Men flock to Turkey for facial hair transplants

It's been said that the mustache makes the man, which may explain why a growing number of men are traveling to Istanbul to get facial-hair implants.

Turkey has long had a thriving health tourism industry, and the government says hundreds of thousands of foreign patients travel there each year to receive medical treatments in private hospitals.

A report by Turkey's Health Ministry showed 100,000 people traveled to Turkey specifically for plastic surgery in 2012, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The numbers don't break out figures for facial-hair transplants, but surgeons and tourism agencies told the Journal such procedures have risen dramatically in recent years.

"The mustache is making a comeback. If a man's mustache doesn't grow, he wants to know he can have one as a mark of masculinity," Istanbul plastic surgeon Selahattin Tulunay told the Journal.

Tulunay started facial follicle transplants two years ago and said he now does up to 60 such operations a month. Most of his clients are from the Middle East.

Canan Melike Koksuz, an Istanbul cosmetic surgeon who specializes in hair transplants, told the Journal her clients have included chief executives and celebrities from as far away as China and Australia.

"Once there was less demand because facial hair was more political, but now mustaches and beards are more fashionable, and people want to look trendy," she said.

Hair-Raising Trip

Turkish tourism agencies have begun offering "transplant packages" that combine facial-hair operations with a short-stay vacation in Istanbul or a beachside retreat on the Mediterranean coast.

About 250 clinics or private practices that offer facial-hair transplants have cropped up in Istanbul alone, Agence France-Presse recently reported.

The procedure itself is performed under local anesthetic, takes around five hours and can cost up to $5,000, according to the Journal. It involves surgeons taking hair follicles from more hirsute areas of the body, such as the scalp, and implanting them in the face.

Surgeons say some patients request full-bodied moustaches like those worn by Turkish actor Kadir Inanir or Kurdish singer Ibrahim Tatlises. Others opt for stubble beards like that of the Turkish actor and model Kivanç Tatlitug.

Tulunay said he can only transplant the hair, not the person.

Adding, "I don't groom it. After a successful hair transplant surgery, a man could also grow a Marx-like beard if he so wishes," he told The Guardian.

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