The angle that the hair is put in determines how much it will stand up from the head. Once the surgeon has made all the hair transplant incisions that lay out the design he has created, the specially trained surgical team steps in. They use his plan to accomplish his goals, and in turn the goals of the patient. For a light-skinned man with light-colored hair, or a dark-skinned man with dark colored hair, it takes a certain amount of hair to cover the baldness. However, a light-skinned man with very dark hair will need much more hair to provide the same amount of coverage. You should figure that the average number of hair transplant grafts needed to cover a balding area is 25% of the original hair that was there. This will give an idea of whether there is hope for a good result that will last for a fair amount of time. You will also need to reveal to the doctor if you have had any hair replacement surgery before. To get an idea of how you will react to having a hair transplant procedure done, the doctor will ask many questions. Do not be discouraged if they all seem to have the same plain haircut in the after pictures. This is often the case when the doctor is trying to be truthful. He will have the patients pose with their hair sans hair styling products like mousse or gel. This is to prevent you from getting a false impression of what a hair transplant can do. You may be given specific guidelines for eating in the weeks leading up to the hair transplant surgery. Excessive drinking may be a problem due to anesthesia and medications you have to take in the course of having your hair transplant done, so you may be asked to refrain from drinking until your head has healed. Some say that hair transplant surgery is similar to a visit to the dentist. This does not seem like a description of something that is pain-free. It certainly does not seem like a relaxing experience. Yet some feel that there is that degree of pain involved. The injections of the local anesthetic into the scalp before hair transplant procedures are definitely painful to some degree.