You need to see before and after photos. You need a way to contact former patients. If at all possible, you need to be able to visit with patients the doctor has treated so they can show you the results in person. You are not asking too much - it is a major commitment you are making. 4. If your doctor says to try a few hair transplant grafts and then decide, run. She will go over any problems she sees that might come up during the hair transplant procedure. Then, you will be given instructions to make your hair transplant surgery go better. Some of the items on the list might seem like the doctor is interfering with your life, but they are truly necessary if you are to get the best outcome. It is not unusual for itching to occur on areas affected by hair transplant surgery. Yet, it should not last more than a few days. If you use shampoo and wash the hair every day, it helps with the problem. 5. Swelling. Almost everyone who has hair transplant surgery has swelling in the forehead and around the eyes. Some do it by shaving their heads completely. Others take the exact opposite route and have hair transplant surgery. Those who accept their baldness may have a healthy psyche, but they are slightly out of step with the rest of the world. 2. The procedure is permanent. If you decide you do not like the results, it is not as simple as taking off a wig to change your hair. Swelling is normal after hair transplant surgery and can even keep you away from work. Your skull may feel very unusual for weeks. However, the pain of hair transplant cannot actually be compared to a tooth extraction. Hair transplant pain is decidedly less sharp and some do not even feel it as pain at all. They used hair from the fringe, or back and sides of the head, to accomplish this. The doctors were trying to determine whether hair follicles were balding resistant because of where they were located on the head or because of something inherent in the follicles themselves. This would settle the issue of whether hair transplant would work by those methods.