Am I allowed to cover my hair during surgery?

I ask because I embarrassingly have no hair, prety bald with patches, very self conscious about it, can i cover my head with something during surgery that would still be clean and safe for surgery please?

Talk to your doc - s/he probably has a good rapport with the anesthesia folks. My guess is that they can give you one of those surgical shower cap things. I wasn't given any restrictions on hair, but was told no finger nail polish so they could monitor oxygen better.

I have had a slew of surgeries over the past 4 years- they always put something sort of like a gauze showercap on me. Every time. I doubt highly they will let you were a personal item on the head, as it is a contamination risk and they take that super seriously. If it helps at all, the staff are professionals. The loss of hair thing will not even phase them. It will be over before you know it!

And remember, they're gonna see you naked! lol I doubt they'll pay a bit of attention to your hair, but I agree I doubt they'll let you wear a personal head covering, but you can get one of those surgical show cap thingys, I'm sure.

Probably not .... avoiding a life threatening infection is more important to them than you wanting to avoid embarrassment. But I know how you feel ... I had to remove my dental bridge and show off my 2 missing teeth.

My hair is always covered with a"surgical"cap before any surgery. if having bold head bothers you - wear something on your head and ask them to remove that for you just before surgery.

but - they'll see you naked and they have to inset catheter - so worrying about them seeing my head would be the last thing on my mind.

If you have "patches" of hair - have you consider shaving your head completely a 2 days before surgery? I think bold is beautiful. Men or woman...There is something super cute about shaved head...

FYI: one of my friend shaved her head because her cousin had chemo and a few of the family members did in support. She looked great... all bumpy head.. her eyes were sparkly though... after she shaved her head - the eyes were the focal point...

Thank you :) And I am thinking of doing it , my hair there is not much of it lol . they dont do cathetors unless needed here :) and thank you for the advice il ask for a surgical cap going in tuesday :)

I worked in the OR for years you will be given a thin surgical hat to wear. However you can call and ask the surgery dept if they will allow you to wear a prebought surgical bonnet like the scrub nurses wear. These are normally made of fabric and are often warmer. You can find them on eBay or amazon but do ask before you buy.

thanks everyone fr your answers i will ask for a surgical cap :)

I just had my sleeve done last Thursday. I have extra long hair, and wondered what they would do about it. To be honest I still have no clue! I was given a "relaxer" med just before being wheeled to the OR. I remember starting down the hall, and the next thing I remember is starting to wake in recovery!

They could have put a clown wig on me, painted funny faces on my tummy, and put monster claws on my toes. I am none the wiser. The good news is that I had minimal pain. Nausea well that is a whole separate post.

What I believe is that most surgical teams are very focused on eliminating risk of infection, doing the procedure as efficiently as possible to reduce bleeding and other risks, and using their true skills as craftspeople to make the result as minimal as possible to speed recovery. When they are doing all of that they really don't have time or attention to think about how our hair, nails, or body looks.

You should ask what your teams process is, that way you can knock another little worry gremlin off your shoulder. There will be lots of the little worry buggers before you are done, but they aren't hard to get rid of... just a little information and they evaporate.

Best of luck.