It might seem very enticing to go abroad for follicular unit extraction (FUE) hair transplant surgery to other countries like because they offer services that are much cheaper than staying in the UK, even with travel costs on top which may be advertised as part of a deal.
While you may save some money and have an opportunity to combine it with a ‘holiday’, chances are it will not be as glamorous as it sounds, and the savings won’t be worth it for the risks involved. Here’s why.
Surgical skills, techniques, and hygiene in clinics abroad vary greatly, and you may not achieve the results you seek for your hair restoration – including poor hair distribution in the transplanted area and scarring with poor preservation in your donor sites. Even worse, you may experience some serious complications once you return to the UK and find yourself without any support or aftercare.
Staying on home turf will likely be more expensive, but there are many reasons why it is your best option. Award-winning hair transplant surgeon Dr Mark Tam explains why you will be safer if you stay in the UK when choosing your hair transplant surgeon.
Regulation
Hair restoration practitioners in different countries often have differing qualifications and experience in delivering quality hair transplant procedures.
Not all countries uphold high professional standards, enforce stringent health and safety codes, require medical indemnity insurance, or have regulatory frameworks that match up to the UK, meaning hair transplants can be performed in inappropriate environments, with poor clinical hygiene, and by people with limited medical knowledge – including medical students, trichologists, nurses, or technical staff - who are not licensed or qualified, and present a danger to those they treat. Such treatment can lead to complications like graft failure with unsuccessful hair growth, badly spaced grafts, hair growing in the wrong direction and appearing unnatural, or even life-threatening infection or sepsis.
The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) is concerned about the growing risk to patients of unlicensed technicians performing substantial aspects of hair restoration surgery carried out worldwide and has set up the Fight the Fight awareness campaign against black market hair transplantation.
By contrast, UK hair transplant surgeons are highly skilled – you must be a GMC registered doctor to practice hair transplant surgery in the United Kingdom.
Dr Tam is registered with the General Medical Council (GMC). He is also a Diplomat of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery (ABHRS) and a Member of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS).
Hair Transplant by Dr Mark Tam (Harley Street Private Practice Ltd) is also registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), a requirement for hair restoration surgery clinics in England. The CQC inspects premises and audits policies and procedures for public safety.
UK-based regulators do not vet clinics, or surgeons in other countries, or procedures carried out abroad. If something goes wrong with a procedure overseas, you cannot report it to a UK authority for help.
Pre-treatment consultations
If you choose to go abroad, consider how your pre-surgery consultation(s) will happen. Will it be by online video call (most common), or will you need to make several costly trips abroad to include consultation and surgery appointments?
Usually, you only find out the treatment plan - which might also be quite generic or not quite what you thought you were getting for the cost - when you arrive in the country and meet the surgeon in person for the first time, a day or two before your procedure. By this time, you are already in the country, have spent money on travel costs and likely paid a deposit or the full payment for the surgery, leaving you no time to think about your options (now you know them), make an informed decision, or indeed change your mind – many feel they have no choice and go ahead despite their better judgement, feeling exploited and under pressure.
You may also encounter a language barrier, which can lead to misunderstandings and things lost in translation, an even bigger concern if not everyone speaks English when you undergo surgery.
At Hair Transplant by Dr Mark Tam, your first engagement is with our surgeon through a pre-assessment process followed by a thorough consultation where everything that happens during a hair transplant procedure is explained and your questions answered.
A bespoke treatment plan is designed by assessing your hair loss and hairline, using state-of-the-art Treatment Area Mapping and Measurements (TAM+M) techniques to accurately calculate your specific treatment area(s) and number of grafts (and graft types) required to achieve your desired result, ensuring ultra-high-density outcomes.
This is a hands-on process, using film placed on your scalp and digital tools – not something that can be done from afar using photos or over a Zoom call. When you leave the consultation, you have a cooling-off period to consider your options, ask further questions, and book the surgery when you are satisfied and ready.
Conveyor belt surgery
Surgery abroad is often maintained at a cheaper price due to throughput, getting as many patients treated as possible, which can only lead to rushed work, poor attention to detail, cutting corners, and ultimately terrible outcomes that do not meet your expectations. This can include considerable scarring, poor graft creation and transplantation, and limited survival with patchy results that can be difficult to repair later due to inadequate additional donor viability and scarring along the hairline.
Dr Mark Tam is a highly skilled craftsman who practices cutting-edge and regenerative FUE techniques using custom-designed tools.
We have dedicated surgery days at Hair Transplant by Dr Mark Tam; there is no rush or time constraint; the whole day is set aside for you, with a team of up to five focused on achieving your best hair transplant result. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. The IDEAL Technique allows us to create individually separated hair follicles by carefully and precisely dissecting multiple hair follicles under the direct stereoscopic vision and magnification of a microscope, or we can use partial follicular unit extraction (FUE) techniques to split hair follicles that are close together at the donor site. This is time-consuming and painstaking work, but without a doubt, it is worth it and a far cry from production line operations that speed through procedures.
Follow-up and aftercare
If you go abroad for hair transplant surgery, the clinic may follow up and check on you in the days after surgery if you can afford the accommodation to stay local. But, chances are you will hop on a plane the day after your surgery and fly home almost immediately. This poses many risks, including damaging your implanted hair follicles or compromising the donor wounds as you navigate your return travel via airports, planes, taxis, buses, etc. Similarly, it will not be a pleasant experience to endure the hassle of travelling when all you want to do is rest.
Our exceptional aftercare means you can also benefit from our M Cap (a customised, post-surgical cap only for hairline) that accommodates bandages and provides space to protect newly transplanted grafts while you travel home.
Hair restoration takes time and requires appropriate aftercare and guidance for success, plus follow-up appointments to review how grafts are healing and if they are growing as expected. If you choose to have your surgery abroad, you must think about how you will contact your surgeon for advice, especially if you notice problems during healing or managing your recovery and the growth of the grafts.
Similarly, you must consider future travel expenses to attend review appointments - if even offered, follow-up care can be non-existent once you have paid the bill for surgery, so you might be left high and dry. A UK-based hair transplant clinic will be much easier to contact and visit and have a duty to provide ongoing care, usually over at least a year.
Travel insurance and medical emergencies
Whilst the risks with hair transplant surgery are small compared to many other surgical procedures, things can still go wrong, including allergies to anaesthesia and infection or septicaemia, especially if sterile techniques and appropriate wound care are not followed correctly. You may also find that the clinic does not have nor is required to have medical indemnity or medical malpractice insurance by law.
The travel insurance policy you may get for regular holidays or business travel is unlikely to cover you if something goes wrong during an elective medical procedure, and you will need to seek specialist cover before you travel, which can be more expensive.
Similarly, the UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) allows free emergency treatment or medically necessary state healthcare in the EU and countries with a reciprocal healthcare agreement with the UK. Turkey and the UK, for hair transplant treatment.
If something goes wrong on your return home, you should not rely on the NHS to support you. They will do their best to treat infection and sepsis but will likely refer you back to the clinic that treated you or onwards to a UK private hair transplant clinic that can manage complications.
Is it worth going abroad for hair transplant surgery?
We understand the importance of researching providers to ensure you make an informed decision when choosing the right hair transplant surgeon and clinic – whether in the UK or abroad - but urge you to seek treatment in this country.
BAHRS have created a guide to having a hair transplant abroad, highlighting many of the dangers and concerns we share.
The Tam Experience at Hair Transplant by Dr Mark Tam provides exceptional personal care, one-to-one with Dr Tam and no salespeople, supported throughout your journey, from consultation to surgery and beyond. We form long-term relationships with our patients as we journey together to achieve your best hair restoration; you will not get this level of partnership by going abroad for a cost-cutting deal.
Making decisions about medical treatments based solely on saving money is never wise and can be a false economy; better advice is to save up or consider readily available interest-free finance options with a UK hair transplant surgeon like Dr Mark Tam.
As the sayings go, "Buy cheap, buy twice" or "You get what you pay for" - this really is true with cheap hair transplant procedures abroad, and it's not worth the future regret.
Find out why many other patients have stayed in the UK and chosen Dr Mark Tam. Check if you are suitable for hair restoration treatment by completing our simple pre-assessment form for a personalised response from Dr Mark Tam.
