Assessing the Costs
Hair transplant surgery is generally not covered by insurance because it’s considered a cosmetic procedure, and that means that the cost will come right out of your own pocket. And the price can be high, depending on how much area you want to cover and how much your surgeon charges.
Hair transplant surgeries are generally charged per graft, with a graft being one to four hair follicular units. The cost varies between $3 and $20 per graft. Most people focus on the per graft price, as this is how most doctors calculate their fee.
For many people, hair transplantation is limited by their financial constraints. That being said, it’s important to look at the long-run versus the short-run when selecting your surgical team. In the short-run, you may save a few hundred, even a few thousand, dollars by going with the least expensive doctor, but if the surgery is performed incorrectly, if the team isn’t experienced and loses grafts, or if the surgeon doesn’t have the experience or the artistry to place grafts properly, you may end up needing more surgery in the future and worse, you may have a botched job that can not be fixed.
The buyer must realize from the beginning that a hair transplant is permanent and errors of design and good planning may not be correctable.
When discussing price, you need to compare apples to apples. One graft (or follicular unit) contains one, two, three, or sometimes four hairs. In general, one graft averages about two hairs. Some doctors add to the confusion by charging per hair to make the procedure appear less expensive (this is known as graft splitting). Just remember that 2,000 hairs is around the same as a 1,000-graft surgery.
Sometimes a doctor may make single hair grafts by splitting a twohair graft so that he or she can transplant it to the frontal hairline. But splitting a four-hair graft into two two-hair grafts, or a two-hair graft into two one-hair grafts, just to push up the total number of grafts to make the fee appear like a bargain is the same as doublecharging you. Sadly, this is quite a common practice.
Your doctor should be able to explain the exact number of cut grafts and how the numbers were calculated. Ask your doctor how the grafts are counted and to see the sheet that lists the numbers of grafts cut by each technician, because the accounting process of dissecting grafts is highly variable.
If graft splitting weren’t complicated enough, you also need to be aware of the “low-ball” sales technique when estimating the number of grafts needed. In this technique, the estimate of the work needed increases after the work has already begun. If your doctor’s initial estimate of how many grafts you need sounds low because you sense that he/she wants to make the sale, then you might assume the worst and do some good comparative shopping.
Although the overall cost of a hair transplant is an important factor in making your decision of whether to move forward with it, you also need to have an honest, competent doctor whom you can trust to act in your best interest. The good and bad news about hair transplantation is that it’s permanent. Unfortunately, the work of a poor surgeon will be with you for your entire life, so choosing the right doctor and practice is critical.
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Olga Trummer at
06192010
1. Hair loss and the Traditional Chinese medicine
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