The Patient Said
Honest Review to help anyone else:
I had a FUE operation done on the 31/03/16. I based my choice on clinicana because of the reviews on WhatClinic.com. I'm 26 years old from the UK. I would say I'm 111 Vertex on the norwood scale.
While Clinicana can't tell you how many grafts they can give you before hand, they promise to do as many as possible on the day, because every donor area and head size is different. Myself, they managed to harvest 5200 GRAFTS!!! That works out to be around 10,500 - 11,000 hair follicles which is a great yield! Especially in one session to do all of that.
Although, I might have to return in 1-3 years for a second operation depending on any further hair loss and how much thicker I might want my hair to be, but its difficult to say without waiting 12 months for these results. However I did send my post Op pictures to a FUE doctor in the UK who even said the job they did was a very clean and neat finish.
The procedure:
1) Night before I got taken to get my bloods done to screen for any HIV etc....
2) You meet with Mulham who takes care of any questions you have before or after, but he meets you in the hospital which is extremely clean and professional, more clean I would say than NHS standards we get in the UK. He gives you a bag with antibiotics and pain killers for after the procedure along with a head rest to sleep under and lotions & shampoo for when you go home.
3) You meet the doctor who outlines with a pen the desired shape and natural look
4) The nurse comes in for Local Anaesthetic (WARNING: Anyone thinking it will be painless needs to know about this) She starts injecting you along the front of your hairline and when the fluid is pushed in ow wow you do feel it, but that whole time takes around 5-10 mins tops. This will numb the whole area.
5) The nurse then starts to make prep the area where the transplanted grafts will go (punching in the micro holes) - Takes approx 45-50 Mins * Note: Some areas where the aesthetic didn't kick in you can feel a hole being punched so I would just lift my hand and say *PAIN* (Only happened about 5-10 times) she would add more so she was very good, and made it very efficient.
6) They sit you up and bring you in a spot of lunch which was very good, soup, meat, salad, rice, orange juice etc... (5-10 Mins to eat that)
7) The extracting of the grafts: (Time takes about 2 Hours) You are laid flat on your stomach, they hook you up to a intravenous for pain killer (I FELT NO PAIN FROM HERE ON IN) This was when the Doctor came in to extract the grafts with the nurses, I would say there was about 3 other nurses helping to take the grafts and prep them for implantation. The only thing that was a bit uncomfortable for me was Im not used to laying on my front, when I sleep I sleep on my sides, so having to lay on your front for 2 hours and not move was the only thing a bit uncomfortable but 1.5 Hours in I really needed water and they got me it no problem whatsoever.
8) The implantation of the grafts into the bald area: They flip you on your back at this point, the doctor left the room, a team of 4-5 nurses came in and implanted all the new hairs, 2 were preparing while the other 3 where all implanting the hairs like a needle and thread. While they were all speaking amongst each other in Turkish because they spoke no English (Doctor & a few speak English) they were very pleasant and it being such an intricate job there smaller hands were ideal to do it, the doctor would come in 2-3 more times after this to check on how the new translated procedure was going and then left me in there capable hands. (This implanting of the grafts took around 3 hours with 4-5 women doing it)
9) After they say not to bend down so they sit you up and help you put your clothes back on NOTE: Do not wear a T-shirt Better to wear a buttoned shirt or zip jacket because when you get back to the hotel you can't touch your scalp to not affect the grafts! So the back area of your head they bandage up but the top part they leave open.
10) Taxi Takes you to the hotel
11) Next day hotel taxi (Which is free) takes you back to the clinic, they then take the bandage off and wipe down the donor area and put a black head band around your head like one you would play tennis in. They do PRP Treatment, so they take your blood, 10-15 mins later they make the rich plasma and inject that into your scalp 10-15 mins (No Pain) this helps recovery by up to 70%!
12) Back to the hotel
13) Next morning back to the clinic via hotel taxi
14) They take off the head band and lotion the transplanted area, wash it, then shampoo it.... once done they give you a hat to wear back to the airport which is quite big so it doesn't touch the grafts like a big black surfers hat.
Value for money: The procedure lasted around 6-7 hours from start time to finish. and cost me £1700 including a 3 night hotel stay excluding flights which was around £150-200 return.
I hope this helps you guys (y) Good luck and all the best.
Start to finish:
1) Flight was smooth 3 hours
2) Airport pick up was pretty easy, arranged by clinicana all included in price, the guy took me straight to the hotel to take a blood test and then to the hotel (Naz city Hotel)
3) Hotel was very clean, bathroom and room was modern, better than your premier and holiday inns in the UK. I had room service after my ops because I didn't want to walk around like frankenstein and people seeing me, food was very nutritious and over the 3 nights having 3 meals with ordering bottles of water and juice etc... cost me around £50 check out time. (NOTE: you do not pay Naz city anything when you arrive you just check in and go to your room) Wifi was ok, It was a bit annoying when it logged me out a couple of times but not really a big deal. Room service says 24H but stops after 10pm so just note that if you want water etc... in the middle of the night.
4) Hotel taxis that were free were a good perk
5) Clinic is run by 3 very smart professional brothers 1 is front of house Mulham who answers your initial questions, the other is the Doctor who overseas all procedures and the last deals with the pharmaceutical side of things.
6) The only way I can downgrade this place by half a star was because of the final day. I was flying out very early 10:25am. They arranged a new nurse to open the place at 8am because it was a Saturday so they didn't open at that time to wash my hair, she turned up 15 mins late so I had to rush her along with my non speaking Turkish and then grabbed my hat went downstairs and the driver wasn't waiting for me, so I'm panicking like crazy, call naz city hotel who send a driver over to take me to the hotel, I get to the hotel (1 min from hospital drive round the corner) and the driver was waiting for me in the hotel instead of clinicana hospital. I did get my flight onetime I just wished that bit was synced up better.
That being said though, I still plan on going back for a second procedure probably when I'm 28-30. The are a great outfit, who look after your well being, they do over 100 procedures a month and are a well oiled machine.
£1700 for 5200 grafts? Where can you get that in the UK, ok people say its not as professional and places can be dodger, which is true. However, you get that anywhere in the world, I feel that the UK especially overprice there transplants and the cost does outlay people doing the operation. If I had to do 5200 grafts in the UK I'm looking at spending over £10,000! Thats why I'm not one to write reviews, but this is the kind of review I wanted to read before I left which is why I've taken this time to help you guys thinking of doing it. Best time to go is in the week, stay away from saturdays and weekends! Have no fear and take the plunge.
Best decision Ive made :)
Treated by: Mr Mulham Attar
