Hair transplants are a safe bet for making your hair look fantastic especially if you have ever suffered from female or male pattern hair loss. From afar, nobody can tell your hair transplant isn’t your natural hairline.
In addition to great results, the surgery is also very successful. Worldwide, almost 70% of hair transplant recipients received the look they wanted after just one procedure [1].
Many celebrities also have hair transplants to retain or restore their thinning hair.
However, one question everyone wants to know before considering hair transplant surgery remains: Is it possible to tell you’ve had a hair transplant close up?
In this article, you’ll learn what hair transplants look like up close, and whether they’re visible or noticeable to others if they get a good glimpse of your transplanted hair.
Hair transplants heal with virtually zero scarring, especially if you opt for Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE). Needless to say, it’s impossible to tell you’ve had a hair transplant with the naked eye. The only visible sign that you’ve had a hair transplant is a thin horizontal scar on the back or side of the head if you have the Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) procedure. Growing your hair or getting scalp micropigmentation can easily hide this.
Some older types of hair restoration are more obvious when you look closely (or even from a distance). For example, hair plugs often create a doll-like appearance in comparison with more modern methods:
It’s important to find out which method your clinic will use to restore your hair. In the UK, most hair transplant surgeons use FUE and FUT techniques to create a hairline that looks natural, even up close. Unregulated hair transplant clinics abroad may use older or less sophisticated methods.
The look of your hair transplant will change as it heals. Initially, your hair transplant will be obvious even from a distance. Most patients choose to take a few days off work or wear a hat after a hair transplant to hide their hair transplant and avoid any awkward questions.
But when it’s healed, your hair transplant will look completely natural, even up close. Here’s what you can expect.
This strip of hair has been partially cut into individual hair grafts containing an average of 3-4 hair follicles. The individual grafts are ready to be implanted into the thinning or balding areas of the scalp.
After surgery, your transplant will be a little raw, and may still bleed. Your surgeon will dress your wounds with gauze and bandages to keep your scalp clean, dry, and free from hair transplant infection.
Within a day or so, your hair transplant will start to form hair transplant scabs and crusts:
Around 7 days after your hair transplant you will see redness reduce and grafts will begin to secure in an anchoring process. Pulling the scabs can result in lost graft hair so it is important that you follow your clinics aftercare protocol. We have a guide on how to wash your hair after a hair transplant.
Six months after your hair transplant, it will be impossible to tell you’ve had surgery. You’ll start to get an idea of what your hair will eventually look like around this time. These photos show the results you can expect after 6 months:
A year after your procedure, you’ll start to see your final results:
Some patients are concerned about hair transplant scars especially if they choose the FUT procedure which can leave a scar that’s visible through closely cropped hair:
Double trichophytic closures can minimise FUT scarring (see image D above, compared with non-trichophytic in image A and single trichophytic in images B and C). If you’re worried, ask your surgeon which type of closure they’ll use.
FUE is the best option for those who want to get a hair transplant without anyone knowing. It also has a shorter recovery time than FUT and tends to be slightly less expensive. Learn more about the differences between FUT and FUE so you can decide which transplant type is best for you.
If you’re ready to talk about your hair restoration requirements, book a free consultation at the Wimpole Clinic where we’ll happily answer any questions you would like to ask and advise you on what options are best for you. If you would like to know more about what to ask your hair loss specialist, read our list of questions you really want to ask about hair transplant surgery.
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