Turkey has become the hair transplant capital of the world. And it's part of a global boom in medical tourism. This episode was produced by Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Andrea Kristinsdottir and Rob Byers, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members Top view of a scalp after hair transplant surgery. Photo by ridvan_celik/Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Why are men traveling to Turkey for hair transplants?
Have you seen people on social media talking about going to Turkey? I'm going to Turkey, baby.
Thoughts on people going to Turkey for these hair implants?
Very, very good. Okay. Turkey is really, you know, I'm not a big fan of medical tourism. I was on Nightline talking about medical tourism, the dangers of medical tourism. But Turkey and hair transplants, they are. They know what they're doing.
There are five reasons why I chose Turkey for my hair transplants. Reason number one is, of course, price. Turkey is one of the cheapest places you can go to to get your hair transplant done.
Every single **** I know has gone to Turkey.
To get the transplant?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Like, RuPaul has this euphemism for dying, say, you know, so-and-so has left for Paris. And I say, well, she's gone to Turkey.
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Chapter 2: What are the reasons to choose Turkey for hair transplants?
Maybe it's Maybelline. Or maybe it's turkey. Okay, let's leave him alone. Let's talk less about Andrew Garfield and more about turkey because you wrote a great explainer for Vox.com about the whole turkey phenomenon. Why turkey?
So yeah, that's basically the question I wanted to know. What I found out is that it's a little bit of like a chicken and the egg. You sure it's not a turkey and an egg? A turkey and an egg, I guess. Basically what had happened was turkey had always kind of like this influx of good healthcare and that translates into a lot of like doctors that are practicing and a lot of like good infrastructure.
And what happened was those doctors started doing hair transplants and as it got more popular, all this word of mouth kind of grows and grows and people start going there and, like, start making turkey a destination. And, like, basically, turkey's hair transplants in Istanbul have become, like, synonymous with each other and it's just, like, a brand now.
I think, like, one of the things that's kind of fascinating is that this is the one...
procedure that like men have yeah and it's like okay well the men have this one thing they have this hair transplant and they're all going to turkey and i think like also one of like the weirdest things is that it's now being treated kind of like a bachelor party like all these places are very luxury they serve brunch uh they drive you around in mercedes benzes and like it's a luxury experience which feels more like vegas than a hair transplant
I am Adam Hurley. I've been a grooming journalist for about 13 years. I cover the men's beauty industry. I write about all things that might be cosmetics. They could be procedures, topicals, things like hair transplant. It's a big umbrella, but I try to cover it all as a generalist. The cost of a hair transplant is extremely expensive. Your insurance is not going to cover this.
And if you go to a place like Istanbul, you know, it has the reputation of being a hair mill. But that's to its benefit, too.
Exactly how large Istanbul's hair clinic industry is, is impossible to pin down.
actually is now Istanbul is seeing the capital of the hair transplants. There are hundreds of clinics across Turkiye that offer hair transplants, bringing in hundreds of thousands of mainly men from around the world each year.
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