The most frequent automated information alerts from Google that I’ve recieved over the previous ten years are about hair transplants in Turkey. Most of those articles nonetheless chorus from utilizing the nation’s new title “Türkiye”.
I nearly renamed this put up to “Turkish Hairlines” after studying the next quote in a current Forbes article on hair transplants in Turkey:
“The national flag carrier Turkish Airlines is jokingly called “Turkish Hairlines” and the (Istanbul) airport is plastered with hair transplant commercials.”
A video on TikTok that showed this phenomenon in a Turkish Airlines airplane went viral in 2022.
Turkish Hair Transplant Industry Worth $2 Billion
According to TRT World, the Turkish Health Tourism Association head introduced that:
The Turkish hair transplant tourism trade was price $2 billion in 2022. Moreover, a million sufferers from overseas obtained hair transplants in Türkiye (previously Turkey) in 2022.
The above numbers are in all probability estimated and have a large error margin. However, if correct, the typical price of a hair transplant in Türkiye would then come out to be $2,000. Dirt low cost by western requirements, even when every transplant solely consisted of 1,000-2,000 grafts on common.
The a million hair transplant affected person depend estimate simply in Turkey clearly signifies that the ISHRS information is completely off. The latter estimates their world whole primarily based on member surveys which can be then extrapolated. My intestine feeling is that the Turkish quantity is loads nearer to the reality.
Now the Japanese and Africans are Coming
When it involves hair transplant tourism, Türkiye has all the time benefited from its proximity to Europe and the Middle East. The price of a hair transplant in Türkiye is lower than half what you’d discover in Western Europe or Dubai. More surprisingly, in recent times, hair loss victims from as distant as Japan and sub-saharan Africa have strarted to come back to Turkey.
- An rising variety of Japanese sufferers have began getting hair transplants in Türkiye per Nikkei, benefitting from a good change fee as a result of weak Turkish Lira. According to 1 individual quoted within the article: “The price of a hair transplant in Istanbul is one-sixth of that in Japan and one-half of that in South Korea.”
- A current article in the Jersusalem Post coated how Turkey is changing into the go-to vacation spot for Israelis wanting hair restoration proecedures. Among the explanations cited included affordability, medical experience, superior know-how and security measures. Besides the low price, all of those will signficantly fluctuate relying on clinic in fact.
- Another current article in Essence coated a clinic the place 30 % of sufferers have been from Africa. Note that the kinkier and curlier African hair necessitates going to a surgeon who’s skilled in transplanting that sort of ethnic scalp hair grafts.
Unfortnately, the great largely constructive publicity for Turkey’s low-cost hair transplant tourism trade has additionally resulted in lots of of subpar unregistered hair transplant clinics in Turkey. In the same method to what you see in India the place each good and unhealthy high quality proliferates quickly. Make certain to learn my posts on hair transplant overseas and hair transplant gone flawed.
Quality Clinics
Do observe that there are dozens of high quality clinics in Türkiye. Some of them impress me tremendously with what they present on social media. Some appear to have nice opinions, but additionally look like factories with quite a few physicians shifting alongside at breakneck pace.
Some of the work that impressed me embrace this recent video from ASMED and Dr. Koray Erdogan. Another surgeon named Dr. Emrah Çinik appears to have a big on-line following and stellar opinions.
Among the bigger clinics with many surgeons, Hair of Istanbul has over 4 million followers on Instagram. Cosmedica and Smile Clinic each have over 1 million followers. Vera Clinic has 400,000 followers. For no matter that form of statistic is price in your opinion in fact.
All the respected surgeons ought to have the ability to carry out the extra well-liked follicular unit extraction (FUE) process, although some nonetheless would possibly provide the strip process if most popular.
Thousands of Unmonitored Hair Transplant Clinics in Türkiye
Suppose 1 million foreigners actually do get a hair transplant in Türkiye every year; and suppose that every hair transplant clinic within the nation performs a loopy excessive 1,000 procedures per yr; you’d then nonetheless have 1,000 hair transplant clinics being current within the nation. Most probably there are no less than a number of thousand hair transplant clinics in Türkiye. And I might not be shocked if the bulk are unmonitored and perhaps even unregistered.
Even extra stunning:
- On the ISHRS website, there are at present solely 16 Turkish surgeons listed as members. Note that the ISHRS has round 1,000 hair transplant surgeon members from internationally. So it’s not that tough to get on their checklist.
- On the IAHRS website, there are at present 6 Turkish surgeons listed as members.
- The Turkish society of Hair Restoration Surgeons was supposedly established on March 1st, 2020. However, I don’t see any web site for the group that lists surgeon member names.
So it’s completely crucial that you just conduct thorough analysis earlier than going to Turkey for a hair transplant. Even if many of the 1 million individuals who go there every year fail accomplish that and take a serious gamble with their long-term look. Do not do what GQ writer Alex Hawkins did (even when he obtained fortunate and ended up glad):
“I flew to Turkey and visited a clinic the place a vaguely mysterious physician lower 4,250 holes in my head.“
