Well I have just come back from my consultation with the Vinci hair clinic, and I must say I am disappointed.

My appointment was at 2pm and I met my consultant (a nice gentleman who has had many experiences of hair transplants since the 70's) and the first thing I realised that it was not a Surgery I was in, but a hired confrence room in an office building. I then found out that the clinic actually had no surgerys in Glasgow at all and the main ones that I would need to travel to for the procedure were in London or Malaga.



The consultation was pleasent enough I suppose. My consultant asked me about my family history of hair loss and gave a small lecture about FUT and FUE (all of which I'd researched before anyway but it was nice to be reinformed!) He then examined my donor area with some sort of camera hooked up to the computer and told me what I really already knew that I had lots of thick full doner hair with lots of 2&3 hairs sprouting from a simgle follicle ripe for the taking. All was going nicely then I got asked to draw on my head where I would like my hairline, and I did quite a good job if I do say so myself, but then it turned a touch suspicious. A photo was taken then I was told that my receding area was going to be examined to see how many grafts that I needed. I had images of a nurse coming in with some sort of skin area measuring machine or some way of counting hairs per sq. inch that would be suitable for my thickness, but no. My consultant took a look at one side of my head for all of 6 seconds then sat down and told me that I needed 1500 grafts to achive the look I wanted. Now, far be it from me to argue but I know my area that needs fixed is next to nothing especially when compared to others, even more so due to the fact that my original hairline was slightly curved upward and didn't begin it at the lowest point and I got that bang on with the pen on my head so 1500 seemed a bit excessive a number for what I thought I needed and for the quickflash examination by someone, albeit experienced, was not a doctor or qualified medical professional.



After some scribbling he got out his calculator and got down to prices and that's when my jaw nearly hit the ground. For the procedure to be performed in London it would be £8000 and in Malaga it would be just over £7000.



I nearly walked out there and then. I know HT's are somewhat expensive but for someone who can still walk around quite happily in public without a hat having enough hair at the front to comfortably hide any of my small recdeding and knowing the surface area that needs fixed I just thought that this was a complete rip off.



If it costs 8 grand for someone like me to get a small bit of hairline straightened out at either side of the temples (none in the middle, that is still there and very thick) then what must they charge for someone who is really going bald?

My heart did sink afterwords. I still don't get how people can charge £3-4000 for HT let alone £8000. It's just far and beyond the reach of you're average normal person.



I was expecting 900-1100 grafts and maybe a cost of about £2500-3000 which at a stretch I could pull off (I refuse to get into debt, has to be a one off payment!) but these prices are just greed plain and simple becasue they can charge it, and after the rather speedy 'examination' and arrival of the amount of grafts I needed I'm finding the trust in the whole buisiness and concern about my well being and result rather than bagging another client rather hard to find.

I would like to shop around and try other clinics such as Farjo, just even for a second opinion but right now I'm feeling rather sour.

Well for now I am trying the derma roller on my receding hairline as recommended by my skin consultant who says it is effective in regenerating sleeping follicles and I hope he is right as right now it seems to be my only option.