Your Complete Guide to Hair Transplant at UnitedCare

Reservation

The patient chooses the surgery date among available dates. Since we accept 1 patient a day, the next month’s schedules are generally tight in busy seasons.

The reservation is approved when the patient buys the ticket and shares it with the specialist. Therefore the patient is advised to buy the ticket as soon as possible upon determination of the surgery date for reservation confirmation.

Arrival to Istanbul

From the minute you arrive in Istanbul until you leave, all of your transfers are with the Mercedes VIP Van for your comfort and safety.

The chauffeur welcomes you at the main exit holding a sign with your name and leads to the vehicle.

All chauffeurs are licensed with years of experience in megacity traffic.

During your time in Istanbul, the patient never feels alone. The specialist is always at the end of the line answering your questions and making sure everything goes according to the plan.

Operation Day

The chauffeur gets the patient from the hotel and brings him/her to the hospital for the 6-10 hours of hair restoration operation.

The surgeon waits for the patient at the hospital for pre-op examination.

Pre-Op Examination

In the morning, the driver takes the patient to the clinic.

In the meeting with the doctor in the pre-op consultation, the patient expresses his/her wishes and expectations.

The doctor examines the hair and scalp condition and asks questions to get more information about your family genetics, medical history, habits, and lifestyle for personalized treatment.

With the dermatoscope, tricoscopic examination is done to get telogen and miniaturization rates. This check gives a clear idea about donor hair quality and amount.

We just don’t plan to cover bald spots on the scalp but:

• Determine the severity of Androgenic Alopecia
• Figure out how AGA would advance
• Identifying high-risk balding zones in the next 2-3 years.
• Cosmetic appearance with respect to head shape

Only an experienced dermatologist surgeon can do this kind of long-term planning.

The doctor makes the required calculations for optimum coverage. A precise number of grafts planned to be transplanted is determined at this point. We don’t overharvest or deplete your donor area but provide you with the best coverage possible.

In the calculation, 360-degree scanning system is used.

It assesses a patient’s head and hair and outputs 3-D scalp modeling and some crucial data including:

• Each hair’s shaft diameter and caliber
• Hair density in donor area
• The total donor capacity
• The coverage value
• The number of grafts extracted in previous hair transplant surgeries.

So your precious and limited donor hairs are used wisely to cover your bald or thinning zones.

An average person has 120-200 hairs per square cm2, and generally, 1 root has more than a single hair. Therefore, there is no direct relationship between graft count and hair density.

Then, the patient is informed about your scalp condition, hair quality and density, and your donor/recipient areas. As a result of this step, the patient is advised of

• The unique hair density and quality
• The proper integrated treatment
• Expected results and operational forecast

Drawing the Perfect Hairline

The doctor will draw the hairline using a laser-assisted hairline device to set the perfect symmetry between the left and right sides.

Your wishes and surgeons’ artistic abilities will define the desired hairline, considering:

• Forehead muscles
• Face and Bone Structure
• Ethnicity
• Age
• Balding Severity
• Donor Capacity

When the patient approves the hairline, the team moves on to the next step.

Execution

You are accompanied to the operation room, and the team assists you in settling on the surgical chair.

Disinfection

The scalp is disinfected with Baticon to prevent any infection.

Hair cut / Unshaven Transplant

If the patient wants unshaven hair transplantation with Direct Hair Implantation (DHI) technique, hairs are not cut.

Otherwise, the patient gets his haircut.

Local Anesthesia / Sedation by Anesthesiologist

Standard needle-free Dermojet local anesthesia or sedation (by an anesthesiologist) is done concerning the patient’s choice.

The patient has a comfortable operation after the anesthesia starts to take effect. Some patients even sleep afterwards.

Follicle Extraction (2-3 hours)

The smallest possible motorized micro punch is used to release hair roots. 

The key here is finding the smallest diameter punch, which gives minor damage to the donor area and results in the lowest transection rate.

Transection is the amputation of single or multiple hair follicles. Transection rate is % of follicles that are transected during the operation.

The rate depends on the experience of the operator. The least skilled one can have a transection rate between 20-50% meaning almost half of the precious and limited grafts are amputated.

Some clinics use bigger punches to extract grafts to reduce the transection rate without decreasing the surgery speed (speed is essential for “hair mill” clinics), extending the healing period, and leaving scars.

Our clinics’ transection rate is 1-2%, and we extract 98-99% of grafts without damaging them with the tiniest diameter motorized punches.

Also, homogeneous graft extraction is essential. Otherwise, the density in some parts won’t match other regions, and overharvesting may occur in some zones.

Picking the right hairs from the donor zone requires surgical knowledge and experience. The purpose is to ensure the same density of hair to achieve a natural look.

Graft Storage with Bio-Enhancements

Extracted follicles are placed in a petri dish.

In Petri dishes, special solutions called bio-enhancements are used to store grafts.

In a hair transplant, live hairs are taken out from the body and left without glucose and oxygen. 

And they are exposed to external pressure forcing cells to use energy sources to counterbalance to remain intact.

Even if they are implanted very soon, they are not connected to blood vessels for days. So they are susceptible.

Most clinics make graft storage mistakes: They use extracellular storage solutions such as saline or ringer’s lactate and lower the temperature to 4°C, which puts a lot of pressure on live cells.

At UnitedCare, we use intracellular solutions helping cells stay alive for days outside the body. They increase graft survival rates significantly. 

The mix we use to store grafts is the perfect combination of custodial, PRP, and some other solutions.

Grafts are classified based on hair strand counts to achieve the most natural result.

• Single hairs are used to draw the frontal hairline. 
• Doubles and triples are implanted further back.

Lunch Break

After the graft extraction and storage phase, there is time for lunch. The patient is provided with the catered food of the hospital.

The patient is advised to tell any food allergies.

After lunch, the final implantation stage starts.

Implantation (2-4 hours)

This time, the local anesthesia is applied (if you haven’t chosen sedation by the anesthesiologist to recipient zones that are generally hairline and crown.

Extraction and graft storage phases are the same for Sapphire FUE and DHI. But their implantation stages are different.

Sapphire FUE

Compared to DHI, more grafts can be implanted with this technique. 

In regular FUE, cheaper steel blades/scalpels are used to make incisions/cuts, which causes more tissue trauma. In Sapphire FUE, sapphire blades made from expensive gemstones are used. Sapphire blades are known for their sharpness, smoothness, and durability.

Therefore, the Sapphire tip causes fewer wounds in the incision stage (it is used to open micro-channels). Thus, it results in less trauma, swelling, bleeding, pain, and a faster recovery period and increases the likelihood of success compared to the regular FUE.

At UnitedCare, we don’t perform regular FUE.

The micro-incision stage is crucial and where expertise and experience come into play. The transplanted hairs’ angle, depth, and density depend on the incision quality.

The FUE technique is better for patients having severe baldness.

In a single session, up to 5000 grafts can be transplanted.

DHI (Direct Hair Implantation)

Direct Hair Implantation differs from FUE in the implantation stage. In this method, a special implanter pen is used to simultaneously open channels and implant grafts.

The operator can easily control the implant’s angle, direction, and depth using the special pen.

Increased precision makes this technique appealing, even if it is more expensive than FUE.

In addition, the DHI technique has a faster recovery period and can be performed with less bleeding than the FUE method. 

However, it is a more advanced technique and requires more experience.

Up to 3500 grafts can be transplanted in a single session since the surgeon does all graft placements.

Some clinics assert that they can transplant hairs with DHI as much as with FUE.

If any clinics say so, it means 2 or more technicians implant grafts to different areas with different DHI pens simultaneously, which is quite dangerous since the patient has 2 different implant styles, resulting in an unnatural look. The eye can easily detect this difference at first glance.

In addition, unshaven hair transplantation is easier with DHI, and better density can be achieved without harming existing hairs.

PRP Injections

Utilizing the power of your blood is crucial for the success of the restoration surgery.

Besides being used in graft storage solutions, Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is injected right after hair transplant operation to make your hair thicker, stronger, and healthier.

Post-op Meeting

The necessary dressing is done. The donor area is covered with a gauze bandage with an antibiotic cream.

Then, the surgeon explains surgery details, graft count, coverage, etc.

Crucial post-op instructions are described to the patient; what to pay attention to, how to sleep, medication usage, etc.

Grafts are susceptible at this point and need good care.

The patient is provided with a box containing shampoos, post-op spray, and medications.

Airport Transfer and Departure

After the rest day, The patient is transported to the airport to fly home.