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Cost
per graft of cost per procedure
Hair transplant restorations are not cheap whichever way you look
at it, but this is a permanent procedure. When you consider how
much
money
that can be spent on drug treatments for baldness, calculating
costs for a hair transplant compared to costs for drug treatment
over several years, a hair transplant may turn out cheaper! If
you use drugs to combat hair loss, then a cost comparison with
a hair transplant may be a useful exercise to do.
The costs of a hair transplant can vary enormously from clinic
to clinic. Someone with androgenetic alopecia might expect to see
a minimum cost of $2,000 US dollars for a hair transplant. The
average price for a hair transplant in North America is probably
around $5,000. But a hair transplant may cost $10,000, $20,000
and even more!
There are two basic approaches used by hair transplant clinics
to determine the total cost of a hair transplant; cost per follicular
unit implanted, and cost per procedure. The cost per unit can range
from anywhere between $3 to $12 US dollars in North America although
the average is probably around $6. But what is a follicular unit?
In follicular unit hair transplantation, a donor strip of skin
is dissected into units of one to 4 hair follicles. The one and
two hair follicle units are used to build the hair line, the larger
units are used to fill in behind. But of course different people
have different needs in terms of the number of follicular
units required. It is not possible to exactly how many follicular
units will be transplanted in advance of the procedure. Only when
the
donor strip of skin has been dissected into follicular units will
the surgeon know exactly how many units are available for implantation.
Because of this, determining the exact cost of a hair transplant
going by the number of units implanted is difficult. To make costs
clearer to the patient, many clinics go with the simpler approach
of cost per surgical procedure with a ball park figure for the
number of hair follicles to be transplanted in the procedure. Which
costing approach is best is open to debate – though most
of the surgeons I have met calculate cost per surgical hair restoration
procedure.
The primary advantage of costing a hair transplant per unit is
probably in advertising. $6 per unit sounds a lot more digestable
than $5,000!
I’m waiting to see advertisements for $5.99 a unit or buy
5 get one free. You just know it’s going to happen one day ….
Evaluating
hair transplant quality by price
Some people equate price to quality. Certainly if
a hair transplant cost is unusually low you should be suspicious,
but a $5,000 hair
transplant may be just as good as a $10,000 transplant. The cost
difference may come about because: 1) The surgeon has a well known
name in hair transplantation and demand for his / her skills is
high so he / she can charge a higher price. 2) Heavy advertising
budgets. If the clinic is paying a lot in advertising to get you
in the door, they will be incorporating that cost into your bill.
3) Sumptuous surroundings. A large attractive clinic costs a more
to maintain than a plain office. 4) A high number of assistants,
receptionists and other employees in a clinic will also increase
the costs. 5) The local market. An affluent local market for hair
transplants will usually result in higher charges from the local
hair transplant clinics. It costs more to get a hair transplant
in Los Angeles, California than it does in St Paul, Minnesota.
6) Demand versus supply in the local market. If there are a lot
of
hair restoration
clinics
looking for business and only a limited number of patients then
hair transplant prices usually come down. Over the last 10 years
prices have dropped (in real terms after considering inflation)
as more hair restoration clinics have been launched. 7) Finally,
charges may increase if you need a procedure that is not standard.
A hair transplant for androgenetic alopecia is standard, but a
transplant for a burns injury or for transplanting the eyebrows
may be relatively expensive because there are fewer clinics capable
of doing these kinds of transplantation techniques and because
the expertise required to ensure a good hair transplant is higher
than normal.
Overall then, the cost of a hair transplant is not a good indicator
of quality. If price is a consideration for you, think about reducing
costs by travelling to a clinic outside your own region. Some people
even go overseas to Europe to get a cheaper hair transplant.
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