A hair transplant abroad: the pros and cons

The advantages of a hair transplant abroad

However, a hair transplant is a very specific treatment, which is therefore not offered on every street corner. As a result, it is almost always necessary to travel at least an hour for treatment. The main reason for traveling further than an hour is cost. Another reason to travel is the search for the best specialist or best Clinic. Because of this search for quality, many people from Belgium and Germany make the trip to the Netherlands for a hair transplant. Because of the cost, people choose to fly from the Netherlands to a foreign country.

An inexpensive hair transplant

Prices for a hair transplant vary worldwide, depending on treatment size and type of procedure, from €1500 to €15,000. A price comparison is often made on treatment size, which is reflected in the number of grafts (groups of hair follicles). However, it is safer to compare on the treatment area to be treated. For example, when working with smaller grafts, sometimes up to 40% more grafts are needed. In addition, there is a difference between successfully extracting grafts and successfully placing grafts. The success rate of grafts is significantly lower with high numbers per treatment. This means that unnecessary donor material may be lost if the treatment is too large.

The dearly bought hair transplant

Surprisingly, the greatest risk of a hair transplant is not a medical risk. The biggest risk is an aesthetic risk and specifically an unnecessarily depleted donor area (the back of the head where the hair follicles are extracted). The treatment certainly has medical risks as well, but a depleted donor area is unfortunately permanent and this damage cannot be repaired. Often a careless way of extracting the grafts is also combined with a careless placement in the recipient area (read: unsuccessful). Or at best, an unnatural placement. Cheap can really be expensive in these cases.

Why do people choose a hair transplant in Turkey?

A hair transplant is a labor-intensive treatment involving thousands of operations performed by several people in a single day. How that work is done and by whom affects the cost. Naturally, these costs are lower in low-wage countries. For that reason, an average treatment in Turkey is €1000 to €1500 cheaper than in the Netherlands. To make a price comparison, a comparison on the cost of 1500 grafts is the most realistic. This is because this is the average treatment size in the Netherlands when using average graft size.

Hair transplantation in Turkey: what are the disadvantages?

The main disadvantages of a low-cost hair transplant abroad are:

• Checkup appointments: No or poor options for follow-up checkups after your hair transplant;
• Service: No or poor service if treatment was not satisfactory;
• Complications: In case of complications, it is not possible to go directly to your attending physician;
• Comfort: The return trip is not comfortable;

It is not that every Clinic in Turkey is cheaper than clinics in the Netherlands. In addition, it is also possible to have treatment performed by a Turkish team in the Netherlands at low cost. However, the following remarks about quality should be made:

• Communication with the practitioners is difficult because no Dutch is spoken by the medical team;
• Medical requirements are lower in Turkey from the government than in the Netherlands; even when a Turkish team treats in the Netherlands.
• The quality of graft placement often leaves much to be desired. No natural hair insertion and hairline is created.
• Size of donor area: A hair transplant in Turkey often involves using a donor area that is too large, too close to the crown. This creates a high chance that transplanted hairs will not be permanent. In the short term this gives a good result, in the long term this is often not the case.
• Numbers of grafts: A very high number of grafts are often advised regardless of the area to be treated. This sounds appealing, but unfortunately a number of 3000 and 4000 grafts is rarely a wise choice. An average donor area contains 5000 grafts suitable for transplantation. Using too many grafts for one treatment leaves too few for a possible second transplant later in life.

There is no accounting for taste

In general, medics of Turkish descent place more value on tight lines when performing treatment. The Dutch practitioner would label this way of transplanting as unnatural. This is reflected, for example, in how the hairline is made. A natural hairline in most hair types is not dead straight and tight.

Do you need honest advice?

As Dutch Clinic with a focus on quality, we are colored in our views on the above topic. At the same time, in practice we see many examples of especially young people who have permanent damage because of a cheap choice. A cheap hair transplant now, may result in having no donor area available in the future. Then the best advice is to wait with treatment and save for a better quality treatment. For good advice also with a view to the long term, a free consultation is available in any case.