The hair transplant procedure is a process that takes a certain amount of time. After contacting our team, booking a date for the transplant, purchasing flight tickets and booking a place to stay in, the action is right at the door. Some people get anxious about undergoing surgery. Let’s walk through the steps of operation one by one.
Hair Transplant Procedure: Step by Step
The first thing in the preparation of the operation is shaving. We cut your hair very short to give operators better access to your follicles. In FUE, the whole head gets a shave, but in DHI procedure patients may get to keep certain parts of their hair long. We will mainly talk about FUE operation in this post.
After shaving, our medical team will take you to your operation room. There, we will ask you to put on some clothing for operation and lie on your face. After you are set, an operator will mark a line around your donor area. This mark will be the guiding lines for your local anaesthesia.
The local anaesthesia phase
The local anaesthesia phase is the most painful phase during the operation; you may experience mild discomfort and pain. Though, this phase usually takes less than 10 minutes. After the anaesthetics take effect, you will not feel any pain at all. But if you do feel pain, you should inform your operators. They can always help you.
After anaesthesia, operators will prepare a serum solution to inflate the skin around your donor area. This solution contains mostly serum and a little bit of epinephrine (aka. adrenaline) in it. The reason for epinephrine is also interesting. Epinephrine makes veins narrower and in turn, reduces bleeding. This helps patients retain more blood and feel less tired during and after the operation.
The Hair Transplanting Process
After we inflate your scalp, an operator will pick up a micromotor with a tiny punch. With this machine, the operator cuts tiny holes around your donor follicles. Another operator uses a tweezer-like tool to collect them while another operator cleans the collected follicles.
After the collection is complete, the next phase begins. In the next phase, operators will give you more anaesthetic — this time to your recipient area with a similar fashion. The operator will draw an outline and follow the trail with subcutaneous injections. Then the team will ask you again if you feel pain.
When we are sure that you don’t experience any discomfort, another phase begins. Another operator comes and opens canals on your recipient area to create a place for implantations. In standard operations, we use a very small blade and create the holes with a slight slope to resemble natural hair direction. Also, there are other options when opening canals, feel free to ask about them.
The last step: Inserting the hair follicles
After we create enough canals for your extracted follicles, the final phase begins. Operators will pick up your grafts from the petri dishes to insert them at the canals. This part usually takes the longest as it is hard work. Meanwhile, you just have to be patient and if you need anything, feel free to communicate your needs. Our medical team will always cater to your needs.