The first part, and the one most people getting hair transplant surgery are interested in, is the hairs. There should be one to four full hair follicles in the unit and one or two fine hairs as well. There are sebaceous glands in the follicular unit which produce oil. The follicular unit is a living unit with muscle, nerves and blood vessels that are all tiny enough to fit into this small package. Otherwise, your hair will end up looking out of balance. 5. Do not get involved with a doctor who does not listen. A good doctor knows how important the hair transplant is to you. He will listen to your questions about hair transplant and provide intelligent answers. He will also try to find out what your goals are to see if they are realistic. If not, then at least you will have allowed your skin to heal. You may be given specific guidelines for eating in the weeks leading up to the hair transplant surgery. Excessive drinking may be a problem due to anesthesia and medications you have to take in the course of having your hair transplant done, so you may be asked to refrain from drinking until your head has healed. Before you are approved for a hair transplant procedure, the doctor will have to sign off on you. You must be deemed appropriate for the surgery. It may seem that everyone would be approved, but there are several reasons why you may not be. The doctor will explore both the hair loss you have suffered, and the hair growth you still have. In fact, when getting a hair transplant, the longer your hair is, the better it often works. It hides the sutures and eventually hides any scars you might have. You will be told to use your normal shampoo before the hair transplant surgery. No special scalp treatment will be needed. Do not worry about any scraggly hair on top of your head. It was during this decade that doctors had begun to try moving balding-proof hair follicles to the balding areas of patients' heads. They used hair from the fringe, or back and sides of the head, to accomplish this. The doctors were trying to determine whether hair follicles were balding resistant because of where they were located on the head or because of something inherent in the follicles themselves.