Hair Transplant Surgery

Choosing the right type of hair transplant surgery can be tricky. Whether it’s DHI or FUE, the vast amount of information out there can be overwhelming. Typically though, the FUE technique tends to be the most popular option, especially for older men who are bald or who have thinning hair. DHI on the other hand, is recommended for patients who have less advanced hair loss as this tends to suit the smaller number of grafts typically used during a DHI surgery. On the other hand, DHI tends to be the most expensive method, and so this may make FUE a better option for patients who are on a tighter budget. It's also worth noting that your eventual treatment choice will also be partly based on advice from your doctor.

Simply put, a follicular unit is a group of two, three, or four hair follicles. A graft simply refers to a piece of living tissue that is surgically moved from one body site to another, without bringing its own blood supply with it. After it is placed into the target site, a new blood supply will grow in.

Typically, the procedure takes between 4-8 hours. The length of hair transplant surgery varies, based on the number of grafts required and the size of the surgical team. Since it’s done under local anaesthesia, the patient is fully awake and can read, watch TV, have conversations, or even eat during this time.

After hair transplant surgery, you can walk around and resume the majority of your normal day-to-day activities. You’ll need to wear a bandage on your head following your treatment, but this can be removed the day after your procedure. In the first 1-2 weeks following treatment, the transplanted and donor area may be swollen, red, and tender, but this will ease gradually between 2-3 weeks after the surgery. Even with some redness and tenderness, you can still resume light activities after a couple of days and return to work 2-3 days after their treatment. A month on from treatment, you’ll be able to exercise again, including swimming. Hats can be worn after 10 days, however, hard hats should not be worn until four weeks after the surgery.

Hair transplantation is a simple, minimally-invasive, and relatively low-risk medical procedure. As with any surgical procedure though, there are risks associated and potential side effects. These may include bleeding, infection, swelling of the scalp and/or forehead, scarring, and uneven hair growth. However, most post-op issues can be avoided if the treatment is well-planned and carried out by a qualified and experienced specialist.

Is full coverage possible? This is a common query amongst hair transplant patients and is, unfortunately, one that cannot be answered with a definitive yes or no. As is often the case with hair transplant surgery, it’s dependent on a number of factors. These include how much hair you have before treatment, your type of hair, any possible evidence of future hair loss, and your doctor’s expectations for the hair restoration surgery. A single transplant is usually designed to be a stand-alone procedure but a second one can enhance the results of the first. Patients usually choose to go for a second hair transplant in order to achieve more density or coverage.

Unlike back in the 80s and 90s — when the sight of unnatural-looking hair plugs was prominent — modern techniques used for hair transplant surgery allow hair to be implanted individually and with excellent accuracy. This allows specialists to create extremely natural-looking results, with transplanted hair looking no different to the rest of the hair on the head. This means that, depending on the changes in coverage that your hair transplantation brings, it certainly won’t be obvious to a passer-by that you’ve had undergone hair transplant surgery.

This is another common question amongst hair transplant patients. Check out the short video below in which our CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Sophie Chung answers it in detail.

Although most commonly undertaken by men, hair transplantation can be a suitable treatment for women too. Female hair transplants are becoming increasingly popular and can provide a great way to adjust the hairline or add some density to the appearance of thinning hair. However, due to the different types of hair loss in women, eligibility for the treatment can be more limited than it is for men.