How Long Will it Take from Consultation to Surgery?

Hey Dr.,

I’ve been a long time reader and you’ve even answered a couple of my questions on the blog in the past.

I’m 27, been on Propecia two years and am planning a trip to the LA area in the spring. I have a couple of questions, if you wouldn’t mind answering.

1. If I set up an appointment with you and you deemed I would be a candidate for a hair transplant, how long would I have to wait before going in for surgery?
2. In the same vein, what are the chances of being an ACell test subject? I know that it’s not fully proven, but I like the notion of it, and it seems less likely to leave a scar.
3. If ACell is in the question, can you give a rough estimate of what the cost would be (I guess per graft).

Very much obliged for any answers.

Thank you for being a long time reader!

1. The time it takes from first consultation to surgery can range from the next day (rare) to one or two months. Patients who are candidates can set up surgery based on our open schedule. We have two pricing models. For those who want surgery at a specific date, they pay $6 per graft and can have surgery as soon as the next day (if the space is available). For those who are more flexible and can work with our schedule, they pay $5 per graft. If you are traveling from out of town, you can still take advantage of this by giving us a general time frame of your availability and we will give you plenty of notice to arrange travel and vacation time. We also offer a travel reimbursement program. For further info, you can read about our fees at our site or call (800) NEW-HAIR.

2. We are enrolling patients in an ACell auto-cloning study, but they need to be completely bald up top so that we can clearly document the growth. If you want to participate in the ACell scar minimizing study (where we put the ACell in the donor area) you are welcome to participate as well. If you don’t want to participate in the study but still wish to have ACell used in your surgery, you can just pay for the material cost of ACell itself ($600).

3. We do not have an official fee for ACell auto-cloning surgery, as we aren’t offering it to the general public (it is only a research study at this time). For the ACell scar minimizing surgery (NOT auto-cloning) we are charging for the material cost (see above).