Dr. Kaan Pekiner – Biographical Notes
Dr. Kaan Pekiner was born in Ankara in 1982. He completed primary and secondary school in his hometown and then enrolled in Gulhane Military Medical Academy. He graduated in medicine and surgery in 2006 and entered service as a medical officer for the Turkish Army. He finished his experience as a military doctor in 2009, discharging himself from the army and deciding to focus his career on hair transplantation with FUE technique. Since 2009, Dr. Kaan has been gaining experience and expertise in some of the most reputable clinics in Turkey for manual FUE hair transplantation.
Here is the direct link to the surgeon’s facility: https://bit.ly/3mEkWfx
He works as a physician assistant for Dr. Keser’s clinic. In 2011, he was hired at HairLine Clinic in Ankara as one of the operating surgeons for the manual FUE technique. Thanks to these experiences, Dr. Kaan acquires skills and familiarity on different types of cases: dense pack for hairline reconstruction, front, mid scalp and crown reconstruction with replica of the spiral or double spiral vertex design, reconstruction or reinforcement of eyebrows, moustache and beard, body hair transplantation (BHT), FUE for female baldness, long hair FUE. Over the course of his work experience, Dr. Kaan has personally performed more than 500 procedures via manual FUE.
After working with manual FUE for 7 years at various facilities, the doctor decided to open his own clinic in 2017, also in the city of Ankara.
Dr. Kaan Pekiner’s international experience
Dr. Kaan Pekiner is a member of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery – ISHRS – the most important international organization that brings together the world’s leading surgeons in the field of hair transplantation. Website https://www.ishrs.org/users/drkaanpekiner
The ISHRS organizes regular international meetings all over the world. During the annual congress held in Las Vegas in 2016, Dr. Kaan conducted a lecture on manual FUE that was open to all doctors attending the event. Also in 2016, at a meeting on the topic of FUE, organized by the FUE Europe Organization in Brussels, he performed live FUE surgery in front of the attending surgeons. The meeting focused specifically on transplanting grafts extracted from the beard via manual FUE.
Dr. Kaan attends annual congresses and meetings organized by the international FUE associations: ISHRS, FUE Europe Organization and World FUE Institute, so he is always up-to-date on the latest developments in the world of hair transplantation.
Dr. Pekiner and his philosophy on transplantation.
Dr. Kaan performs an entirely manual FUE using specific punches for extractions, varying in diameter from 0.6 to 0.9 millimeters, depending on the type of follicular unit to be extracted, and an instrument equipped with a special fine-tipped needle for incisions and grafts. The technique used to implant hair is “stick and place”. This procedure involves inserting the extracted graft (or follicular unit) into the recipient’s canal immediately after the incision is made. This results in the least amount of bleeding and the incision does not have time to shrink, allowing the doctor to make custom tiny incisions without having to account for shrinkage.
Dr. Kaan personally performs each step of the self-transplantation (extractions, incisions and grafts), while assistants handle secondary and ancillary tasks such as collecting and rearranging the extracted grafts or managing the petri dishes.
A maximum of 1500 grafts are transplanted in a single day of surgery, for a maximum total of 3 consecutive days. Thus, a surgery session with the doctor includes approximately 4500 grafts as a limit. For cases that require more grafts, two different sessions should be scheduled.
SERVICES OFFERED BY THE CLINIC
Over the course of his career, Dr. Kaan has specialized in several procedures to be performed via manual FUE:
Dense packing, or high density transplantation for hairline reconstruction.
Dr. Kaan is able to visually replicate high density by grafting up to 70 grafts per square centimeter. This is usually the maximum density achievable and recommended for a fine or medium/fine hair type. For thicker hair, an average density of 60 or even 50 grafts per square centimeter may be sufficient and more logical. It must be kept in mind that the goal to be achieved is to recreate one or more areas of hair that are visually dense in appearance, where the stems are almost indistinguishable from each other, forming a kind of “wall” when they are lifted. This aesthetic yield also depends on the caliber and type of hair, so grafting large follicular units at too high a density can be counterproductive as the microcirculation may not be sufficient to ensure the rooting and regrowth of all the implanted follicles, as well as not being useful on a purely visual level.
Based on his experience, Dr. Kaan decides which average density, usually between 50 and 70 grafts per square centimeter, is ideal for each case of dense packing.
Front, mid scalp and crown reconstruction for higher norwood.
In these cases, Dr. Kaan is accustomed to using multiple UFs in addition, if circumstances warrant, to body hair, to restore density and coverage to the most exposed areas of the head, even if they are less visible in the mirror. For crown and mid-scalp reconstruction, as opposed to hairline, double and multiple donor nuchal grafts are primarily used, possibly in addition to beard (or other body) grafts as appropriate. The doctor is able to replicate the original spiral or double spiral design of the vertex thanks to his magnificator glasses (specifically composed of an instrument called loupe) that allow him to precisely identify the exit direction of even dysplastic and miniaturized hair, so that he can exactly replicate the direction at the time of incision and grafting of the new hair.
Body hair transplantation.
In the event that the donor nuchal is depleted or not sufficient to cover all areas of the head, Dr. Kaan can use body hair to thicken the hair. Typically, the highest quality grafts are beard grafts (the survival rate is similar to nuchal area grafts). Then come, in order, the hair of the chest, those of the abdomen and back, those of the limbs and finally all other types of body hair. The latter, however, are almost never used as they are a sort of “last resort”.
Always considering that there can be personal variations in the morphology of body hairs, usually thick and strong beard hairs are used to thicken the inner areas of the head (mid and crown), to cover scars (resulting from previous surgery or other nature) and also to strengthen a donor too tried by previous transplants (donor exchange). Thinner hairs from other areas of the body can be used for the hairline or parietal. Usually there is a tendency to mix grafts of body hair with those of hair coming from the ordinary donor in order not to create areas consisting of grafts coming exclusively from body hair. However, several studies and researches, as well as common experience, have confirmed that after 10-12 months, body hair transplanted on the scalp tends to assume the visual characteristics of real hair.
Body hair rooting test:.
In cases of high norwood, where two surgical sessions are scheduled (at a minimum distance of 9 months), the doctor can perform, during the first surgery, a very small transplant, on a limited portion of skin specifically chosen, aimed at testing the rooting and the quality of body hair in a given area.
FUE surgery for female baldness.
Dr. Kaan also has extensive experience with FUE transplants on female patients. As with men, it is critical before surgery that the hair loss is treated and stabilized. Usually for women, a partial shaving technique is used, which involves a rectangular window of shaved hair on the nape of the neck to be used as a donor, and the shaving of a small strip of hair, of varying width, along the entire hairline, to allow the patient to keep her hair long and be able to mask the signs of the surgery even just a few days after the transplant.
Long Hair FUE
It is possible, if conditions permit, to graft hair without having to shave the recipient area. This procedure is more time-consuming and laborious for the surgeon and his team, so a surcharge is applied to the normal fee. The donor area must still be shaved for extractions.
Revision and scar coverage with grafts via FUE.
Dr. Kaan is able to cover any type of scar, even half-moons from previous strip surgeries, by grafting directly onto the scar tissue.
Transplantation in preparation for future integration with trichopigmentation
When the donor, including body hair, is too poor to provide adequate coverage to all the bald areas, it is possible to do a low density transplant in the central areas (mid and crown), programmed for a future treatment of tricopigmentation to give visit coverage to these areas. In these cases the transplant must be carefully planned with the doctor, usually with a medium / high density frontal that goes to scale as you reach the vertex. Normally this procedure is performed when the donor is very poor in relation to the area to be covered and also the contribution of body hair is not sufficient to achieve a good visual density in all areas.
