What to do (and what NOT to do) after Hair Transplant

Okay, the surgery is over. Now let’s go home and grow some hair! Now, I’m sure your doctor gave some detailed instructions. Of course one reason for the written instructions, is you were pretty groggy during your hair transplant procedure and probably don’t remember any details the doctors mentioned during the surgery.

Since, these instructions are designed to maximize success of your follicular unit transplant, you may want to review your instructions several time and maybe commit them to memory.

Remember, there are two areas of concern: the donor area and the recipient area. After the donor strip of scalp removal, the donor area was most likely sutured together. The recipient area is the scalp area of hair follicle implantation. After the first couple of days, the donor area is the most likely source of recurring pain.

For this reason, your doctor will prescribe enough pain medication for a couple of days. After the initial pain subsides Extra Strength Tylenol may be all that is necessary to curb the pain.

As part of your instructions, your doctor included instructions on washing your hair. Many patients believe washing may loosen the implanted hair follicles. Nothing could be farther from the truth; especially if the cleansing is done per your doctor’s instructions, the chances of loosening the grafts are minimal. Moreover, shampooing gently will remove normal oils, residual blood and dirt from your scalp. This will also reduce the chances of infections.

After your Follicular Unit Transplant, your instructions will most likely include keeping the scalp moistened with humectants. One of the most commonly used is GraftCyte or a common saline solution. For the donor area, this also tends to reduce the itching normally occurring during the healing process.

Hair Transplants - What’s coming next?

Did anyone tell you that a majority of the transplanted hairs would fall out?

As a matter of fact, they may also fall out with the hair bulbs attached. This is a normal occurrence and should not cause alarm. In general, these hairs will fall out within 3-4 weeks, and they return as very fine hairs three to six months later.

As they continue to grow, the hairs gain strength or diameter and are nearly indistinguishable from native hair after about a year or eighteen months.

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