Hair Restoration Blog

Today, I was following the trend that people usually search online for “hair transplant”.  I noticed hair transplant cost, hair transplant costs, cost of hair transplant are among the most popular phrasess that are used in online search by people who are trying to educate themselves on hair restoration and what is involved including the cost of hair transplatn or hair restoration cost or costs in a hair restoration procedure.  There are many people who try to get the best value their mony can buy and some people are cheap shopping.  I don’t mind finding the chipest product when I am shopping for the same brand that I usually buy at a dicounted rate.  However, when it comes to the cost of hair restoration, I don’t recommend finding a hair transplant surgeon merely based on the price of hair restorations.

Affordable hair transplant surgeries or other promotional phrases such as discounted hair transplants, $1 per hair, low cost hair transplants could be found everywhere, however when it comes to hair transplant, it should be more of a value shopping rather than price shopping.  Remember that you are buying something that is going to stay with you for the rest of your life.

I perform quite a few hair transplant repair procedures every months.  Some of the patients who go through reapire srugery are the ones who had their hair transplantation years ago, before the era of follicular unit transplants, but unforturantely a large nubmer of these patients had their hair restoration surgeries in the last few years.  They either never received the number of grafts that they were promised and end up with less than optimal coverage due to technical problems or got problem with the artistic design of the hairline or issues with distribution of the hair on the balding area.

Among hair transplatn surgeons some charge more due the name, brand and the location.  You have probably seen the signs that says Beverly Hills Hair Trasnplatn Surgeon.  Some of the older hair transplatn doctors could not keep up with the new techniques, they do not participate in scientific meetings for hair restoration surgery and are simply not aware of what is the gold standard in hair transplantation.  Having said that, I do now some of the the pioneers in hair restoration that are always ahead of their time and are involved in hair transpalnt research and development.  One good example is Dr. William Rassman whom I had previlage of working with closely.  He is capable of providing quality hair restorations utilizing the new techniques while using his years of experience in the field of hair restoration.

In conclusion, it all comes to the patients who need to realize what he is getting is a procedure that produces permanent changes and they better off doing it right the first time and don’t risk getting a less than optimal hair restoration with lesss than best cosmetic appearance.  The procedures that will need repair hair transplant in the future.  Whether you are in Los angeles or elsewhere, you need to do your homework to find the best hair transplant surgeon and even after that know what kind of questions to ask from your hair transplant doctor.

Hair transpalnt cost is importatnt and is a determinig factor for some people, but you should not make your decision based on the cost and affordability in your hair transplant surgeon search.  That is why I deliberately avoided explaining about hair transplant cost in Southern California hair transplant centers of US Hair Restoration in this article, which is titled “hair transplant cost in Los Angeles”.

Q:

Dear Sir,

I am 27 years old now and I have the problem of hair falling, I lost 60% of hair in a period of last 3-4 years. I am basically from India and currently working in Dubai.  I heard about your treatment for baldness; I am interested in hair transplantation. I had gone through the details through internet, Can you provide more details about the transplantation.

·        What is the percentage guaranteed for the transplantation

·        What are the side effects

·        Can I do the treatment in India / UAE (mention places)

·        How is the treatment period

·        What are the pre and post procedures of treatment

·        How is the treatment done

·        What about the price for the transplanting

·        How is the growth of hair after transplanting? Gradual, Immediate……

With regards

Patient’s Name

A:

Below you can find the answer to your questions as they were asked:

·        What is the percentage guaranteed for the transplantation?
If diagnosis is done correctly with an expert eye, it can be 95-99% successful.

·        What are the side effects?
A linear scar on the back, some swelling and redness on forehead for a few days after surgery and possibility of some numbness at or around donor and recipient area.  For more you see donor scar complication post in my blog.

·        Can I do the treatment in India / UAE (mention places)?
We are in process of having regular visits to Dubai, but we don’t have a certain day yet.  Please check with our office within the next few months for the schedule of our Dubai, UAE hair transplant clinic.  However, if you are willing to travel to get your hair restoration surgery done in our Los Angeles hair transplant clinic, we do have a special program for the patients from other countries in which they can get 10% off the cost of their hair restoration procedure toward their traveling expenses.

·        How is the treatment period, what are the pre and post procedures of treatment and how is the treatment done?
Please see our website to get more information of hair transplant surgery with follicular unit transplant method.  You can also see some before and after hair transplant pictures there.

·        What about the price for the transplanting
Check the website of US Hair Restoration for cost of hair transplant surgery.

·        How is the growth of hair after transplanting? Gradual, Immediate……
It usually takes 3 months for you to see any growth, and then it will get better and better until 1 year post surgery.

Please don’t hesitate to ask any other questions by email or through Hair Restoration Blog.

Best,
Parsa Mohebi, MD

Q:

I understand you charge $8 per fue graft, with 30% discount over the next 2 months. Are these for surgeries carried out in May/June or does this rate apply for any surgeries booked in those months but can be carried out in say July or August?

A:

Discounted rates is only valid for the patients who have their surgeries done by the end of stated dates. The only exception is for patients who are ready to do their surgery and we have to postpone their hair transplant for any reason (medical clearance needed or the ones that we recommend a few weeks of scalp exercise for strip technique patients who want to get a mega sessions (2500 to 5000 grafts per session).

For more on hair transplant costs you can visit the website of US Hair Restoration.

Continue from the question “FUE - Body Hair Transplant“

Question 4: What is your view on “out of body” time for grafts?

Answer: There are articles on out if body time for grafts, what we do is to keep grafts in chilled physiologic solution (0-4 C). If grafts are kept in this condition the survival rate is over 90% in up to 12 hours. That number starts to drop gradually after 12 hours.

Question 5: Do your charges apply for every graft extracted, even if transected, or only charge for each intact graft?

Answer: Only the grafts that are intact and transplanted are counted.

Question 6: How much of the work do you do and how much of the work do your Assistants do? What specific tasks are allocated to Assistants and what do you undertake? To what degree are you present in the room where surgery is being carried out? Do you use needle or blade to make incisions?

Answer: In FUE procedures either body hair transplant, or scalp transplant I am present in the OR the whole time because the majority of the work is done by me. I score the grafts and remove them. Techs generally help me in retracting the grafts from scalp. Trimming under microscope is done by technicians. I constantly observe them for the quality and integrity of the grafts. Every now and then, we may have to change our methods for removing FUE grafts in different areas so the surgical team should be constantly communicating with me in the OR. For incisions I usually use solid core needles to minimize the trauma to tissue and preexisting hair.

Here are a series of very good questions on hair transplant with FUE (follicular unit extraction) and body hair transplant from a patient who did his homework and educated himself on his upcoming surgery.

Question 1: Do you have a pre op protocol for chest to scalp?

Answer: For FUE from chest I want to have a clean wet shave from the whole chest one week before the surgery day so in a week when we do harvest the grafts we only remove growing hairs (the ones that are in anagen phase). Scalp hair on the other hand, I don’t want it shaved at all and I will do my own clipping right before the procedure. We do FOX test for all new patients to determine their candidacy for FUE with a small number FUE harvesting under local anesthesia.

Question 2: How many grafts can you transplant per day and how many hours is a typical working day?

Answer: Just for you to get the idea of how long does a FUE hair transplant may take, the last two FUE that we did in US hair restoration office were 1500 grafts per day each. One of them took 9 and the other one 11 hours. In both surgeries we used scalp hair only.

Question 3: Are grafts that are extracted placed straight into the recipient incisions or are they checked under the microscope first?

Answer: All grafts need to be visualized under microscope to make sure they are intact (not transected). Most of them need to be trimmed too. We usually have to remove some of the upper layers of skin and a little of extra fat around the grafts for them to be in the ideal size for transplant.

I will post the rest of this Q and A series in next few days.

Hair transplant cost is one of the questions that we have answered many times in this blog and we still receive it from our patients. The quality of hair transplant surgery have been improving within the last few decades with the use of stereotactic microscopes and advanced methods of handling and maintaining the hair grafts. However, not every hair transplant clinic could have kept up and adopted the new technology.

Cost of hair transplant surgery varies from clinic to clinic and from surgeon to surgeon. You may find a wide variety in hair transplant costs. Many clinics that offer cheap hair transplants are not committed to the quality of service. They hire inexperienced hair transplant staff. Some of the hair restoration surgery clinics do not use microscope and are not scientifically in line with the advanced techniques that are available today. Some clinics are run by technicians and doctor is only involved in a small portion of the procedure.

Hair transplant costs are generally calculated as per hair graft basis. Hair transplantation with exclusive follicular unit transplant could cost $3 to $10 per each graft (average for exclusive follicular unit transplantation). That is the cost of hair transplants with strip techniques of FUT or follicular unit transplant and the price of the FUE (follicular unit extraction) hair transplant is higher. Affordable hair transplant could be found in high-quality hair restoration clinics too. They may not be able to lower the cost of surgeries to $2 per graft (as you may see in some hair transplant offices) because of the fact that having an experienced surgical team and skillful surgeon cost more than that.

As I said, you can find low cost hair transplant centers that still offer quality hair restoration surgeries. Some of them are very skillful and offer individual services unlike the big chain hair transplant centers. The big chain hair transplant centers have a variation in their services due to different surgeons and staff. I have seen a diversity of results from some of those clinics. The variation is generally seen due to difficulty keeping the same standard in different offices. Most patients with a previous surgery in the chain clinics who have a repeat surgery at Los Angeles Hair Transplant center of US Hair Restoration are critical of the lack of personal attention and individual care in those clinics.

In conclusion, although the cost of hair transplant surgery is an important factor, it should not be the sole factor in choosing a hair transplant clinic. I always encourage my patients to educate themselves on the most advanced techniques of hair restoration surgery. Internet is a great source of information. We have a useful collection of hair loss and hair restoration articles in our web site. I also answer the patient’s hair restoration questions in hair restoration blog on a daily basis.

My recommendation is to shop around for the best value hair restoration surgery and not for the cheapest one. Think about it as a lifetime investment. Good or bad you will see your hair every day for the rest of your life.

Autologous Hair Regeneration - ICX-TRC (Intercytex)

ICX-TRC is an autologous hair regeneration system. ICX-TRC project is an ongoing research program that uses a suspension of human dermal papilla cells (one of the stem cells of the hair follicle which is involved in the growth and cycling of hair follicles. The system is claimed to be used for the treatment of male and female patterned baldness. The intention of ICX-TRC is to provide a technique to restore hair in patients who do not have adequate supply of donor hair on scalp for the hair transplant process and maybe for everyone with baldness.

Both types of patterned hair loss have significant genetic influence. It was claimed that with the ICX-TRC procedure, the process of hair restoration would be less problematic than conventional hair transplants. The proposed idea is to remove a few normal hair follicles from the donor area and harvest their active cells called dermal papilla (DP). These active cells are cultured and multiplied by different techniques and eventually the multiplied cells from this culturing process could be used to produce multiple hair follicles. The goal is to grow the hair follicles that are produced with this method while keeping the original characteristics of donor hair.

The cultured cells are supposed to be injected to the bald areas of skin. Interaction between the DP cells and normal epithelial cells in the skin can potentially generate new hair follicles under a certain circumstances. The process of culturing the DP cells and getting the new cells may last around three weeks.

Intra-dermal injections of new DP cells in the scalp could be done under local anesthesia with the current techniques of hair transplantation. It is claimed that some sort of hair growth could be seen after 3 months. However the condition and characteristics of the new hairs have not completely elucidated.

ICX-TRC clinical trial

Every new medication or medical technique needs to be examined closely through a systematic process for evaluating its effectiveness and safety. Intercytex has announced that they have finished their phase I (for safety and tolerability of the system) on volunteer patients and it has been successful. It means that the procedures did not have a serious or lethal side effects, at least in short term.

They also announced that they started phase II in Manchester to optimize the delivery of the DP cells and to refine their techniques, which is completed as well. They have obtained hair and measured the growth by shaving and taking photos of the transplanted area with cultured DP cells. On the phase II of the study they used 19 volunteer. They describe few different techniques that were used including pre-stimulation of the skin before injection of the cultured cells. Unfortunately, there is not much information available on the technique and methodology of the studies.

Here is what is stated in Intercytex web site for the result of the phase 2 of this experiment:

• Eleven subjects have now passed the 24-week time point since treatment and specialized image analysis at this time point showed
• Of the group of six patients without stimulation of the scalp, three had an increased hair count and two had a reduced hair count; one has been lost to follow-up
• Of the five subjects with pre-treatment scalp stimulation, all had increased hair count at 12 weeks and the three who were evaluable at 24 weeks all had an increased hair count at that time point

They are still looking for the 24 week data on all subjects in September 2008. At that time if it is all promising we should expect to see the phase III started on a larger group of patients who try this treatment for a longer period of time (years) to rule out any long term complications.

Intercytex is also claimed that they are working on an automated device that can facilitate the injections of cultured grafts, which could be used for the transplantation of cultured hair cells.

Conclusions:

1. The progress of Intercytex research and the released results are not quite clear yet
2. The safety of this system has not yet evaluated for long term potential side effects of cultured human cells such as increased risk of cancer or other dermatologic or systemic abnormalities
3. If proven safe and effective after completion of the phase III, we should have an estimate of the cost for this procedure. It is unclear whether or not this is going to be affordable and something that could be used for everyone or it should be reserved for patients with special needs.

We will follow the progress of ICX-TRC project along with other similar projects on hair stem cell and hair multiplication studies and keep our readers posted.

Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) - Advantages or disadvantages

My patients always ask about advantages and disadvantages of Follicular Unit Extraction so I thought this topic makes a good post for the blog. Before going over these points I have to say, although we at US Hair Restoration offer the most advanced techniques of FUE nationwide, most of our patients are still being transplanted by strip technique and I don’t recommend FUE to everyone and select my FUE patients very meticulously. Here are the main reasons why we do recommend FUE to some people and not to everyone.

Advantages

• FUE does not leave a linear scar, which is great for those who want to wear their hair very short on the back or the ones who may need to shave their head in the future (like actors).
• FUE has a more comfortable healing process with decreased healing time.
• No restrictions in physical activities for those who want to do strenuous exercise right after FUE procedure.
• FUE is a viable alternative for those who have tight scalp that makes strip surgery risky or impossible.
• Follicular unit extraction makes it possible to harvest hair from body, beard or almost everywhere else.
• FUE is very useful when we need limited number of grafts like for restoration of eyebrow hair.

Disadvantages

• The biggest disadvantage of follicular unit extraction is that the maximum follicular unit graft yield is lower than when it is done with strip technique due to higher rate of follicular transection compared to the strip technique.
• Although linear scar is not present after FUE, small punctuate scars will be there that may make future FUE hair transplant surgeries more difficult or impossible.
• Not everyone is a candidate for FUE and patients need to be tested with FOX before proceeding with the surgery.
• FUE procedure takes much longer to perform compared with strip FUT procedure.
• FUE is more laborious thus it cost more compared with strip technique hair transplants.
• In FUE, we have more chance of burying grafts that increases the risk of having folliculitis (tiny inflamed cysts under the skin) on the donor area.

Searching for the best Los Angeles hair transplant surgeon may not be an easy task, but Los Angeles has always been a referral center for most cosmetic surgeries, even though hair transplant surgery is one of the newer branches of cosmetic surgery. You can find a wide variety in style and levels of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills hair transplant surgeons. Some of the most updated hair transplant surgeons practice in Los Angeles and San Diego, California, but you can also see lousy surgeries done by some hair transplant surgeons. Overall, hair restoration surgery like any other cosmetic surgery is a buyer‚Äôs beware market, and one must be careful not to fall into the trap of signs such as “Number one Beverly Hills hair transplant surgeon” or “the most experienced Los Angeles hair transplant surgeon”. You can see similar advertisements and a lot more like Extreme make over hair transplant surgeon or doctor 90210.

The good news is that today, most hair transplant surgeons offer free initial consultation. It is importantto take advantage of this situation and shop around. It is your look and your desire to live with it for the rest of your life after all. It is not enough to visit several hair transplant doctors; you also need to educate yourself on hair transplantation process, surgical techniques and hair transplant surgeon’s background before visiting the doctor. This way, you can appreciate a good technique and knowledgeable doctor when you see one while you can find the most affordable hair transplant. US Hair Restoration – a Los Angeles hair transplant surgery center offers free physician consultation for everyone. We offer state-of-the-art hair transplant surgery with exclusive follicular unit transplants (FUT), mega sessions for people with extensive hair loss and follicular unit extractions (FUE) or noninvasive hair transplants that does not leave an scar in the donor area.

Los Angeles is Hollywood and in Hollywood “appearance” is everything. Modern hair transplant surgery with undetectable results has become a demanding field in Southern California in last few years both because of the number of people looking for hair restoration surgery and the ones looking for the best hair transplant surgeon in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Southern California over all. Many people travel the world to get their hair transplant surgery done in Los Angeles or Beverly Hills. Los Angeles is and will probably always be the Mecca of hair transplant surgery for people who cannot accept anything but the best.

The Cost of hair transplant surgery was brought up many times on my last radio show on the professional hour of Radio KIRN. Yes, there exists a wide range of prices for hair transplants in different hair transplant clinics and for different hair transplant surgeons. The reason is simple: There are so many different techniques of hair transplantation and a wide range of services and standards in the way those techniques are being implemented.¬† Every body looks for affordable hair transplant surgery.¬† Let’s go over some facts.

I recently had to interview some hair transplant technicians who had many years of experience with other hair transplant clinics for an opening at US Hair Restoration in Encino. The result of our interview with those technicians was an eye opening experience. Some of these technicians were stuck in the stone age of hair transplant techniques. You think in the era of evidence based medicine, all doctors follow the available guidelines and standards, published in scientific peer reviewed journals. I was terrified by hearing how archaic some hair transplant clinics procedures are.

Many hair transplant clinics still have not started using microscopes for harvesting grafts (hair follicles) or in some cases, the use of microscope is voluntary for hair transplant technicians. Some hair transplant clinics don’t keep hair follicles moist while being prepared, which leaves hair follicles prone to denaturation and death. And some still use mini-grafts (big patchy transplants that usually leave the patient with a patchy spotted pattern) instead of follicular unit transplants, which consist of meticulously excising single hair units and artistically placing them one by one. In one clinic technicians harvest hair grafts using scissors instead of a knife or flat blades. You can imagine what kinds of grafts are being harvested using those techniques and what the rate of survivability is among hair follicles.

OK, how much does a hair transplant cost. How can I find an affordable follicular unit hair transplant.  The clinics that are offering follicular unit transplants exclusively are usually charging $3 to $10 per graft. Remember this is the rate for a follicular unit transplant, which is not the only technique used in hair transplant clinics, but is the most cutting edge and natural looking. Overall, the hair transplant field is buyers beware market and you need to educate yourself on the methods of procedures and the kind of hair transplant clinics you are thinking about having your procedure with. Make sure you are evaluated by a physician who can answer all your technical questions, and not a sales person. The Internet is full of informative websites that could be used to increase your level of knowledge before your procedure.