Before you book anything: why the drugs come first →

About Hair Surgery Guide

Nick Peplow

hi, I’m Nick — Welcome!

Nick Peplow

I’m Nick Peplow, the person behind every guide on this site

My day job is running Thailand Care, an independent service that helps international patients arrange treatment at accredited hospitals in Bangkok.

Hair restoration was not what I expected to end up writing about. It came up because it kept coming up: people arranging one procedure would mention, almost apologetically, that the thing actually bothering them was their hairline. And the information they had found was worse than in any other area I deal with. Not wrong exactly, but written by people selling the operation, in a market with no gatekeepers, no funding and no referral, where the only person applying any criteria is the one taking the payment.

So I write about what each technique actually moves, who it suits, what the drugs do, what recovery demands and what it costs. The site is new, and the guides are being added one at a time.

The result will be a guide to hair restoration that treats your donor supply as the finite, non-renewable thing it is: every technique, every area of the head, the two drugs that actually work and the many that do not, each with a plain read of what it can and cannot do, a cost breakdown by country, and the questions I would want you to ask at your consultation.

Where the guides come from

I have sat in on enough consultations to know how they tend to go. You arrive worried about your hairline and leave with a quote for something larger. You are shown a gallery without being told what interval the photographs were taken at. You get three quotes with three graft counts and no way to compare them.

The guides draw on that experience and on published research and professional guidance, including:

  • International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery practice guidance
  • British Association of Dermatologists guidance on androgenetic alopecia
  • Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
  • The manufacturer trial data for finasteride and minoxidil, read rather than summarised

Clear answers, no agenda

This is an independent website that I own, pay for and run myself. It is not affiliated with any clinic, surgeon or hair loss brand.

  • I review every guide against current clinical guidance and published results
  • Outcomes are given as ranges, and where the evidence is thin or contested, which for a lot of this field it is, I say so
  • There are no affiliate links, no discount codes and no sponsored content anywhere on this site
  • Clinic listings, when a directory opens, will be free and cannot be bought
  • Your questions shape what I write next

How I research and check each guide is set out in the editorial policy.

The bit I do for a living. I also run Thailand Care, which arranges treatment for international patients at Bangkok hospitals. It is where the experience behind these guides comes from, and it is a commercial interest, so I will be plain about how I handle it. Hair restoration is one of the largest medical travel markets in the world, which is exactly why I am careful here: the incentive to steer you abroad exists and I would rather name it than pretend otherwise. Nothing on this site steers you to book through me, and plenty of the advice here argues for staying close to home so aftercare is reachable. If you do want help planning treatment, wherever you have it, you pay the hospital's own price with nothing added for my involvement. If a page ever reads like a pitch, tell me.

Are you new here?

I’d start with the [Start Here guide](/start-here), which explains what is causing the loss and why the drugs come before the surgery.

Two good places to start

Start Here: Your Guide to Hair Restoration

FUE Hair Transplant

Frequently asked questions

Have you had a hair transplant yourself?

No, and I say that up front because people reasonably want to know where a site like this is coming from. I am writing from years of sitting beside patients through consultations, quotes and recoveries as the person coordinating their care, and from the clinical literature. Where lived experience matters more than that, I say so rather than pretend.

Are you a doctor?

No. I am not a surgeon, a dermatologist or a trichologist, and nothing on this site is medical advice. Decisions about your own head belong with you and the clinicians who can examine it.

Who pays for this site?

I do. There are no sponsors, no affiliate links, no discount codes and no ad networks. In a field where almost every other site earns a commission on referrals, that is worth stating plainly. If it ever changes, the editorial policy will say so before anything goes live.

Can I get my clinic listed?

Not yet. A directory is planned, and when it opens, listings will be free and cannot be bought. Get in touch with your surgeon's qualifications, who performs each stage of the operation and where you practise.

I found a mistake. What do I do?

Tell me. I check every correction, fix the page if you are right, and note the change at the bottom with the date.

Contact

Got a question, a correction or a clinic to suggest? [Get in touch](/contact), I read everything.