Hair Transplant Consultation - Hair Loss & Hair Transplant Surgery Guide

Before committing to hair transplant surgery, the clinic will organize an interview with the surgeon. This gives you an opportunity to ask all the important questions you have, and for the surgeon to find out the necessary information and explain the procedure. Interviews will obviously differ depending on the surgeon and clinic, but here is a standard list of what should come up.

The surgeon will:

• Talk with you about your general health in order to assess your suitability for the procedure. You need to be honest and thorough so that all the necessary considerations are made. Most medical conditions do not actively affect hair transplants, but letting the surgeon know beforehand will ensure that you begin any treatment in advance of surgery and that the surgeon can fully prepare. A blood test will be taken if no recent test results are available.

• Look carefully at your hair loss, searching for symptoms of pattern baldness or other conditions. They also assess your hair type, including color, density, texture and curl, with a scalp examination. An appropriate donor area will be found, with the surgeon gauging how much transplantation is required and how much is practical.
• Ask about your hair loss: when did it start? How fast has it progressed? Did your parents or grandparents suffer from hair loss?
• Describe the transplant techniques they offer, going into further detail about the technique they believe is best fitted to your hair and circumstances. At this point, make sure to ask questions if you have them. If they show you pictures of successful hair transplants, inquire as to whether they carried out this work. The surgeon will not always have a picture on-hand of work they carried out that matches your type of transplant, and in that case they may resort to showing another surgeon’s work.

• Draw a hairline on your scalp in order to show the projected outcome of surgery. Some people feel the projected hairline is too high, but the surgeon will want to be realistic and you should too: the number of transplantable follicles is not unlimited. Also, hair will hang lower than the drawn hairline. If you are unhappy about the projected hairline, discuss a lower line with the surgeon.
• Talk about future hair loss, such as behind the hairline and at the lateral boundaries. They may recommend also transplanting to thinning sites on the head, as well as classically ‘bald’ areas.
• Take pictures or keep another record of the agreed level of transplant and the projected results.
• Explain about the effects of surgery, particularly those after the first session and in the following days. Ask about any concerns you have, and make sure you are satisfied that you understand the safety and risks of surgery.
• Begin to discuss long term plans for the hair restoration. Multiple hair transplant surgeries are not uncommon to achieve a patient’s desired results. The surgeon will explain the time periods between procedures, how the multiple session plan works, and the sort of results each session should bring. This usually works by focusing on a specific area for each session, e.g. hairline, vertex. The number of necessary procedures will depend on the degree of hair loss and the agreed transplant technique.