Aek Hair Institute Hair Transplant Clinic in Turkey

The reason for this review is that after 8 days of my surgery, once all the swelling subsided, I noticed significant gaps in the transplanted hair. I decided to consult a doctor in the UK, who revealed that only 3000 to 3500 grafts were transplanted. This is the number typically done in a single day. I had paid extra for a two-day surgery, expecting up to 7000 grafts, harvesting from the back of my head, beard, chest, and back. Despite having enough hair on my chest and beard, a limited number of grafts were harvested, resulting in poor-quality transplantation.

I did extensive research to ensure I selected a reputable clinic for my hair transplant surgery, aiming specifically for a doctor's clinic rather than a dubious establishment. I chose AEK Hair Clinic because it is owned by Dr. Ali Emre Karadeniz, who is certified by the ABHRS and a fellow of ISHRS. However, my experience was far from what I expected, and I am deeply disappointed.

Despite choosing a doctor-led clinic, Dr. Ali Emre Karadeniz showed minimal interest in my procedure. He spent less than two minutes discussing the process with me. He arrived after the harvesting had already begun, said a few sentences, and drew lines on my head. During those two minutes, he told me it was impossible to achieve maximum coverage due to my advanced hair loss and recommended only covering two-thirds of my scalp. He was convinced that no matter where the hair was harvested from, more coverage was not feasible. This was a stark contrast to the initial consultation with the sales representative, who assured me that due to my advanced hair loss, a mega session over two days would be performed, including FUE with body hair transplant.

During the surgery, Dr. Karadeniz mentioned he would only take hair from my beard, not my chest. I had to request him to include hair from my chest, explaining this was my last chance after two previous surgeries. He reluctantly agreed to harvest a small portion from my chest as a favour. After those two minutes, Dr. Karadeniz did not check on me or the progress of the surgery, even on the last day. His interest seemed to vanish once the payment was made.

What was supposed to be a two-day surgery turned into only 1.5 days, as they did not maximize the available hair harvesting. It appears Dr. Karadeniz instructed the technicians to limit the hair harvested. While I have no complaints about the technicians, who were kind and helpful, Dr. Karadeniz’s involvement was less than 1%—limited to drawing four lines on my head and nothing more. This made me feel that choosing an expensive clinic like AEK was pointless, as the doctor’s role was negligible. It would have been better to choose a clinic with experienced technicians at a lower cost.

In my previous surgery in India, although technicians performed most of the work, the doctor was still involved in critical tasks like making channels for insertions. Moreover, Dr. Karadeniz claimed that chest hair is not sustainable for transplant. If that is the case, why was I promised FUE + body hair transplant beforehand, and why does their website state they perform BHT with FUE for patients with limited donor areas? It felt like once the payment was secured, Dr. Karadeniz lost interest in my surgery and rushed to complete it, possibly because two more surgeries were scheduled on the same day. This clinic operates more like a money-making business with little regard for patient care.

Lastly, I was told they would use the DHI technique for my surgery. However, during the procedure, I found out they were performing a standard FUE technique because DHI is not recommended for body hair transplants. This discrepancy should have been communicated to me beforehand, as they knew it would be a two-day surgery with BHT. They charged me for the more expensive DHI technique but only performed the cheaper FUE procedure.

In conclusion, my experience with AEK Hair Clinic was extremely disappointing. Dr. Karadeniz’s minimal involvement and the clinic's misleading practices have left me feeling deceived and dissatisfied. I would not recommend AEK Hair Clinic to anyone considering a hair transplant. Save your money and go to a clinic where the doctor is genuinely involved, or opt for experienced technicians at a more affordable price.
 

I had my operation this week (Nov 2019).
I had invested significant time doing research searching for a clinic with good practices and a reliable reputation. So after watching Dr. K's videos on YouTube and reading all the good critics here (particularly from other Brits) I decided to go for this clinic and pay an extra €500 to have the operation with some involvement of Dr K before and during the op (the other alternative was paying €1300, but seeing a lesser known doctor helped by his technicians). Overall, I am very disappointed with the choice (I cannot judge on how the hair will grow yet). But let me start by mentioning the good things:

-Hygienic environment, all very careful.
-All the staff was friendly (both the technicians that did all the job, as well as Sacha, the photographer and greeter/pick-up-man, I really appreciated his encouragement).
- Dr K was offered a more realistic implant, looking at long term and insisted on not overharvesting.
-The hotel was amazing and literally next door (also by a nice shopping centre).
-Ömer offered me a third hotel night as a treat.

Things that I did not like:
- I had paid the extra amount to get Dr Karadeniz somehow involved BEFORE and DURING the operation, but he DID NOT SHOW UP even for a single minute. (I only saw him for 15 min the day before the op, he draw on my head and that's it!) If you watch his videos (even the aftercare videos) he always talks in first person singular, as if he were directly performing it (especially, at the beginning, where he even appears shaving a patient's hair, which I even found unnecessary when I watched the video). I understand that doctors will not be present for the entire 6 hours that lasted the op (no clinic does that, and Dr K is kind of honest about it, which is fine). However, I had only two technicians doing everything (actually, one was on her own for 40% of the time), which is a practice even Dr K denounces and accuses other clinics of doing. Basically I waited for the 6 hours of the op, for some doctor to show up, but the only doctor ever being in that room was me (a Doctor of Philosopy :) ). I complained about this to staff, but they gave contradictory versions: some said Dr K's direct participation was not included in my package (which is not true); the technicians said Dr K was busy at another room performing another op (then, why did I book that day?); or they said that the doctor was probably looking through the camera (though the operation desk light would have been covering the alleged camera for most of the time). As an ethical or at least orthodox practitioner, he should have shown up during the extraction or at least at the very end to check that everything had been performed successfully. Absolutely nothing. When I complained to the sales manager, Ömer, he tried to gaslight me and was very rude and hostile (I must admit that as a result I also replied not on my best tone of voice, but he kept being disrespectful and I had to leave the room). And obviously, did not get any of the difference I had paid back.

-The day of the operation there were 5 people. This is a small clinic, so as a rule of thumb (by reading a lot in other forums) no clinic (unless is big) should take more than 3 ops a day.  As a result ended up having only one and a half technicians, so it does matter. This is a common practice in  (many) other seedy clinics, which Dr K so strongly criticises.

- This is a bit of a minor issue. I was promised painless anaesthesia (and many higher-end clinics often offer what they call "needle-free anaesthesia"), but far from truth. I got more than 20 very painful injections on my scalp (and even the technician warned that some of them were going to be painful). When I complained about this Ömer also tried to gaslight me and said that 95% of the patients don't experience any pain (that's why it's "painless"; and thus I was apparently part of a weird minority) and that they never ever promised a needle-free anaesthesia. Just for you to be aware of it. There are going to be needles for the first 30-40 mins (and right before the implant) and they are going to hurt. The rest is fine.

-Some sort of post-op report would have been nice; at least telling me how many hairs (not "grafts", given Dr K's animadversion towards that concept) I had been implanted or that the operation had been successful. I was not given any information on the amount of implants and the success rate at all (even orally).

-They strongly encourage you to pay cash, which point to some dubious tax policy.

-As most clinics (as far as I can read from other reviews), before the op they test the patients for Hep B & C and HIV, which I find stigmatising for people living with such conditions. Staff should be trained to deal with any patient regardless their immunology by taking preventive measures.

In sum, I cannot judge the quality of the job yet (it looks okay to me, and Dr K's approach seemed realistic). Nevertheless, I cannot give a good rating given the strong dissonance between what they offer and the real experience. Not a terrible clinic, but you can probably get the same experience for less somewhere else (or at least, save you some money from the "extra package" that includes Dr K's involvement).