There is no shame in admitting you are going bald. In the US, approximately 80 million people suffer from baldness.
Luckily for you, there are ways to get your hair back once it starts to fall out. The most common is a hair transplant procedure, one that can fill in those balding areas to give you a full head of hair. After seeing the surgery videos, though, you’ve got one question on your mind: is hair transplant painful?
Let’s take a look at the hair transplant pain and recovery from beginning to end.
Is Hair Transplant Painful?
Virtually all surgeries lead to some amount of pain during the recovery. Hair transplant pain will be a factor you have to deal with, unfortunately. You may need to turn to medication to manage it.
People interested in hair transplant procedures may be worried, though, because they are awake throughout it. Keep in mind that there are two types of surgeries that achieve the end result. Let’s take a look at both to understand what you should anticipate.
FUT (Follicular Unit Transplantation)
This is the most common hair transplant technique that people imagine. Doctors remove a section of skin with the attached hair follicles from one part of your body. They then reattach it elsewhere, such as a receding hairline.
This is, unsurprisingly, quite invasive. Even with hair transplant anesthesia, there will be aching discomfort later on. It will feel like you have a bad, tender sunburn and may give you a headache.
That said, this type of hair transplant surgery is highly effective.
FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction)
For those who are especially concerned about the pain, FUE may be a better choice. This is when your doctor removes individual hair follicles with their surrounding skin. Then, they transplant these follicles into the affected area and insert them there.
As you can imagine, this type of procedure is far less invasive and painful. You will still require local anesthetic, but the recovery will be faster.
Recovery pain here is substantially less. There will still be a noticeable ache and puffy skin. However, it won’t be anything near FUT.
The only major downside here is that this type of procedure takes much longer. You may have to return for multiple sessions before you get the desired results. So although there is less pain, the pain occurs over a longer period of time.
Does Medication Work?
Yes. The good thing is that you won’t require prescription painkillers to deal with the post-surgery pain. This is a huge relief for many since those painkillers include addictive opioids.
Most are able to deal with the recovery pain via over-the-counter medication such as Advil or acetaminophen. Make sure to consult your doctor first before taking anything for the pain, though.
Get Ready for Your Transplant
Is hair transplant painful? Not during the surgery, since the anesthesia is quite effective.
The recovery, however, will involve some amount of pain. Fortunately, you can manage it with readily available pharmacy painkillers.
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