You’ve made the commitment to get hair loss restoration surgery. But what can you expect on the day of surgery? While hair restoration surgery is considered a minor, one-day outpatient process. But, it is often a lengthy procedure that often takes up to eight hours. For this reason it pays to wear comfortable clothes.
When you arrive at the office, the hair loss restoration coordinator will have you fill out some forms. After that, the doctor meets with you a final time to go over the procedure to make sure he is doing precisely the procedure that will meet your goals. Depending upon how you are feeling, he may offer you a light sedative to calm your nerves.
In the procedure room, you’ll be placed in a reclining chair. The hair in the donor area is trimmed and local anesthetic is applied. If you are getting a follicular unit transplant (FUT), ¼ inch wide strip of scalp is removed from the donor area and the hair restoration surgeon then sutures the scalp back together. While this is happening, the team of technicians begins to separate the hair follicles from the donor scalp trip.
If you are having surgery involving the Individual Graft Technique™ there is no scalp strip removal so there is no need for sutures. Instead, the hair restoration surgeon uses a special instrument to remove each follicular unit individually and it is immediately transplanted to the donor area.
In either procedure, the hair follicles are transplanted the same way. The hair loss restoration surgeon uses a custom microscopic incision making instrument to fashion places for the follicular units to be transplanted. These consist of holes of varying diameters and depths and varying angles, depending where they will be located on the scalp. This is done to make the follicular units closely match the existing hair as well as to create a natural hairline with a pleasing shape. Normally, follicular units containing a single hair are transplanted near the hairline while follicular units containing two, three and four units are transplanted progressively back from the hairline.
While the procedure is being performed there is little to no pain. If you would like, you can select and watch a movie while the procedure takes place. There is also normally a break, where the procedure will stop and you can eat lunch. When the procedure is complete, there is no bandage over the donor or transplant area. If you wish, you can wear a cap home.
DiStefano Hair Restoration Center is committed to helping men and women take charge of their appearance and self-esteem through hair restoration options. For more than 16 years, DiStefano has been at the forefront of the hair transplantation industry, and has performed more than 5,000 successful hair transplant procedures.
