Hair Surgery Preparation

The hair transplant procedure is relatively straight forward. As in all surgeries, there are associated dangers and precautions must be taken. The initial patient consultation serves as the primary starting point for surgery preparation. The hair surgeon carefully analyzes the patients scalp and unique hair characteristics at this time. The patient must make his or her preferences known and the hair surgeon must give a medical as well as an aesthetic opinion. In nearly all cases, there is much more exposed scalp than there are available grafts. They will arrive at a mutual decision on exactly how to proceed based on specific direction from the patient in combination with the best surgical outcome. Both patient and surgeon must accept the likely need for several surgeries for optimal results. The average man in his forties suffering from male pattern baldness will usually require three transplants done over a course of about four years in order to achieve optimal results.

After jointly formulating their surgical plan, the surgeon will instruct the patient as to the proper pre-operative care. Precautions must be taken to reduce the chances of intra-operative bleeding which besides the obvious health risks, also diminishes grafting success. Alcohol and certain medicine such as aspirin should be avoided. Pre-operative antibiotics are often prescribed as a precaution against infection. The patient should receive a good nights sleep and plan on arriving at the hair transplant medical center much earlier than the stated appointment.

All of this preparation works to reduce patient stress. Stress is a variable never to be underestimated and all precautions should be taken to reduce it prior to surgery. If possible, leave much earlier than needed in case of severe traffic and plan on getting to the hair restoration medical center early. Some patients like to get driven and picked up, but in most cases you can drive yourself.

The day of the operation, wear an old comfortable button down shirt. Do not wear a shirt you have to pull over your head. Pullovers can pull out new grafts. If the shirt is old, you will not worry about small blood stains. Remember that you will be spraying a saline solution on your head as part of the post operative care and this can drip causing light pink stains.

The point is this: just like the Boy Scouts say- always be prepared. The more prepared you are and the earlier you are prepared, the less stressed you will be and the more likely you will be to follow all the recommendation of pre-operative care.