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Setting
your Expectations
Considering a hair transplant?
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Value
How do you determine value of a purchase of this magnitude and of such
a personal nature? This issue needs to be answered to the comfort of
each individual patient before making the decision to have any hair
restoration or transplant procedure. Value is determined by such factors
as:
1. Your results will reflect the outcome after your work is complete
and all of your transplanted hair has grown in. A true understanding
of the value of your surgery cannot be assessed until after the work
is complete. You should compare what was anticipated with what was achieved
and the two should approximate each other. As having hair will give
you a different perspective, it is important to make this comparison
relative to your starting point, as your memory may fade and your mind
may repress any connection with your old bald or thin look.
2. Inconvenience reflects the time you dedicated to the hair restoration
process at the expense of work, the discomfort associated with each
procedure, the social dislocations caused by each procedure, etc. If
you feel that your hair restoration has been of value, that value will
tend to mini- mize these inconveniences. To properly estimate the inconveniences
involved in surgical hair restoration, you should personally interview
some of your proposed doctor's patients. Their experiences will act
as a reality check on what the doctor told you. This should be done
before the surgical process is started.
3. Risk reflects all of the uncertainties (real or imagined) including
medical complications of the procedures, psychological ramifications
associated with the process, and social effects before, during, and
after transplantation. Proper research and interviews with patients
will address these issues in advance.
4. The total cost of the process in terms of lost time at work, opportunity
costs, social costs, and total dollars spent must be related to the
results you achieved. Such measurements as cost per session, cost per
graft, cost per transferred hair follicle and the like, reflect value
in measurable units. The ability of your surgeon to accurately estimate
the cost of a restoration should be anticipated before a procedure is
begun. Meet with patients who have had extensive reconstructions by
the doctor you are going to choose. Lowballing is more common than anyone
is willing to admit. Do not get suckered into a false sense of security
without proper interviews with some of the doctor's previous patients.
5. Commitment to completion means that the question that must be asked
is: "must I complete the process once started?" Well-performed
minigrafts or Follicular Unit Grafts, when done correctly in accordance
to a customized Master Plan (depending upon hair character and color),
will allow each session to stand independent of every other session,
achieving in the worst case a thinner appearance than was originally
planned. Ask the doctor if one procedure can stand on its own.
6. Time from start to end of procedures reflects not only the calendar
months from the first to the last procedure, but also the number of
surgeries required to reach the last procedure. Each surgery produces
down time, social dislocations, possibly lost time at work, some level
of physical discomfort and considerable anxiety. The time span for all
this may be months or years in some Master Plans.
These six areas are critical in order to understand value. In the final
measurement, only results count. A pluggy appearance will have a negative
value for most people. A thin natural look may only have partial value
if the patient was expecting a full head of hair. On the other hand,
a thin look may be the only reasonable expectation for a person with
advanced baldness, high contrast of skin to hair color, straight fine
hair or a limited supply of hair. Evaluation of your results must relate
your gains after surgery to the expectations established at the onset
of the process.
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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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