What should I ask during a hair transplant consultation?

Most clinics will empathise that talking about your hair loss problems is going to be an embarrassing and emotional thing to talk about. However, discussing this with your hair transplant surgeon and a dedicated patient advisor should help alleviate some of the anxiety surrounding the procedure.  

Before making contact, make sure you carry out the right checks on any clinic.

1. Who will be performing my surgery on the day?

   This may seem like a trivial question, and most would expect it to be the surgeon doing the work on the day, but it has been well known that patients are frequently treated by the surgeon's assistants so that the surgeon can do several cases on the day. The surgeon should, in our opinion, be making all the cuts into the scalp, be that the donor harvesting, in either follicular unit extraction (FUE hair transplant) or Strip surgery (FUT), as well as the incisions or the holes for these grafts to go back into. The surgeon should administer the local anaesthetic. And in some cases where Direct Hair Implantation (DHI) technique is warranted, even implanting the hairs. 
   
   

2. How many other patients will your surgeon be looking after on the day of the procedure?

   You can imagine a high-quality hair transplant can take up to 10 hours to complete from start to finish, so if the surgeon is dealing with 3 or 4 and sometimes even more patients on the day, the attention to detail can be missed. The Mittal Hair Clinic offers one surgery with one surgeon and their team. This way, our patients get a 1:1 approach with all the focus on them. It's always a VIP experience with us, and our ethos is to ensure all patients get the best possible experience before, during and after the procedure. It allows the surgeon the time to make fine adjustments at the end of the process if required, or if needed, take more grafts if something looks amiss, something most clinics don't offer if we feel it's not perfect, we won't stop.
   
   

3. Am I a suitable candidate for a hair transplant procedure?

   This is explored in greater detail here, but for this article, the following criteria should be followed: 

   • Is your hair loss aggressive, i.e. considerable change in the last 12-24 months? 
   • Have you tried any stabilising medication 
   • Is the donor density good?
   • How far along you are on the Norwood scale and at what age you present. These are some rudimentary things any respectable surgeon would ask.
4. How many grafts will I need for my hair transplant?

   This is an interesting question, and usually, it's calculated based on the fact, that you will have approximately two hairs per graft. Generally speaking, we aim for an average density of 40 grafts per square cm to give near-natural outcomes. Still, angulation and placement of grafts in the correct location are more important than focusing on the number of grafts per sq/cm. It is essential to know how many grafts you will need, as this will generally determine the price of the procedure. Check out the cost of a hair transplant procedure here.
   
   

5. Do you have a regular team?

   The answer to this question should be a yes, and the surgeon should be able to tell you who will be performing the surgery on the day. Although different team members are sometimes brought in to cover surgeries when there are holidays or sick days, the team is always regular but rotated to ensure minimum fatigue between surgeries. You should have a dedicated patient advisor throughout your journey, before, during and after and should be your primary point of contact. Our surgeons are on hand and will always follow patients up at respected time intervals.

6. How do you refine your hair transplants, creating natural results?

   Experience is critical, and the knowledge of how to extract the best grafts and refine them in a way that will yield maximum quality in terms of a result. We use high magnification stero-micrscopes throughout the surgery and high magnification loupes so that nothing is missed and we can see the finest details during the procedures. We use cutting-edge technology in our cases to ensure clean incisions, dense packing of grafts where required and the correct placement of grafts. Our hair transplant surgeons ensure that all procedures undergo a 3-point quality check process to provide the most natural results.

7. What happens if something goes wrong?

   Hair transplant procedures are minimally invasive, and when done in the right fue hair transplant clinic, little to nothing should go wrong on the day of the process. However, some things can lead to poorer outcomes. Graft quality, now even though you will have been examined where logistics permit in person before your procedure by the surgeon performing the procedure, we cannot guarantee the graft quality will be the highest. They may look weak, or there may be a higher proportion of single-hair grafts than multi-hair grafts. We check the first 100 grafts before proceeding. If the quality is satisfactory, we will continue with the procedure; if not, we will stop there and explain that this will never yield good outcomes and offer a refund. Bleeding can occur excessively on the day before the procedure a minimum of two weeks before you will be given a list of do's and don'ts. Please follow this carefully, as this can lead to adverse outcomes on the day of the procedure. If results are unsatisfactory, we will carefully look at the pre-operative and post-operative pictures and, where needed, offer remedial steps. This doesn't happen very often, as we are so selective on who we take on as patients and have thorough protocols you must follow before you get onto our operating table.
   
   

8. What qualifications does the surgeon have?

   In the UK, you don't need any specific qualifications to become a hair transplant surgeon other than a medical degree. However, surgeons should be registered with a governing body such as the GMC in the UK, and the clinic should be CQC registered. The surgeon should have their indemnity cover and be recommended by some reputable societies. Our lead surgeon Dr Manish Mittal is a member of the IAHRS and recommended by The American Hair Loss Association and The Bald Truth.

   Before making contact, make sure you carry out the right checks on any clinic.
9. What are the next steps after the consultation?

   We always recommend getting a range of opinions and making sure your surgeon is the right fit for you as with his team, as this is a long journey. We pride ourselves on creating lasting relationships with our patients, and our clinic predominantly works off word-of-mouth referrals. But we always offer a minimum 14-day cooling off period after the consultation for you to consider and digest the information we have given you. After that, we can start you on a treatment journey that is appropriate for your needs.

10. Will I need a second hair transplant procedure?

    Hair loss is a dynamic process, and dependent on what age you get yours done or how advanced your hair loss is, don't go in with the expectation of its one and done. This is unrealistic and would be another sales tactic to get you in the chair. It is a process, and future planning is crucial to ensuring long-term expectations are met. 

We hope this has been useful; if you would like more information, please contact us through the booking form below for a discussion about your hair loss.