One of the important steps before starting a hair transplant is shaving the hair.
However, not everyone – especially those who suffer from hairline recession or general thinning – is in favor of shaving.
That’s why many patients before coming to Turkey ask a common question: "Do you have to shave your head for a hair transplant in Turkey?"
The general answer to this question is YES, but there are always some exceptions.
Let’s see together what are these exceptions and the available options.
Which hair transplant cases can be done without shaving in Turkey?
As we mentioned above shaving is a very essential step in a hair transplant.
Normally the head is fully shaved, but in some instances, some patients prefer to get an unshaven hair transplant for personal reasons.
In such cases, hair transplant clinics in Turkey offer their clients different options.
For example, if someone is only suffering from a receding hairline the clinic will offer a partial shave.
You may be wondering what a partial shave is and how it’s done.
Partially shaving the head for a hair transplant in Turkey is done by only shaving the donor area and the recipient area if necessary.
Sometimes even the recipient area is not shaved given that the hairline is excessively receding.
In such cases, the remaining hair will not be shaved.
Here is an example of what a partially-shaved hair transplant looks like:
Partially-shaved hair transplant in Turkey
Another example would be those who are suffering from a general thinning of the hair.
In this case, the clinic will recommend the DHI hair transplant technique which does not require shaving of the recipient area. This means that only the donor area will be shaved.
But if someone is suffering from an advanced level of baldness then a full shave is needed.
Is shaving the donor area in Turkey necessary?
Most of the hair transplant clinics in Turkey would shave the donor area to prepare it for graft extraction.
But there are some patients who do not prefer shaving the donor area as well.
Unfortunately, this could be very hard and it might end up damaging the hair follicles.
Although some clinics in Turkey give their client’s the option of getting what they call "The Long Hair Transplant" – this is when the hair is kept long and not shaved – but it is not a preferred option.
What most patients are not fully aware of is that the hair grafts could be damaged during the extraction if the hair is not shaved.
And it's not just that, extracting the hair grafts without shaving the hair makes it very difficult for the team to remove the grafts and lengthens the duration of the surgery.
From here we can understand that shaving the donor region is a must if you wish to obtain great results.
Can women get a hair transplant in Turkey without shaving?
A huge percentage of women are not in favor of shaving their hair when getting a hair transplant.
We understand how hard it can be for a woman to decide to shave her hair.
But it depends on the level of hair loss and whether it can be done without shaving or not.
For ladies who only want to lower the hairline, only the donor area will be shaved.
But they shouldn’t worry a lot about shaving the donor area as it can be covered with untouched hair. You can see an example in the case below. 
Covering the donor area after a female hair transplant However, if a woman suffers from an advanced level of hair loss and has large bald patches then a complete shave will be required.
