A lot of emails reach out to us to check whether we recommend any overseas clinic for hair transplants! You may think why will they ask us this question? Well, they reach out to us because they outrightly say we do not have the budgets to finance this procedure in Australia and therefore are exploring places like Turkey which have now become a hub for medical tourism.
We did the research and outlined a list a pros and cons of getting a hair transplant surgery done in an overseas hair transplant clinic –
Pros of having a hair transplant done in an overseas clinic
Pros are straightforward. The number one reason is budgets but there are cons against this as well. The other couple of reasons include the so-called benefit of keeping the procedure discrete (which you can anyways do when you are at home) and the idea of combining holiday and hair transplant surgery in one go (common, you can do a holiday later too, with your restored hair!).
Cons of having a hair transplant done in an overseas clinic
The cons are where we want you put a lot of attention.
- Cost difference of doing a hair transplant in a place like Turkey, Thailand, India is significant
Have you wondered why costs could be low in these places. Allow us tease your brain with some reasons –
- Type of hair transplant technique (DFI, FUE, FUT etc.)
- Who performs the procedure end-to-end – Surgeon or Nurses/ Assistants?
- Medical team’s expertise, certification and training credentials
- How much healthy hair you currently have that’s available for a hair transplant?
- Do they use single-use specialised instruments?
- Do they use proper holding solutions for maximum graft survivability?
- Do they use safety and hygiene protocols? Have you seen such protocols in action?
2. Who does the hair transplant procedure?
Hair transplant is generally a very safe procedure provided it is done by a high-quality doctor under high quality safety protocols. Many “black market” clinics have mushroomed across the world which are operated by unqualified technicians/ assistants. After all, any surgery, irrespective of the type, has potential risk of bleeding, swelling, and infection and therefore all sorts of things can happen if it is left to an unqualified operator. From our experience, we have been witnessed to several patients who have visited us after their first hair transplant surgery that was botched up by a team of technicians/ assistants.
3. Do these overseas hair transplant clinics perform a proper diagnosis of scalp to evaluate how many hairs you need?
Do you know there are hair analysis tools that accurately measure the exact number of hairs required for the hair transplant? It is a high chance that number of hairs were determined by looking at some of your photos but the other question that is relevant to ask is who performed this evaluation – was it a sales person or a hair loss expert such as a Trichologist or a Hair Transplant Surgeon?
4. Quality of Oversees Hair Transplant Clinics may not be up to mark
Oversees clinics see the patient only once. Guess what this means. Firstly, they can quote you any number of hairs, with the notional promise of giving you maximum density, which can potentially lead to over harvesting and destruction of the donor area. Secondly, they do not have any concept of after-care and therefore for them a hair transplant surgery is “transactional” in essence. You must realise that hair transplant is a journey as it takes 9-12 months (sometimes up to 18 months) to get full results. Hair transplant surgery is one of the first steps of the journey and any clinic that does not handhold you though these months is not doing a proper job.
Let us be clear on the above points. We are not saying overseas clinics are bad. We know a lot of surgeons in different parts of the world who have mastered the art of hair transplants. But its super important to weigh in the above points before you handover your scalp to an overseas clinic, just because the cost offered was low. The general rule is, lower the cost, the more the procedure is likely to be compromised.
