Gallery: Behind the Scenes of Turkey's $1B Hair Transplant Industry
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A surgeon measures a patient's head to map where the hair will be grafted before shaving him completely.
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Doctor Yeliz Parlatici (right) and an Arabic-Turkish interpreter examine Ehsan Albalushi's head before the operation. Ehsan, from Barhain, previously underwent a hair transplant surgery in Istanbul a year ago but it was not successful.
Emanuele Satolli03Doctor Yeliz Parlatici and a nurse are shaving a patient before the operation.
Doctor Yeliz Parlatici and a nurse shave a patient's head before the operation.
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Two nurses harvest a patient's roots from the thickest hair growth zone. The number of harvested roots is about 4,000.
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Ali Adnan Qassim from Iraq checks the pictures he took during graft extraction. The lines on his head indicate the number of roots to be transplanted into each section.
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A doctor injects Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) in the patient's head. PRP is a concentrated blood plasma that can stimulate hair follicle growth.
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Nurses graft hair follicles onto the patient's bald area. The roots have been extracted from the back of the man's scalp and are being transplanted one by one into the small holes previously created on the front of his head. The entire operation takes between eight and 10 hours.
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Ehsan Albalushi, from Barhain, after the surgery. Eshan already underwent a hair transplant surgery in Istanbul a year ago but it was not successful.
Emanuele Satolli09A nurse is harvesting grafts from a patient's scalp.
A nurse harvests grafts from a patient's scalp.
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A nurse arranges grafts harvested from a patient's head. The total number of harvested grafts is about 4.000.
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An Arabic-Turkish interpreter records a video of the first shampoo treatment after the operation. The video explains to patients how to care for their head after they arrive home.
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Doctor Yeliz Parlatici applies a moisturizing lotion on Ehsan Albalushi's head. Two days after the operation the patient gets his first shampoo treatment at the clinic.
Emanuele Satolli13Some patients who have undergone the operation are waiting to see the doctor.
Patients wait to see the doctor after undergoing the operation.
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A man who has recently undergone the hair transplant operation walks around the Istanbul city center.
