After talking to the team at Diamond Hair Clinic via Whatsapp, I decided to travel to Istanbul for them to do my Sapphire Fue hair transplant with Dr Mehmet Demircioglu in August this year. I chose this surgeon because he personally carries out this operation on only one patient per day, he seemed professional and the team were really helpful and answered my questions whatever time of day I asked. I just had a really good feeling about them. The team arranged the hotel for me and my partner to stay at as well as transportation to and from both the airport and clinic. The hotel we stayed in was nice and very clean which is important given that we visited in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. The drivers contacted me personally before each journey to introduce themselves and let me know what time they would be picking me up as well as sending pictures of their car so I knew I'd be getting in the right one. On the day of the operation I was picked up from the hotel by my driver at 7:45 and taken to the clinic. This is when I had my first face to face consultation with Dr Mehmet which lasted almost an hour. Here we discussed how I wanted my hairline to look and he drew a natural looking hairline on to check I was happy with it. Dr Mehmet evaluated the donor area that he was going to take the hair from and decided that he was going to increase the number of grafts to 5500 - this was a high number for a one session operation but he did this to give me better coverage and provide high density. He also explained all the stages of the procedure to me and made me feel welcome and at ease, but more importantly he made me feel safe. From here he shaved off my hair ready for the procedure to start. Two of the nurses on Dr Mehmet's team did the first stage of the procedure where they extracted hair from the donor area to be implanted later. The doctor then made the incisions himself using the sapphire blade as agreed (this was the important bit!) and the nurses then came back to implant the grafts. During this time Dr Mehmet came in numerous times to check that I was ok. Because I am from the UK and was having an operation in a foreign country it really put me at ease that the doctor spoke really good English as I felt like he understood exactly what I was saying. Even though this was a big operation there was virtually no pain throughout. I went back 2 days later (after my rest day) for Dr Mehmet to check the progress and also carry out my first hair wash. Again this transport was arranged by the clinic for me. When I was there he showed me the different shampoos/creams etc and explained how I should be using them and for how long. He gave me his personal number so that I could ask him any questions I had after my operation. For the first 10 days after the operation I sent him progress pictures after each wash so he could see how I was getting on. Now I am sending him one set of pictures per week. He has always come straight back to me and answered my questions.