Reception

You’re greeted by name. Quick paperwork: consent form review, photographic consent, payment confirmation if not yet completed. You’re given a food menu for the day’s lunch (the procedure is several hours and you’ll need a break).

Tone: calm, unhurried

Pre-op consultation

You sit down with your surgeon — not a salesperson, not a coordinator. Final review of your hair history, your goals, your Norwood stage, your donor density. Anything that has changed since your consultation gets discussed now.

Tone: clinical, reassuring

Hairline design

Your surgeon draws your new hairline directly on your scalp with a sterile marker. This is the most important 15 minutes of your day. Look in the mirror. Speak up. The line gets adjusted until you’re happy.

Tone: collaborative

Pre-op photographs

Standardised photos from five angles. These are matched against post-op photos at 7 days, 3 months, and 12 months. We use the same lighting and same angles every time.

Shaving the donor

This is the part most patients describe as the scariest. We shave the donor area — usually the back and sides of your head — to a uniform 1mm length. If you’ve never had your head this short, it’s a surprise. Within a week the hair regrows enough to be unnoticeable.

Tone: brief, practical

Re-marking and final photos

With the donor shaved, your surgeon re-confirms the hairline plan and takes one more set of photographs. Now you’re ready for the medical part.

Local anaesthetic

Local anaesthetic is administered to the donor and recipient zones. This is the only painful part of the day — a series of injections, finished within 5–10 minutes. After this you feel pressure and sensation but no pain.

Tone: honest — this part stings

FUE extraction

Your surgeon and the surgical team extract follicular units one by one from the donor area. You’re lying on your front, headphones in, watching whatever you want on the in-room screen. Most patients are surprised how comfortable this is.

Tone: long but easy

Lunch break

You move from the surgical chair to a recovery room. You eat the lunch you chose this morning. Most patients take photos here (“Eden the dog has been known to make appearances in patient TikToks”). You stretch, walk around, message family.

Tone: relaxed

Graft placement

You move back to the surgical chair, this time on your back. The team places each graft into the channels your surgeon prepared. This is the slowest and most technical part of the day — angle, depth, and density all decided graft-by-graft.

Tone: meticulous, slow

Final review

Surgery is finished. Your surgeon reviews the result with you in the mirror. You’ll look striking — the new hairline is visible immediately, though it’ll go through several phases of change before the final result at month 12.

Aftercare briefing

A 20-minute walk-through of what to do for the next 14 days — sleeping position, washing protocol, what to eat, what to avoid, how to recognise something going wrong. You also get a printed instruction sheet, not just a verbal briefing.

Tone: thorough

Aftercare pack and discharge

You’re given your leather aftercare bag (saline spray, shampoo, foam, sleep pillow, instructions). You’re walked to your car or taxi. Surgery is over.