Hair Transplant

Hair Transplant Prices What Can I expect? Surgery Planning The Surgery Procedure Post-Op After Surgery Health Issues

Due to rise in recent technology, more realistic and natural looking hair transplants are being performed. Using stronger magnification microscopes and smaller blades with a diversity of points.

We work with surgeons that have perfected the technique for this cosmetic procedure and this special equipment is what makes transplant surgeries a complete success.

Your hair is one the most important features of your general appearance. People who have suffered from hair loss often fall into depression and lose most of their self-confidence. This surgery can help you boost your assurance and help you feel better about yourself.

With today’s technology and the skill of our certified team of doctors, our organization provides the most natural results for hair transplants. Please read the following information so you can get a general idea of what this procedure entails.

Hair Surgeries Average Price / Cost	USA	Costa Rica
Hair Transplant Price	$3500 – $9000	$950 – $2,200
Hair Restoration Price	$4000 – $7000	$950 – $2,200
Eyebrow Restoration Price	$3000 – $6000	$2,200
Eyelash Restoration Price	$3000 – $6000	$2,200
Price changes and updates are not shown on the website immediately. If you wish to obtain more information regarding the current costs of a procedure, please contact us here.

What Can I Expect

Submitting yourself to hair transplant surgery is a certified way to help you boost your confidence and to improve your features. Keep in mind that a hair replacement procedure is designed to enhance, not to provide perfection. It can’t change your looks completely but it can help to improve them. Therefore, if your outlook is realistic and you are searching for an augment in your appearance, this type of surgery is the one for you.

Hair replacement techniques use your own existing hair to perform the operation and the objective of this procedure is to find the best use for existing hair. Therefore, aspirants to this surgery must have vigorous hair growth at the sides and back of the head which may serve as hair donors. A donor area is the place from where the flaps and grafts of the implant are taken.

Factors such as hair texture, hair color, curliness and waviness can affect the results of a hair transplant. However, there are a number of techniques applied to this type of procedure which increase the rate of success; sometimes, two o more techniques are combined to accomplish the best results.

Surgeons use different types of methods when performing this surgery. Slit-grafts, punch grafts, mini and micro-grafts as well as strip-grafts are usually used on patients who aspire for a modest change in the fullness of their hair. However, for those who want a more dramatic transformation in their appearance, scalp-reduction, flaps and tissue-expansion are applied.

You must keep in mind at all moments that there are certain limits which this surgery can accomplish, therefore, a person who has very little hair growth, might not be advised to undertake such a procedure.

Surgery Planning

The certified team of surgeons is aware of the fact that a hair transplant surgery is a very personalized treatment. Therefore, we want every surgical option to be available for you and we have a great variety of doctors with vast experience in hair replacement techniques at your disposal.

Before any type of procedure is performed, patients are required to have a detailed discussion with their plastic surgeon. By doing so, both parties have the opportunity to contribute in the whole process and to increase the client’s level of satisfaction.

During this initial discussion, your doctor will evaluate your hair loss and growth, reviewing your family history of hair loss as well. Also, he/she will ask you if you’ve had any previous hair transplant surgery and will inquire about your lifestyle.

You will need to inform your doctor concerning any allergies you might be prone to or if you have any serious medical conditions. Make sure to ask your doctor concerning the diverse details that the surgery entails. For example, you should know if you should stop taking certain medications (e.g: aspirin) or if you will need to refrain from drinking or eating for a certain time period before your surgery. Also, if you are a smoker, you will need to inform your doctor of this and you will most likely have to refrain from smoking at least a week or two before the operation. Keep in mind that smoking restrains the blood flow to the skin and can negatively affect the healing process after the surgery.

Certain medical conditions can cause problems during or after the procedure. For example, blood-clotting problems, tendency to excessive scarring or high blood pressure should be previously checked by your doctor.

Hair transplant surgeries are advantageous since the procedure is completely permanent. Once the whole treatment is finished, you will not have to submit yourself to further surgeries. At the same time, it provides a more youthful and enthusiastic appearance to your looks as the results of the process look entirely natural. Overall, a hair replacement surgery, in the long run, is far less expensive than any other hair-loss treatment.

The Procedure

In a nutshell, this surgery implies the removal of small pieces of hair-bearing scalp grafts from a donor area and transferring them to a thinning or bald region. The grafts vary in size and shape: mini-grafts contain around 2-4 hairs, round grafts generally contain around 10-15 hairs and micro-grafts hold 1-2 hairs each. Surgeons can also create slits in your scalp and fill these with slit-grafts which carry 4-10 hairs. Strip grafts are thin and long and usually carry 30-40 hairs each.

Previous to the operation, the donor area is trimmed short, so that grafts are easily reached and taken out. When it comes to punch-grafts, your surgeon will likely use a special tube-like tool, which is made out of sharp carbon steel. Using this instrument, a round graft is punched out of the donor area so that it can be substituted in the area he/she is working on, which in most cases is located near the frontal hairline.

For other types of grafts, surgeons usually use a scalpel to take out small section of the donor area; these are sometimes split into even more tiny sections and are used to cover slits or miniscule holes in the scalp.

During the removal of the grafts, doctors usually inject small amounts of a saline solution into the scalp every so often to preserve proper skin strength. Once they are removed, the holes on the donor area can be closed with stitches (usually 1 stitch for punch-grafts and for the rest, a small straight line of stitches) which are generally covered with surrounding hair.

Grafts are positioned about 1/8 of an inch apart to preserve healthy circulation in the scalp. As your hair replacement treatment progresses, this space will be filled with supplementary grafts. To ensure that the transplanted hair will develop in a natural trend and to ensure that the hair growth in the donor area isn’t harmfully affected, surgeons will take extra-care in the removing and placement of grafts. Many doctors have perfected this technique down to an art form and you can rest assured that you will be satisfied with the results.

Once the grafting process is finished, the scalp is cleaned and covered with gauze. Even though some doctors allow their patients to recuperate from the procedure without any bandages, you will most likely have to wear a pressure bandage for a couple of days.

Flap surgery is another technique used in hair transplant treatment and it has been successfully performed for over 2 decades. Using this method, plastic surgeons can cover large regions of baldness with relative quickness and the process is personalized for each client. Depending on the patient’s objective and needs, the size of the flap can vary, but generally, one flap can do the equivalent work of 350 or more punch-grafts.

During this process, an area of the scalp is incised and a flap of hair-growing dermis is lifted from the surface while still having one end attached. While still remaining adhered to its original blood supply, this flap is then brought over to its new location and is sewn into place. As the healing process progresses, the scar will be camouflaged (or obscured) by the transplanted hair which grows to the very end of where the flap was placed.

Scalp reduction is another method commonly used for this of procedure. Also known as “advancement flap surgery”, it receives this name because sectors of hair-growing scalp are “advanced” or towed forward to fill up the problem area. This technique is utilized when covering hairless areas at the back or top of the head, but it is not recommended for filling out the frontal hairline. A segment of bald scalp is removed after local anesthesia is injected and the pattern of removal depends on the patient’s objectives and needs. Surgeons usually take out a Y-shaped fragment if a large amount of coverage is necessary, though incisions can be made in the shape of a U, an oval or other figures.

Once this is done, the surrounding skin of the ‘cut-out’ sector is slackened and pulled; this way, sections of hair-growing scalp are brought together and closed with stitches. At this point during the procedure, you will most likely feel a strong tugging sensation which may be slightly painful.

There is another technique which is commonly used in conjunction with hair transplants called tissue expansion. Plastic surgeons apply this procedure to restore injuries with significant skin loss or burn wounds. When used in combination with hair replacement procedures, the results are spectacular, providing significant coverage in a comparatively short period of time.

If your surgeon is combining these two techniques, he/she will use a tissue expander (a balloon-type tool) and will insert it under the hair-growing scalp located next to the problem area. It is regularly inflated using salt water over a period of weeks and it causes the skin to expand, forcing it to produce new skin cells. After several weeks, this causes a protuberance to form beneath the hair-growing scalp.

Generally after 2 months, this skin had expanded enough and an additionally procedure is started. The stretched skin is transplanted so that is covers the neighboring bald area.

If bandages are used to cover your head, they will generally be removed one day later. Within two days after the surgery, you may be allowed to gently wash your hair. Stitches are usually removed 10 days later. Your surgeon will probably want to check on you several times during the first month so that he/she can make sure that your incisions are healing properly.

Post-Op – After Surgery

The extent of discomfort you may experience and your period of recovery after the hair transplant surgery depends mostly on the complexity and degree of the procedure you were submitted to. You may feel some aching, throbbing or excessive tautness, but this can be controlled with medication prescribed by your surgeon. After several days, it is probable that you may feel acceptably well and you may be able to resume light activity and return to work.

Keep in mind that you will have to avoid any strenuous activity for at least 3 weeks, since it can increase the blood flow to the scalp and can cause your incisions to bleed. Therefore, contact sports and vigorous exercise will have to be avoided and some doctors recommend the deferment of sexual activity as well during this period.

Also, you must remember that your “new hair” tends to fall out within 6 weeks after the procedure. Many patients feel utterly distressed about this but you must bear in mind that is a completely normal condition and is almost always provisional. It takes around 5 to 6 weeks after the hair falls out for it to resume normal growth and from then on, you can expect around half an inch of growth every month.

In general terms, various surgical sessions (known as ‘touch up’ procedures) may be needed to achieve the level of fullness the client desires. These are implemented by your doctor to create a more natural-looking outcome once your incisions are cured. They can involve a filling-in of the hairline using mini, micro and/or slit-grafts. If you’ve had a flap surgery, a ‘dog ear’ (small bump) may still be visible on your scalp and it might be necessary to remove it.

Between these sessions, surgeons allow for several months of recovery, therefore, it can take up to 2 years for the whole treatment to be completed and for you to see the final result of the whole procedure. Please feel free to discuss this with your doctor since he/she can usually predict how long it will take to finish the treatment.

The extent of coverage you will require depends greatly on your hair texture and color. Fine, dark-colored hair offers less exposure than coarse, gray or light-colored hair. The number of large plugs replaced in the first surgical procedure differs from person to person, but the average is about 50. However, the number can be up to 700 per session when it comes to micro and mini-grafts.

Health Issues

When a hair transplant surgery is performed by the excelling doctors, it is an extremely safe procedure. However, individuals differ greatly when it comes to their healing abilities and physical reactions, therefore, outcomes are very difficult to predict.

Infection is extremely rare, as is excessive bleeding and/or wide scars (also known as ‘stretch-back scars; caused by the tension caused in some scalp-reduction procedures) but they can sometimes happen, so you must keep it in mind when considering undertaking this surgery.

Also, in this procedure, there is always the risk that a graft might not ‘take’ to being replaced. As we have previously explained, it is completely normal for the hair contained in the grafts to fall out, but sometimes the plug dies and further surgery will be needed. In some cases, clients with grafts may notice little bumps on the scalp that form in the area where they were transplanted. When this happens, these sections can usually be covered with surrounding hair.

Taking all this into consideration, it is highly recommended for you to follow your surgeon’s instructions at all times to help avoid any complications.