Congratulations! Now that you’ve decided to live life with a full head of hair, let’s chat about what you can expect during your hair transplant procedure or Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) procedure, as it is known in medical circles.

Since you will be anesthetized, there are a few pre-operative issues we need to discuss. Since hair transplant or follicular unit transplant is a surgical procedure, your doctors will provide very specific instructions for you, follow their advice.

Let me just share my pre-surgery experience. I could not eat or drink anything after midnight the night prior to surgery. My doctor also asked if I was anxious about the procedure. If my doctor thought necessary, a mild sedative would have been prescribed. And of course, your doctor may vary these fairly standard pre-operation surgical routines. You will also most likely meet with another doctor, an anesthesiologist.

Most people think anesthesia means you are being “put to sleep”. Many times a hair transplant patient will be anesthetized with a local anesthetic. The most common ones used are lidocaine and bupivicane, and many times are used in conjunction with each other. Lidocaine acts very quickly to deaden the hair transplant area and bupivicane last a bit longer. These are injected to totally numb the scalp, and maybe injected around several large nerve clusters near the hair transplant area. Once the lidocane is injected, the area begins to become numb. Once your scalp is completely numb the surgery will begin.

You may be wondering exactly what the team of doctors will be doing. There are basically two teams, let‚s call them the FUT prep team, and the FUT surgery team. The FUT surgery team harvests a strip of skin containing healthy hair follicles and passes it on to the FUT prep team.

The FUT prep team begin the ’slivering’ process or dividing the strip in to portions only about one hair follicle wide and placing them into a chilled saline bath until ready for implanting. During this time the FUT surgical team is creating recipient sites for the hair follicles. This is normally accomplished with small needles. After creating exactly the number of sites for the number of hair follicles, the careful process of implanting begins.

Ever so gently and while looking through a stereoscopic microscope, the surgeon grasps the hair implants with very small forceps, and very carefully places them into the awaiting site. The surgeon places them in at a very precise angle, and depth.

As a precaution, the surgeons complete a final check of the implanted hairs and surrounding scalp areas. They are looking for signs of follicular units being displaced during the post-surgical cleansing. After the procedure, (and most likely during surgery as well,) the doctors give very specific instructions to ensure the hair transplanted has the best possible chance of growing. Be sure to follow your doctor’s instructions.

Prior to your hair transplant procedure the key thing to do to prepare for it is careful planning. There are a number of important decisions that need to be made in consultation with your Doctor to ensure a result that you are going to be happy with for the rest of your life.

From an aesthetic, cosmetic point of view, probably the most crucial issue will be where to place your new hairline and what shape to make it. What you decide however will depend on a number of factors including what age you are, what type of hair you have and your individual pattern of hair loss and how much hair has been lost at the time of the transplant.

A 25 year old will have a totally different expectation of where he wants his hair line than say a 45 year old, but a responsible Doctor will need to find a solution that will still look good at 70 years or more.

To do this he will need to take into account the potential for further hair loss behind the transplant area and possibly the need for additional procedures at a later stage. This will mean careful conservation of the donor area to ensure there will be sufficient permanent hair left.

To be able to have a more meaningful input in the planning process, the more you understand about your particular hair type and the stages the balding process is likely to go through, and the causes behind it, the better.

The greatest risk with transplant procedures is in things not turning out the way you expected. The best way to eliminate this risk is through understanding what to expect and why.

For an excellent article covering these basic issues follow this link http://www.forhair.com/patientguidecontents.htm

Once you have a grasp of what is needed and why, you will want to discuss with your doctor the exact process you will go through during the procedure. He should be able to provide you with a detailed plan of the day and what to expect at every stage.

One factor which can limit the available quantity of hair for transplanting is how tight or loose the scalp is on the scull. The looser the better as far as ease of harvesting the donor strips is concerned.

One group of surgeons recommends the patient perform a simple exercise to promote this scalp ‘laxity’ which involves interlacing the fingers on the back of the head where the permanent hair is located and pressing firmly enough to slide the scalp forward and back for about 5 minutes at a time several times a day. This can also be done to the sides of the head as well. This practice should begin as soon as possible once the decision to go ahead with the transplant is made.

Deciding to use a surgical hair transplant technique is something that is going to effect the rest of your life so this is a decision that must be entered into thoughtfully and reasonably and with a working knowledge of the procedures and the possible outcomes good or not .

Who you choose to carry out the procedure is obviously of crucial importance. Technical expertise is vital but so also is the aesthetic understanding and long term vision to help you make the right decisions that you will be happy with for the rest of your life.

Taking this step towards boosting your self esteem and refining your image could be the most profound step you ever take in improving your physical appearance and emotional wellbeing. Enjoy it!