It is not mandatory to shave your head for craniotomy, but you can partially cut your hair and prepare your skin in the surgically exposed area and organize the rest of your hair and take care of it on a daily basis.
Surgical skin preparation is a necessary preoperative preparation for any surgery to prevent postoperative infections as well as to reduce the difficulty of intraoperative operations. Especially for open-heart surgery, skin preparation in the surgical area is quite important. Because hair has more bacteria, during and after surgery, hair and bacteria fall can lead to intracranial infection with serious consequences.
In general, craniotomy often requires shaving the head, otherwise postoperative care will be affected to some extent. However, with the improvement of medical level and nursing technology, doctors often choose to remove part of the hair according to the patient’s wishes, but this situation requires strict attention to post-operative care to prevent hair loss and infection of the wound.