Top 5 tips to know before your hair transplant treatment
A hair transplant is a cosmetic surgery to move hair to areas of the scalp that are thinning or bald to improve appearance.
This procedure is for anyone experiencing permanent genetic hair loss regardless of race or gender. Age does play a factor, as it’s recommended to only have this procedure when your hair loss has stabilised and usually it’s still progressing while you are still young. It can be life-changing for a person’s confidence and being prepared ensures the best results and reduces the risk of transplant rejection.
- Find out what form of hair transplant you are having
There are two methods of this procedure, FUE (follicular unit extraction) or FUT (follicular unit transaction). Both have different healing times and aftercare so it’s important to fully understand which is being performed on you. The FUE takes each hair graft and implants them into the affected area leaving minimal scarring and no stitches. The aftercare is less time consuming as the extracted area is so small, this is however time-consuming and takes the longest to complete in one session. FUT, also known as strip harvesting, requires a strip of hair from the back or sides of the scalp to be removed and stitched to collect thousands of hair follicles in one go. This is a much faster method but the healing takes longer with much more aftercare, this can also leave much more visible scarring if the patient wears their hair short.
- You may need more than one
Usually, someone who has had a hair transplant will need up to four more afterwards. What might start with the hairline or crown thinning can lead to the loss of the rest of your hair too which means you’ll need more transplants to keep your full head of hair.
Before you decide on having your first transplant, you need to ask yourself if you’re willing to spend this amount of money and time again in the future.
- Prepare yourself for the work ahead
Your recovery process after this procedure is lengthy and requires a lot of effort to ensure the best possible results. Following your surgeon’s instructions for aftercare to a T is vital or the results may vary from what was promised. For example, after your transplant, you cannot sleep with any part of the new hair touching the pillow or it can damage the fragile follicles. Try making a habit of this new sleeping position a few weeks before the procedure so it’s easier to do when needed. Catching yourself tossing and turning before your surgery doesn’t hold any risk but can destroy all the efforts of your surgeon afterwards.
- This is a permanent surgery
The results from this procedure will be permanent and due to the nature of the hair follicles being directly implanted, your pattern of hair loss will not affect them. This is great news, however, this places further importance on carefully selecting your surgeon and clinic and Brit-Med help you do this! We work with only the most qualified healthcare professionals so you can be confident when booking a treatment via our platform. Re-doing an existing transplant increases the risk of your body rejecting the implants and reduces the ability of the surgeon to create a natural-looking hairline due to scaring.
- Your transplanted hair will act the same way as the rest
Some patients are concerned that their new hair will have to be treated differently, much like a skin graft. However, once your implants have healed and settled into your scalp there is no reason to not style, wash and ruffle the hair as you would usually. When done correctly there should be no discernible difference in how the hair looks, feels or acts. However, it is not advised to completely shave that part of your head even after the area has fully healed as the hair that grows back may be very uneven.
Do you think you are ready for your hair transplant? Book a consultation with us when we are live in November by signing up here!