Think Twice Before the Hair Transplant Surgery: There Might Be Some Reasons Not to Get the Operation



Hair transplant surgery might be seen as a perfect solution for you when you suffer from excessive hair loss. However, it has some disadvantages and some side effects that might change your mind about the operation.

Before making your last decision about the hair transplant surgery, you should know whether or not you are a good candidate for a successful hair transplant surgery.

For example, the amount of hair loss or the type of hair together with your age might be an obstacle to why you should not get hair transplant surgery. It is better to be between the aged of 25 and 65 not to get disappointed after the procedure.

You should think twice and have the best decision for yourself in the end!



What Is Waiting for You After the Hair Transplant Surgery?


A hair transplantation process does not directly fill your dreams. Unlike your imagination, you might suffer from many things as side effects of hair transplant surgery. While it might take a couple of days for some, it might take weeks for some others. ou should prepare yourself and be ready in advance!

  • You might experience itchiness as one of the most common side effects of hair transplant surgery. It is possible because of a lot of tiny wounds in your hair scalp happened during the operation

Although it is the way how to implant hair, it might be sometimes inevitable to make you feel a sense of itching.

Especially for the first three days, you might experience it but you need not scratch the transplanted area for sure as it is needed to avoid any removing of the scabs making the healing process longer and longer. 

You might even have experienced bleeding if you do not follow this advice. 



  • Swelling on your hair scalp is the next one you might tend to experience after the hair transplant surgery. another common side effect of hair transplant surgery. Starting from the second or the third day after the hair transplant operation, you can have swelling but please just be aware of the fact that this problem is a part of the healing process. 

Only when it continues for more than a week, you need to inform your doctor and consult with them to decide what to do.

Alternatively, you can avoid to do a physical activity for the first two weeks such as swimming and cardio and keep the head position properly when sleeping so that you can reduce the pain coming from the swelling.



  • It is also possible to experience numbness. It is okay to have it temporary but when it takes longer like two or three weeks, you should inform your doctor.

Not only the site of the transplant but also at the donor site might have numbness depending on your own condition together with tingling, itchiness, and burning. 

It might continue for two or three more weeks, and you just have to be patient enough to handle this process.

  • Having cysts is also possible after the hair transplantation due to infection on your hair scalp in the transplanted area. 

It might penetrate deeply if the graft area is infected, baldy. This condition might be harmful since it has a big potential to block or limit the growth of your hair. Therefore, it is better to inform your doctor since cysts are risky to block or limit the regrowth of hair.



  • As one of the rare possible side effects, the scarring might be the one you experience due to stripping plantation transplants and sometimes due to follicular unit transplants for some of the candidates of 15 percent of patients handling wide scars after the hair transplant operation. 
  • Hiccups might be possible after the hair transplant surgery without knowing the real reasons. You can use chlorpromazine if your doctor allows you to use it.


You can have local nerve irritation or some food materials in the daily diet linked to gastric dilatation as a result of hiccups. You should observe it, and inform your doctor if it continues more than a week.

  • You might experience bleeding as one of the steps in the healing time period. Not only in the donor site but it is also possible to have bleeding in the graft area during around the two weeks. 

When it is too much, you can take some certain medications to make your blood thin. However, you should not use any chemical product to clean the bleeding part and keep the area very clean. You can use warm water to clean when it is needed.



  • Not every time a hair transplant surgery means a certain solution for hair loss. In other words, you can still experience hair loss after the surgery. 

It is called shock hair loss as a temporary condition lasting between two and eight weeks after the operation.

It might happen in the donor area and the recipient area that is the common one. 

This unmotivating process can be temporary and sometimes even permanent. It is significant to say that this condition might vary from patient to patient but still you should consider all twice before making your last decision.



Some Disadvantages of Hair Transplant Surgery Might Change Your Mind:


  • Hair transplant surgery is happened by taking hair from the hair scalp as a donor. It is the usual way. However, it is possible to use hair from your beard and breast as donor resources. It might sound a good advantage at first sight but it might harm you for the future. I suggest you use this method as the last option after consulting with your doctor. 
  • Not only the time during the operation and preoperative care but also post-operative care should be followed carefully for your good.

Your doctor must inform you about the process and the possible side effects of the surgery. You should follow the guide in order to reduce the risks.

For instance, it is important not to use too hot and too cold water to clean your hair. It might be even harmful to wash your hair for the first days after your surgery. You should follow the steps that are determined together with your doctor.



  • Choosing the doctor and the hair clinic is the first and most important step since their experience or inexperience condition might be a reason for the failure of the operation.

When you have some low technical opportunities and a lack of professions, it is possible to fail. It is hard to believe but there are some hair clinics not informing the patients about the post-care operation. This condition might have an influence on your psychological condition and mood reducing the healing process after the surgery.

  • A hair transplant does not give a guarantee not to have hair loss anymore. The possibility of drying graft might be real while trimming the graft when shifting of graft from one place to another and during placement of the graft which affects your mood negatively.


  • During the recovery period, your psychological condition might get affected negatively. Sometimes you need to have alternative support to fix your mood about your new appearance and especially the existing hair loss problem after the hair transplant period combined with small bumps on the hair scalp.
  • The costs of the hair transplant operation cannot be afforded by many patients. You should think twice to undergo the operation since there is no guarantee not to have the same hair loss problem afterward. When you become sure about it will be worth for you, you can start the process so that you will not waste your many for a fail hair transplant surgery.


Are You a Good Candidate for Hair Transplant Surgery?


Unlike the common assumption, not everyone is suitable for a hair transplant operation. There are some certain conditions following the failure of hair transplantation. You should check all carefully together with your doctor not to have any disappointed after the surgery.

  • Age is an important criterion to get a successful hair transplant operation. I know that there is nobody to object you when you go to ask for a hair transplant surgery.

However, there is a certain age range for the best hair transplant process. Especially for those who are between the age of 25 and 65, the hair transplantation process would go smoothly. 

As the most ideal age period, between 25 and 65, some patients younger than 25 might have some difficulty if they have this surgery. For example, it is possible to have some premature hair loss after hair loss surgery.

For those patients who are over the age of 65, they are also under the risk groups. To illustrate, they can have very thin hair because of the failure of hair transplant surgery. 

Despite everything, this does not mean that you can never have a successful hair transplant surgery if you are not between the age of 25 and 65. In other words, it is still possible to be qualified for the hair transplant operation for those who are over the age of 65 and under the age of 25. You just need to take advice from your doctor to check your own condition to see if it is suitable or not.

  • Unless the type of hair loss is okay for hair transplant surgery, you could be a bad candidate for the procedure. 


Needless to say, there are many types of hair loss related to genetics, some medications, typical diseases, and some external factors. You might suffer from hair loss partially or as total baldness. If your problem is linked to pattern baldness, it means you are a good patient who tends to have a successful hair transplant surgery.

Generally, the reasons coming from genetic factors are good for taking good donor hair that will be extracted during the operation. 

If your problem is called alopecia or other types of hair loss, you might have some poor hair follicles leading not a successful hair transplant hair transplantation surgery.

The role of your doctor is quite a critic when determining the reasons and the type of hair loss so that it can be understandable if you are a good candidate for hair loss or not.

  • The classification of your hair loss is the next one to fully grasp if you are a good candidate for hair transplant surgery. The amount of hair loss could be determined by two main factors.

The former one is the severity of hair loss quality and the later one is the quantity of the donor’s hair. Those two criteria should be determined very well by your doctor and the surgery team since they all are related to the hair transplantation success and failure.

When you have a good supply of healthy hair follicles, for instance, it is more possible to have a successful hair transplantation procedure for you.



  • Not only the health of your hair transplantation area and the amount of your hair loss but also your own health and medical history are important when it comes to determining the success of the hair transplant surgery.

The patient suffering from hair loss should have a good health condition so that the healing process would go better. Especially the immune system should work properly since it is related to helps the risk of complications 

When you have a good immune system, it will surely help and support you for a quick healing process after the hair transplant surgery.

What could you do to prevent any possible risk of hair transplant surgery? It is always needed not to hide any piece of information about your medical history from your doctor.

Before undergoing the procedure, they should know everything about your health so that it would be easier to take a precaution.



Especially for some health conditions, it is vital such as taking blood thinners since it might affect your result.

  • What about your hair type? It is the last factor determining your condition whether or not you are suitable for hair transplant surgery.

If you are planning for robotic hair transplantation, for instance, your hair has to be thick. Hence, it can provide better coverage for the affected areas after the hair transplant surgery. 

Actually, if you have curly hair, you might tend to a failure of hair transplantation surgery if you follow a robotic hair transplant because it is hard to find the direction of the hair follicle with this advance technology.

Savaş Ateş

I'm a hair loss expert. The picture was taken 10 years ago :) I have been losing my hair. So I started to learn everything about hair loss and hair transplants. I contacted a lot of hair transplant doctors. We shared our experiences. I'm writing blog posts for people who have the potential of losing their hair. I give some tips about hair transplants and medical issues too.

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