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Setting
your Expectations
Considering a hair transplant?
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Quality
Quality in hair transplantation is priceless and although we often tie
quality, value, and price together; quality should never be compromised.
Small, delicate grafts are critical to high quality results in hair
transplantation. Value must be judged by evaluating both quality and
cost. When comparing the cost of procedures offered by different medical
groups, it must be an apples-to-apples comparison. Ask:
•How many grafts will I receive in each session? What
is the size of the grafts and how many hairs will each
graft contain? How many hairs will be moved in each session?
•Will I have sufficient donor hair after completion of
this procedure for future hair restoration?
•How much will I pay for each graft in each session?
How many sessions will I need? What can I expect to
pay for the entire hair restoration process?
Your goal should be to achieve the best quality work with the
highest number of hairs moved in the smallest, most practical graft
size. One hair at a time may produce inadequate density. Naturally appearing
follicular unit grafts of 1-4 hairs may make more sense. When hairs
are clumped together in unnatural groupings, there may be a lower initial
cost, but these hair transplants will be detectable to the naked eye
(toothbrush look) and an unnecessarily rapid depletion of your remaining
donor hair as more hair is moved in this way. It is critically important
to recognize that compromise may be necessary, and each patient must
be in a position to understand the benefits and liabilities of each
element in the decision process when planning the size and distribution
of the transplants.
The larger the size of your grafts, the more hairs will be in each graft
and the more unnatural you will look as these larger grafts produce
a greater contrast to the surrounding skin. Larger grafts also tend
to be more wasteful and deplete the donor supply faster than smaller
grafts. Smaller grafts appear more natural, but they may have a smaller
impact on the balding area if they are not done in substantial quantities.
Negative Value
Having an unnatural appearance, spending money out of proportion to
the benefits you receive, losing valuable time in living a normal life,
and accelerating the hair loss process, are all signs of negative value.
Deciding whether to have hair restoration and what type of hair restoration
to have is difficult, and your time investment must be part of the formula
and multiple small surgeries take a high toll on the patient in many
ways.
The worst outcome possible occurs in the patient who receives poor quality
work that cannot be fully corrected. The negative value is incalculable,
as the patient may have to live with the consequences of this error
for the rest of his or her life. For a person who undertook the hair
restoration process to avoid a wig, wearing one to cover a bad job is
a daily reminder of his or her mistake. A toothbrush appearance often
takes more work and more money to fix than it took to create, if surgical
corrections are possible at all. In these situations, the cost may sharply
increase in trying to correct what cannot truly be repaired. Camouflage
is the only answer and is always imperfect.
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Recommended
Resources |
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- Ask questions and get information on Hair Transplants
in our Men's
Forums and Women's
Forums!
- Information provided courtesy of the New
Hair Institute, taken from "The Patient's Guide to
Hair Transplantation" William R. Rassman, MD and Robert
M. Bernstein, MD
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