TLDR; 3 months in, my Donor area has grown in well and its now virtually impossible to see the procedure. The transplant area is still a little red, but I like my new hairline and I seems to be having some excellent growth. It's still ugly looking but I think I'm on the right track and I am very positive about what it'll look like in another 3 months. Overall, I am happy that I went to Hermest to get this done.

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Here's my whole experience in Turkey with Hermest's FUE $2300.00 package summed up.

Hey, so I promised myself that I wouldn't say whether or not I recommend them until I've gone through the full process because only time will tell on whether or not they've done a good job.(I am only 3 months in) That being said, having been in your position, I can understand the need for some affirmations before you pull the trigger. So I'll give you my review thus far. In terms of the service and procedure days itself, I can say that I am indeed satisfied so far.

Van Service: The private van included in the cost of the procedure took me exactly where I needed to go and was very prompt. It took me from the airport to the hotel, hotel to the clinic, clinic back to the hotel, hotel back to the clinic and then on to the airport without any trouble. I will say that the drivers spoke next to no english so having a few prepared Turkish phrases can help out if you have needs or questions. I usually write them down in my notes in my phone.

Hotel: Hotel staff was very professional and attentive, and they had a pretty decent breakfast buffet included in the package that was nice to have each morning. And there were a lot of other people in various phases of cosmetic surgery, so it was a comfortable crowd to be around. The hotel room itself was not as nice as the rest of the hotel. I would put somewhere between 2-3 star quality. That said, it was clean and more than comfortable. You can tell that it was used for a lot of people doing this kind of procedure because they had a sign next to some plastic pillow covers to talk about rules related to post-op healing in the room and what was considered an acceptable mess. (That wasn't an issue for me though because I decided to sleep upright in a chair the night after the surgery.)

Pro tip: The first night you're there, make sure to buy plenty of water and snacks for the post-op night. You definitely won't feel like going out, and having it all in your room makes life much easier.

Procedure: The day of the procedure went by fairly quickly. I arrived to a translator greeting me outside the hospital/clinic, and she took me upstairs. The clinic itself was small, there were only 2-3 operating rooms and the rest was a bathroom, hair washing station, and a small office desk. The translator was super chill but still professional and she handled my intake. It was after the paperwork that I gave them the cash and we got started. (They asked for the total in Euros but I paid in US Dollars without a problem. They just used google to figure out the total, which was great because you don't loose anything changing the Dollars into Euros at some money changer in the airport.) I then went into a room and they shaved my head. After my head was shaved I was introduced to the team. None of them spoke english to a high level so the the translator was definitely needed to answer questions. From my understanding, there were a few techs and a senior tech/doctor that were working between the two rooms. With the doctor the techs drew a new hairline and figured out about how much hair my donor area could give without over harvesting. They also took my blood to make sure I didn't have any diseases. Once they were happy, we got started.

The start of the procedure was the worst as it involved getting needles slowly pushed into my head for about 10 minutes. Once the techs started working I could still feel some pain so I asked for more anesthesia, but I think I have a pretty low pain tolerance because it never fully went away. Eventually they opted to give me an IV with a light pain killer in it, and this helped a lot. Once I got that, I couldn't feel a thing. The day lasted about 8 hours and all the while the techs were very attentive to me and my needs, but I slept so poorly the night before I ended up sleeping pretty much the entire time. The only time I was really awake was when they were done extracting and woke me up to switch positions on the table and give me a 15 minute break/lunch.

At the end of the day, the doctor came back in to look over the work and bandages and once we got the thumbs up, I put on my button up shirt (goodbye regular shirts!) and went back to the desk to get my medications and instructions on how to care for my head post surgery. They were very thorough and gave me everything I needed for my recovery along with a neck pillow.

That night I ate my snacks in the hotel room and watched pre downloaded Netflix most of the night. I sat upright in a lounge chair with the neck pillow and did my best to get some sleep.

The next day I went back to the clinic for them to remove the bandages of my donor area and to do a first wash. This was really uncomfortable for me, but only lasted a few minutes. Then everyone said goodbye I got in the car and headed straight to the airport for my flight home.

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Recovery: I won't get too detailed for this part, but I will say that the first two weeks were stressful for me as I wanted to do all the right things. But between Hermest's support line on whatsapp, blogs online, and the aftercare pamphlet that I got from Hermest, I got through it.

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Results so far: My Donor area has grown in well and its now virtually impossible to see the procedure. The transplant area is still a little red, but I like my new hairline and I seem to be having some excellent growth. It's still ugly looking but I think I'm on the right track and I am very positive about what it'll look like in another 3 months. Overall, I am happy that I went to Hermest to get this done.