Women Insider: What To Prepare And Expect When Getting a Hair Transplant

Hair transplants are designed to give people a fuller head of hair. Balding and thinning hair can lead to self-consciousness and a lack of confidence. Here’s what you need to know before getting a hair transplant from http://surehair.com/hair-transplantation/cost-information/.

What’s Involved In A Hair Transplant

Let’s get a bit technical. A hair transplant is when a balding or thinning section of hair is filled out with donor’s hair. This donor’s hair comes from elsewhere on your body, usually the back of your head. These transplants have been done for decades – since the 1950s in fact – and have a high success rate.

The procedure starts when the surgeon numbs the back of your head. Your scalp will be cleaned very well before the hair-filled sections of your head are removed and transplanted to the thinning area. Usually, these sections are transplanted in sections of around 2,000 hair follicles. However, other procedures are more precise and involve moving single follicles. The first method is FUSS; the second is called FUE.

A FUSS procedure involves having an entire strip of your hair removed and transplanted. The surgeon sews the scalp closed around this removed area, so that isn’t noticeable. That strip of hair is then turned into between 500 and 2,000 small grafts that are planted in the thinning areas of your head. Each graft is inserted in a way that will help it to grow healthy, new hair. The overall amount of grafts depends on the size of the balding section.

In an FUE procedure, the back of your scalp is shaved, and individual follicles are removed. If you have a smaller bald spot that is being filled, then this is the method that the surgeon will use. The removed follicles will heal, but in the meantime, there will be small red dots showing where they were removed. Once your existing hair grows back, no one will notice those missing follicles.

Once the hair grafts or follicles are ready, the surgeon numbs the balding part of your scalp, then creates a series of small slits. The grafts are inserted into them and then sewn into place. Over time, they will grow new hair and your thin spots will fill in.  Overall, this entire procedure takes between four and eight hours.

The Recovery Process

As you recover from your hair transplant procedure, you will have to follow a specific set of instructions. These include taking pain medications and wearing bandages on your scalp. You might also need an antibiotic to prevent the grafts from getting infected. You can go back to work between two and five days post operation.

A few weeks later, the transplanted hairs will fall out of the follicles. Don’t be alarmed. This is supposed to happen. Those hairs will grow back in a matter of months. You might also need a few Rogaine treatments to improve your overall hair growth and coax those follicles into growing as they should. In the end, you will have a healthier head of hair.