FAQs

With poor artistic or surgical techniques, this can be true. Modern hair transplant techniques in the hands of an expert like Dr. Shyam produce results that are undetectable to others, even the person cutting your hair.

Medical treatment works so well that it is considered the foundation of hair loss treatments even if you are a candidate for hair transplant surgery. Dr. Shyam has treated thousands of men and women since 2015, and he sees the benefits daily. He has been on these same treatments since then, and it has saved his hair. Talk to him about the real chances of side effects. He sees them only rarely.

Hair transplant costs vary from state to state and provider to provider. The costs can vary by up to 400% across the country. In general, a hair transplant costs between $6,000-$18,000. Many practices charge per graft but this can lead to many unethical practices such as chopping grafts and over-harvesting which can result in significant scarring. We believe that quality matters over quantity and the cost is based on the area of the scalp required to be filled. For smaller areas, the cost is around $9000 while larger areas will range around $18000. Our pricing is very transparent and you will receive your estimate after your personalized consultation with Dr. Shyam.

It generally takes less than 24 hours to recover from hair transplant surgery. By the day after your surgery, you should be able to resume most daily activities, although it is recommended that you hold off on strenuous activities for a week to prevent any accidental injury and reduce the risk of bleeding. You can return to work on the day following surgery, although many people choose to take a few days off following the procedure. Since we offer transplants on Saturday, patients have the weekend to recover and be at work the next week. You can expect to have some tiny scabbing in the transplanted area for up to a week, will have no bandages, and can wash your hair on the day following surgery. You can wear a hat or cap immediately after surgery if you wish to conceal any scabs.

Yes, so long as you are using a familiar product and have not developed any irritation or allergic reaction to it. Some hair or beard dyes containing paraphenylenediamene (PPD) can cause an itching on the scalp or other remote areas of the body. A safe approach is to color your hair at least a week before surgery and wait 2-3 weeks after surgery for your next treatment.

You will be able to wash the hair with regular shampoo on the 3rd day after surgery. For the first two days we encourage patients to spray the area gently with saline (provided on the day of surgery) and gently pour warm water over the grafts. Patients may also lay a washcloth on the scalp to soften the spray from the shower head.

Yes, it is very important that you continue the rest of your medications prior to surgery. This is especially true for blood pressure medications which will help minimize bleeding during surgery. If you are taking blood thinners electively (such as a baby aspirin) and your primary doctor is comfortable with you stopping it then these are the only drugs you would stop. We also urge patients to stop all supplements, especially vitamin E, fish oil, krill oil, garlic, gingko, or ginseng which may thin the blood. Even if your supplement is not on this list, it is not worth taking the chance that it may have unknown effects on the success of your surgery.

Dr. Shyam occasionally transplants men in their twenties. Candidacy depends on the existing pattern of hair loss, patient expectations, and family history. Medications are generally a good starting point for men this age. If the area that can be transplanted will look good in both the long and the short run, regardless of future hair loss, you may be a candidate. Women can undergo hair transplantation at nearly any age. This is because for most women the frontal hairline stays intact. It does not usually move backwards as a male hairline can.

Patients who smoke are encouraged to discontinue cigarettes preferably for 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after surgery. Nicotine can reduce local blood supply that is crucial for normal healing after surgery.

The definition of a megasession varies, anywhere from 2000-6000 follicular unit grafts performed in a single session. This term is frequently used for marketing purposes to attract patients who want to achieve dramatic results in a single session. It is important to be aware that graft survival drops off dramatically once they have been harvested for 8 or more hours. For this reason, Dr. Shyam suggests that those patients requiring a large number of grafts should consider multiple procedures rather than one lengthy procedure. The limitations of these procedures is that with prolonged time out of the body (8 or more hours) the survival of the grafts can dramatically drop off. Patients who are in need of more than 2000 grafts should consider having staged procedures over 1-2 years, or plan for a two-day procedure, in which half the grafts are harvested and transplanted each day. This way, the other follicular units can remain in the body with normal blood supply and survival until they are ready to be placed. ARTAS represents a robotic technology used to perform FUE (follicular unit extraction) technique. It represents an interesting and exciting technology that allows a computer to angle and harvest each follicular unit individually from the donor scalp. Manual extraction is still required to remove the grafts. Also, there is considerable risk of transection (damage to the grafts) if the robot is not aligned properly. It is unclear how widely this machine will be adopted. Presently its size, expense, and technical limitations are factors being considered by many hair transplant surgeons.