Updated on January 20, 2020.
I first wrote this post in 2014 and am updating it to reflect 2020 pricing. The cost of a hair transplant varies significantly depending on:
- Surgeon reputation: Experienced and reputable professionals will often be pricier. See Hair Transplant Cost Comparison Table.
- Technique utilized: Follicular unit extraction (FUE) is significantly more expensive per graft in comparison to follicular unit transplantation (FUT). The latter is also known as strip hair transplantation.
- Number of grafts extracted and implanted during the procedure: Prices per graft tend to decline as you get larger sessions, although not all surgeons offer a sliding scale.
- Country where the surgery is taking place: See Hair Transplant Cost By Country. Developing countries usually offer much lower rates for all types of cosmetic procedures, including hair transplants. However, beware of the dangers of getting hair transplants abroad. Also add your airfare, accommodation, visa application and other fees to the total if applicable.
- National chains versus private clinics: Chains with numerous locations (e.g., Bosley) will tend to be cheaper. However, this may depend on branch location and surgeon too.
- Whether you are willing to come in at short notice in case of cancellation by others: Flexibility on your part can mean lower prices.
- Whether you suffer from male pattern baldness, or female pattern hair loss, or other less common forms of hair loss.
- Granting rights to photo use: If you are will to let the surgeon use your before and after photos publicly, you can often get a discount. You could also negotiate better rates if willing to show your results to local patients in your city; go to conferences with the surgeon as a patient case display; or maybe even become a clinic representative in your particular region.
How Much Does a Hair Transplant Cost?
In the table further below, you can find hair restoration surgery per graft prices that I found on surgeon websites. Note that some sites quote per hair or per follicle hair transplant prices. These will often be a fraction of per graft prices. However, this is misleading, since a typical graft can contain 1, 2, 3 or even more hair follicles. On average, one graft has approximately 2.5 follicles.
These prices can often change, and some surgeons are willing to negotiate them downwards. Especially if you are able to come in at the last minute if someone else cancels. Or if you have extensive baldness and are considering FUT or FUE hair transplant megasessions involving thousands of grafts. Many will also discount a second hair transplant procedure. Some surgeons are also willing to cover expenses such as airfare and accommodation.
Note that a few of these prices may no longer be accurate, so it is always best to directly consult a surgeon for the latest pricing data. The table rows are sorted by surgeon last name. There are thousands of experienced hair transplant surgeons around the world. However, I am only including a few of the most well known ones who also have official pricing data available on their sites.
Body hair transplant (BHT) prices are generally significantly higher than regular scalp hair FUE transplant prices and are not included in the table below. In most FUE mega-sessions, body hair is a small or even nonexistent factor. Also to be noted is that some surgeons offer lower FUE prices for patients that are willing to shave their donor area prior to the procedure. ARTAS robot assisted hair transplants can also influence pricing.
Many of the below listed per graft hair transplant prices are converted to US dollars based on prevailing exchange rates. You can use this currency converter to get the rates in your preferred currency.
Hair Restoration Prices by Country
Hair transplant surgery in a developed country will typically cost anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000 depending on number of grafts. The corresponding cost for the same number of grafts in a poorer developing country will be anywhere from as low as $2,000 to a high of $10,000. Although cost per graft for hair transplants is usually much lower in developing countries compared to developed countries, one needs to account for other expenses. These include airfare, visa fees, accommodation costs, and miscellaneous expenses such as taxi and bus fares.
There are nowadays excellent hair transplant surgeons operating in quite a few developing countries. However, in general, the number of inexperienced below par surgeons is more prevalent in developing countries than in developed countries due to weakly enforced regulatory systems. Moreover, if you have any kind of bad result or injury or infection in a poor country, you will have a much lesser chance of getting reimbursed or being able to successfully file and a lawsuit.
That said, going to an experienced, well reviewed accredited hair transplant surgeon in countries such as India, Thailand or Turkey can be a great option. You will usually save a lot of money in the process. I am impressed by some of the surgeons in those countries, although there are way too many scammers out there too. Even middle income cities such as Dubai and Istanbul have become major hair transplant tourism centers in recent years.
It should be noted that newer FUE practicing surgeons can be subpar even in developed countries. They often rely on their past strip/FUT surgery experience and good reputation to make it seem like their FUE practice is just as great. In the end, bad results are definitely not the sole domain of poorer developing countries. Moreover, surgeons in all countries can often exaggerate graft count extraction totals. Technicians everywhere can also damage grafts due to fatigue, insufficient training and more.
Note that both the FUE and FUT techniques tend to differ among various surgeons. Among the variances include: different punch sizes; robotic versus manual extractions; type of storage medium used; lateral slit versus sagittal slit versus coronal slit; surgical tool differences (e.g., ARTAS, NeoGraft, manual versus motorized FUE, punch types); and more. Some surgeons even have their own trademarked acronyms for their particular version of the FUE or FUT technique. In many cases, these trademarks are just marketing gimmicks.
Hair Transplant Cost Comparison Table
I do not update the below hair transplantation cost by surgeon table regularly, so some prices may no longer be accurate. For non-American doctors, local currency exchange rates versus the US dollar fluctuate daily. I am only including well known ISHRS member hair transplant surgeons in the below list who also publish official per graft pricing data on their sites. Some surgeons and clinics will also include airfare, hotel accommodation, PRP treatment, medications, airport pickup, daily taxi and more as part of a package deal.
| Surgeon | Country | Strip (FUT) hair transplant cost $/graft | FUE hair transplant cost $/graft | My Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edward Ball | United Kingdom | $5.20/graft for first 1,000 grafts. $4.55/graft for next 500 grafts. $3.25/graft for next 500 grafts. $2.60/graft thereafter. | $6.50/graft. | The Maitland Clinic. Prices converted from British pounds to USD at prevailing exchange rates. |
| Tejinder Bhatti | India | n/a | $1.27/graft for standard package. $1.41/graft for premium package. | Premium package includes hotel stay and more. Check his site for details. |
| Christian Bisanga | Belgium | $3.16/graft down to $2.83/graft depending on size of procedure. | $6.10/graft down to $4.44/graft depending on size of procedure. | Prices converted from Euros to USD at prevailing exchange rates. |
| Hakan Doganay | Turkey | n/a | $2.77/graft. | Uses Choi implanter and “micromotor” FUE extraction process. Slightly higher price for manual FUE extraction. |
| Koray Erdogan | Turkey | n/a | $2.77/graft. | Among the most popular options in Turkey. Prices converted from Euros. |
| HDC Hair Clinic | Cyprus | n/a | $2.99/graft. | Exclusively FUE practice. Prices converted from Euros. |
| Russell Knudsen | Australia | $5.29/graft for first 500 grafts. $4.54/graft for second 500 grafts. Thereafter, $3.78 per graft. | $6.81/graft for first 500 grafts. Thereafter, $6.05 per graft. | Prices converted from Australian dollars to USD. Dr. Knudsen is a past ISHRS Golden Follicle and Manfred Lucas lifetime achievement awardee. |
| Parsa Mohebi | USA | $6.00/graft for first 2,500 grafts. $4.00/ graft thereafter. | $8.00/graft. | Has conducted several interesting Reddit AMA interviews. |
| Suradej Pong | Thailand | $2.25/graft for 2,000 grafts. $2.04/graft for 3,000 grafts. $1.89/graft for 3,500 grafts. | n/a | Many favorable online reviews about him from western patients. |
| Arvind Poswal | India | $1.00/graft. | $2.00/graft. | Probably the world’s most experienced surgeon when it comes to body hair to head (BHT) hair transplants. |
| Ron Shapiro | USA | $5.50/graft for first 2,000 grafts. $3.00/ graft thereafter. | $7.00/graft. | Lengthy online history of great results. Past ISHRS Golden Follicle award recipient. |
| Bradley Wolf | USA | $4.75/graft for 2,000 grafts. $4.26/graft for 3,000 grafts. | $8.00/graft as long as you get at least 1,000 grafts. Additional $2/graft charge if unshaven donor. | Lengthy online presence. |
| Hasson & Wong | Canada | $5.00/graft for first 2,000 grafts. $3.00/ graft thereafter. | $8.00/graft for first 2,000 grafts. $6.00/ graft thereafter. | By now, they probably have two decades of extensive online before and after photo documentation. Majority FUT results. |
| Tsvetalin Zarev | Bulgaria | n/a | $4.43/graft. | Exclusively FUE practice. Prices converted from Euros. |
I will update the above hair transplant cost by surgeon table every year.
Insurance Coverage for Hair Restoration
Note that hair transplant costs will never be covered by most health insurance plans. These procedures are almost always considered to be cosmetic surgeries rather than medical necessities. If your hair loss is due to an accident such as a fire or workplace injury to the scalp, insurance companies might be more willing to help you.
Many surgeons offer financing plans such as CareCredit and other payment arrangements for those who want to pay in monthly installments.
Price Calculator
On many hair restoration surgeons’ websites, you can find built-in online hair transplant cost per graft calculators. Prices are usually available in local currencies as well as the US dollar and the Euro. Since rates per graft are tiered and decline once you exceed certain graft totals, a calculator is a very useful tool. A surgeon can also advise you on how many grafts will be needed after you send him/her your thinning hairline and scalp photos. Many will also offer video consultation.
Very useful table! I am wondering if these hair transplant prices have declined since you wrote the post? Isn’t there more competition nowadays?
Are there any surgeons in Thailand that anyone can recommend? Thanks.
I believe that the cost shouldn’t be the deciding factor in choosing hair transplant Clinic. Undoubtedly, you should never put your health at risk in order to save some money. And one thing I advise you that to prevent any kind of risks, research is absolutely required. If you have any doubt about the effectiveness of a clinic’s treatment or any fears about potential risks, it is crucial that you should double-check the credentials of the clinic and the surgeon’s themselves.
Excellent piece, Admin.
I don’t know if I will ever get a transplant. I’m a diffuse thinner, so it’s not ideal. Plus, if I got shock loss, or if I continued to thin, I could end up in a similar position to the one I started with (or worse), and I would have spent a considerable amount of money to get there. Not to mention the emotional journey.
However, if I was getting one, and if I was sticking to the Uk, I think I’d go to Dr Reddy (Private Clinic) or Dr Ball (Maitland Clinic). If I was going outside, I’d go to Hasson And Wong.
For me, my main aims would be
-Density
-A natural appearance
-No see-through effect
-A strong hairline
Thanks! Dr. Ball had per graft pricing on this site so I added him now.
Hello admin
I remember the Private Clinic in London quoting per hair and not graft.
Thanks just noticed it says “per hair” too! Will change table.
I agree, in the UK – Reddy, Ball and Farjo are the 3 I would book a consultation with.
I met Reddy and Ball when researching my own transplant. (Went with Ball, and am very happy that I did)
Surprised that there is no mention of dr. Rahal seeing as he is regarded as being the god of hairlines.
Doc Rahal did a great job for me in 2009.
Does anyone have experience of the Maitland Clinic in London (mentioned in the list), or an other London based clinics? thanks
Yes. Had a FUE with them in 2018.
The clinic itself is in Hampshire, I think they only do consultations from London. (Could be wrong on that ?)
I met the consultant David Anderson and the surgeon Edward Ball and was totally convinced that if I was going to have a hair transplant, that this was the best place. They are honest, realistic and positive. I got the impression that if they think you are not a candidate, they would turn you down, and not just go through with it, for the money. In my book, that counts for a lot.
Question for MJones and anyone else with diffuse thinning:
What do you use to style your hair? Any thickening products that are worth using?
try aveda thickening tonic with a low setting warm hair dryer, gives a nice result. a bit on sticky side and a tad bit drying, but i found its done a good enough job. about $25 for a bottle.
Hi Paul
I use Toppik and hair spray to keep everything in place.
If used in the right way Toppik helps
I use toppik or equivalent sparingly, especially when I have a date with my lovely lady soon to be wife :)
In unrelated news that I missed, Almirrall said in October that their topical finastride spray (known as p-3074 in the polichem days, currently named ALM12845) is due for Europe wide release in early 2021.
@GregB … “First national phase approval is estimated in 2020 or early 2021 in Europe.” … so its still possible for market rrelease this year.
Its nice to see that you bring that on. I have the Feeling that on hairloss sites these soon coming Treatments are almost forgotten and are not discussed and updated. Here we only see old Storys like Transplants and Minox or if some Celebrities are bald or on the other site new findings which wont come the next 10 years. But I want to know whats next this or next year!
So what About Almirall, Medipost, Guilliani, Exosomes, electric stimulation or Cosmeceuticals?
They filed with the EMA on September 26th I believe, and they will give their assessment within 210 days, which would be April 23, 2020. They then woudl submit their decision to the european commission who can take up 67 days to issue the final decision for approval or not, which would be June 29, 2020.
how long it takes them to put it on the shelves after all that, provided it is in fact approved, is anyone’s guess.
I used dr Bradley wolf a few years ago. Best money ever spent. Strongly recommend him for anyone considering making the leap. Also the 8 per graft is on the higher end, more then likely you pay less then that depending on amount of grafts and if you pay with check etc..
@admin I read some bad news (or maybe not) for hair loss community.
Kyoto University is doing clinical trials with iPSCs and they found some abnormalities after differentiation.
Some iPS cells for regenerative medicine, distributed by a stock project at Kyoto University’s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), showed cancer-related genetic and chromosomal abnormalities when differentiated to the target cells, several sources close to the project revealed.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200108/p2a/00m/0na/012000c
What do you think? Maybe this will affect hair loss research and trials in Japan in future?
I think that’s basically not good – and not just for hair but also for all the other possible therapies. But here’s the „buts“:
* the testing was in 2015 – which is already a long time ago. I did not know they did this testing so early already, which means they could have solved the issue or know how to solve it in the mean time.
* it seems to be a problem of differentiation and cultivation – not a basic problem of iPSCs. It‘s still a new technology, problems in the research-stage are completely natural.
* iPSCs is just one approach (and probably the most radical and risky) to treat hair loss via cell therapy. Tsuji (2 of his 3 alleged therapies), Tissuse, Rapunzel, Hairclone, Stemore, Replicel – all use different techniques.
* I don‘t know if the ones who are working on iPSCs (Shiseido, Tsuji, StemsonTx) would pursue this technique if it would be that risky. I assume they did similar testing behind closed doors at around the same time. All announced their development plans after this study (2015).
All this being said from a total amateur in the field. Still – nothing to worry too much. Don‘t forget, we fellow sufferers are only passengers, we need to trust the experts and be patient. Somehow it’s a great ride of desperation and hope, just like life itself. There‘s almost 10 companies working actively and steadily on cell therapies. 5 years ago there was none. I am optimistic and positive.
U r reading too much into it.
The paper just confirms that iPSC proliferation is linked with a high incidence of carcinogenesis.
That’s been suspected since the beginning.
Nothing new, nothing bad.
That’s the Technology.
Anyone have any studies showing how much of p-3074 actually goes systemic?
There was a small dosing study that only tested dht for 1 week. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26636418/
The phase 3 results are covered in https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/results/NCT03004469
Disappointingly, they didn’t test dht but instead did a sexual function questionnaire (about halfway down). It looks to me like the spray has significantly better results than oral for erectile function and intercourse satisfaction if you add up the net differences vs placebo (middle column).
@Ben Last couple of months there were couple of big breakthroughs in iPSCs technology.
German lab successfully created iPSCs without Oct4 factor (the most risky one) and they found that their new iPSCs are far more superior and similar to original ESC than previous iPSCs with Oct4 factor.
https://www.mpg.de/14079684/reprogramming-stem-cells-without-oct4
Paul- I just keep my hair longer and blow dry. My hair is very coarse and frizzy which gives the illusion of more hair than what I have. I don’t use toppik because I’m too lazy. I use nizoral 3x a week which makes my hair super coarse and frizzy which makes it look thicker. I have to keep my hair a certain length to look good. If too short then it’s hard to style the thinner areas because it needs length. When it’s too long the thinning shows more. Usually best hair length is 3 inches range. Winter is worse because lack of humidity in philly area makes hair limp. Summer months my hair looks much thicker.
Too sum it up it takes me almost an hour to blow dry and style it so it looks decent. Pain in the a%$. If hair gets wet during the day…its game over lol
Admin,
I’ve been e-mailing Paul Kemp and Dr Farjo about HairClone. Paul said the expansion service should be available this time next year. Nothing definite, but I thought people might want to know.
Thanks Paul. I will contact them in the second half of this year to see where the hair cloning or multiplication stands. Am not too interested in follicle banking myself, though I wrote about it several times in the past.
I think hair transplant costs are going to fall in the developed countries as they face more competition from India and Turkey. I would not want to pay more than $3 per hair graft, even if it is FUE. By the way, does anyone recommend strip hair transplant anymore?
Does Nizoral really help? I have used it 2 times a week in the past and the only thing it did was making my hair very dry, I already use minoxidil 5% once a day, I don’t think adding Nizoral will be of any help… what do you guys think about it?
See studies section in here;
https://www.hairlosscure2020.com/nizoral-is-back/
Many people do get dry hair from it though and stop or rotate with other shampoos.
Snake oil….
Where did you read that?
Had anyone heard about this clinic
https://hasci.com/hairtransplantant-costs/men/ ?
They say some hair stem cells technique is used which can provide as twice bigger amounts of follicles compared to regular fue. Can that be true? If it happens to be true why wouldn’t everyone use it?
https://www.hairlosscure2020.com/dr-coen-gho-the-original-hair-regenerator/
Isn’t this the method that doesn’t extract all of the graft ? So they claim you still have more donor hair available in the future ? For example, with a graft with 2 hairs, they only extract one hair and leave the other half in the donor ? Or something like that ?
It’s bull crap.
Hey at least we have polichem topical finasteride coming out this year. 23 years later we got topical finasteride lol. The advancement in hair loss is awesome:)
It’s not been a good start to the year.
Mjones when I see it I’ll believe it (not that its anything to write home about). I’m looking forward to seeing the stats on level of systemic absorption.
Hi Admin, will you cover IMCAS?
https://www.imcas.com/en/attend/imcas-world-congress-2020/program/session/52184
Interesting, never heard of it before.
I was being sarcastic about the topical fin polichem. You can buy topical fin already…morr5 or whatever its called
Mjones I’ve read several posts saying mor f quickly goes systemic. I think the idea behind polichem is a fin product that does not go systemic.
John doe: great find. I’d love to learn more about their hairloss protocols. Why arent these protocols available in the US? Is it a regulatory roadblock?