Hair transplant surgery is no longer taboo, thousands of millennials flock to countries like Turkey each year in hopes of restoring their vanishing locks. YouTube, Instagram, and other social media outlets fuel medical tourism, and unfortunately, for some, it doesn't work out. In this article, we will be giving you the top three factors you need to focus on when researching a hair transplant surgeon.
#1 Patient Results/Reviews
You may be quick to google reviews, and sure some reviews may come up, but anyone, including the clinic, can write those reviews. Ahh, trusty old Yelp, it's always useful when looking up a new restaurant, bar, or brewery, but for surgery, look elsewhere. Again, the reviews written on Yelp can be anyone, not to mention there are no photos of the actual results. Where can you find legitimate, authentic reviews? The best place for the past two decades to see real reviews from start to finish posted by actual patients are hair loss forums. Forums allow patients to share and exchange ideas, as well as post their reviews. You can see the good, bad, and sometimes the ugly, which is crucial when researching a particular clinic/surgeon.
#2 Surgeon Involvement
The biggest problem with medical tourism is that hair transplantation is not regulated- this means anyone can perform a hair transplant, including taxi cab drivers, sanitation workers, and refugees. In countries like Turkey, there are unlicensed, and medically untrained individuals doing hair transplant procedures entirely on several people in one day. In some cases, there isn't even a real medical doctor on-site, only medically untrained technicians and salesmen. You need to make sure that your surgeon is involved in every step of the procedure. Going to a surgeon/clinic that has the 'doctor' draw the hairline and then vanishes into obscurity should be avoided at all costs.
#3 Strong Patient Reputation
If you are researching a particular surgeon, and there is zero information about them online, it's an indicator to choose someone else. The surgeon you select should have a strong reputation for providing their patients with excellent results. They should have consistent examples of their work posted on hair loss forums, YouTube, and Instagram; If you go on a hair loss forum and ask if anyone has heard of 'Dr. Jack Quack' from Tim buck two, and you get no replies, take that as a sign. Any surgeon can pay money to put up Google ads, but a word of mouth reputation can not be purchased.
Conclusion
The price of the procedure will always be a factor, but it should never be the driving force or primary factor in choosing a surgeon/clinic. So many men and women make the mistake of looking online for the cheapest surgeon they can find, they see some anonymous reviews with no pictures and think, 'great reviews, cheap, yea, they are the ones.' Unfortunately, for many of these individuals, they end up getting horrible results and having no donor supply to get it fixed. Money comes and goes, but your donor supply is finite. Always remember that!