There are risks involved in any surgical procedure or treatment, and we provide every opportunity for you to ask questions to fully understand the possible risks and side effects of hair restoration surgery. While rare, these are the possible events or complications that may occur:

Scarring: Every time an incision is made in the human body, a scar will occur, although every effort will be made to make the scar as inconspicuous as possible. Superficial crusting, pinkness or redness of the incision area may occur, but these effects are usually temporary. Rarely, some area of skin around the suture edges may be lost and this will cause deep crusting which will take longer to heal. A stretched, widened scar is possible, as is a thickened or raised scar (hypertrophic/keloid). Significant scarring is more likely to occur in people who have had a history of the above type of scarring, or who have had previous transplants taken from the donor area.

Anesthesia Reactions: Local anesthetics (lidocaine, bupivacaine) with adrenaline (epinephrine) may have effects on many of the body’s organ systems, including the heart. Such effects may include allergic reactions, irregular heartbeats or, in unusual circumstances, heart attack. Such risks are uncommon with surgical procedures performed under local anesthesia. Patients on the type of heart or blood pressure medication called beta blockers may be particularly sensitive to epinephrine. Some patients may experience a temporary lightheaded episode as a nervous reaction to injections. This reaction may cause a drop in blood pressure and lead to fainting. This condition is easily and relatively quickly treated. If you are on any heart or blood pressure medication, you must inform Contour prior to surgery.

Allergic Reactions: There may be unusual, unexpected or allergic responses to drugs, medications, suture materials or foods prescribed or used during the surgical procedure. It’s important for Contour to be informed of any problem that you or a member of your family have had with reactions to drugs, as well as what medications you have taken in the past six months, including over-the-counter drugs (especially aspirin) and street drugs.

Folliculitis: This is an uncommon problem in which hair follicles become infected with bacteria. If it occurs, it’s usually in the postoperative period. Symptoms include redness around the grafts, pustules around emerging hairs, and itching. There may be some associated loss of hair in the involved follicles but, since the problem is localized to individual hair follicles, the loss is rarely significant from a cosmetic standpoint. Treatment consists of oral antibiotics that may be given for an extended period.

Hair Loss: There may be temporary hair loss in the back of the scalp surrounding where the donor strip was removed. This hair generally will grow back. Less commonly, there may be permanent hair loss in the skin adjacent to the surgical incision. In the transplanted area, you may experience shedding of your existing hair following the surgery (a condition called telogen effluvium). If this hair is at or near the end of its normal life span, it may not return. Because genetic balding is a continuous process, you may continue to lose more hair over time. If this occurs, a subsequent hair transplant procedure may be desired.

Hair Texture Changes: When your new hair begins to grow, it may be more kinked or wavier than your original hair. Over time, the hair generally resumes its normal character, but it’s possible that hair texture changes may persist.

Failure of Transplanted Hair to Grow: As in all surgical procedures, results cannot be guaranteed. It’s possible that some or all of the transplanted hair may fail to grow. Every effort will be made to give you the maximum yield from your transplanted hair.

Numbness and Pain: Numbness of the scalp may occur due to necessary cutting of fine nerve fibers in the skin. This is expected to gradually disappear over several months, but it’s possible that all sensation may not return. Rarely, sensory nerve injury may occur, resulting in long-term or possibly permanent numbness and/or pain in the scalp.

Smoking: Smoking causes constriction of blood vessels and decreased blood flow to the scalp, mainly due to nicotine. The carbon monoxide in smoke decreases the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. These factors may contribute to poor wound healing after a hair transplant and can increase the chance of a wound infection and scarring. Smoking may also contribute to poor hair growth. The deleterious effects of smoking wear off slowly when one abstains, so smoking puts a person at risk of poor healing even after smoking is stopped for weeks or even months.