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:

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.

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.

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 us discuss 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 do not 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.