Men's Journal Reports Incorrect Information On Hair Transplantation

In a July 2008 issue sidebar to an article discussing men's plastic surgery, Men's Journal reported that the hair transplantation process consisted of "a surgeon collects roughly 500 hair plugs, then individually grafts them onto bald areas." This process is actually and out-dated method called punch-grafting, which produces poor results and can often be disfiguring.

The gold standard for hair transplantation is follicular unit transplantation in which a hair transplantation surgeon extracts follicles in the groupings (consisting of anywhere from one to four hairs) from the bald resistant areas of the back and sides of the scalp (either through strip extraction where the surgeon excises a thin strip of skin from the donor areas, or follicular unit extraction where the surgeon uses a special tool to extract the follicular units separately and transplants them one at a time to the recipient area) and transplants them to the balding areas of the scalp. Most surgeons advocate mega-sessions in which they transplant anywhere from 1,000 to 7,000 grafts - the higher end of this scale is expectational and not at all common, as not all patients will have this many grafts to spare, or other conditions may intervene - in a single session to ensure superior results and minimize the number of surgeries the patient must endure for a satisfactory result.

The magazine also reported that the cost starts "from $4,500." Although this is fair average of the cost of hair transplantation, it is important for prospective patients to know that the cost of hair transplantation is based upon the number of grafts and most quality surgeons are currently charging $4 per graft. $4,500 would then be an approximate cost for a thousand grafts. Many surgeons offer discounts after a certain number of grafts is reached, for example: some surgeons charge $4 for the first 3,000 grafts and $3 for every graft thereafter. Travel costs is also not included in the magazine's estimate - many of the top docs are quite spread-out around the nation and the world, but most offer some form of travel compensation.

Men's Journal collected its cost information from a superior website, The Hair Transplant Network. HTN offers, hands down, the best information about hair transplantation on the web. They have also formed a coalition of surgeons devoted to raising the bar in hair transplantation and producing superior results. Take a look at some of the before and after photos in their gallery; you'll be amazed at what a quality surgeon utilizing state-of-the-art techniques can do.