Hair transplant FAQs

It depends on the size of your bald area and your donor hair. The doctor decides with you at consultation.

• FUE: suits smaller areas, and patients who want to avoid a linear scar or keep their hair very short.
• FUT: the strip method, suits larger areas because more grafts can be moved in one session (a standard session yields 2,500 to 3,000 grafts).
• Combination (FUE + FUT): for advanced baldness: FUT gives the core volume and FUE adds grafts from the surrounding donor zones, so a single day can give 5,000 to 8,000 grafts.

Read more: FUE hair transplant, FUT hair transplant and combination hair transplant.

All three are day-care procedures. Surgery takes 6 to 8 hours, and even a large combination session of 8,000 grafts is completed within 8 hours. You can leave about an hour after the procedure, and you come back the next day for a complimentary follow-up shampoo.

Not necessarily, and the choice is yours.

• FUE: the donor area is usually trimmed short. FUE can also be done without shaving, which costs more.
• FUT: the donor area is not shaved. Only a very narrow band of hair is trimmed where the strip is taken, and the surrounding hair falls over it.
• Combination (FUE + FUT): the FUT strip needs only a narrow trimmed band; the FUE zones around it are trimmed unless the procedure is done unshaven.

Without shaving, your appearance changes little, and from day 2 others usually cannot easily tell. See long hair (no-shave) transplant.

Irrespective of the technique, every graft is examined under the Mantis microscope and excess tissue is separated under Zeiss stereo microscopes. FUE grafts are extracted with 8× Zeiss loupes; FUT strips are slivered under the Mantis microscope. PRP supports the grafts while they are out of the body. The refined grafts go into slits of 0.7 mm to 0.9 mm for dense packing. See URFUG.

Ultra-refined follicular unit grafting gives hair that looks more natural after it grows, and is hard to tell apart from your own hair.

Older surgery used large plug grafts, which are now obsolete and were visible in the results. Today hair is moved as natural follicular units, by FUE, FUT or both, so the surgeon's technique and technology matter.

A follicle holds one hair. A follicular unit is a natural group of 1 to 4 hairs; a unit with more than 2 hairs is a multi-follicular unit. The centre charges per graft (follicular unit), not per hair. About 3,000 follicular units usually contain 5,000 to 6,000 hairs.

No. FUE is sometimes advertised as scarless, but it is better called scalpel-free: it avoids a linear scar, but leaves small dot-like marks across the donor area. FUT leaves a fine linear scar, and a combination procedure leaves both, though the FUT scar is often finer because less tension is placed on the scalp.

The cost depends on the number of grafts and the technique, priced per graft:

• FUE: ₹75 + GST per graft
• FUT: ₹60 + GST per graft
• Combination (FUE + FUT): ₹60 + GST per FUT graft and ₹75 + GST per FUE graft

See hair transplant cost in Hyderabad and the graft calculator.

At least 1 inch.

No. It is minimal: a tennis-style headband that reduces swelling, and a surgical cap to wear for 3 days.

No. For safety, do not drive yourself home.

Driving yourself, touching or scratching the transplanted area, and removing the headband for 72 hours. Stay indoors for 24 hours after surgery.

On day 1 if you work from home, or day 4 if you go to an office.

• FUE: there are no stitches to remove.
• FUT: donor stitches are usually removed after about 10 to 14 days.
• Combination (FUE + FUT): the strip stitches are usually removed after about 10 to 14 days.

The transplanted hair needs no medicine. Antibiotics for 7 days (to prevent infection) and painkillers for 4 days are given free. Medicines to keep your existing hair are optional, your choice, and should be taken under a doctor's supervision.

After 2 to 3 weeks, depending on the method.

Light activity from day 5, jogging and running from day 15, the gym from day 20, and swimming after 1 month.

No. Oils condition and shampoos cleanse, but neither makes hair grow. Use an antiseptic shampoo for 2 days before surgery.

A follow-up at least once a year is advised but not compulsory. Come back whenever you or the doctor feel it is needed, and call +91 90004 11511 with any questions.

No. Careful technique controls bleeding in FUE, FUT and combination procedures. Bleeding-time and clotting-time tests before surgery identify any bleeding tendency, so precautions can be taken or surgery advised against.

Swelling of the forehead is harmless and usually settles within 2 to 3 days without medicine; the headband helps. Infection is uncommon, because sterilisation is followed before and during surgery and antibiotics are given afterwards.

People who tend to form keloids (thick, raised scars) may develop one, so the doctor asks how earlier wounds have healed. After FUT or a combination procedure, some discomfort from the donor stitches for a few days is common and settles on its own; after FUE there are no stitches.

Yes, but active dandruff or scalp inflammation must be examined and controlled first, because a calm scalp supports healing and graft survival. See dandruff treatment.

Only in selected cases where the underlying inflammation has stayed fully stable for a long time. See scarring alopecia treatment.

They may stimulate growth slightly while you use them, but the effect stops when you stop.

It is still being researched and is not available as a treatment.

For removing unwanted hair, the triple-wavelength diode laser (Alma Soprano Titanium) targets active follicles to weaken the roots, and is safe for Indian skin types. See laser hair reduction.