Is Fue Hair Transplant Painful? The hair transplantation operation emerged in the 1950s and has become remarkably sophisticated over the years since then. Hair transplant operations do not necessitate a real surgery and so they are pretty much easier to heal from. One example of such hair transplant operations is the FUE hair transplant procedure. FUE hair transplant procedure, also known as follicular unit extraction procedure, works with extracting healthy hair follicles from the donor area and placing them to the area of the scalp that is bald or sparse in hair. As hair transplant operation offers a natural, good looking, and permanent solution to hair loss problem, it draws the interest of many people who are willing to look way better than they already do.
Is Fue Hair Transplant Painful?
If you are considering undergoing an FUE hair transplant operation, it is most likely that you have done some research, watched videos, and maybe come across many notorious images on the Internet of the painful-looking, red dotted area of the donor area and the scabs along the hairline that are linked with an FUE hair transplant. However painful and irritating may such pictures and videos seem at first, it is an almost pain-free procedure thanks to some of the techniques performed by specialists. Despite the fact that one can have an overall opinion about the procedure and visualize the notions of FUE hair transplantation operation, what it really feels like to undergo such an operation can only be completely understood by the ones who experienced it.
The FUE hair transplant operation is performed on an outpatient basis and can typically last from four to eight hours. Although the operation is minimally-invasive and quite convenient, as it is a surgical procedure feeling of discomfort can be expected. But still, it is regarded as the most comfortable hair transplant method when compared to others. The only alternative that has similar effects with this method is the FUT procedure.
Operation Difficult
It is very difficult to pinpoint an exact pain level during and after the FUE hair transplant operation because every person is different from one another. As it is, some people may have a higher pain threshold than others. But irrespective of how much pain you can endure, your specialists should take some measures to make sure that your operation is as painless as possible. How much pain you will feel also depends on the number of grafts that you have had. That is to say, you are likely to experience more pain if you have had more grafts transplanted, and your healing period may take a little longer than usual.
As stated above, the pain level ranges depending on a lot of different factors but below there are some tips put together that will provide you a clear understanding of the pain you are to anticipate from an FUE hair transplant operation, whether it may hurt in a particular case, and the length of time it usually lasts.
Before the operation takes place, the patient will be given local anesthesia. It is generally applied via needle injection. The needles used are very thin and fine needle, almost the width of a human hair which causes minor irritation in the skin. The patient may feel a pain similar to the one experienced in dental procedures. Even though the needle is quite small, it is very effective. Soon after the anesthesia is spread widely throughout the space, it distracts your brain from receiving pain signals and numbs the scalp. After this stage, you will not feel any kind of pain during the FUE hair transplant operation.
Pain-Free Anesthesia
Making patients feel comfortable and relaxed plays a crucial role and must be the main priority of any specialist because the brain’s perception of pain highly increases under stressful circumstances. Along with local anesthesia, a mixture of pain-relieving medications and sedatives is given to the patients to make sure to reduce any kind of discomfort patients may experience and help them relax even further during the process.
Also, such techniques as music, temperature control, and aromatherapy are used to make patients feel comfortable. In addition to all these, there are other things that make the operation pain-free. The specialist may use a micromotor that has tiny cylindrical needles made of high-quality surgical steel and rotates at a low speed during the extraction process.
Also, renewal of the such cylindrical needles used during the extraction process is also vital because the punch may become blunt gradually due to excessive usage. The surgeon may also make use of special sapphire blades instead of steel blades while making incisions and having the wound-dressings, which will be done shortly after the FUE hair transplant operation as well as the following day, carried out by health-care professionals, are other important factors that can highly affect the overall comfort of the operation.
Fue Hair Transplant Operation
If you properly follow post-operation procedure instructions for the first few weeks after the FUE hair transplant operation, you will minimize any kind of irritation and discomfort that you may encounter. Irrespective of the level of pain you experience, it may be easily handled thanks to the simple pain killers such as paracetamol and ibuprofen. Most people fear that the healing process will be a lot painful and last longer than expected. However, most of the patients who have undergone FUE hair transplant operations are pretty surprised to find that after day two, they do not feel pain anymore and do not even need to take any further medications.
As with most of the patients, the healing period often ranges from four to seven days, and after this period, you can back to your normal life. However, if you experience high levels of discomfort despite taking pain killers after FUE hair transplant operation, or if you notice your scalp is not properly healing anyhow, it is strictly advised to contact your surgeon as soon as possible to find out whether there are other underlying reasons that cause this much pain. Is Fue Hair Transplant Painful?
