Hair transplant surgery is performed to restore hair to bald areas of the scalp. During the procedure, a doctor uses small needles to administer local anesthesia to the scalp in the donor area where hairs are to be harvested, as well as to the area of the scalp where they will be transplanted. The doctor removes a portion of scalp from the donor area, then the hairs from the donor area are separated and transplanted to a bald area. During and after the procedure, the patient may experience donor area pain.
The doctor will give you a local anaesthetic into the donor area. The injections of the local anesthetic into the scalp are definitely painful to some degree.
Local anaesthesia is used to numb various areas of your scalp to prevent pain, but general anaesthesia is not used so you will be awake throughout hair transplant surgery. The injections into the scalp may be painful, but the surgery itself does not hurt. You will feel tugging or pulling sensations around your head. After the surgery, some pain should be anticipated but it varies from patient to patient and if it is too extreme you can get a prescription for medication to control the pain.
The patient needs to know the things that will take place during the hair transplant procedure. Initially, the surgery begins with the application of local anesthetic to your scalp. This is probably the most painful part of the procedure. A series of injections are made to the scalp’s donor area.
A slight pain will be present during the injection of anesthesia and also at the end the surgery. About half of the patients who have undergone this treatment have reported swelling on the forehead and in the upper face. However, this effect is perfectly normal. There are things you can do to remedy inflammation.
After about a day or two you should be able to resume normal daily life activities and tasks. If you have had micrografting and do not have dissolvable sutures then they can be removed after two weeks. You should plan on taking about a week off from work or other public activities as you will have swelling and scabbing which will alter you’re appearance for up to 10 days.
