Limmer Hair Transplant Clinic

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q-
I am considering hair transplantation and I have a question concerning the donor area of the scalp. Does the hair of the donor area grow back after it is removed, or is it permanently removed from the scalp?
 A-
The donor hair from the occipital scalp (between the ears in back) is moved to the bald area where it grows normally for the rest of your life.  There are different donor harvest methods, all of which leave some type of a scar in the donor area usually easily covered by surrounding hair unless you shave your head.  The methods used, doctors chosen, and experience all may affect both the donor scar and the quality of the results.  There is also a full chapter on our method in the e-medicine textbook.

Q-

I am concerned about what I will look like after the procedure.  What can I do to decrease the swelling after surgery?

 A-

Remember, this is a surgical procedure and while most recover quickly with minimal swelling; the more active you are within the first 36 hours following your surgery, the more likely you are to have significant forehead and facial swelling.  This will also increase your risk of discomfort in the donor zone.  Your best bet would be to plan on relaxing 3 days after your scheduled procedure allowing faster recovery with minimal discomfort or swelling.

Q-

Why are our charges low compared with the market in general?

 A- 

This question is posed to us often and sometimes leads patients to consider going elsewhere at higher charges feeling they are getting better product because it costs more. I can assure you that consideration is unbased.  We started the science and practice of follicular unit transplantation in 1988, devoted 3 years of developmental research to perfect the steps essential to microscopic dissection and dense packing implantation at the highest survival and growth levels of transplanted follicles, reported the method verbally in 1991 and in the medical literature in 1994. Since 1991 we have opened our practice to other physicians and staff for observation and teaching. Over 200 physicians and staff members from around the world have visited our practice. Our assistants have an average of over 12 years experience in hair restoration. I personally think you can get quality hair restoration at many practices around the world, but there are few…if any…that have our experience.

So why don’t we charge more? There are some very simple reasons. First, we feel this service should be available to as many individuals as possible, not only to the financially elite. A procedure that can truly affect the way one feels about themselves and their outlook on life should be available to as many as possible. Secondly, we do not advertise on a large scale to attract patients. Most of our patients come to us from other patients who send family and friends, physicians who know our patients and their results, hair dressers who cut and groom our cases, and the internet where many find our website. The cost of advertising in print or on television is a very expensive activity and in many cases doubles the cost of transplantation that are passed through to the consumer. We feel you are better off paying for hair than paying for advertising.  These are some of the reasons our charges are often much lower than others in same profession.

Q-

Why does it take us longer to do a procedure than other practices?

 A-

There are a number of steps to each transplant procedure which include setup, donor site preparation and local anesthesia, removal of the donor strip, suturing of the donor site, graft preparation, graft insertion, final cleanup and discharge instructions. The time required to each of these steps is relatively similar among all practices except the graft placement step. Therefore the graft placement step determines the length of the procedure more than any other steps.

The graft placement step requires making the recipient site and inserting the graft into that site. The receipt site can be made with either a blade or a needle.  The sites can be made all at once followed by graft insertion (stick & delayed placement method) or the sites can be made one at a time and filled with a graft immediately (standard stick and place method).  We prefer the second of the two methods…even though it is slower.

Why?  Well, it has served our patients well for 22 years and after trying other modalities we feel it allows us to make smaller recipient sites creating less trauma, allows us to place them very close together in bald scalp and allows us to easily place them between existing hair without the difficulty of finding the sites back as they are filled immediately after they are made versus hours later.

So, while we may take a slightly longer time to complete your procedure, we feel it is worth it as these results you will wear for a lifetime.

Q-

How does Strip Harvesting compare to FUE?

 A- CLICK HERE