The new hair grafting techniques are a good solution to combat hair loss, however, many people are hesitant to undergo a hair transplant because of the price it may involve.
Some centers offer incomplete data and take advantage of the ignorance of patients on the subject to confuse them with the price. For this reason, it is necessary to check both the quality of the clinic’s services and how to calculate a budget for the treatment.
How to calculate the price of hair transplantation
First of all, the price of hair grafting depends on three factors:
- Number of follicles to be implanted.
- Affected area
- Technique used for extraction
In general, the price of a hair transplant basically depends on the number of follicular units to be transplanted. It must be taken into account that each hair graft corresponds to one unit and, within each follicular unit, there are between one and three hairs, depending on each patient.
However, some professionals perform transplants with follicular units of a single hair. In this way they inflate the price, since more implants are performed with the same amount of hair than with a transplant of follicles that have two or three hairs each.
In fact, some centers report the price based on follicular units, which can also confuse the patient. Assuming that a quote is requested for 1,000 grafts, it may be the same to transplant 1,000 hairs as to transplant 3,000, depending on the follicles grafted.
For this reason, specialists in Aesthetic Medicine state that it is important to be well informed about how to calculate the price of the treatment before choosing the clinic. Consideration should be given to centers that offer the patient a complete and detailed estimate, including the number of follicular units and the approximate number of hairs implanted.
Types of hair grafts
In order to know the price of the treatment, it is very important to take into account the type of hair graft. Currently there are two methods:
- Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE): the most effective and advanced treatment, but also the most expensive, since the extraction of units requires a lot of work and skill from the surgeon. In addition, the cost of this technique also depends on where to graft the follicles. For example, body hair units are more expensive than head hair transplantation units.
- Follicular transplant unit (STRIP): less expensive, as it does not require as much time and skill as the other treatment. However, since it is difficult to predict the number of follicles in each strip, clinics usually calculate the price of the transplant per session and not per follicle.
Tips for pricing information
When choosing a clinic to undergo a hair transplant, it is important to be informed about the prices of each center, as they may vary according to the criteria of each one. Thus, it is necessary to use the same parameters to compare the prices of each center objectively.
Another tip for deciding in which clinic to undergo a hair graft is to bear in mind that the quality-price ratio and the final result will depend on the cost. In other words, a cheap and poor quality hair graft may end up implying more corrections and touch-ups, which may end up being more expensive.