A large number of Americans suffer from hair loss that ranges from thinning areas on the scalp to large area of baldness. People that suffer from hair loss often decide to undergo a hair transplant to address their thinning hair. The first step they should take is scheduling a consultation appointment with a board-certified doctor that is experienced in providing patients with results that are long lasting as well as natural in appearance. This is not always the case as some patients decide to travel abroad to get the results they desire at a lower price. However, experts warn that the hair transplant results they receive overseas might look unnatural in appearance as well as not be performed using the same high standards that are expected in the United States. In fact, the results might be of such poor quality that hair transplant revision surgery might be necessary to fix the results from the first hair restoration procedure. This is such a growing issue in many countries, including Britain; that the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) is working to take steps to address this problem.
The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery recently reported that illegal clinics are working to trick British customers through the use of professional looking websites that provide false guarantees and claims. For example, some of these websites claim that they can provide patients with the natural looking hair transplant results they desire for a price as low as $809 (American currency).
In response to these claims, the ISHRS has issued a warning to hair restoration patients that are planning to travel overseas for a hair transplant. The practice of going abroad to have cosmetic surgery is known as “medical tourism”. Patients that decide to leave their home country to have a hair transplant run the risk of having the procedure performed by a person that does not have the necessary training to provide the desired, quality results.
According to the chair of the ISHRS unlicensed practice of medicine committee, Dr. Ricardo Mejia, these marketing practices are deceptive. In an interview with The Daily Mail newspaper, the doctor stated that the “marketing tactics are deceptive as it appears like a team of professional doctors with excellent testimonials. However, the reality is your surgery may be done by someone with no medical training. The demand for hair transplants is so high; reports are that taxi cab drivers and Syrian refugees do the surgery in some overseas countries.”
As part of their continuing efforts to warn patients about the dangers of having a hair transplant performed by an unlicensed practitioner, the ISHRS has been sharing photos of both male and female patients left with wounds on their scalps along with photos of hair transplants that did not meet the necessary medical standards of the operation and patients that had too much hair harvested from the donor area on the body.
According to recent statistics, hair transplants are continuing to grow in popularity. The ISHRS says there were over 635,000 hair restoration surgeries performed as recently as 2017 which is an increase of 181\\% in the past decade. Patients having a hair transplant in the United States can expect to spend anywhere from $9000-$16,000 on the procedure. The final cost of hair restoration surgery depends on the total number of hair grafts used by the surgeon, the area of the country where is it performed, the cost per graft charged by the surgeon, the type of hair transplant that is performed (FUE or FUT) and any fees charged by the doctor or the facility.
The information listed above about the price of a hair transplant is sometimes beyond the financial means of a patient. These are the patients that search online for hair transplant deals and hair restoration discounts. Patients should be aware that there are many countries where the regulation of medical facilities is not as strict as the United States or Britain. These clinics do not practice patient safety as much as countries with stricter regulations.
As an example of the dangers of going abroad for hair transplants, a 43-year-old male patient died after a 12-hour hair restoration procedure at a private clinic in Mumbai, India. The official cause of death has not been confirmed but experts speculate the male patient died of an allergic reaction.
It is true that not all complications can result in the death of a patient. Dr. Mejia does warn potential patients that they are “the ones that suffer when they realize too late who carried out their surgery. They end up with botched complications and scars, and hairlines that are not normal and are disfiguring.”
The ISHRS is continuing its efforts to better educate the public about the need to exercise caution when choosing a hair restoration surgeon. For example, the ISHRS has started a “Black Market Awareness” campaign designed to try and stop the performance of rogue hair transplants across the globe. An ISHRS spokesperson stated that the “rouge clinics and hospitals that facilitate illegal or unethical practices have created an expanding black market hair transplant underworld of sorts. Surgeries are performed by non-doctors with little or no training, and are causing irreparable harm.”
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