“Good evening! Today I have a great question. Dimitris from Filothei asks me: ‘Doctor, I’m thinking of going to Turkey for a transplant, what’s your opinion?’ Go—it’s wonderful. Especially if you go to Istanbul, don’t forget to try kazandibi, visit Hagia Sophia, and take a trip on the Bosphorus—it’s perfect for an excursion.
But now, seriously, let me tell you this: in Istanbul there are about 700 hair transplant clinics. Of those, fewer than half (around 300) are officially registered, and an unknown number aren’t even registered at all. Out of those 300, only 33 belong to doctors who are members of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS)—and even in those 33, I don’t know whether the doctors themselves actually perform the surgeries.
So, your chances of ending up in one of those 33 clinics—if you just go randomly—are very small. However, you can visit the International Society’s website, ishrs.org, and check which doctors in Istanbul are accredited, and even email them to ask if they perform the surgeries themselves. In the clinics where the doctors do operate personally, the prices are actually higher than having the same procedure done by a doctor in Greece with equivalent credentials.
Think about it: Turkey isn’t famous for anything—except maybe its cuisine—and suddenly in recent years it’s presented as the Mecca of hair transplants. Why is that?
The Germans, for example, are known for their engineering. Americans are known for their technology. If someone says, ‘I’m going to Germany to study or to do something related to engineering,’ that makes sense. In Turkey, the only reason hair transplants have become so popular is because of the low cost. And that low cost comes down to one single reason—98% of the procedures are not performed by doctors.
So, if you don’t care whether you’re operated on by a doctor, or a nurse, or literally—even a seamstress (since it’s been shown that seamstresses can quickly learn to handle tiny FUE grafts, with whatever results you might expect from a seamstress compared to a trained doctor)—then go to Turkey. It will cost you less than it would with a good doctor in Greece, and you’ll also get to see Istanbul, which really is a dream.”
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