Shave graft area or don't shave graft area prior to surgery ?

[proteinpowder]

I'm doing my rounds of initial consults. Some have said that you don't need to shave your head at all. Others have said for best results, the graft area needs to be shaved. 

It seems those who recommend the latter have a bit more prestige . 

 

What is the forums take on this?

[makehairgreatagain]

It's really going to depend on your doctors preference. If they say it will make their job easier by asking you to shave, you should definitely do it to help yield a better result.

[TorontoMan]

Shave 

[Gatsby]

Anything that could potentially affect the outcome of surgery negatively should always be scrapped in my opinion. Anything that makes the surgeon’s job easier is a bonus. So shaving the head to me would be a must. 

[deeznuts]

Technically you don't need to, but you want to put yourself in the situation where you have the greatest likelihood to succeed. So I'd say shave because if it means eating a bit of discomfort then it's whatever

[Dr. Neil Verma]

As a doctor we offer No Shave hair transplant often to patients because shaving the entire head can be very stressful.  Yes it is more challenging for us but we want the patient to have a stress free experience.  As long as the native hair is not too dense we can wet the hair to move it as needed to work on the recipient region.  Having no shave helps us see the natural flow angle and direction of the hair as we proceed with transplantation.  Doing a No Shave approach also means that patients are often happy with their hair immediately post op as they still have their hairstyle that they started with.  A full shave procedure definitely is easier and takes less time to perform but ultimately we want happy patients so willing to put in the work to make that happen.  

[HappyMan2021]

@Dr. Neil Verma Hi Dr. Verma, if no shave helps see the natrual angle and direction, how come other people say shave actually helps more with this?

[Dr. Neil Verma]

When the hair is shaved down to the skin you can see the patterned direction of the hair.  The length of the hair does help see the natural flow easier ie. how it parts, which way it moves etc.  The reality is that no shave is a new technique so new doctors learn how to do it.  The procedure type recommended is typically the one the Doctor is most comfortable performing and used to doing day in/day out.  

[Dr. Neil Verma]

Also if there is a lot of existing native hair its harder area to work in for the doctor to get to the scalp.  Transplant thousands of hairs is tiring, tedious and time consuming so need to factor all these things into deciding if a no shave is reasonable and feasible.  

[Future Hair Doc]

In the end, it's up to patients. Having undergone 2 FUTs myself, I understand wanting not to shave. I opted to shave. As everyone else has said, it'll be a much more seamless procedure with trimming/shaving. You want to minimize the margin of error as much as possible. 

[Melvin- Admin]

Definitely shave

[Rbs]

On a related note; I am planning to shave a few months before to kinda ease into the new look. And shave maybe 2-3 weeks before surgery (Which should be OK)

 

How soon can you shave (Or close trip) AFTER the surgery?

 

Plan is to maintain the look 5-6 months till the grafts stabilize...