If you have hair transplant surgery on the calendar, you have opted for one of the most effective and fastest ways to restore your hair. Hair transplant surgery can increase your overall hair density, restore receding hairline, and bring back full or at least a fuller head of hair.
Like any other surgery, before your hair transplant surgery, it’s important for you to be familiar with the surgery procedure and recovery timeline.
Let’s talk about what happens before, during, and after the surgery and where you can go for hair transplantation surgery in and around Seattle.
Hair Transplant Surgery Process: An Overview
A hair transplant is a surgical procedure in which hair is taken from the scalp or the area of the body that contains healthy hair (donor site) and moved to bald or thinning areas (recipient site) of the scalp.
Your hair doctor will choose one of the two popular methods for hair transplant: follicular unit extraction (FUE) and follicular unit transplantation (FUT).
Before the Procedure
On the morning of the surgery, your hair doctor will review all the details of the surgical plan and discuss with you how the harvested follicles will be transplanted to your bald or hair-thinning area.
Your hair doctor will also suggest the optimal shape and placement of your hairline if your surgery involves a change of hairline.
During the Procedure
If you’re getting an ultra-defined follicular-unit hair transplantation (FUTs) procedure, your scalp will be numbed, and hair will be removed from the back of your scalp in a single strip. The strip will be then dissected under a microscope to get individual follicular units –naturally occurring groups of 1 to 4 hairs. The follicular units may also include sebaceous glands, nerves, a small muscle, and occasional fine vellus hairs.
If you’re getting follicular unit excision (FUE) procedure, your hair doctor will shave the back of your scalp and numb it by injecting a local anesthetic. Then, a WAW power punch device will be used to isolate and extract follicular unit grafts.
Once the grafts are harvested and prepared, the rest of the hair transplant procedure is the same for both FUT and FUE. The hair doctor will clean and numb the recipient area, create holes or slits in it with a needle or scalpel, and carefully place each graft in each hole.
The entire hair transplant surgery takes approximately 4 to 8 hours, depending on the size of the scalp area needing a hair transplant.
After the Procedure
After the procedure, your scalp may be a little tender and painful. You will be advised to take pain medications, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatories for several days. You will also be asked to wear bandages for at least two days. There may be a noticeable tiny crust in the donor and recipient area, which will usually shed within a week.
Within 2-4 weeks following the procedure, hairs in your grafted area will shed, and within 2-4 months, new hair will begin to emerge.
After 6 to 9 months, you should be able to see your new hair develop and grow steadily.
Hair Transplant Surgery in Seattle
If you’re having extreme hair loss and are considering hair transplant surgery, look no further than our hair doctor at Northwest Hair Restoration. Our highly trained and skilled hair doctor, Dr. Robert Niedbalski, will first assess the cause and extent of your hair loss and then offer the mosteffective treatment plan, which may include hair transplant surgery, to restore your hair.
If you would like to make an appointment with our outstanding hair doctor, call us today at (253) 572-2949 or complete our convenient appointment request form online now.
