Hair transplant with Dr Taner Karahan - Turkey, DHI method (no shave)

Hi all, I am sharing my experience of having a hair transplant by Dr Taner earlier this year on June 2nd. I’m at the 5 month mark, and the above photos reflect the timeline of pre transplant, hairline design, day 0 post transplant, day 1 post transplant, scab removal on day 10, and where I am at currently. The procedure focussed solely on the hairline. 

Before I continue, I just want to emphasise first of all that I have not been paid to provide this review. I am also a real person, not a bot, as many of those reviewing Dr Taner are accused of. I appreciate he hasn’t adhered to certain rules on hair transplant forums previously on Reddit, but equally it’s quite surprising to see the lengths people go to, to damage this guys reputation on here.. I’m not here to get into any of that, I’m just keen to provide an honest review of my experience that hopefully people take seriously / don’t find some bizarre reason to question the validity of my review.

As others have said, he’s a super passionate guy when it comes to his practice, really keen to provide a very person centred experience. As a psychotherapist working in the nhs in the uk, this was a lovely surprise and really stood out to me when choosing a surgeon, as I’d assumed going to turkey for the procedure was going to be a bit of a roll of the dice. It wasn’t. Dr T provided a video consult initially, in which he outlined his process and graft estimate. He  quoted €3200, for 2000 grafts to the hairline via DHI, which included hotel and transfer, aftercare etc. 

On the day of the transplant; upon hairline design, we went a bit less conservative, and opted for 2400 grafts in total, at no extra charge. It was great to have an open discussion about balancing the preservation of the donor whilst also creating dense packing of the hairline. A tech completed the harvesting of the grafts in the morning session, took a couple hours, then Dr T completed graft insertion and PRP in the afternoon. Took around 6 hours total with lunch provided. I was super nervous initially but Dr Taner put my mind at ease, he’s a very chilled guy naturally and that resonated with me a lot, made me feel like I was in safe hands etc. 

His accessibility post HT is better than I could have expected, with him proactively checking in and providing guidance on scab removal etc, and provided numerous meds as part of my aftercare package. In terms of ongoing meds; I take 1mg fin oral, 2.5mg min oral, and supplement on biotin, vit d, zinc, and omegas. Side effects are minimal and well managed overall.

All in all I’d highly recommend this guy if you want a doctor to complete the surgery but also don’t want to break the bank. He’s a great guy who clearly cares about his patients. People will probably knock me on this post / accuse me of being a bot but I’m sure I can verify myself by whatever appropriate means necessary if needed. 

In terms of the outcome, I’m very happy so far at the 5 month stage. I’m a bit of an anomaly here in that I like pulling my hair down / forward to form a fringe, rather than pulling it up / back. I was a bit worried about how this might look with transplanted hair but it seems to have come out to a level I’m very happy with. My hair looks like it did around 7 years ago! I’m 30 for reference. 

People also critique the no shave approach here a lot, but I actually found it much more manageable to have a bit of hair to work with in the ugly duckling phase! I think it also meant having a relatively normal head of hair was achieved slightly quicker compared to if id shaved it all off. 

Feel free to ask any questions, and thanks again Doctor Taner! 

2400 graft HT with Dr Taner Karahan