Hair Implants Guide

There are many options available for a person who is suffering from the embarrassing symptoms of male pattern baldness but one of the best is get hair implants or hair transplants as they are also known. {Hair transplant costs} can vary dramatically depending on several factors that we will discuss. The thing to remember is you are getting a result that will last with you for years to come and will continue to grow your own hair in that bald spot during that time. The cost of hair transplants may be more to begin with but if you look at the total price over twenty years of using some other hair loss treatments then you can see that it is really worthwhile to check this procedure out.

The first factor in the total hair transplantation cost is number of hair units that need to be implanted. This goes without saying really but since you are charged per implant this can add up quickly. The thicker and darker the hair that is transplanted is the less you will need to implant because they will cover up the bald spot so much easier. A person with dark, thick hair shafts is going to require fewer implanted hair units per square centimeter of balding area than a person who has thin, light colored hair. It is really amazing how the number of hairs and structure of the hair shafts can vary from one person to the next.

The next variable in the hair transplant surgery cost is the availability of donor hair. The standard method is to remove a section of scalp from the back of the head where there is still good hair growth. In general, if a man is suffering from male pattern baldness, he will lose hair on the front and crown of the head but not on the sides and back. You see this in the classical bald man who has absolutely no hair on the top of his hair but hair growth around the sides near the ears and at the lower back of the head.

Since there is usually still good hair growth at the back of the head, and because it is easy to cover up any scarring, this is the preferred donor area. Usually a strip of scalp is removed and the incision sown up. The individual hair units are then removed from this piece of scalp skin and prepared for hair implantation. As you can see if there is a good donor area the hair transplants cost will be lower because it will be so easy to get the hair units for the hair transplantation.

A second method for removing the hair units is known as follicular unit extraction. With this method the surgeon actually removes every single hair follicle and shaft, that is going to be transplanted, individually with a specially designed tool. This method does not require an actual removal of scalp material. Another plus to this method is the individual hair units can be removed from several areas of the head for placement in the balding area. Thus people with thinning hair who couldn’t afford the cost of hair transplant surgery with the old method can now have a nice looking head of hair after this procedure.

The FUE method also allows for removal of hair from other areas of the body besides just the head. This transplanted body hair is usually not as fine a consistency as hair on the head so it is used as a filler material. It works very well away from the hair line as a way to get hair growing in the bald spot. The ability to use hair material from other areas of the body also affects the answer to the question of how much does a hair transplant cost.

For hair transplants you can usually expect to pay $3 to $7 per implant. Depending on the structure of the hair and the area of baldness to be treated you can expect to have several hundred to a few thousand individual implants. As you can see hair transplant costs are fairly high but they are comparable to other methods of hair loss treatment that you have to continue for years into the future.