Planning

By Nick Peplow·Founder and editor

Last reviewed 12 October 2026· How this site is researched

Between deciding a transplant makes sense and seeing the result, there is about a year and a half of practical work, and most of it happens away from the operating chair. You sit through a consultation or two, decide who you trust to do it, get ready for a long day, and then wait out a growth timeline that tests almost everyone's patience. These guides take that work in roughly the order it comes up.

If you have not yet worked out whether a transplant is the right move at all, go back a step to Start Here and who a transplant suits. Everything below assumes the loss has been diagnosed, the medication question has been settled, and you have some idea of your donor supply.

Before you book

Start with the consultation. It covers what a proper hair consultation examines, why a graft number given without measuring your donor area is a guess, what to bring, and the answers that should make you wary.

Choosing a surgeon and clinic is about the question this field avoids, which is who actually holds the instruments. In many clinics the surgeon designs the hairline and technicians do much of the rest. That can work well or badly, and you are entitled to know which model you are buying. The page explains how to judge a clinic, not a shortlist. I do not rank clinics or surgeons.

Preparing for surgery day covers the weeks before, what to arrange at home, a packing list if you are travelling, and what an eight-hour day in a chair under local anaesthetic is actually like.

Money and travel

The cost and travel pages live with the suitability guides. Cost and funding explains per-graft and per-session pricing and why the lifetime cost is mostly medication. Going abroad covers what the price gap buys and how to set up aftercare before you fly.

Afterwards

Recovery and the growth timeline runs from the first night to the month you can fairly judge the result. It covers scabs, swelling, the shed that frightens everyone at week three, and the warning signs worth a call to the clinic. Keeping what you paid for is a separate, longer job, and keeping a transplant covers it.

What this section is not

This is information, not medical advice, and it does not replace your surgeon's instructions. The timelines on these pages are typical ranges for planning. The ones your clinic gives you for your own case override them.