Is A Hair Transplant Painful?
It goes without mentioning that patients would prefer to minimize discomfort during either medical or surgical operation. Particularly if the treatment is an elective or a cosmetic procedure. So, it’s true that patients also ask about pain and hair transplant surgery. Specifically, do they want to inquire why a hair transplant is a difficult operation, or do they feel any discomfort during surgery?
Fortunately, the conclusion is: no, a hair transplant is not a debilitating operation. However, this does not mean that there is simply no pain whatsoever. Also, the most minimally invasive or innocuous surgical treatments have a degree of pain, and hair transplantation is no exception. Luckily the “ pain ”is temporary and brief. Most patients show virtually no discomfort whatsoever and describe a hair transplant as a very simple and fun experience. While it may be an “easy” experience, patients can also understand what this means and what type of pain they may feel before, during, and after the procedure.
Before Surgery
The only real pain a patient experiences after a hair transplant is a numbing drug. When the scalp is primed and numb, the patient senses nothing all day long. The scalp numbing process is performed in two parts: numbing in the donor area where we remove the grafts from and numbing in the receiver area where we will insert the new grafts. Numbing occurs in the donor region before surgery itself even starts. The first thing our doctor will do in the morning after the schedule is clearly marked and the scalp is washed and trimmed is numb in the donor area. Using a local anesthetic — the same form of a drug that the dentist uses to relax when filling the cavity — our doctor will administer tiny doses of medication around the whole area.
The injections are superficial, simple, and completed using a very fine needle. Because of this, there’s minimal pain. Most patients compare it to a mild “pinching” feeling immediately followed by numbness as a “kicks in” treatment. Although it takes around 10-15 minutes for numbing medications to take full effect, most patients experience numbness from seconds to minutes. After that, little else is felt in the donor area. Our doctor will remove the tissue — either by DHI, DHI pro, or FUE techniques — without the patient noticing something. The numbing drug normally lasts for 3 hours and is touched regularly during the day until it wears out and patients may feel pain.
During Surgery
What are the Stages of Hair Transplant?
- Consultation: Your personal records along with the degree of baldness that our doctor can take into account before continuing with the hair transplantation process.
- Local anesthesia: Local anesthetics will be provided in the region to be operated on in order to minimize pain during surgery. You’ll be given a comfortable headrest, and you’ll have to lay down on your front for the remainder of the process.
- Hair Graft Extraction: Hair grafts are packed separately from the patient’s donor region in the FUE method. Good hair follicles are picked and removed, and the punching procedure is used for incisions. When the follicular units lose their hold, they are taken out in an intact state. An antiseptic dressing will be added to the donor region after the extraction process has been finished.
- Post-Operative Period: The hair doctor will give you specific advice about how to take care of yourself following surgery, which is a critical time for proper healing. In order to obtain the best outcomes, you must follow all that the expert tells.
As we have said, patients can experience nothing during the retrieval of the surgery after the numbing drug has been used. However, a simplified hair transplant is done in two parts:
Removal of grafts from the donor and re-implantation of grafts in the recipient areas (calving and thinning regions). As in the donor region, the receiver region must be numbed before our doctor can make incisions and the grafts can be returned to the scalp. This procedure is the same as the donor numbing; our doctor will administer the same local anesthesia into the recipient region (or, more specifically, immediately in front of the recipient region, several millimeters in front of the hairline) and the whole area will numb after a few minutes. Once the numbing begins, our doctor and technicians will operate in the area without the patient noticing something. The numbing in the receiver area is the only thing the patient can experience all day long.
After that, the whole scalp — from the very front to the back of the donor — is absolutely numb. The whole process will now be done without any inconvenience. Although the patient may want to readjust and take breaks to rest and walk around and relieve the exhaustion of sitting for a long time, there will be no actual pain from the operation itself. When the patient begins to experience discomfort, he or she will let the nurses know and our doctor will administer more numbing drugs.
After Surgery
So, we know that patients will have no pain during surgery after anesthesia, so what about after surgery? What’s going to happen when the numbing medicine wears off? Fortunately, patients show very little or no pain following surgery. Once the operation is over, our doctor will re-administer the numbing drug. This means that the patient has roughly 3 hours of numbness before she wears off and any possible pain may arise. The patient now has 3 hours to get back to where they’re living, get comfortable, and, most importantly, start taking post-operative painkillers. If the patient takes the oral drug as prescribed and applies more pain medication to their system before the numbing wears off, they can make a successful transition and experience no irritation.
They will then take pain medication multiple times as advised on the night of surgery, and go to bed pain-free. All the opportunity for discomfort should be gone by the next morning. The vast majority of patients show no pain and do not need any treatment on the day after surgery. If they have some minor irritation, they may have a few leftover pain pills to use or they can take Tylenol (acetaminophen). However, this is just for minor pain, and most patients do not even need it.
So, is a hair transplant really painful?
No, a hair transplant is not unpleasant due to local anesthesia and post-operative pain medications. While no operation may be absolutely painless and any brief and potentially transient discomfort is likely, a hair transplant is generally a fun and simple process for most hair loss sufferers.
Pain Relief After Surgery
There may be some suffering after surgery, but one of the benefits of selecting the right clinic, such as our business, is that you can get the right advice on how to get relief from the pain. You may be given any pills that will reduce the discomfort and stiffness of your scalp by your doctor. You may also be given medications and ointments to hold the infection safe. There may be some redness on the scalp as well, but you don’t need to think about it as it’s going to go away on its own within a couple of days. Our doctor can even give you an ointment or gel to avoid crusting. Overall, hair transplantation may require a bit of pain, but finding the right clinic will help you cope with it. Our surgeon can guarantee a smooth procedure by introducing necessary interventions.
How Painful are FUE and DHI Hair Transplant Techniques?
FUE hair transplantation involves harvesting / extracting individual hair follicles from the donor area and transplanting them to the bald or thinning area of the scalp. This is a labor-intensive operation, and the effects will appear a little tender and uncomfortable shortly after surgery. The operation does not, however, inflict any discomfort.
A local anesthetic is used to numb the region of the scalp where the surgery is taking place. This can cause mild irritation at first, but once the region is completely numb, you should not be able to feel much pain. A combination of painkillers and sedatives is also offered to our patients to make sure they are really calm during the operation. The recovery from an FUE hair transplant is normally less painful. When it comes to DHI or DHI pro, you’ll probably experience less pain than the FUE process.
Pain tolerance varies from person to person, but your well-being is one of our key concerns. So if you feel any pain or irritation during the operation, please let us know, and we will make the appropriate changes.
As for our company, we use the most advanced and also the newest methods to treat all types of hair loss. If you want to learn more about procedures and also their impacts, please feel free to contact us. Is A Hair Transplant Painful?