If you are losing your hair, a hair transplant may seem like a better idea than a toupee, wig or simply shaving your head. In a hair transplant, a doctor takes a portion of your skin with hair follicles and grafts it onto the portion of your head without hair. The result is that you have your own hair growing out of your head.
Costs
Doctors who perform hair transplants typically charge by the graft, with a cost ranging from $3 to $12 per graft, as of 2010. The difficult thing about determining how much your graft will cost is that the doctor can never give you an exact number of how many grafts he’ll be able to remove from a good section of your hair. This could lead to a shocking price after you’ve had the surgery. A few doctors will charge per session, which takes the guesswork away.
Geography
The cost of a hair transplant will vary, based on your location. Large cities like New York or San Francisco will have higher costs than rural areas. You may also be able to get much lower prices by traveling overseas to have the surgery.
Benefits
The cheapest option that you have for your balding problems is to simply shave your head and keep it shaved. Not everyone wants to be completely bald, though. A hair transplant is a relatively permanent solution to the problem, which means that it’s a one-time cost and you won’t have to keep paying for upkeep, as you would if you were using a medication to treat the problem.
Considerations
Hair transplants work best when dealing with male pattern baldness. When women start to lose hair, it’s generally all over, resulting in thin hair rather than bald areas. After you’ve received the treatment, your hair will still look thin in those areas–it just won’t be as bald as it was before. There’s also the chance that you can lose hair in other areas, which can result in patches of baldness.
Financing
Your health insurance will not cover the costs of a hair transplant. If you do not have the money to pay for the surgery up front, many hair transplant doctor’s offices can help you to finance the surgery, allowing you to make monthly payments. If you’re going to finance the surgery, make sure to pay attention to the overall cost of the surgery–including interest–when comparing your options.
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