HAIR TRANSPLANT : THE COMPLETE GUIDE
*updated 27th july 2024
I realise i've not posted to my blog in 5 years and although i've been documenting my hair journey on all my social media platforms i felt the urge to consolidate everything into one place (i'll keep on updating this article too), if you're reading this, thank you for taking the time to come here and i hope this page can answer your questions or just give you some peace of mind. If you do find it helpful, please feel free to share it with a friend or send to a loved one who is also suffering from hair loss.
before we get stuck into everything as this is a relatively long article - i've highlighted some key points below and if you'd prefer to watch this whole process i actually vlogged the entire process, from shaving my head, the day of the surgery a Q&A and some updates in the months after - check out youtube videos here. I've also documented regular updates on my instagram story highlights under 'hair transplant' click here.
KEY POINTS
- this was not a decision that i took lightly, i thought about this for 5-6 years before deciding to get a hair transplant.
- i went to the British Hair Clinic in Essex (here) and had an FUE Hair transplant moving 1800 grafts.
- it took 4-6 months to start growing back properly.
- i'm using a Finasteride and Minoxidil topical daily spray - find it here. (affiliate link)
- whilst recovering i used these hair fibers here (affiliate link) to fill in my patchy hairline.
insecurities
ever since i was young i've always had a widows peak hairline, i'd never really thought much of it - i'd been pretty accepting of my appearance when i was younger and even into my teen years - my insecurities have crept up on me during my late twenties and early thirties. i think the rise of social media and the fact that it became my workplace has meant i'm constantly taking pictures/videos of myself (for almost 10 years now) and therefore over analysing everything about myself. I think this is true for most people my age as we grew up when social media was finding its feet so we've sort of grown up as it's developed.
On my 25th birthday i noticed my hairline was a little bit further back than it had been in relation to my freckles on my face (yes i use them as a point of reference ha) so i decided to start looking into hair treatments and hairline transplants popped up. I was a bit confused and didn't really know where to start - after some reading i thought it seemed quite drastic and that my hair was fine right now anyway , i said to myself 'i don't need it' and stopped researching.
Flash forward a few months and i heard that a partner of someone that i followed on instagram had a hairline transplant, i decided to reach out to ask about it because i was intrigued about the process - he got back to me and even sent me the name of the clinic - i noted it down and thought to myself, i'd be interested to know what his hair looks like in a few years time and maybe revisit the idea again.
I was always a bit envious of guys who had really strong hairlines - mine literally looked like an 'M' on my forehead but a few years passed by and when i turned 30 i started styling my hair in a new way using gel and sculpting it into different styles - it made me realise that my hairline had infact gone waaaay further back and i thought OH! I should probably look into that again - i had been keeping tabs on my friends partners hair through the years and his hair looked incredible, so natural! I knew that if i was going to do it, that was the place i wanted to go to.
i spoke to a few of my friends and family about potentially getting a hair transplant and all the replies were the same 'you don't need it'! 'your hair looks fine!' and although these comments were re-assuring, i knew deep down that i wasn't happy with my hairline and i wanted to do something about it, i knew that getting it filled in would give me more self confidence everyday when i look at myself in the mirror.
individual hair loss
throughout this process and in my research i'd read about finasteride and minoxidil - to sum them up in simple terms.
Finasteride - can help to prevent you losing hair that you already have on your head.
Minoxidil - increases blood flow to your follicles and can help stimulate hair growth.
Usually these are medications that you should try first before jumping straight to a hair transplant as sometimes these can be effective in stimulation hair growth/thickening your hair. What i've learnt through this process though is that no two people are the same, everyones hair is different, the hair loss is different and just because one thing works for someone does not mean it will work for you and vice-versa.
Some people experience their hair getting thinner but this wasn't an issue for me, i have very thick, naturally curly/wiry hair and it's not thin at all in any area. where my hairline was receding there were no hair follicles to stimulate or hair to stop falling out so minoxidil and finasteride were of no use to me pre-hair transplant - the widows peak areas were baron. so where some guys with thinning hair on top or on the hairline could use minoxidil or finasteride to promote hair growth and stop any future loss, i knew that wouldn't be an option for me and i'd need a hair transplant to get some follicles into the hairline.
the consultation
i booked an online consultation at the british hair clinic and spoke to someone within a few days - they asked for images of my hair and what my concerns were before moving to a video call - i remember one of my first questions was 'can i ever bleach my hair blonde again?' and they said 'yes' and i thought SWEET! (i've always dyed my hair so this was a big deal for me.) Another questions was 'do i have to shave my head completely?' (i'd not had a buzzcut since i was 11 years old) and they said - having a shaved head makes things easier for the surgeon on the day but i don't have to if i don't want to. i asked the standard questions like - does it hurt? what's the recovery process like? what happens exactly on the day? can i choose my new hairline? and all of my questions were answered - i was given a whatsapp contact to reach out to if i had anymore questions and i was quoted £5K for up to 2500 grafts for the surgery. I also enquired if i could have an in-person appointment before the day of surgery to which they said yes (I didn't end up doing this but it's nice to know i could have gone in if i wanted to.)
I really wanted to time the surgery well - with my line of work i always have to be available and there's always something happening all year round EXCEPT for christmas/new years and the first weeks in January - so it was really important for me to have the surgery around that time, to ensure i could recover in peace - December 29th 2023 they had availability so i booked myself in for a hair transplant.
preparation
i actually decided to shave my head about 10 days before the surgery, i didn't have to but i was feeling a change and wanted to make the surgeons job a little easier on the day (a decision i later regretted). I also made sure to order a comfortable neck pillow (here - affiliate link), stock up on lots of painkillers and got some pieces of clothing i could wear without taking them over my head like comfortable hoodies and button up shirts. That was about it in terms of prep i didn't really know what to expect so i was just winging it and hoping that i'd prepared enough, luckily i live with my partner so i knew he would be picking me up after the surgery and would be able to go to the supermarket and cook for me etc - I would recommend being with someone for the recovery process as you're not able to bend down and there's a lot of things you can't do for the first 2 weeks, so it's beneficial to not be alone.
the day of surgery
I was SO nervous for the day of surgery - in my head that's all i was thinking about, how bad would the pain of the anaesthetic be? what if it wears off and i feel the incisions? but in reality the day of the surgery was a breeze and actually very very dull - maybe too dull? if anything the sheer boredom was way worse than the anaesthetic injections - i became so restless and just lying there was driving me crazy.
I got to the clinic and they took my lunch order in preparation for the break between - i then met with the doctor to draw on my new hairline, you get complete control over this however it's important to note that they can't put hair follicles into muscle (it would look so strange if they did that) so if you wrinkle your forehead you can see a natural end to where your forehead muscles are - we redrew it a few times before i was happy. The goal here is for your new hairline to look as natural as possible.
Once i was satisfied with the shape they explained how the day was going to happen in - 3 stages - first would be the extraction where they take the hairs from the back of your head, we'd then break for lunch, after lunch the doctor would make the incisions on the front of your head and finally the third stage would be planting the hairs into the newly crafted incisions.
As i said i shaved my head about 10 days before the surgery and knew that on the day they would be trimming it right down, which they did - this was a big moment for me i felt like anne hathway in les miserable (too dramatic?) after this i lay face down and they administered the anaesthetic injections (this felt like i was a rhinoceros being tranquillised, the anaesthetic itself stung which did make me feel uncomfortable but i just focused on taking deep breaths in and out and before i knew it the whole back of my head was numb). If at any time you feel pain or even any 'feeling' you tell them straight away and they administer more anaesthetic (the more the better!) they then started to harvest my hairs from the back of my head - i actually found this quite relaxing and almost fell asleep - i couldn't quite commit to falling asleep fully considering i knew there were two people hacking away at my head.
After a few hours it was time for lunch and in my head i thought 'well there's no turning back now' as i sat and looked at a tub of my hair follicles (they looked a bit like maggots it was kind of gross). The clinic had a huge tv opposite the bed for the next part - this is where the doctor would craft my new hairline - again another round of anaesthetic to numb the front of the head this time, we ended up chatting about Lord of the Rings (i was and still am in deep fascination with Tolkein's legendarium lol) unfortunately they didn't have LOTR on netflix so i opted for the early harry potter movies as a sort of comfort watch.
Finally we were ready for the last part - implanting the harvested follicles back into the new incisions - i kept chatting to the nurses and it honestly is like planting seeds just with hair follicles not needs and flesh not soil. This was probably the most difficult part of the day only because i'd been lay in the same position from 2pm to around 8pm, i was getting so restless i could feel my body moving without me even telling it to - i'd find my legs raising into the air and the nurses would be like 'can you please stay still'.
My patience was really wearing thin by the end of the day and i genuinely felt so sick/light headed, the doctor brought me a ribena and a chocolate bar to bring me back to life as i looked like i was about to pass out. My partner had been waiting at the clinic for about 2 hours bless him, finally i was ready to go home - i was SO grumpy and in such a foul mood post surgery, i'd exhausted all of my social energy and the pressure of what just happened was coming out in my emotions. I didn't cry but i felt like i could have burst into tears at any moment - i wasn't in pain i was just emotionally spent.
the aftermath
Straight after we got home i was hungry - starving! I didn't want to think about how the f**k i was going to sleep, i'd cross that bridge when i came to it. I had bandages covering the donor area and ofc ourse nothing was to touch or come into close contact with the transplant area - it felt like a game, a very expensive and important game 'do not touch!' I also had an extensive 14 day plan from the clinic along with lots of painkillers, saline solution, bandages and baby shampoo.
What i've also learned from speaking to others after the process is that every clinics recovery process is different - here in the UK i don't see a lot of clinics giving headbands to stop the swelling (i mean it has to leave your head somehow right?) this is probably one of the best photos from my recovery process ( don't worryi wasn't in pain) it's simply the swelling from my scalp travelling down my face which dissipated completely in about 2-3 days. But yeah i was told to wash my hair with a jug every other day without touching my hair and just letting the soapy water gently wash over the hair then rinse off - i was advised to not actually wash my hair with my hands until day 14 (this was euphoric honestly).
The thing i found the most difficult in the 14 day recovery was sleeping, however i'm a huge over-thinker and sometimes i would drift off to sleep in my neck pillow and sub-consciously went to itch my head in a sleepy daze only to realise at the last second that that would not be a good idea - therefore shocking myself awake and putting my hand down. This would happen almost every time i was going to sleep in bed so i dragged myself to the lounge, put on Lord of the Rings and just fall asleep upright whilst watching movies snuggled up in a blanket on the sofa.
Slowly but surely the two weeks of sleepless nights passed, friends came to see me and make sure i was doing okay which was nice and like i said washing the scabs off of my head on day 14 was euphoric. British hair clinic kept asking for pictures on whatsapp to make sure the recovery was going ok and were happy to answer any questions i had. Then suddenly everything was back to normal and i knew this would happen because its part of the process but all of the transplanted hair falls out - this is called 'shock loss' and basically where the follicle was taken out, the hair itself died - so it falls out to make room for the new hair that's about to grow. However growing hair is not a quick process, i don't think you can really understand this process until you have a hair transplant yourself. Other cosmetic surgeries like nose jobs or boob jobs etc - although they also have swelling and recovery time, they don't go away and come back - which i think is the difficult part to grasp of a hair transplant. You go through this traumatic day and 2 weeks recovery and see all of this amazing new hair in places that wasnt there before - then it all goes away (for awhile) but it really messed me up mentally - in the months after the surgery.
struggles after the surgery
After the surgery and recovery process i was over the moon - i could see all of the new hairs in my hairline and i felt amazing! However like i said - a lot of people experience 'shock loss' and that quickly happened for me, i wasn't worried because i knew this was part of the process however i didn't quite mentally prepare myself for how long it would take. I thought by 2 months i would at least have made some progress but my head was BARE! It was at this point that i thought - if i hadn't shaved my head it wouldn't be as noticeable to me every time i look in the mirror and see the hairline that i was so unhappy with in the first place.
If you don't have to shave your head, don't do it - especially if you don't love your hairline - it's all i could see when i looked in the mirror and it felt like watching paint dry - however month 4 soon came along and i started seeing a lot of growth - i look back at photos from the first few months and i'm shocked at how much my hairline has changed since.
As my job includes going to lots of events and meetings - i did feel very self conscious of my hairline - hats/caps/beanies were my friend and i was thankful that i got the surgery done in the middle of winter as i was able to wear a hat to most occasions. However one event came up that i couldn't really wear a hat to and that was the movie premiere for Furiosa (Mad Max) and i knew there would be a red carpet and professional photos being taken. I remembered seeing these 'hair fibres' in boots once and i thought to myself - now that i have substantial regrowth maybe these fibres could help fill in my patchy hairline so i'll feel more confident getting my photo taken and well - here's the photos!
I was so happy and impressed with the fibres i've used them for all events ever since! I only use them occasionally when i know theres going to be photos taken because my doctor from the clinic did say i shouldn't use them all the time as they can block new hairs from coming through - so make sure to wash your hair that evening after wearing them in the day. But out of interest here are the Hair Fibres i've been using click here (affiliate link).
medication (finasteride & minoxidil)
Being a content creator i've openly spoken about my experience on all my socials, however this has opened me up to a lot of information, judgement and horror stories from lots of different people in different situations.
I wasn't aware of the extreme side effects of finasteride and minoxidil before my surgery, i was aware of side effects but like with all medication there is always potential side effects however i was getting messages from people i didn't know or that didn't even follow me - warning me of Finasteride and saying how they became impotent or even started growing breast tissue etc.
This obviously scared me and i didn't end up taking the daily oral finasteride pills that my clinic had given to me - i was so apprehensive, worried that i'd lose my sex drive or start growing breast tissue etc. I know that extreme side effects only affect a small percentage of people but i was still quite concerned mainly from the sheer amount of messages and comments i was getting daily about it - if i wasn't a creator i would've just been taking the pills as my doctor recommended. So i did feel like i was in a bit of a bind....
I started speaking to friends who have had hair transplants and asked them about their medication
- one guy had a hair transplant about 8 years ago and didn't take any of his meds and still has his full head of hair, hasn't lost anymore and hasn't lost any of his transplant
- another guy takes finasteride daily and he actually lost some of his original hairline and now wants to get another transplant
- and another friends takes a lesser amount of finasteride than recommended but has found thats enough to maintain his hair
- interestingly enough one of the doctors said to me i could not take finasteride and just get x4 PRP sessions a year to help maintain my hair
So i think there's lots of different options and different methods for everyone - after a lot of research into finasteride and minoxidil i've decided to opt for a topical spray that contains both medications - this is proven to have less side effects as you're just spraying it onto your scalp rather than ingesting the medication into your body - If you're in the UK and want to get any hair loss medication - I'm using Manual's 2 in1 topical spray that contains both Finasteride and Minoxidil - you can find it here or use my code 'GAL55IG' (you'll get an automatic 55% discount by using my link and i will get a small commission).
6 months post surgery
I'm currently 6 months into the recovery process and i have so much hair growing through - my new hairline has definitely filled in and i can see it taking shape. It's still quite patchy and has a long way to go but the difference from month 4 to month 6 has been insane. I'm so happy and in a much better place mentally, I'm quite enjoying having my natural hair colour for the moment too.
Although when i had my 6 month check up last week, the doctor did say it's fine to bleach it again and i can treat it like normal hair - it honestly has changed my outlook on my physical appearance so much, I'm no longer trying to hide my hairline by covering it with a fringe - i'm able to get my hair wet on vacation and not be concerned with how it looks slicked back, short hair even though it felt like a curse post op, has actually been quite liberating too, it requires little to no maintenance, i used to reserve at least 1 hour to get myself ready in the morning if i was to 'do my hair' whereas now i just dry it with a towel and i'm done!
12 months post surgery
i can't wait to come back and update this in December - in the meantime if you have any questions you'd like to ask just DM me on instagram @gallucks and then i can add them down below to help other people in the future.
FAQ
How much did it cost?
Cost is on a case by case basis - i was quoted £5K for up to 2500 grafts but if your hair requires more grafts it might cost more, prices differ from clinic to country etc.
Why didn't i go to turkey?
Like i said - i knew someone who had theirs done 5/6 years ago at British Hair Clinic and so i knew that's where i wanted to go, it's also not to far from where i live so i was home within 1 hour after my surgery. There are so many great clinics in Turkey and the prices are a lot cheaper but i didn't like the idea of flying to another country to get major surgery, the car ride home was stressful let alone getting on an airplane - so great results and convenience both played a part in my decision to stay in the UK.
Do you have to shave your head?
No you don't have to shave your head for what i had done. I can't speak on more advanced procedures that might need more areas covered.
Is it permanent?
The transplanted hairs taken from the back/sides of your head are permanent however you could still lose hairs from your original hairline - that's why they recommend you take finasteride and minoxidil to help prevent future hair loss.
Was it painful?
I would say uncomfortable - the most painful part was the anaesthetic injections - but it's mind over matter, if you focus on your breathing and take a deep breath in through your nose and slowly out through your mouth you can remain calm.
How long do you have to take off work?
I would say it's best to take 2 weeks off after the surgery so you can be full recovered/wear hats and not worry about your scalp.
What is PRP?
Platelet-rich plasma injections! The doctor takes a small vile of your blood and they 'spin' the blood to separate the plasma and then skim the plasma and inject it back into your transplant areas. It's supposed to promote healing and encourage hair growth - I've had 2 of these treatments so far and i think they've really helped in kick-starting the growth process. You can read more about PRP here.
Can you wear a cap?
yes after 2 weeks you can wear caps / hats again but loosely and not too often.
Does your hair grow back thinner?
i'm only 6 months through so i can't comment on this yet but i thinkit's different for everyone and the density depends on your original hair.
Are there gaps at the back of your head where they took the hair?
not at all - they took 1800 follicles and my hair looks exactly as it did before the surgey.
back of my head post surgery
How long until you see results?
They say 6-12 months before you see full results, i'm at 6 months and i have seen so much growth from month 4-6 so i can't wait to see how my hairline looks 6 months from now.