FUE and FUT Hair Transplant Cost Estimates and Facts

Baldness, or balding, is one of the most common cosmetic problems among adult men and women all over the world.  This problem has been addressed in a variety of ways, most of which are ineffective, like wigs and toupees, and until the recent advances in hair transplant techniques, there were few options.  Today’s techniques, and the understanding of the causes of baldness, have combined to produce some of the most effective and reliable hair transplant routines ever.

What is a Hair Transplant?

A hair transplant is just what the name implies; a section of normal scalp containing productive hair follicles is surgically removed from one area and transplanted to another.  This is typically done by taking the donor follicles from what is known as the ‘horseshoe’, or the area from one ear, back around the head to the other ear, as this area is not typically affected by pattern baldness.  This procedure is what is often referred to as ‘grafting’, or taking tissue from one area and relocating it to another.

This procedure has evolved to a very artistic expression of medical treatment, and all other aspects aside, it is important to understand that these are medical procedures and should be approached as such.  Many providers will claim no-scarring or recovery time, but these are surgical processes that will leave scars and will require some recovery time.  These procedures are performed on an outpatient basis, commonly taking three to six hours or so, depending on the procedures and the number of grafts needed per session, which also affects the hair transplant cost.

How Much Does a Hair Transplant Cost?

How much does hair transplant cost?  That really depends a range of factors from the geographical location and the individual doctor to the type of procedure that is being performed.  For example, Robert Jones, M.D., (www.drrobertjones.com), located in Canada, has rates starting at $8.00 per graft for the extraction method, while Kenneth Siporin, M.D. (www.drsiporin.com), in Los Angeles, charges $7.00 to $10.00 per graft.  For these particular  methods, anywhere from 300 to over 3,000 individual grafts may be needed, and this can amount to tens of thousands of dollars for the entire procedure.

There are two basic types of hair transplant procedures, the FUT and FUE, the FUE, mentioned above, is a technique in which one or two individual follicles are transplanted, known as follicle extraction, and FUT techniques involve taking many follicles at once in small strips of scalp, commonly known as the strip method.  FUT methods are cheaper and have better overall results when compared to FUE hair transplant cost and new hair growth, but this method leaves much larger scars and has a longer recovery time.  FUT methods can be nearly half the FUE costs, but the overall procedures still cost about $5,000 or more.

Some Common Misconceptions…

Some of the most common misconceptions, outside of how much does a hair transplant cost, are the causes of baldness in men and women.  One of the most common myths about hair loss is that wearing hats will cause baldness.  Wearing hats often may cause other problems but actually losing hair from it is not true.  Curling and blow-drying hair does not cause it to fall out either, it may make the hair strand brittle or weak, but is has no effect on whether the follicle will continue to produce hair or not.

Hair loss is caused by stress or trauma, genetics and hormones, and outside of the stress caused from physical damage to the scalp, illness or medication, the latter two are the main culprits in male and female baldness.  While there is nothing that can be done about these two factors, yet, there are the very effective and surprisingly natural-looking treatments, such as FUT and FUE transplantation, that can actually be a permanent fix to these embarrassing problems.