Women Are Flying To Turkey For Hair Transplants Too — And It's Time We Talk About It

Glenda Kenneth vividly recalls the day she noticed that her hair was falling out. “I had my hair shoulder-length, and within six months of [moving to the U.S.] I had lost half of it,” she says.

Kenneth, a 38-year-old woman in Fort Worth, Texas, had just emigrated from Nigeria to attend graduate school when the issue began. Initially attributing her hair loss to stress, Kenneth tried various remedies, including her own homemade hair oils, but the problem persisted.

So she decided to cut her hair short and ditch the hair relaxers in favor of letting it grow naturally. Until 2023, she styled her hair in locks, but a month after undergoing back surgery, she noticed her hair thinning out even further. She wondered if this was linked to the anesthesia she received for that procedure. Though there isn’t clinical data behind this theory, some experts believe that anesthesia may trigger temporary hair loss. And since any major surgery can be a shock to your body, a procedure might also disrupt your hair growth cycle.

A visit to the dermatologist came with the scary diagnosis that Kenneth’s hair was not just falling out — she was apparently experiencing scarring on her scalp , which can be linked to hair follicle destruction . This led her to consider a hair transplant. “Every year, I do something to make me feel more beautiful. This would simply be another procedure I’d done to make me feel more confident,” Kenneth says. “Hair transplants are also an option for us women.”

Kenneth’s story is far from unique. Turkey is renowned as a global hub for medical tourism, and though those traveling for hair transplants have typically been men, women are also making the journey to reclaim their self-esteem with the procedures.

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