gnarly and lots of men wear caps then. There is some pain the first couple of weeks. After that, the "recovery" is waiting for the new hair to take root and start filling in. Some men lose it all but it comes back. My son still has very short hair, but it is clearly filling in in places he did not have it before. It's been about 6 1/2 months for him. He had 5100 follicles transplanted from side and back of head and total cost (including airfare) was about $3200-$3300.