Hair transplant surgery is a great way to restore hair that you have lost over the years due to genetics or aging, but sometimes surgery isn’t always the answer.

There are plenty of positives about getting a hair transplant, in most cases it’s very successful, it can boost your self-esteem, it’s relatively painless, and the recovery process is much easier to deal with than other types of cosmetic surgery.

Typically, we would only inform you of all of the good aspects of having a hair transplant, which we have done in the past, but we like to make sure our patients are well informed when making this sort of decision. We would never try to pressure or convince someone to undergo a hair transplant procedure that is not fully on board with the process and understands all the pros and cons associated with the surgery.

Even though we absolutely stand by our work and believe that hair transplants are extremely safe and produce excellent results, it is a surgical procedure and there are always going to be downsides and disadvantages to having the surgery vs other options.

Cons of Having a Hair Transplant

Hair Will Continue to Fall Out

The biggest disadvantage of a hair transplant is that most hair loss is because of genetics and/or aging which means that even though you have had a hair transplant, your hair is going to continue to fall out over time no matter what.

Unfortunately, there is currently no cure or treatment to reverse the effects that genetics and aging have on our hair. Over time, everyone’s hair will naturally begin to thin and fall out leaving us with various levels of male pattern baldness or noticeable thinning. And since you’re born with the total amount of hair follicles you will ever have in your lifetime, there’s no way to replace these dying follicles.

A hair transplant will take healthy follicles from thriving areas of your scalp and move them to the areas that are beginning to thin. This will fill in those balding areas and give you back some of what mother nature is trying to take from you.  Never will you have the same full head of hair but a hair transplant can do a lot to make you look younger or more like your old self.

As your hair continues to fall out, as it will, you may start to see gaps between the transplanted hair and the further receding hairline. This makes many men seek additional transplants in their lifetime.  Although the donor area isn’t as susceptible to male pattern baldness, it too thins out over time so you can only borrow so many grafts from the back of your head to replace the ones on the top.

Cost of Hair Transplant Surgery

Another downside to hair transplant surgery doesn’t have to do with the procedure itself, but rather the cost of the procedure.

When you have a hair transplant performed, it is considered a cosmetic procedure and is not covered by any insurance so you will have to pay the cost and the more grafts you need, the more you will have to pay.  The number of grafts placed on your scalp will vary depending on the extent of your thinning, but in one session they can range from as few as 500 grafts up to 2000 grafts and most patients have multiple sessions during their lifetime as mentioned above as thinning progresses.

The pricing will also vary depending on the doctor that you visit, but here at the Limmer Hair Transplant Center, we charge by graft and by the type of procedure so the cost ranges from about $4.25-$6.00 per graft using the FUT method and between $6.25-$8.00 per graft using the FUE (robot assisted). The more grafts required, the lower the price per graft becomes so the price can range from between $3000-$11,000+ for one day of hair transplant depending on how extensive the surgery is.

This may seem very expensive when compared to medicinal or non-surgical treatments, but not all treatments work for everyone. Your doctor will be able to talk to you about different treatment options based on your specific case to determine the best course of action based around your budget.

All Surgery Creates Scars

We have seen some clinics advertise (wrongly) “scar-less hair transplant.” This is completely false and frankly illegal in terms of truth in advertising. FUE and FUT leave different types of scars but they both leave scars just like any incision or cut into the skin.

FUE leaves small dot scars but if you’ve had 2000 grafts removed, that means 2000 little white dots are hidden scattered on the back of your head which should be hidden with shorter hair styles.

FUT leaves a long but very thin white line scar.  With a scissor cut, this is also well hidden but if you were to shave your head, it would be visible.

It’s important to discuss with your surgeon, the type of hairstyle you are currently wearing and what your desires may be for the future in order to pick the best type of hair transplant surgery.

Not Everyone Qualifies for a Hair Transplant

Remember, you must have enough donor hair to excise and move around your scalp in order for a hair transplant to be viable. If you do not have enough hair somewhere on your head, then a hair transplant may not be an option anymore.

Once you remove the follicles from the area that still has hair and place them into the thinning spots, those hairs are permanently gone, they do not grow back in the donor area.  So even when performed correctly, if transplant is repeated, the donor area will start to thin out it. When done incorrectly, it could begin to look uneven or patchy.  A good hair transplant surgeon will help you plan not just for today’s surgery but for the future of your hair loss. Dr. Krejci wants your transplant to stay looking great and all of your hair to look natural for a very long time!

In most cases there will be options for you regarding hair loss, but not everyone will experience the drastic results you may be expecting. The key is to have enough follicles on your head to be able to move them around to new areas while the donor areas remain full enough.

It’s important that you find a doctor that knows what they are doing, someone who can show you their work, someone who can let you reach out to patients and ask them questions, and someone who has been performing hair transplants for a significant amount of time.

With the advancement in technology and robot assisted procedures, many unqualified doctors, and even non-doctors, are adding hair transplant services to their offices but there’s more to it than just having these robots to help.

If you have any questions about hair transplants or hair thinning, please contact us today at the Limmer Hair Transplant Center in San Antonio, Texas. We’re happy to setup a consultation with our doctor to help you figure out what the best solution for you is.