Hair Transplant surgery or hair restoration, is a medical procdure that involves moving hair from an area that has normal or adequate hair density to another area that is thin on hair or has no hair. The procedure can be done using several techniques, that are broadly classified into FUT (Follicular Unit Transplantation), FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) or Robotic Hair Restoration. 

The procedure is done under a local anaesthetic. The duration of the procedure depends on the number of the follicles needed. It can range from 3 hours to 8 hours. 

There are 3 stages to a hair transplant procedure:

1. Extraction or the hair harvest- this is the process of extracting the hair from the donor site ie the site where there is excess hair that can be safely be removed to be transplanted somewhere else. 
2. Incision making- this is the process of planning the new hair site and then making small incisions in the scalp to implant the hairs into. 
3. Implantation- this is the stage of putting the new hairs in their new home. The hairs are normally placed one by one as follicular units. 

During planning a hair transplant procedure, the surgeon would estimate the number of hairs needed for the procedure before hand. The aim is to achieve around 40 hairs per cm squared. Some follicles have 1 hairs growing out of them, most have 2, some have 3 and rarely have 4 hairs growing per follicle. 

FUE is now the commonest method to preform hair transplants. It can be done manually, power-assisted or robotically. To harvest the hair the donor site needs to be shaved to a grade 0 or 1. This will grow back in  1 week. 

Small holes will be left behind and hese heal extremely well in most cases to small tiny, near invisible, scars. Usually a dressing is needed only for 24 hours and this can be removed then. The pain is very manageable with oral medications.