How to do hair transplantation?
Hair transplantation is performed in a hospital environment by a team of hair transplantation doctors and nurses. The process is performed by transplanting the hair follicles taken from the donor area of the person determined as the nape area to the predetermined bald area, with operations lasting approximately 4-8 hours. How is hair transplantation done by explaining the stages of hair transplantation operation? We will answer the question in detail.
You will find detailed information about how hair transplantation will be done in our article. Basically, hair transplantation consists of 6 main stages.
Preparation for Hair Transplant Operation
Preoperative Anesthesia
Collection of Grafts
Preparation of Collected Grafts for Transplantation
Opening Channels
Placement of Hair Roots
1- Preparation for Hair Transplant Operation
Before the hair transplant operation, during the preparation stage for the hair transplant operation, there are some responsibilities that fall on the patient to make the hair transplant easier and more successful. Things to consider before hair transplant
When deciding on the day of the operation, a day should be chosen after which you can rest for at least 3 days.
On the day of the hair transplant operation, light meals should be eaten and a light breakfast should be made before the operation.
After the operation, in order not to damage your transplanted hair follicles, it is necessary to go to the hair transplantation center on the day of the operation, wearing comfortable clothes that are easy to put on and take off. You should choose clothes with open collars or buttons that will be comfortable to wear over your head.
You should be careful to go to the hair transplant center at the time given to you and not to be late.
Preparation for the operation in the hair transplant center consists of 5 basic stages.
1.Blood Test:
Before the operation, your general health status is checked and some examinations are mandatory for this. The reason for this is to understand whether there are some problems that will risk your general health in the hair transplant operation. The examinations to be carried out will allow you to understand that you do not have any discomfort that prevents you from having a hair transplant operation. In order to control the general health status, the nurses take 1 tube of blood from your vein with the help of an injection needle on the day of the operation and send it to the laboratory for analysis. The blood collection process takes about 1 minute.
Your blood is subjected to an extensive test for sugar level, Hepatitis B, C and HIV viruses, blood clotting rate, and some other infections and viruses. Your blood values are carefully checked to see if there is an obstacle to hair transplantation. If there is no situation that may pose a risk for the hair transplant operation, the preparation process for the operation continues.
2. Signing of the Patient Consent:
Although signing the patient consent paper is a fearful situation for those who encounter it for the first time, it is obligatory to fill out a form stating that the patient is sufficiently informed before the operations and that the patient’s consent is obtained. You should read the form carefully.
There are some points you should know before signing the patient consent form.
Do not hesitate to ask your doctor questions about the operation. Ask your doctor any questions you have before the operation.
Do not sign the form given to you without reading it completely.
In addition to the patient consent sheet, it must be filled in a form asking some questions about you. Remember that you must fill in the information in this form completely correctly. This is very important for your health. If you have a shyness when you deem it necessary, talk to your doctor face to face.
It is very important for your health that you state exactly what allergies and diseases you know.
Inform your doctor about the vitamins, aspirin, or whatever medications you take on the day of the operation or before.
3. Hair Transplant Planning:
After the approval paper is signed, a preliminary meeting with the doctor will be made and the hair transplant will be planned. In the preliminary interview, the doctor will meet with you one-on-one and give you the information you need to know about the operation. After that, hair transplantation planning begins. Do not cut your hair before the operation so that the hair transplantation planning can be done correctly. Hair cutting for hair transplantation is done in the hair transplantation center after the hair transplantation planning. This is very important for the correct planning of hair transplantation.
The maximum amount of hair follicles that can be taken from the donor area of the patient is compared with the amount of hair follicle required to cover the bald areas of the patient.
How to do hair transplantation? – Hair transplant planning –
For hair transplantation planning, the doctor examines the density of the patient’s donor area, the level of baldness, and the structure of the hair follicle. In addition, the most natural forehead line distance and shape are calculated by examining the patient’s facial structure in order to determine the front hairline in the best way. For hair transplantation to the forehead area, the front forehead line is determined together with the patient.
When determining the front hairline, make sure that the opportunities provided by your donor area match your expectations. Rely on your doctor’s recommendations for a natural look.
After the decision made, the areas to be transplanted and how many hair follicles will be made in which area are marked with a pencil. What is done in hair transplant planning?
In hair transplantation planning;
How many grafts will be collected from the donor area,
How many hair follicles will be planted in which area,
The shape of your forehead line and where to start,
Which hair transplant technique will be used
determines.
4. Shaving the Hair:
As we mentioned before, the most important point to know here is; You should not have your hair cut beforehand. Your doctor should see the natural state of your hair at the hair transplant center on the day of the operation for hair transplant planning. After hair transplantation planning, hair shaving is done by nurses in the hair transplantation center.
Today, unshaven hair transplantation can be performed without shaving the hair completely, upon the special request of the patient. If you have such a request, you should discuss this with your doctor beforehand.
Hair transplantation without shaving lengthens the operation process and makes the operation somewhat difficult. The ideal hair length required for hair transplant operation is number 1 shaved hair follicles. Number 1 haircut means about 3mm hair length. Number 1 cut hair length is the most ideal length, especially for graft collection with micromotor. This makes the collection process very easy and prevents damage to the surrounding hair follicles during the collection of hair follicles.
After shaving, the patient is ready to be taken to the operating room.
5. Taking the Patient to the Operation Room:
Hair transplantation operations are performed with special sterile operation clothes. The patient wears the operation suit given to him before going to the operation room.
Hair transplant operations are long-term operations that last between 4 and 8 hours. The patient, who is placed on a stretcher in the operation room, will spend this time awake and under local anesthesia. However, in this process, the patient, who will not feel any pain or pain thanks to local anesthesia, can sleep, listen to music, and watch television with the approval of the doctor. The patient, who will be open during the hair transplant operation, can eat a light meal that will not disturb him when the operation is interrupted.
2-Pre-Operational Anesthesia
Hair transplant operations are performed under local anesthesia.
Hair transplantation is not performed under general anesthesia because it involves various risks and is not necessary.
Since local anesthesia creates a local numbness, the patient is awake and completely awake during the operation.
Some people may experience a phobia of surgery or needles. In such cases, needle-free and short-term sedation can be applied to put the patient to sleep during local anesthesia.
First of all, he will lie face down on the stretcher taken to the operation room. For local anesthesia, the entire head area is disinfected. After disinfection, anesthetic drugs are applied with an injection needle to the nape area where the grafts will be collected. During the administration of local anesthesia, the patient may feel a small-scale burning sensation. However, this burning goes away in a few minutes. Although the duration of action of local anesthesia varies from person to person, it is between 15 and 20 minutes. Thanks to local anesthesia, the person does not feel any pain or pain. If the person has a fear of needles, sedation is performed based on the principle of inhaling anesthetic drugs before local anesthesia. The patient is put to sleep for 10-15 minutes with sedation. This procedure prevents the patient from feeling the local anesthesia process, which takes about 10 minutes. Thanks to sedation, the patient does not feel the needles to be applied to the nape area for local anesthesia. After local anesthesia, the effect of the drug is expected and then the hair transplantation process begins.
3- Collection of Grafts
If the FUE method is preferred in the operation, how is the hair transplant done?
Today, the latest hair transplant technique that has entered the medical literature is FUE. FUE is also the most applied hair transplant technique in the world. Essentially, FUE is a technique that determines how the grafts will be collected. FUE Technique has two different application forms. These are Manual-punch and FUE with Micromotor.
During the collection of grafts, which is the first and most basic stage of hair transplantation, the hair follicles in the nape area are loosened one by one by manual punch or micromotor method.
Manual-Punch FUE
Hair follicles are loosened by means of needles attached to a pen-like tool called “Piasemen”. A tool is not a machine. That is why it is also known as manual, i.e. manual intake. After loosening, hair follicles are collected with another tweezer-like tool called micropen-set. This manual process requires more effort and time compared to FUE with Micromotor. Manual-punching method has left its place mostly to micromotor application today.
Micromotor FUE
It is a much newer and more advanced method than manual punch. Micromotor FUE, as the name suggests, is an electronic device. With the invention of the micromotor device, many doctors left the manual punch and started to use micromotors. In the Micromotor device, which can be adjusted according to a certain application rate with electricity, the grafts are loosened by the needles at the end of the device and are collected with the help of the micropen-set.
The hair follicles that are loosened with one of these two applications are collected with the help of a tweezers-like medical instrument called a pen-set. The collected hair follicles are taken into glass containers called petri dishes containing saline serum to be ready for planting.
After the graft is collected as much as the number of hair follicles to be transplanted, the donor area is cleaned and bandaged. The bandage on the donor area will not be removed until the first wash is done. In hair transplantation operations, the first wash can be done on the 3rd or 4th day with the recommendation of the doctor. The opening of the bandages and the first washing process are done by the hair transplant center on the given day.
4- Preparation of Collected Grafts for Transplantation
After the grafts are collected, these grafts must be prepared for planting. While the grafts are collected in hair transplantation, the hair follicles are taken from the grafts collected by the nurses and placed properly. The hair follicles separated one by one are kept in a certain coldness and specially in order to remain alive and not damaged until the planting stage. The preparation of the collected grafts for sowing consists of two basic stages. These consist of two stages: the extraction of the collected grafts and the proper preparation of hair follicles for transplantation and the preparation of the right grafts. These; extraction of grafts and preservation of hair follicles.
Extraction of Grafts
The collected grafts contain hair follicles and pieces of skin, fat or tissue. After these grafts are collected with the help of Micropen-set, they are carefully separated from unnecessary tissue pieces in saline serum. Hair follicles are taken and made ready for planting. The extracted grafts are kept in a special solution by placing them on gauze pads.
Preservation of Hair Roots
As it is known, hair transplant operations take between 4 and 8 hours. The collection of grafts is between 2 and 4 hours. After the collection, the hair follicles should be preserved in the most correct way without losing their vitality until the moment of transplantation. Because every 1 hair follicle is very important. The most preferred method in our country is known as the “Saline Method”. In the Saline Method, hair follicles are preserved in a salty solution known as “saline” or more commonly known as “serum”.
5- Opening the Channels
Channel opening is the most important step in hair transplantation that affects naturalness. Before proceeding to the channel opening process, local anesthesia is applied to the area to be planted so that pain or pain is not felt. It is also worth remembering that: Local anesthesia is not limited to certain time intervals. Depending on the pain threshold of the patient, local anesthesia can be applied again during the operation if necessary.
Of course, all stages in hair transplantation are very important, but since the way the channels are opened is directly related to the direction of the hair follicles, it is directly related to the “natural appearance”. Namely, the hair follicles to be transplanted should be planted at a natural angle so that they do not look like a grass man. Therefore, the most important stage of the question of “How is Hair Transplantation Performed” is the stage of opening the channels.
So What is Natural Angle?
The concept of grass man, which has been forgotten due to the successful hair transplantation operations performed today, emerged due to the channels that were not opened at a natural angle. When you look carefully at your hair follicles, you realize that there are exit directions and angles. The newly transplanted hair follicles should be planted with your existing natural angle, and the channels should be opened in the most appropriate angle, depth and direction.
There are 3 basic points that doctors pay attention to in the canal opening process.
Width and Depth of the Channel to be Opened: For a natural look, the hair follicles to be planted on the front forehead line should be planted at an angle of 30 degrees and the slope of the hair follicles should be towards the face. The channels should be opened at a depth suitable for the size and structure of the hair follicles.
Angle of the Channel: The temple areas should be opened to the sides at an angle of 45 degrees. In your hill area, this degree increases a little more and can reach up to 60 degrees. Finally, the channels to be opened to the back are directed towards the nape,
Direction of the Canal: The natural direction and cycle of the hair follicles is possible by giving the right direction to the canal. Whether the natural structure of your hair lies to the right or left, whether it is upright or in front, is related to the direction of the channel.
Correct depth, angle and direction are very important in trenching. If the channels are not opened at the appropriate angle, direction and depth to your scalp, the appearance of a grass man is inevitable.
6- Placement of Hair Roots
In the first stage, the hair follicles were collected, in the second stage they were separated and in the third stage, the channels were opened. In the fourth and final stage, the hair follicles kept in a cold environment are placed in the opened channels. After the hair follicles are placed, the operation is completed. Although the duration of this process varies according to the number of hair follicles to be transplanted, it may take approximately 1-2 hours. After the hair roots are placed, the planted area is left open.
After transplantation, the transplanted hair follicles are very sensitive. It should be very well protected against any pressure or impact. Most of the patients can hit the roof of the car, where the transplanted hair is, while getting into the vehicle after the operation. Let me emphasize that you should pay attention to this issue as well.
After the hair transplant operation, the patient does not need to stay in the hair transplant center. After the operation, the patient can rest at home. It should be preferred to have a person with the patient when he/she returns home, since he/she stays in the operation for a long time. Performing the duties of the patient correctly after hair transplantation will help your hair grow healthier.