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Patient Experience

A Day at our Centre

We aim to make your day with us as relaxing and enjoyable as possible.

M, a 45 year old sales professional:

The Day of My Hair Transplant

“The whole day was a pretty amazing experience – due to the wonderful medical team at HTC. They were just so professional, so dedicated, caring and skilled.

Morning: I arrived for my hair transplant just after 7 a.m. The medical team was just great – they made me feel comfortable immediately. They started by taking photos, and then the doctor came in to review everything we’d talked about before – and most importantly, where and how my transplanted hair would be placed.

They checked my blood pressure and did some other medical checks. Everyone was very attentive, and I knew I was in really skilled hands and that went a long way to help me feel relaxed. They offered me some medication to help me relax further, but I felt I didn’t need it, so we were ready to get started.

Ready to Begin: I was given an anesthetic to numb the back of my head. First my donor area was prepared, and then the surgeon and his team removed the strip of hair from the back of my head. Truthfully I felt absolutely nothing during this. Then came the sutures to stitch up the area where they’d taken the hair from. This was the same, I felt nothing. The doctor said that the suture line would disappear pretty quickly (and in fact, 5 months later, even my wife had trouble finding it).

The great part about the doctor and nurses was they really took the time to tell me exactly what they were doing throughout the whole process. They made sure I was completely comfortable, you know, had some juice or break when I wanted, things like that.

Getting the Grafts: The next step was for the medical team to take the thin strips of hair follicles and cut them up into small hair grafts to put on ice in petri dishes. My grafts were in groupings of one to three hairs and I was taken into the lab to see them.

I had another local anesthetic, and then the surgeon and the senior nurse prepared the area on my head where the grafts would go in by making minute incisions.

Lunch: My partner was invited to share lunch with me, compliments of the clinic.

Hair Grafting Begins: The team started the next part of the procedure and I settled in to watch a movie. The nurses carefully placed each hair graft into the tiny incisions, which I felt none of. They were meticulous about getting the hair at the right angle and the right place so that the new hair would be exactly like natural growing hair.

When All The Hair Was Transplanted: The team applied a special dressing, which I kept on for just one night. Then the doctor went over what I needed to do over the next few days to take care of my new hair. He also gave me his home number in case I had any concerns in the middle of the night and couldn’t reach the clinic, which I really appreciated.

I was given a take home Care Package for free, with special shampoo to use until my stitches came out, some relaxants to help me sleep that night, and plenty of painkillers in case I needed them, even a pillow cover so I didn’t ruin the wife’s best pillowcase! They also explained the duplicate receipts for my income tax. I also had a choice of a baseball hat, toque or a bandana to cover my bandage for the trip home – compliments of the clinic.

Post Transplant: The next day I decided to take the clinic up on their offer of a wash out service. They removed my dressing, washed and carefully dried my hair and gave me the confidence that everything was looking good.

Linda kept in touch a lot over the first week, making sure everything was going okay and to see if I had any questions. One thing I noticed was that since I had a lot of work done, I sure did experience swelling. It didn’t hurt, but just like she said, it didn’t last, but I looked a bit scary for three days. (If I’d followed the icing instructions it probably wouldn’t have been so bad.)

Even though I felt fine, I didn’t go back to work until my stitches were removed a week later.

Ongoing Follow-up Care: It was great to see everyone at HTC again when I went back for my follow-up a few months later. They had truly done an amazing job. My hair started sprouting at about three months, and made looking in the mirror fun instead of depressing, to see every day it getting thicker. But the best part? I’ve got this hair for life!