How to Choose a Hair Transplant Clinic

How was my graft number arrived at? Everything else in the quote depends on that number. A clinic that measured your donor density and mapped the recipient area can explain it in detail. A clinic that estimated from a photograph cannot, and the figure is therefore a sales number rather than a plan.

At least two, and there is no prize for efficiency here. The procedure is irreversible and spends a resource you cannot replace. Where two clinics propose very different graft numbers for the same head, understanding that difference is worth more than either individual quote.

Ask for the qualification and the medical council registration number, and verify it independently. This is a routine request. Be cautious of words like "expert", "specialist" or "renowned" used where a qualification should be, since none of them are credentials.

Practice varies legitimately, and what matters is that you are told clearly. Ask specifically who makes the recipient sites, who performs extraction and who places the grafts, by name and role. A clinic that answers immediately and specifically is giving you real information.

The graft number and the areas it covers, the technique, what is included — anaesthesia, medication, dressings, follow-up reviews — and explicitly what is not. It should also state whether a second session is anticipated. You should be able to take it away and think.

Not by itself, but ask how it is achieved. If it is a low per-graft rate multiplied by a graft count nobody justified, it is not cheaper. If it excludes follow-up, medication or a second session that turns out to be necessary, it is not cheaper either. Compare what is being delivered, not the rate.

Look for consistent lighting, angle, hair length and styling between the two images, and for results photographed at around twelve months. Ask whether the case shown was performed by the person who will perform yours. Our guide on reading before-and-after photographs covers this in detail.

What happens if growth is poor. What the shedding phase involves and when it happens. When the result can actually be judged. Whether a second session is likely. What the donor area will look like afterwards. If a consultation covered none of these, it was a sales meeting.

A graft number quoted without examination. A discount that expires. A guaranteed result or a success percentage. Evasiveness about who performs the surgery. Surgery offered despite an active scalp condition or unstable hair loss. Any one of these is reason to slow down.

That is usually a good sign rather than a bad one. Unstable hair loss, active scalp disease and very early loss in a young patient are all real reasons to wait, and saying so costs the clinic the sale. A clinic that has no circumstances in which it declines is worth asking about.

It helps more than people expect. Follow-up matters, hair takes about a year to declare itself, and a clinic within reach is one you will actually return to. Travelling far for surgery means the aftercare and reviews are harder to attend.

Read the detailed ones rather than counting stars. Look at how the clinic responded to criticism, and be sceptical of clusters of very short five-star entries posted close together. Reviews are one input, and a weaker one than the consultation itself.

Raise them before the date rather than after. Ask the questions you skipped, ask for the written plan again, and get a second opinion if you are still uneasy. Losing a deposit is a smaller loss than an irreversible procedure you were not confident about.

Leave without booking, and read the written estimate somewhere else. Anything that seemed persuasive in the room but does not survive a day of thought was persuasion rather than information. A clinic worth choosing will still be there tomorrow.