After extensive research, I decided to have my transplant done with Dr Cinik because he has the highest rating and more reviews. Also, Dr Cinik website has the prices for all packages while other clinics only have the range. I chose Dr Cinik because of this transparency. I paid extra for the pain free anaesthesia.
Everything went smoothly from transportation, hotel stay, the nurses, the receptionist. The clinic is new and clean. The clinic offered free washes (you read it right, free washes, plural.) post ops. The first wash comes with free transportation. If you come for additional complimentary washes, you need to arrange your own transportation. I think it was worth it to pay for transportation to get additional washes.
The package only includes 2 nights, but I decided to extend my stay for 4 extra nights so I could heal more before flying back home. As a result, I came back for 3 complimentary washes. That was an awesome offer from the clinic.
I would have given a 5 star instead of 4.5 review had the pain was managed better. As I wrote earlier, I paid an extra for the pain free anaesthesia. The pressure injection of the anaesthesia was a little more painful than the finger sticking blood test. It was not that bad. The needle injections that followed were not too painful either.
However, the extraction of the donor hairs was too painful that at one point, I was going to call it to quit. I asked for more anaesthesia but was told that additional anaesthesia would bring my blood pressure down too much.
When I got back to the hotel after the surgery, I talked to 3 other guys who had the surgery at the same time I did, one of them felt the same pain level I did while the other only felt the pain during the injection, not the extraction.
The two that did not feel the pain during the extraction said that the nurses messaged their heads after the shots to make sure the anesthesia spread throughout. The nurses also waited for a while and only started the extraction after the patients confirmed that they couldn't feel the nurses touching their heads.
My extraction (and the other patient who had pain) started too soon. Also, no massage was done after the anaesthesia administration. As a result, the extraction near the injection sites, though painful, was not bad at all. The extraction in between the injection sites was too painful which caused me to tremble.
My nurses were wonderful. I don't think they ever wanted me to have pain. I just think that they were not instructed to massage my head to spread the anaesthesia throughout and to wait for my head to numb before the extraction. This is the only negative experience I had.
The channel opening and inserting extracted follicles into the bald area was pain free. In fact, I felt asleep and snored really loud.Since I was given IV, I needed to go to the bathroom 3 times. Don't be afraid to ask for bathroom breaks.
I am very happy with Dr Cinik clinic and planning to come back for 2nd session. I hope the clinic will make sure all nursing teams massage the patient's head and wait for a little before extracting the donor hair.
I walked around Istanbul and saw many hair transplant patients from different clinics. I have to say patients from Dr Cinik always have clean, sanitized heads because they all had the wash post ops. The patients from other clinics had napkins or bandages that turned yellowish/brownish.
Again, I am happy with my experience and hopefully will have a perfect happy experience (with better pain management) for my 2nd transplant.
