FAQ – Results

You will see photos of our previous patients and may meet with one of them who have had hair restoration performed by Dr. Vafaei. If so, You'll be able to look through his or her hair closely to inspect Dr. Vafaei's hairline recreation.

Hair Restoration Surgery is always performed on an outpatient basis. Most patients return to thier normal acyivities after 2 days.This time is clearly depending upon the patient's occupation and activity level.

Each physician has his or her own methodology and artistic skills but attention to the smallest details and experiences lead to excellent results. Every operation is designed to produce very natural looking results both now and in the future, which often are undetectable to the lay person and are difficult to distinguish from those created by the Nature.

Yes. In the hands of well-trained and experienced physicians, and using newer techniques with smaller grafts, the hair grows in the proper direction with a feathered hairline, and a highly aesthetic result. The hair is your own, and just like all of your hair it grows, can be washed, curled, cleaned, permed and styled as desired. Once the transplants are completed, no special maintenance is required.

No. Remember, the technique redistributes existing, healthy hair. It does not create any new hair. So, it is not possible to provide a “full” head of hair. However, a comparatively small amount of hair transplanted expertly can produce the illusion of substantially more hair than there actually is. It is amazing how often the end result looks as if it really is a “full” head of hair. The results will improve how you look to others and to yourself. It's important that you do not expect your hair to return to 100 percent of its original glory. But the improvements after a hair transplant can be very impressive, and it almost always grows. Realistic expectations are vital to your satisfaction. As with any cosmetic surgery, you must have realistic expectations .Yes, we do replace thousands of hairs, and you will have real, natural hair growing in an area that may once have had little or none. But keep in mind that hair transplantation is also somewhat of a visual trick, designed to look like you have more hair than you really do. Don't expect the same density that you have in the back of your head. During initial visit, your Doctor examine the patient, recognize the underlying cause of your hair loss, and evaluate your goals. You are provided with enough time to ask necessary questions and have a full understanding of the procedure, expected results, and the changes that can be expected over time (eg, how results will change with future hair loss).

We will mark the outline of your new hairline at the beginning of the surgery and you should agree with it. Remember that with time you will get older, but your new hairline is fixed, so it is a must that the new one be appropriate for the rest of your life. If it's placed too low, similar to where it was when you were 20 years old, it will look strange and quite inappropriate when you are over 50.

In most cases, after the hair transplant the hairs grows for about 3-4 weeks and then, fall out of the grafts, and do not regrow for 1-3 months. After this they begin to grow as normal hair. With each session there is more hair, and the resulting appearance is thicker hair.

A typical modern hair transplant session involves 750 to 1,500 grafts, and sometimes more. It's a long, slow process, inserting the grafts one at a time with small forceps. One thousand is a good number for both our technicians and patients — no one gets too tired, and patients are usually impressed with the quantity of hair they ultimately get. Some doctors do more grafts per session, but there is controversy about graft survival with the higher numbers.

Usually it takes three to six months for the hair to grow out, and after that it will grow about half and inch per month which is the same rate as the donor hair. Initial hair quality is usually very thin, softer in texture like baby hair and then it becomes coarser over time. Sometimes the initial hair is curlier, then straightens in about one year. The color of the initial hair may also be darker. It may be lightened by the sun later.

Typically male pattern baldness affects the frontal or vertex area of the scalp, while not affecting the sides and the back of the scalp. The hairs on the back of the head are genetically programmed to be life permanent. The transplanted hair comes from the hair on the back of the head, and will retain all of the characteristics as those hairs, including being practically life long lasting. Therefore, it is reasonably safe to say that the results of hair transplantation will continue to grow for the rest of your life.

Can a portrait painter create a better portrait with a house painter's equipment i.e. by using a roller rather than a brush? The use of an artist's brush is analogous to the use of very small grafts. High-quality hair transplants require fine instruments and delicate, small grafts. These grafts must be distributed in a way that balances the facial features, hair characteristics, and goals of the individual patient. Large grafts simply can't offer sufficient flexibility to allow this "customizing" and their unnaturally high density doesn't take into account the progressive nature of hair loss, placing the patient at great risk of having an unnatural appearance in the future.

This is a statement commonly made by doctors who lack sufficient experience, or technique, in performing large sessions. The amount of hair needed for the average large session is well within the safe limits of what can be moved, provided that the procedure is done properly. It is the experience and judgment of the surgeon that will insure that the amount of hair that is harvested from the donor area is safe and appropriate.

No. People who make such comments don't understand the oxygenation process in the transplanted grafts or the anatomy of the scalp's circulatory system. The issue is one of oxygenation, not blood supply. By their very size, large grafts over 2 mm, will result in oxygen deprivation to the hair located in their center. This has been proven over and over again by observing the phenomenon called donuting (the loss of hair follicles in the center of larger grafts). In contrast, oxygen diffuses easily into grafts 1 mm or less in size. The blood supply of the scalp is among the richest in the entire body, enabling it to support the growth of large numbers of grafts, provided that they are kept very small. The Follicular Transplantation procedure performed at the Iran Hair Center insures that these implants are kept to their optimum size.

No! Hair is a limited resource. It is used up regardless of how it is moved and scalp reductions are just another method of moving hair around. Scalp reductions move hair to the crown at the expense of the front of the scalp, the cosmetically more important area. As a result of the reduction, the hair in the sides and back of the scalp is reduced in both density and looseness (This is why the procedure is appropriately called a "reduction"). The hair on the sides and back of the head thins considerably through the process and this, together with the tighter scalp, makes it more difficult to move the hair to the cosmetically important areas such as the frontal hairline and front part of the scalp. After a scalp reduction, the surgeon may never be able to harvest enough hair to complete the transplant. In addition, the scalp reduction can cause problems such a scarring, a thin scalp, altered hair direction, and a host of other unwanted effects. No wonder that the use of this procedure has dropped so dramatically in recent years!

No! Lasers are used by some hair transplant doctors to make the recipient sites. The laser works by using a beam of very high energy to burn a hole in the skin. But, regardless of how precise the laser, it still works by destroying tissue i.e. by making a hole. The beauty of Follicular Unit Transplantation is that the tiny follicular unit grafts can fit into very small sites that are made with a needle poke rather than by an instrument that removes healthy tissue. In Follicular Unit Transplantation, the blood vessel rich tissue that it is to receive the grafts does not need to be destroyed, so the growth is maximized.

No! All hair transplantation procedures move hair around to make you look better, but none create more hair. However, if performed properly and on the right person, it can make an incredible improvement in your appearance.