Odin on getting a hair transplant in Turkey

This episode comes from an older podcast, recorded some years ago. Methods, prices and clinics change, so some of what is said may be out of date today. They say as much themselves in the introduction, and it is worth bearing in mind.

Odin had started thinning on top. He went to Istanbul, lay on a table for eight hours, and came home with 4,300 new follicles and a bloodied scalp.

This is the whole trip, as he tells it.

Where the idea came from

It came from TikTok. Odin had been following the account Snusleppa, who had been through a hair transplant, and then did what few people do: he sent a message on Instagram and asked outright whether the clinic was any good. The answer was positive.

Then came a second tip, from someone at his university college, about a former student who had done the same. He met him on a night out, felt his hair, and concluded that it looked good.

Then he messaged the clinic and booked.

What he did not check

This is where the conversation is unusually honest, and it is one of the reasons it is worth hearing.

He booked the procedure without looking into the alternatives – and does not defend it.

What he had not checked: what it would have cost in Norway. Whether it should have been done in Norway. Whether he ought to have been on medication, ointments or creams beforehand. How the procedure even worked.
What he had: one positive message from one person on Instagram, and a look at one former student's hair on a night out.
Jan Sindre, who is thinning himself, had by contrast visited a clinic in Oslo and been given an assessment: he has "thin Nordic hair", a thick band around the sides and thinner on top, and was told a transplant would leave the top just as thin. Odin had never asked for that assessment.

Expectation and reality

He had made up his mind about three things beforehand. All three turned out wrong.

What he expected, and what happened

Before

The expectation

• He would be the only Norwegian doing this
• People at home would stare and comment
• The operation itself would be the painful part

After

The reality

• Someone from Sydney in the taxi, three Americans at the hotel, two Norwegians, a Dane and a Swede at the clinic
• Almost nobody said anything. Nobody said anything unkind
• The anaesthetic was worse than the procedure

The day at the clinic

The order, as he describes it. The third step is the one that hurts, and the sixth is the one most people do not know about.

Seven steps, one day

1. The paperworkA contract stating the result cannot be perfect and that the clinic will make an attempt. He did not read it properly, and asks rhetorically what the alternative was – not signing and flying home without hair.
2. Shaving and marking upThe head is shaved. The doctor draws where the hairline will sit, and he got a say in that.
3. The anaestheticAround 40–50 injections into the scalp. This is the part that hurts.
4. The channelsThe small openings at the front and back where the new follicles will go.
5. The extraction4,300 follicles taken from the band at the back and sides. Three people working at once.
6. The sortingThe follicles are laid out on a table and sorted by thickness and quality. The thickest go at the front, where hair shows most.
7. The implantationFour people with tweezers put them back, one at a time.

The procedure in numbers

One day, summarised

Measure	Figure
Follicles moved	4,300
Anaesthetic injections	around 40–50
Length of each session	1.5–2 hours
Total time on the table	6–8 hours
People working at once	3 during extraction, 4 during implantation
Days in Turkey	3 – the programme takes 2

The pain

This is the single most useful piece of information in the episode for anyone considering the same.

The painful part is not the operation. It is the first five minutes.

How he describes the anaesthetic: it did not feel like being injected, but like somebody standing behind him with a fork. His eyes watered. On his own scale he put it at eight out of ten – and adds the caveat himself straight away: it is his scale, and anyone who has been through worse would put a different number on it.
The rest: not painful. The head is numb, and you only feel that somebody is working up there. Afterwards he was stiff, but not in pain.

The rules for the first days

The list is longer than most people expect, and it starts the same evening.

What you are not allowed to do

Rule	Why
Sleep sitting up for a week	the head must not touch anything
Do not touch your head	the follicles need time to settle
No alcohol	part of the regime for the first days
No training	same
No bathing	same
Dedicated shampoo and creams	handed out by the clinic, with instructions

The timeline to the result

This is where the patience comes in, and where most people get alarmed along the way.

From procedure to final result

1. About one monthThe new hair falls out again, and then starts growing from the follicles. This is a normal part of the process, not a sign that something has gone wrong.
2. Four monthsThe first results should start to show.
3. Four to six monthsA full result, according to the clinic.
4. Twelve monthsBy now it should be good.
5. Eighteen monthsThe final result.

The aftercare

The clinic has its own follow-up team that keeps in touch over WhatsApp. He sends in photographs, they answer questions as they come up.

They have performed a procedure on my body. In a way that is going to change quite considerably. So it is good that they look after me afterwards.

He describes the clinic as sterile, clean and professional, and says the nurse he spoke to had taken an ordinary nursing degree, worked five years in a hospital, and then specialised at a hair clinic for two years.

What it cost

The arithmetic

Item	Amount
Package from the clinic	2,400 euros
Included in the package	procedure, hotel, transport, medication
He arranged himself	the flights
Total, with flights and food	around 35,000 kroner

The reactions back home

This is the part he had dreaded most, and the one that amounted to least.

People who knew him asked outright. People who did not wondered whether he had been in a fight – he was, after all, covered in blood. Somebody at a bar touched his head without asking, which he was not pleased about, though he understands the impulse: he had been looking forward to touching the new hair himself.

It was actually surprisingly little.

His reflection afterwards is that people stare at anything unusual – and that what he did turned out not to be so unusual after all.

What the conversation is really about

Towards the end the conversation turns, and this is where the episode becomes something other than a travel account.

The arithmetic is 35,000 kroner. What he describes buying is not primarily hair.

In his own words: he has been called endless things for thinning on top. He is the sort of person who laughs most things off – but in the end it stops being funny, because you go home and go to bed.
And concretely: he describes being taken for a lecturer at a student bar, in his twenties. Jan Sindre, who is at the start of the same thing, says he does not know what he will do – and that he has long said he would simply shave it all off.

That is the part that makes the episode worth hearing even if you will never set foot on a plane to Istanbul.

Neither Odin nor Jan Sindre is a professional in this field. Everything said is personal experience from one person’s procedure at one clinic, at one point in time. If you are considering something similar, talk to a qualified health professional first – and there are good options in Norway.

Main topics

• Where the idea came from, and what it rested on
• What he did not check before booking
• The expectations, and what actually met him
• The day at the clinic, step by step
• The procedure in numbers
• The pain – and where it actually sat
• The rules for the first days
• The timeline to the result
• The aftercare
• What it cost, all in
• The reactions back home
• What the conversation is really about

Questions this episode answers

• How does a hair transplant in Turkey work?
• How long does the procedure take?
• How much does it hurt?
• What does it cost, all in?
• What rules apply in the first days afterwards?
• How long before you see the result?
• What aftercare do you get?
• How do people around you react?
• What should you check before booking?

Key points

• Odin booked without checking what it would have cost in Norway, or what he should have done beforehand. He is open about that throughout.
• The procedure took between six and eight hours, split into sessions of an hour and a half to two hours.
• 4,300 follicles were taken out, sorted on a table and put back one at a time.
• The worst part was not the operation but the anaesthetic injections in the back of the head.
• The price was 2,400 euros for accommodation, transport, medication and the procedure – around 35,000 kroner including flights.
• The rules afterwards are strict: no alcohol, no training, no bathing, and sleeping sitting up for a week.
• The new hair falls out first, and starts growing back after about a month.
• The first result comes after four months. The final one after eighteen.
• He had braced himself for people staring. They barely did.
• The conversation ends where it really began: that this is as much about how you feel about yourself.