Question:
I have been smoking for going on 20 years now. I have tried dozens of times to quit with no real success. I desperately want a hair transplant so I think that might be just the motivation to get me to quit. How soon before my transplant do I need to quit smoking and how does smoking affect the hair transplant?
Answer:
Obviously, the further before the hair transplant that you can quit smoking the better. However, we insist that everybody quit smoking for at least one to two weeks before the hair transplant and for one to two weeks after the hair transplant. If you are a seriously heavy smoker and if you should smoke during the hair transplant, certainly the possibility of having a poor take of the hair follicles can happen and you would be getting an unsatisfactory result.
Posted by Richard Galitz, MD, FACS
