I don’t often write reviews, but I wanted to take the time to describe my experience with Mercure since I had such a great experience with them, and traveling for a procedure as big as this can be overwhelming with so many options.
Deciding: I spent a long time figuring out who I wanted to go with, trying to find a good balance of a clinic that is not a hair mill with good results and price. I spent a couple weeks on this and landed on a lot of positive reviews about Mercure. I saw most reviews were with a senior physician Dr. Carmen and reached out to them for a consult. They told me she was no longer doing many longer procedures but had a couple other dermatologists. I ended up getting a consult for Dr. Bandirmali and was impressed by him and his clinic staff and booked myself for December 2025.
Travel: I am an American physician and was working in east Africa before my procedure. I did my hair transplant as a stop on the way home to the states. I wanted to spend a couple days exploring Istanbul before my procedure and Mercure still picked me up from the airport and brought me to my hotel. When it was time for my procedure, they picked me up and brought me to their hotel by the clinic. Afterwards, they drove me back to my airport. The car they’ll transport you in is very nice.
Accommodations: The hotel you stay at is directly next-door to the hospital where Mercure’s clinic operates. It is very nice, clean, and super quiet. The room you stay in is like a suite with a full kitchen and a separate bedroom from the rest of the place.
Staff: The communications with Mercure are the best you’re going to find. They definitely pride themselves in this and it led to a lot of peace of mind with my procedure. They constantly have support staff 24/7 just for responding to messages and questions in many different languages. There is someone at the clinic itself who speaks English that is very friendly and will assist you in every step of the procedure. Their techs and nurses are very skilled and professional. Dr. Bandirmali himself is a surgeon with about 25 years of experience. He is as experienced as you can get and has great bedside manner. He makes sure the type of hair loss you have is appropriate for transplant, incorporates your goals into the type of transplant density and shape he does, and gets your permission for the go-ahead with the hairline and plan he develops.
Procedure: The procedure was long (around 6 hours). They have a very clean set of clinic rooms and practice proper sterile technique. I approved the first hairline Dr. Bandermali drew (it was exactly what I used to have) and we talked about goals. I wanted this to last a while so he did some transplantation into areas without loss yet and went extra dense in areas of total loss that are most visible. I didn’t have much of an issue with pain but did not like the sounds of channeling, but he said it was fine to listen to music so I put my headphones in pretty loud. Dr. Bandermali does all of the main parts (consultation, mapping, channeling, overseeing) that determine your results. Techs/nurses only do harvesting/transplant which they are more than skilled enough for, and he still stopped in many times during these. Everything they do is evidence-based with lots of experience to back it up.
Results: I’m about 2 months out now and am very happy. I have about 70% shock loss. I went with two friends who ended up dropping their clinics to go with Dr. Bandirmali after seeing how professional him and his staff were, and they have about 80% and 95% shock loss. I’m seeing lots of little hairs come back in, post shock-loss, and am very excited for time to allow it to thicken. I recovered remarkably well and they were involved in every step of this. There’s constant communication back with the clinic.
In brief:
- The procedure was very affordable
- Dr Bandirmali is an incredible surgeon and his clinic staff are amazing
- They walk you through from before you start to after you finish and communicate very fast and reliably
- Mine and my friends’ results are great so far
- I have already pointed a couple patients and friends in their direction and will continue to do so
