Hair cleanse with sanitizing shampoo is the first step to get the hair ready for the transplantation.

Before the surgery, photos of patients are taken to use as a comparison to the after-the-surgery photos taken in the future. 

The surgeon will measure the recipient site to determine the number of grafts needed to achieve the proper density.

A particular portion of hair on the safe donor area will be shaved off; the size of it depends upon the procedure, FUE or FUT—types of hair transplant.

Local anesthesia is administered to make patients feel comfortable and relaxed. 

During the transplantation, the surgeon must take caution of harvesting the donor hair follicles and must avoid any follicular transection, which is an accidental cutting or damaging the hair follicles. 

If not, they will not have a chance to survive or to grow after being implanted, as a result.

Another local anesthesia will be administered onto the recipient area before the surgeon makes the holes, for the graft implant, on it with a needle. 

These holes are different in sizes; small holes are for 1-hair grafts, larger holes are for 2-hair, or more, grafts. The implanted hair grafts must be arranged to the proper hair direction and angle mimicking the previous hair in order to achieve a natural effect. 

Some surgeons prefer to shave off the hair in this area for easy access, consequently, they will not see the direction and the angle of the previous hair, which creates a problem of misdirection of hair.

The surgeon must do a thorough, final inspection to make sure that everything is done correctly and perfectly before sending the patient home. 

The procedure usually lasts 4-8 hours depending upon the quantity of grafts transplanted. 

Patients are recommended to return to the clinic 24-48 hours after the surgery for a hair wash and for an instruction on how to wash hair themselves.

Patients are encouraged to return for the complimentary hair wash daily for the next 4-5 days to ensure that the surgery areas are kept clean and also for checkups.

4-5 days after the surgery, patients can wash their own hair following our instruction.

The surgeon may schedule the patients for in-person follow-ups periodically as necessary. For patients who reside in another country, they can electronically send in their photos for the evaluation instead.

Patients are advised to take 1-3 days off from work for the procedure and recovery. 

However, they can go back to work as soon as the next day, if necessary. 

Hair transplant is regarded to be very safe if it is done correctly by a skilled and experienced surgeon and team. 

Patient’s safety is considered to be the most important thing in cosmetic surgeries, hair transplant included.

From our over 2 decades of experience, we find that the majority of our patients encountered minimal to no pain during the procedures. 

They might feel some pressure when the local anesthesia was administered, but once it kicks in, they hardly feel the pain that they were afraid of. For 2-3 days following the surgery, they may feel some soreness for which they can take Tylenol (Paracetamol) 

It is comparable to having dental works done or having cosmetic treatments like getting a botox or a derma filler, only hair transplantation is a lengthier procedure. 

We also find that female patients who underwent hair transplant in women tolerated the pain better than men.

We definitely don’t administer any medication directly into the blood vessels. Because if we did and any allergic reaction or complication occurred suddenly as a result, the problem would not be rectified in time.

We don’t use sleep aid injections on patients, instead, we only use mild, oral sedation medication, such as VALIUM 5 mg, to help patients relax and feel comfortable.

For patient’s safety, we do use mild medications in as minimal dosage as necessary to keep the pain in control during the procedure.

Not only do we calculate the proper dosage that is safe for each patient, we also keep a record of it. Furthermore, when the minimal dosage is used, the patient's safety increases. Aside from the local anesthesia, we do use bleeding control medication only in a limited dosage as well. 

We do have highly skilled medical personnel working together as a teamwork to keep the operative duration manageable for all patients, which results in decreasing the use of medications.