Hair Transplant Costs

Hair Transplant Basics

What exactly is a hair transplant? Well, here are some of the basics that you need to know before deciding whether this procedure is right for you…

A hair transplant is a procedure in which healthy hair is taken from the back or sides of the head (donor site), and placed in the balding area on the scalp.

The area from which the hair is taken is commonly referred to as the “horseshoe fringe”. It is the hair that extends from behind both ears to the back of the head. Usually, this area is not affected by male-pattern baldness.

Once the hair has been extracted, it is transplanted into tiny slits that the doctor has created with his or her surgical tools on the balding areas of your scalp.

These hair extractions are called grafts. Grafts refer to the donated hair, hair follicles, surrounding tissue, and skin of the extraction. Each graft contains one or more hair follicles (ideally no more than four).

The front and top of your head will receive transplanted hair first because these are the areas that frame your face and make the most impact on your appearance. Unless it's your only balding area, the crown is usually the last area to receive hair.

A hair transplant takes a few sessions to complete. The number of procedures depends upon the extent of your hair loss, the projected hair loss rate, the amount of donor hair you can spare, and other artistic and medical considerations. Men can often have the results they're looking for in just one or two hair transplant sessions, while women need more sessions to achieve proper density.

The average session lasts between five and ten hours.

What is the procedure like?
Let’s take the method of follicular unit extraction as an example, and go through the various steps a patient would experience during a session:

1. When the patient arrives at the office he or she might be offered a drug to calm them down if they are feeling a little anxious
2. Next the doctor reviews the procedure with the patient
3. The patient sits in a reclined chair throughout the procedure, where they may watch television, chat with other people, or take a nap
4. Blood pressure is taken
5. A general anesthetic or local anesthetic is used
6. The doctor along with his technicians will dissect and insert the grafts with a small pair of tweezers
7. After about six hours, the first session is complete and the patient is ready to go home
8. Bandaging of the head is usually unnecessary