If there is one cosmetic treatment most people associate with Turkey, it is hair transplants.
You can’t miss the memes on social media of men flying back from Istanbul Airport with bandages and headbands - a sign of their recent treatment.
Hair transplants have become so popular even the national airline has been jokingly renamed from Turkish Airlines to Turkish Hairlines.
Around one million people came to Turkey and spent approximately $2 billion on hair transplants last year, according to the head of the Turkish Health Tourism Association who spoke to Anadolu Agency.
You might think the people contributing to Turkey’s thriving baldness tourism industry would be those of a slightly older demographic but your assumption is not entirely true.
One scroll through TikTok and you’ll see the treatment is popular among us lot - people in their twenties.
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“So this was my shocking hairline at the beginning of the year and in April I decided to go to Istanbul, Turkey, to get it sorted” explains one TikToker who had the treatment at the age of 21.
Another TikToker who had a hair transplant in Turkey said: “Getting my hairline back compared to where it was before and finally being able to do the hairstyles that I enjoy doing and not wearing stupid hats all the time, it is making me happier.”
In our recent investigation, we spoke to two women in their early twenties who went under the knife in Turkey.
Now, in our latest YouTube video, we delve into the world of hair transplants. We spoke with a doctor and a hair transplant patient who travelled to Istanbul for the procedure.
Dr Kerim Benan works at Vera Clinic, a medical tourism company offering hair transplants in Turkey. He spoke to The News Movement about the growing number of younger patients going abroad for treatments.
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He said: “For example we have 13 patients today, more than half of them are below 30 years old.
“Recently, especially during the COVID-19 [pandemic] and after, almost all of our patients are foreign patients and the demand is increasing all the time.”
Dr Benan added: “If a patient is suffering from hair loss and hair thinning sometimes the self confidence gets altered a bit.”
A hair transplant patient, who did not want to be named, told TNM: “I just wanted to improve my looks…
“In Japan it’s so famous to do surgery in Turkey because of price and quality… We have a good choice to get surgery in Turkey - maybe it's three times cheaper than [in] Japan.”
You can watch the new video on The News Movement’s YouTube channel here.