Will Hair Transplants Become Cheaper with Technology Advancements?
Hello Doctor,
I was just wondering, with all the advancements in technology and the rising demand for restoring ones hair do you think that hair transplants will become relatively cheaper in the near future? if so when would could someone predict a drop in price? 5, 10, 20 years?thanks
Perhaps surgery may drop in price if you adjust for inflation, but overall hair transplant surgery is an elective cosmetic surgery and as long as there is a demand, it will still likely be relatively expensive. I am sure (even now) you can find doctors who offer a very low price of around $1 per graft, but the quality and results may be questionable. I often fix many patients failed hair transplant surgeries from Tijuana and even local clinics where patients go to get bargain hair transplants for $1 to $3 per graft. In the end, the patient ends up spending a lot more to fix the bad work.
I am often amazed at how someone would go bargain hunting for cosmetic surgery that will last a lifetime. If you have a bad meal you can always go to another restaurant tomorrow, but a hair transplant is for life. You’ll be looking at the bad work on yourself each time you look in the mirror. I realize finance and fees are definitely a factor, but it should not be something to base the decision to have surgery.
I believe there will always be patients who seek out the cheapest surgery from doctors who want to compete and offer a low fee. And there will always be top surgeons who will command a very high fee for quality work and the patients who seek out top quality work. Not all hair transplant surgery or surgeons are the same, which is why many patients fly in from all over the world to see us at New Hair Institute.
Back in the early 70’s, the well-known sit-com, All in The Family, featured Archie Bunker saying, “That’s how you know what’s good in America- It costs more.” Everyone got a good laugh out of that.
The truth is, sometimes this is true and sometimes it is not. It’s a bit of an urban legend.
I had 3,175 grafts via the strip method a year ago for close to but under $3.00 per graft by a California licensed physician with over 30 years of hair transplant experience. My results were excellent. No complaints whatsoever, and I am planning on having another 2,500 by the same doctor. Good hair transplants don’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Do your homework!
I love the BaldingBlog and i am sure that Dr. Rassman provides excellent results, but at $8.00 per graft, could the cost of maintaining a Century City office, a stone’s throw from West Hollywood, one of the most expensive pieces of real estate on the planet, have something to do with the high price and not the quaity of the outcome?
I think to be fair to Dr Rassman he seems to have invented or co-invented most of the techniques and specialities in the industry and if you look at most cosmetic surgery the ‘front runners’ are charging a hell of a lot more than Dr Rassman is for hair transplants relatively speaking.
I guess it’s like buying a car – you buy a Bentley and sure a lot of what you pay for is probably prestige and side luxury but you also know you aren’t getting a lemon.
I’m sure there are great docs out there charging a lot less – but I think it’s not unfair to let Dr Rassman charge Hollywood prices since he’s trusted by a lot of high profile people and he clearly gives a lot of information for free. If he gets rich doing it, that’s more power to him. I don’t think he’s obliged to say find the cheapest on his own blog.
No, I too don’t begrudge Dr. Rassman earning whatever he can earn and charging whatever the market can bear. He has every right to do so. And I agree he is very generous with his time which, in my opinion, is the mark of a quality surgeon.
Nonetheless, I think there are a number of things that cause hair transplants to be pricey that have nothing to do with the skill of the surgeon. Location is just one factor, but competition can also be another. Some quality doctors just need the business and will take a little less profit for more patients. Nothing wrong with that.
I’ve had a facelift, three rhinoplasties and one strip-method hair transplant. Of all the cosmetic procedures I’ve had, by far the easiest and simplest was the hair transplant. It’s certainly the easiest on the patient. It’s amazingly “nothing” compared to even a rhinoplasty.
The plastic surgeon who did my facelift commented that hair transplants were pretty simple operations and he didn’t do them himself because they were tedious and, frankly, boring for the surgeon. I’m not surprsied by this opinion.
I frankly don’t think there is really all that much to a hair transplant. My feeling is they are fairly simple operations: After all, they are not even taught in any medical residency program. Where you might expect otherwise, they are neither taught in a dermatology or plastic surgery residency. As cosmetic surgical procedures go, they are sort of out there in the ozone. Many hair transplant surgeons simply have to learn the techniques and skills from another surgeon who knows the field.
I’m not sure how the cost is calculated, but it seems to me that it is an error to suggest that a “cheap” hair transplant cannot be any good (by “cheap” I’d refer to one around the $3.00 per graft rate, give or take a little, which at least is affordable for many people).
I for one welcome competition to reduce the cost of the surgery. Lower cost really doesn’t necessarily mean an inferior result.
Having seen a number of pretty awful hair transplants id probably suggest like breast implants – it’s a surgery which is more ‘artistic’ than necessarily a pure technical skill. I think you’re paying for someone’s personal interpretation and obviously with hair transplants the quality of the technicians and their training since they do a lot more than in many other surgeries.
I don’t think anyone is really saying that expense equals competence and I’m sure you’re right that maintaining offices in high rent locations is a factor somewhere along the line. Still to counter your surgeons point – a lot of people think anything outside their speciality is ‘easy’ or ‘boring’ – I’ve heard neurosurgeons complain that cardio surgeons are just cut n slash hacks and it is not a challenging specialty – of course you’d still want the best cardiac surgeon working if you had the choice.
The problem with hair transplants are in some way exaggerated by how ‘simple’ it is and how little physical damage you can apparently do the patient. It’s not like you’re cutting in a major way – and without the specialty and residency programmes it does seem like an easy money making step for an ‘average’ surgeon (or any doctor given the oddities of the profession). I think that ‘false security’ of an easy in is what results in so many bad transplants.
Rhinoplasty can go very badly wrong very easily. I think this puts off some surgeons who aren’t comfortable. I think a lot of the docs going into hair transplant shouldn’t be allowed to practice medicine but that seems to make them comfortable with starting it.
Painting my house seems like a useless and unchallenging job to an artist but I bet you’d find someone who was good at it if you only ever got one shot at doing it right.
While I agree that hair transplant surgery is real surgery, and should not be treated like a haircut, in the realm of cosmestic surgery, hair transplants are fairly simple operations compared to the most difficult and technologically challenging of all cosmetic procedures: rhinoplasty. My first rhinoplasty was when I was 16, in 1974, and the surgeon, although board certified in plastic surgery, over-resected the bridge. But then it was 1974. In 2000, I had a revision with rib bone and cartilage grafting by one of the top 5 rhinoplasty surgeons in the world (in the opinion of the plastic surgeon who did my facelift). Due to contracture and shrinkage of the nasal skin, which left my nose not as straight as I would have liked, but still 90% improved over where it was before, I had a further revision and “touch-up” by the same rhinoplasty surgeon (who is a super-specialist in the field and has authored numerous textbooks on the subject and had performed over 4,500 rhinoplasties) last November. He used a newer product, Alloderm, on my nose and made some other minor adjustments and now the result is excelent. I have the nose I always wanted. Sometimes it’s the advance of technology that matters.
But hair transplants are nothing by comparision. So, the point is, even a “cheap” hair transplant can be a good one.
I suppose then, “cheap” nose jobs can also be a good one.
The point is you generally get what you pay for.
You really can’t say that back in 1974 there were incompetent doctors. I am sure there were plenty of “cheap” nose jobs that produced great results. You don’t need to perform 4500 nose jobs to get it “right”. And the 4501 may turn out bad.
So another point is even expensive nose jobs can go bad.
Overall, in my opinion, you missed the point. If you want quality work, it generally costs more.
Maybe you will go bargain hunting for a cheap hair transplant. Maybe it will be a good one.
A cheap nose job could be a good one, sure. It’s the surgeon, not the price. You’re not buying a mass-produced product like a Bentley with cosmetic surgery. It’s not the more you pay the more you get.