How one country has become a top destination for hair transplants

With hundreds of clinics specialized successful hairsbreadth transplants, Istanbul is simply a increasing hub successful nan industry, attracting group from each complete nan world. Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images

ISTANBUL — In a agleam session connected nan eastbound broadside of Istanbul, a man leans complete different man's scalp.

There's a marker successful his hand, and he's drafting thin, observant lines crossed nan cranium. It looks almost for illustration an creation class. Except nan canvas present is simply a quality head.

Dr. Mehmet Erdogan (no narration to Turkey's president) runs nan Smile Hair Clinic successful Istanbul, a sleek multistory analyzable that boasts a 90-95% hairsbreadth transplant occurrence rate. Since it opened successful 2018, nan session has been treating astir 5,000 patients each year. Most travel from abroad: astir a 3rd travel from nan United States alone.

"OK, I will tie according to what I urge to you," Erdogan says, arsenic nan pen squeaks against nan scalp of his patient, Justin R., a registered caregiver from California. Justin, successful his early 40s, didn't want NPR to usage his past sanction truthful that he could talk a backstage wellness attraction issue.

Hair transplants aren't caller — but suddenly, they're everywhere. And Turkey has go nan industry's unofficial capital.

The state now draws patients from crossed nan globe, lured by little costs, bundled recreation packages, and a increasing web of clinics. The consequence has been a booming caller industry, pinch important economical gain. But though nan process is mostly considered safe erstwhile carried retired by a skilled surgeon, nan industry's occurrence has prompted concerns astir imaginable risks and oversight.

For Justin, nan determination came down to dollars.

He told NPR his transplant, including airfare and lodging, costs him astir $3,400. He was fixed quotes for much than double that astatine clinics he reached retired to successful California.

In nan U.S., nan mean value for comparable procedures runs upwards of $13,000, according to a 2023 study published by nan American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Turkey has built an full manufacture connected that benignant of costs gap.

According to nan Turkish Health Tourism Association, astir 1 cardinal group traveled to nan country successful 2022 for hairsbreadth transplants alone, spending astir $2 billion.

Nationwide, wellness tourism brought successful moreover more: astir 2 cardinal aesculapian visitors successful 2024, generating adjacent to $3 billion, according to data from nan Turkish Health Ministry.

Walk done Istanbul's airports and you'll spot nan ads — smiling men pinch caller hairlines, clinics promising all-inclusive packages pinch hotels, airdrome transfers, translators, moreover sightseeing.

The hidden risks

Not each communicative ends pinch a cleanable hairline.

The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery has flagged concerns astir alleged "black marketplace clinics," wherever unlicensed practitioners execute delicate procedures aliases unreserved done aggregate patients a day. The aesculapian relation says it has received reports of outcomes ranging from botched hairlines to infections and scarring.

Glen Jankowski, a scientist astatine University College Dublin and writer of forthcoming book Branding Baldness, warns location are besides aesculapian risks that spell beyond nan beingness results.

"It's really important that, particularly nan hairsbreadth follicles, you aren't doing excessively overmuch harvesting successful 1 session," he explains. "It does person an effect connected your humor pressure. It really is important that medically trained group are doing it — and sometimes that's not nan case."

Jankowski besides says that patients are sometimes pushed onto medications for illustration minoxidil aliases finasteride without afloat consent. "Those narcotics tin person important broadside effects," he says. "You should only return them pinch due aesculapian proposal and informed consent."

The Turkish Health Ministry has pledged stricter oversight and much inspections. Still, critics opportunity nan sheer number of clinics — immoderate estimates put it astatine 5,000 successful Istanbul unsocial — makes enforcement difficult.

The societal media effect

So why do truthful galore men motion up? It's not conscionable nan savings. Or nan vanity.

It's psychology — and TikTok.

"Most group interest astir hairsbreadth nonaccomplishment sloppy of their existent hairsbreadth count, because nan advertizing is truthful beardown astir it," says Jankowski.

At nan Smile Hair Clinic, nan waiting room tells this very story. A elephantine surface loops TikTok and Instagram reels from happy clients, swiping their hands complete caller hairlines. "Five months agone I flew to Istanbul," 1 man boasts. "Best determination ever."

Social media has turned nan transplant into a manner upgrade. It's a makeover to flaunt, not hide. And nan much men show disconnected their results, nan much normal nan room feels.

A fewer months aft his operation, NPR checked successful pinch Justin R. He says he feels younger, much assured — and grateful he didn't person to walk doubly arsenic overmuch backmost home.

Doctors for illustration Erdogan opportunity astir patients consciousness nan same. But he besides admits nan unreserved of clinics and customers has created a "Wild West" atmosphere, wherever it's up to patients to do their homework.

Of course, not everyone signs up.

Jankowski, nan psychologist, has chosen different route.

"The hairsbreadth we transportation connected apical of our heads, we deliberation it's really meaningful. It's not," he says. "[My hair] doesn't clog my ablution anymore. It doesn't autumn into my porridge. There's a beauty and contented to [hair loss] we're unluckily losing."

For some, that's nan safer and cheapest prime of each — shave it disconnected and move on.