Quick summary: Irish patients fly Dublin to Istanbul non-stop in 4 hours 35 minutes with Turkish Airlines, the only airline operating the route. A hair transplant in Ireland typically costs between €3,000 and €8,500. At Global Health Hair the all-inclusive package starts from €1,990 — surgery, hotel, transfers, medication and 12-month follow-up included — and every procedure is performed personally by Dr. Merdan Çelik, MD, not by technicians. Prices are quoted in euro, so there is no currency conversion to work out.
How much does a hair transplant cost in Ireland compared with Turkey?
Published prices from Irish clinics put a hair transplant somewhere between €3,000 and €8,500, depending on the size of the area treated. Dublin clinics commonly quote in the €3,500 to €7,500 range, and the cost per graft in Ireland is generally quoted between €3 and €6.
At Global Health Hair, an all-inclusive package starts from €1,990 for Sapphire FUE and from €2,390 for DHI. That figure is not the surgery alone. It covers:
- The procedure itself, performed by Dr. Merdan Çelik, MD
- Hotel accommodation in Istanbul, at the same address as the clinic
- All airport and clinic transfers
- Medication and the full aftercare kit
- Twelve months of follow-up
The only cost you add is the flight. That is the honest comparison: an Irish quote of €4,000 is usually for the surgery, with everything else on top.
Is there a direct flight from Dublin to Istanbul?
Yes. Turkish Airlines flies Dublin to Istanbul non-stop in 4 hours and 35 minutes, with around 20 departures a week and published departure times spanning early morning to late afternoon. It is currently the only airline operating the route without a connection.
The practical consequence is that you can leave Dublin in the morning and be at the clinic the same day. There is no overnight connection to plan around and no second airport to change at, which matters more than it sounds when you are flying home three days after a procedure.
Who actually performs the surgery?
This is the question that separates clinics in Turkey, and it is the reason patients travel to us specifically.
In many high-volume Turkish clinics, the surgery itself is carried out by technicians. The doctor is present for the consultation, signs off on the plan, and may supervise — but the hands extracting and implanting your follicles are often not a doctor’s.
At Global Health Hair, Dr. Merdan Çelik, MD performs every procedure personally, from extraction through to implantation. He is a 1997 graduate of Trakya University Faculty of Medicine and a member of the ISHRS, with over 22 years in hair restoration and more than 20,000 patients treated.
This is not a marketing distinction. Graft survival depends directly on extraction angle, depth and how the follicles are handled in the minutes between removal and placement. Those are surgical judgements, and an experienced surgeon makes them more consistently than an undertrained technician. It is the single variable with the largest effect on whether your result looks natural at twelve months.
How many days do you need away from work?
Most Irish patients plan a four-day trip:
- Day 1 — Fly from Dublin, transfer to the hotel, consultation and hairline design with Dr. Çelik
- Day 2 — The procedure. Sapphire FUE takes 6 to 8 hours under local anaesthetic; DHI takes 6 to 9 hours. It is completed in one day
- Day 3 — First wash and aftercare instruction at the clinic, rest
- Day 4 — Final check, then fly home
Redness and minor swelling settle within five to seven days. Most patients are comfortable in public within three to five days and back to their normal routine within five. If you would rather not explain anything at the office, taking the following week as well covers you comfortably.
Does your EHIC cover a hair transplant in Turkey?
No, and it is worth being clear about this before you travel. The European Health Insurance Card covers necessary healthcare in EU and EEA countries. A hair transplant is elective, and Turkey is outside the EHIC scheme in any case.
The same is true of Irish private health insurance: hair restoration is classed as cosmetic and is not normally covered, whether performed in Ireland or abroad. Treat the package price as the price. We recommend standard travel insurance for the trip itself, as you would for any other journey.
What happens after you fly home to Ireland?
Aftercare during the first ten to fourteen days has a direct effect on how many grafts survive, so this part is not optional and it does not end when you land in Dublin.
You leave Istanbul with a written aftercare protocol, the medication you need and a demonstration of the washing technique. From Ireland you stay in contact with the clinic by WhatsApp, and you have twelve months of follow-up included in the package. The milestones are predictable: transplanted hairs shed at two to four weeks, which is normal and expected; new growth becomes visible from around month three; and the result is properly assessed at twelve months.
Anyone promising you a finished result in three months is describing something that does not happen.
Why do Irish patients choose Turkey at all?
Three reasons come up repeatedly, and only one of them is price.
Volume of experience. Istanbul performs more hair restoration surgery than anywhere else in the world. A surgeon there operates on more cases in a year than most European surgeons see in several.
Cost structure. The price difference is not a quality difference — it reflects Turkish operating costs, salaries and property, not cheaper materials or shortcuts. The Sapphire blades and Choi implanter pens used in Istanbul are the same instruments used in Dublin.
No language barrier. The clinic team works in English throughout, from the first consultation to your follow-up messages a year later.
What Turkey does not automatically give you is a doctor performing your surgery. That varies enormously between clinics, and it is the thing worth checking before you book anywhere — including with us.
Frequently asked questions
Are prices quoted in euro?
Yes. Our packages are priced in euro, the same currency you use in Ireland, so there is no conversion or exchange-rate risk to calculate. Payment can be made by cash, credit card, bank transfer or PayPal.
How many grafts will I need?
Sapphire FUE can place up to 4,000 to 5,000 grafts in a single session, depending on your donor density. DHI typically places 2,000 to 3,500. The number appropriate for you is determined at consultation, based on your donor area and the pattern of loss — not chosen from a price list.
Do I need to shave my head?
Not with DHI. Because the Choi implanter pen places each follicle directly into existing hair without pre-made channels, the recipient area does not need to be shaved. Sapphire FUE generally does require shaving.
Can I fly home the day after surgery?
We do not recommend it. The day after the procedure includes the first wash and aftercare instruction at the clinic, which is the part that most affects graft survival. Flying home on day four rather than day three costs you one night and materially improves your result.
What if something goes wrong once I am back in Ireland?
You have direct contact with the clinic for twelve months and can send photographs at any point. In practice most post-operative questions from Irish patients are about washing, sleeping position and the normal shedding phase — all of which are answered the same day.
Book a free consultation from Ireland
Send us photographs of your hairline and donor area and Dr. Çelik will assess them personally. You will receive an honest graft estimate and a fixed all-inclusive price, with no obligation. If you are not a good candidate, we will tell you that instead of selling you a procedure.
💬 Free WhatsApp Consultation from Ireland
Travelling from somewhere else? See our guides for American patients and for UK patients.
Travelling from further afield? See our guide for Australian patients.
See also our guide for Canadian patients.
See also the 2026 hair transplant cost guide for Turkey, with prices by graft count.
Wondering when to travel? See the best time of year for a hair transplant in Turkey.
Travelling from the Gulf? See our guide for patients from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.