Hair Transplant Cost
Hair transplant cost is a popular topic and poses questions that can be tricky to answer.
One of the reasons for this ambiguity regarding pricing is that fees vary between cities, countries and around the world. The fee charged for a procedure like hair transplant surgery will also vary, just like plastic surgery, between surgeons. There are hair transplant experts who charge more based on the quality of work they do, their location or even just the fancy environment they work in. You can expect to see differences in pricing based on experience and location, but you’ll want to seek the options that are most cost-effective for you as well.
Large, world-class cities such as New York will have a variety of hair transplant surgeons and practices that charge a wide range of fees. One benefit to the client, however, is that increased options mean most practitioners will want to keep pricing competitive.
Price Per Graft Model
By far the most common way to set hair transplant cost is to use a price per graft model. This approach charges a set fee per individual follicular unit. This small bunch of hairs could contain between 1-4 individual hair follicles. Using the FUE, (follicular unit extraction) method, many automated machines will even count and track the number of grafts as they are extracted from the scalp. The surgeons will often set up cost savings for the client whereby the higher the volume of grafts transplanted, the lower the individual graft fee will be. For example, with each increase of 1,000 grafts, they may charge $1 less per graft.
As you can imagine, the number of grafts that a patient needs or wants will depend on their degree of hair loss, hairline patterns and density, their age, and their goals. While some hair transplant recipients will take years off their appearance and restore a hairline they are happy with after only 1500 grafts, others will require 3,000 or more to make a significant impact. The number of grafts that can be taken for transplant during one session will usually be higher using the FUT, the traditional strip method, and because FUE takes longer, FUT is usually the less pricey option.