How Much Does a Hair Transplant Cost?
If you’re wondering, “how much does a hair transplant cost?” and you haven’t gotten a solid answer, you’re not alone. To get this question answered, men like you have gone from clinic to clinic just to receive wildly different responses. This leads them right back to square one — no closer to getting a hair transplant. Frustrating, we know. After all, how can you decide what you can afford if you don’t know the hair transplant price? And why does the hair transplant price vary so much? In this article, we’ve taken away all the guesswork.
We’ll explain:
- What factors into the hair transplant price?
- Why do certain procedures cost so much?
- Why do hair transplant prices change from clinic to clinic?
And finally, answer the query how much does a hair transplant cost at Athens.
Have you recently sought out FUE or FUT treatment for your thinning hair? Did you walk away with a bunch of wildly differing estimates? If the answer to these questions is yes, you’re not alone.
An individual graft can cost anywhere between $5 to $12, and the number of grafts you need to treat a thinning or bald recipient area varies. For example, one clinic might quote you $7,000 for an area, and another could quote $15,000 for the same place. Most hair restoration clinics charge by the graft; this makes the hair transplant costs unpredictable. Additionally, some hair transplant clinics will split a graft into two or three smaller pieces to inflate the number of grafts they used.
Many clinics have no idea how many grafts you need upfront. The best they can do is guess, so the hair transplant costs begin to climb. In addition, if what they quoted won’t provide the hair restoration results you expect, the surgeon will remove more grafts from the donor area. And of course – they’ll charge you more for this after your procedure.
Let’s delve deeper into the hair transplant cost by going over the different types of hair restoration procedures.
The Method Dictates the Hair Transplant Cost
The first item that factors into the hair transplant cost is the type of hair transplantation procedure you choose. Two of the most widely-used and widely studied are FUE and FUT.
In a Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) hair transplantation procedure, individual hair follicles are harvested from a donor section in the back of the head, then placed in a recipient area at the hairline or crown.
FUE hair transplant steps:
- The first step of an FUE transplant procedure is shaving the donor area.
- Next, the physician uses a micro punch instrument to remove an entire follicular unit.
- This is followed by tiny incisions made in the recipient area before carefully implanting the follicular units into the incisions.
There is no medical downtime, and you can return to regular activities following the procedure. Some patients may prefer a few days of social downtime to wait for any redness to leave the scalp. In addition, you’ll receive anesthesia before the FUE procedure begins so that it’s painless. The process usually takes 5-8 hours, and new hair starts growing in as little as a few weeks. With any type of hair transplant, it typically takes a few months to see optimum results.
Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) provides the same results as an FUE procedure. The difference is the extraction method used. In a FUT hair transplant, the surgeon removes a strip of scalp from the donor area, which is then harvested for hair grafts under a microscope.
FUT hair transplant steps:
- The procedure begins by shaving the donor area.
- Then, the surgeon removes a horizontal strip from the donor scalp using a scalpel.
- Stitches are used to close the incision area on the back of the head.
- Next, the surgeon extracts individual follicular units from the strip.
- Lastly, small incisions throughout the recipient area are made where the follicles are then implanted.
Since the surgeon removed a section of the scalp from the donor area, it will leave a noticeable linear scar. An FUT procedure is more of a surgery than an FUE procedure. There is far more trauma to the head.
People often choose FUT because this hair transplant costs less than the FUE procedure. In addition, the entire process is performed under anesthesia, and the operation time is shorter.
Now that you’ve looked at hair transplantation methods and why the hair transplant cost varies, let’s look at a few other cost factors.
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) and Follicular Unit Transfer (FUT) are two hair restoration treatments that use follicular units from a donor area to implant in a thinning area of hair. The result is hair that looks natural and matches the density of the hair around it.
A follicular unit contains the hairs removed from the donor area. Hair follicles are harvested using a small hole punch-like instrument from the donor area in an FUE procedure. In a FUT procedure, a strip of the scalp is removed using a scalpel. Once the follicular units are removed, they are known as grafts.
Whether you choose a FUT or FUE treatment for hair restoration, the surgeon will need a few hundred to a few thousand grafts to complete your new look. The number of grafts used depends on what you have available in the donor area and your agreed upon results. It all depends on hair shape and thickness, as well as how you prefer to wear your hair. Long, thick, curly hair can be more forgiving than hair that is short and thin.
Thinner areas of coverage like the hairline require smaller grafts containing one hair. Larger diffuse areas require grafts with two or more hairs in them to get full look.
Before each procedure, the consultant or physician will estimate how many follicular units or hair you need to provide that natural look you’re seeking. Unfortunately, the final count isn’t fully known until after the procedure begins. Your donor area may not have as many grafts available or the density that is needed. Physicians will often adjust the plan slightly during the procedure and this could leave you with a surprising bill or a disappointing result.
The donor area is the space we remove hair from during a hair transplant treatment. This area contains strands that are resistant to the hormonal changes that cause male pattern baldness. Male pattern baldness affects the top and front of the hair. These are the areas most men find their hair to be the thinnest. Hair from the donor area is strong, so surgeons remove this hair and use it to fill in the thinning areas at the hairline and crown. Each person has a different amount of follicular units and density.
Once a surgeon has the opportunity to examine your donor area, he will tell you whether you have thin or thick hair. If it’s thin, you will need more grafts, and if it’s thick, you will need less.
The desired thickness is dependent on the number of hairs you have in each follicular unit. People with thin hair have around 1 to 2 hairs in each follicular unit. People with thicker hair have 3 to 4 hairs in each follicular unit.
Here’s a quick calculation:
- Thinner hair: If you have 2,000 follicular units harvested from your donor area and have thinner hair (an average of 2 hairs per unit), the surgeon has 4,000 hairs to implant.
- Thicker hair: If you have 1,500 follicular units in your donor area and an average of 3 hairs per unit, there are 4,500 hairs available for implantation. That’s fewer grafts required to provide more hair.
As you can see, the same amount of units can give vastly different results, especially regarding density and fullness. One person may have a satisfactory impact with just 1,000 grafts, while another would need 2,000 grafts for the same look.
If you pay per graft – two people could pay drastically different prices for the same result.
This is why it’s tricky for hair restoration clinics to report the hair transplant costs upfront. They are always subject to change since the results aren’t known until the procedure is underway. But this leaves the patients in a difficult spot as well – not really knowing the final results and costs until after the procedure.