@Grouse I did try smp but it faded, also I’m not sure because I like a skin fade at the back  can smp give that shadow look? Mustang was the inspiration behind my repair journey. 
I think me knowing how it looks is more important thank others I want to be comfortable with myself, but thank you.

[Dersim62]

@Nobaldscalp thank you for your comment, 

I came out from that hair clinic much worse thank I walked in, this isn’t a sympathy vote I’m just sharing my experience which I suffer with daily, I understand that  maybe there are  people much worse than me but this is my experience. 

[Dersim62]

This may be a better pic of the donor.

[Berba11]

12 minutes ago, Nobaldscalp said:

I agree, to me it sounds like overreaction without important reason...Recipient area looks pretty good to be honest. Donor looks thin but it is not something that people outside forums observe and focus on. Many people trim their sides anyway...

I dont understand how a life could be destroyed with that result, since it looks pretty decent. What would bald people do then? They should all suicide lol

People who have had bad surgeries or whom have some issues with their result will often find it very difficult to adequately convey those problems with photos. I know this from personal experience. 
 

Secondly, it’s hard to let an issue go if you’re seeing and dealing with it every single day. And it’s also hard to relate to that unless you’ve experienced it yourself. 
 

Most importantly though, it takes a lot of balls to admit to feeling very low or to be suffering with suicidal ideation. It’s baffling to me that you could read the OP, respond to it and then end your post with “lol”. Is that a thoughtful, intelligent response? No. It’s idiotic & lacking in any compassion, class or empathy. Do better, please. 

[SuperC]

No one can tell you you're overreacting. How you feel is totally valid and I'm sorry it's been so rough for you.

I don't have any advice, I just wanted to mention that although your situation is difficult now, you've still got options! I'm confident you'll be here again one day feeling much better and sharing photos you feel good about, just don't give up hope.

[Al - Moderator]

15 hours ago, Dersim62 said:

i have deleted all pictures which I had with my hair that looked normal because it sends my into tears, I have gone into deep depression and consequently lost a job and a relationship, there are days where I think to end my life solely because I can’t accept the mess I’m in

 

I've been in that spot. After many surgeries I was left in a complete mess with scars all over and very little hair anywhere. For a while I wanted to kill myself. Don't give up. I'm still here 30+ years later. There are more ways of fixing bad hair transplants today than there were when I was going through it. The last 2 of my repair surgeries are in the link below if you care to view it.

 

 

 

[Al - Moderator]

15 hours ago, Dersim62 said:

recently I have been to see dr mwamba to start a repair process of the donor using beard grafts, we used 1300 beard grafts and  I will be going again in September to continue the process,

Now the next plan is to use nape and some scalp from the sides along with more Bht to Improve the Donor and Bht on crown vertex and lateral humps, 

I want your honest opinions on going forward with this and what to expect, I’ve tried smp but the gaps on the donor are to big to create good results also once the donor grows out it looks odd in my opinion, now I’ve accepted fact the it may never look perfect but that’s not what I’m trying to achieve, I’ve seen a few repair cases to homogenise the donor which is giving me hope.

 

Have you seen @mustang thread about restocking the donor area with body hair? The link to that is below. He also tried a bit of SMP.

 

 

 

 

[Dersim62]

@Al - Moderator hello and thank you for your post, I’ve actually read your story along with mustangs aswell, I guess I need to see how well the beard grafts grown in after the first pass with Dr Mwamba, if all is well there maybe hope.

[Cjay]

@Dersim62I am going through the exact same issue as you, don’t let anyone downplay your experience it is valid to you and there is no right or wrong way to feel about this situation. I have a consult booked with Dr Mwamba end of this month. How many grafts and how much did it cost if you don’t mind me asking? Feel free to private message me. 

[Rese]

Hi man, sorry to see that your donor has been overharvested but there is a lot you can do with haircuts, repairs etc. It really doesn't look that bad from an objective standpoint. Really hope Dr Mwamba can help

[TakeAction]

I don't have much to add but will echo what others are saying, your recipient area does look very good and the donor, while not ideal, does not look as bad as you think it does and can be improved greatly as you continue to use BHT and SMP.

You could even try using dermmatch all over the donor to disguise it a bit.

can you expand a bit more on why the SMP didn't work?

 

Edited Thursday at 02:06 PM by TakeAction