After the Hair Transplant Treatment
Patients are understandably worried about how they will be handled immediately after surgery. The region where the strip is separated from the back of the scalp will not be visible as the overlying hair is shingled over it unless the patient has a very similar haircut. The recipient position in front or on top is the position that would be accessible to others.
The only circumstance that could not be accurate is that the patient has a decent amount of existing hair in the recipient area prior to surgery. In addition, for patients interested in hiding the early stages of the transplant, it is recommended that they encourage their hair to grow further. Many patients wrongly believe that pre-existing hair in the recipient region is shaved during transplantation. The only region that is not shaved is the thin donor strip that is shaved in the back.
The region of the scalp where the hair is implanted will have multiple, single, 1 to 4 stubble hair follicular units with small crusts at the top of each graft protruding from the skin. Such crusts, or miniature scabs, will fall within seven to fourteen days depending on the patient’s rate of healing. The pinkness typically recovers two to six weeks later and is not especially noticeable unless the patient has no pre-existing hair. Even then, it tends to look like a sun-burned place.
When a patient needs to use one of the many topical camouflage agents available to balding men, waiting for crusts to come off is advisable. Similarly, if a patient transitions from a hairpiece to a transplant, the recommendation is not to wear a hairpiece until the crusts have fallen. Some surgeons strongly believe that wearing a hairpiece after a transplant will lead to poor growth. Wearing a hat following surgery is the best way to conceal what’s been done.
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Shower and cleanliness
The patient will start shampooing the first morning after surgery. Many patients are afraid of shampoo, but it is actually really important to clean the area and remove any leftover, dried blood. Patients that do not have a shampoo continue to grow a big, confluent scab that slows down the healing process and makes the area more vulnerable to infection. For the first ten days, shampooing is done in a rather gentle manner. Instead than clean the scalp, the patient gently lathers and pats the scalp. Instead of cleaning the lather under the showerhead, a cup of water is constantly poured over the area before the shampoo is rinsed out.
After shampooing, every surgeon will have his preferred way to treat the recipient region. Some of them will ask the patient to add a number of ointments. Others will ask him to conduct regular soaking and keep the area filled with salt spray. Still some will make the patient do nothing in the area but shampoo. Patients may style their hair however they like, but they are cautioned against running a comb or a brush too rough through their scalp for fear of pulling out grafts until they are healed. We caution against the use of hair sprays, gels, or Rogaine during the first week after transplantation. The recommendation is to use their blow dryers in lower environments, both in terms of heat and power.
This is not usual for a few follicular units to “pop out” the first few days after the operation. If so, the patient can experience relatively fast bleeding. Patients are advised to firmly keep the pressure over the spot with a gauze wrapped around a finger for around 15 minutes. We emphasize that they do not try to re-implant the follicular unit for fear of causing other nearby ones to fall out, reminding them that losing a few would not affect the final results.
Advice after the treatment
In the first two weeks after transplant, patients are advised to stop heavy lifting, jumping or swimming. Walking for exercise is all right. When their job is not intense, most of them will take one or two days off just to make sure they feel comfortable before going back.
A variety of medicines are frequently given after surgery. Steroids such as prednisone can be given to help minimize the frequency and extent of swelling. Antibiotics are used to avoid infection. In the end, pain killers are given for use when required.
In general, patients are happily shocked when it comes to discomfort after the operation. The receiver area is not normally particularly painful at all. The excision site in the back is what has always been tendered for a few days. This is only normal, because it is the same as every other site of surgery. Most patients just don’t use pain medication or only use them for a few days. Patients should note a greater difference with the FUE Hair Transplant Technique.
How to “Camouflage” the treatment
If a patient is interested in trying to conceal the fact that he had a hair transplant during the recurrence period three to five months after the operation, one trick that helps is to change the hair style for around three months. A guy, in particular, may want to cut his hair very short and keep it short while the new hair grows. So, once much of it has evolved, he will let it grow as long as he wants to keep it.
Many people would have forgotten what he looked like when he cut his hair short (i.e. before the transplant grew) so that the change in appearance is generally clarified as he only lets his hair get longer.
It is normal for a patient to want to judge the outcome of his transplant as soon as the hair begins to grow. There are a variety of issues with judgment too early. First of all, some hairs may be slower growers. Sometimes it takes more than five months for these hairs to develop. Second, the denser the hair will look the longer it grows.
It is not rare for a patient to request a second transplant six months after the first one. It is best to wait another six months so that the new hair has grown longer and the patient has become used to styling it, which leads to the realization that there is no need for another transplant.
Occasionally, there are patients who do not believe that the new hair has fully evolved. This happens only when a transplant is done inside the pre-existing hair. There’s no doubt as it grows on the scalp of someone who was absolutely bald. The fact that a man may doubt whether he grew up is an characteristic of his naturalness.
Because the transplant does not begin to grow for three to five months, and because it may come in a little at a time after it has already grown in, the transition may have happened so slowly that the patient does not know what it looked like at the beginning.
For a natural follicular device, there is a very small amount of skin between the hair shafts when the skin is removed. This small amount of skin is absent between the hair shafts of the transplanted follicular unit due to the strain of the graft during healing. The difference can only be detected by very close observation.
