Hairy!

November 15th, 2025| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

National Public Radio (NPR) reported on an interesting phenomenon the other day: Istanbul, Turkey, is the mecca for hair! It is now a growing hub in the hair-replacement industry, attracting then bald and hair-challenged from all over the world.

With a marker in his hand, and Dr. Mehmet Erdogan (not related to Turkey’s president) is carefully drawing thin lines across Justin’s cranium. It looks almost like an art class. Except the canvas here is Justin’s head.

Erdogan runs the Smile Hair Clinic in Istanbul, a sleek multistory complex that boasts a 90–95% hair transplant success rate. Since 2018, the clinic has been bestowing hair upon 5,000 patients every year.

Reported NPR:

Turkey now draws patients from across the globe, lured by lower costs and a growing network of clinics. The result has been a booming new industry, with significant economic gain.”

For Justin, a registered nurse from California, 40, the decision came down to dollars, and he decided to take his custom to Istanbul’s Smile Hair Clinic.

My transplant, including airfare and lodging, cost about $3,400. I was given quotes for more than double that at clinics that I reached out to back home.

$13,000 or more in the U.S, according to a 2023 study published by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

NPR:

Turkey has built an entire industry on that kind of cost gap. According to the Turkish Health Tourism Association, around 1 million people traveled to the country in 2022 for hair transplants alone, spending about $2 billion. Nationwide, health tourism brought in even more: about 2 million medical tourists in 2024, generating close to $3 billion, according to data from the Turkish Health Ministry.”

The moment you arrive in Istanbul, the advertising is everywhere. Walk through the airport and you’ll see the ads—smiling men (yeah, mostly men) with freshly sprouting hairlines, promoting clinics, and … all-inclusive packages offering everything: hotels, airport transfers, translators, even sightseeing! Come see Turkey and get more hair!

Of course, as with most things in life, there might be problems. The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery has flagged concerns about so-called “black market clinics,” with unlicensed practitioners performing delicate procedures and rushing through multiple patients a day. The association has received reports of outcomes ranging from botched hairlines to infections and scarring.

The Turkish Health Ministry has pledged stricter oversight and more inspections. Still, critics say the sheer number of clinics—some estimates put it at 5,000 in Istanbul alone—makes enforcement difficult.

A few months after his transplants, NPR checked in with Justin.

I feel younger, more confident—and I’m grateful I didn’t have to spend twice as much back home.”

All good, but some things, even though they number abundant as does hair on the scalps of those blessed with it, aren’t:

You, Yahweh, do not restrain Your compassion from me; ….
For evils beyond count have surrounded me;
my iniquities have overtaken me, and I am not able to see—
more numerous than the hairs of my head—and my heart has forsaken me.
Be pleased, Yahweh, to rescue me; Yahweh, to my help, hurry.
Psalm 40:11–13

Like sins and … enemies:

Deliver me, God, for the waters have gone in, [up] unto my neck. …
More than the hairs of my head are those hating me without a cause;
powerful are those destroying me—my enemies, falsely;
what I did not plunder, I then have to restore.
Psalm 69:1, 4

Less of these “hairy” situations, the better. And … go to God (not to Istanbul) for help!

SOURCE: NPR