Hair transplant can improve your appearance and self-confidence. But after a hair transplant surgery, taking good care of it is an essential part of achieving the desired results. Newly implanted hair grafts are still fragile and need good nurturing to take root and any carelessness on your part can destroy them.
Hair transplant is intimidating for a lot of people. We at Rejoice Clinic will provide you with detailed instructions on how to take care of the newly transplanted hair at home.
Let’s take a quick walkthrough of the surgery for a better understanding of post-operation care:
1 . Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT): This is a traditional method of surgery. Here the surgeon will remove a strip of skin from the back of the head using a scalpel.
Then the surgeon extracts follicular units from it and implants them to the bald areas to achieve natural-looking hair growth.
2 . Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE): This is the latest method where hair follicles are extracted directly from the back of the head by a punching method.
These hair follicles are then placed in the incisions made in the bald area.
These transplants are done under anaesthesia after sterilizing your scalp.
The follicles are placed in such a way that you will achieve a natural look. It takes around 11 to 12 months for the final result to be visible.
However, this will depend on how you treat your scalp and transplanted hair after the surgery so that you can achieve healthy hair growth.
Now, let’s move on to the main objective of this blog and list down post-operation care that will help hair regrowth:
After an FUE procedure, you can return to work after two days. It takes several days to recover in the FUT procedure.
Side-effects can affect your healing process and lead to complications if you do not ensure good and proactive after-care.
Side-effects could include the following:
- Bleeding, infection, swelling of the scalp.
- Bruising around the eyes.
- A crusty scalp, numbness or lack of sensation on the treated areas of the scalp.
- Itching,
- Folliculitis,
- Shock loss which is a sudden but typically a temporary loss of the transplanted hair and unnatural-looking tufts of hair.
A proper after-care will help prevent some of the uncommon symptoms.
After post-op, the patient leaves the clinic with a bandaged head.
1 . Do not touch the transplanted hair at all.
2 . Saline spray: A saline spray will be provided to you to spray the transplanted area every 30 minutes to an hour for the first 12 hours. The solution should be sprayed along with mineral or sterilized water.
This will prevent scab formation and keep your scalp hydrated and nourished.
Ensure that the transplanted area is wet, so spray it vigorously for five days.
3 . Stay hydrated and eat well: Eat simple and healthy food and drink enough water.
4 . Rest: Do not drive or exert yourself with any physical activities. Take complete rest for the first two days. This will help reduce the swelling.
Avoid strenuous physical activity for four weeks post-op like exercises, swimming, cycling, tennis, golf, heavy-weight lifting and trekking.
5 . Swelling: Apply ice packs in areas where there is swelling.
6 . Prescribed Pain Medicines: Take your medications like antibiotics or pain-killer properly.
7 . Sleep: You should ideally lie down and rest to avoid swelling on the face. The patient can sleep with head and upper body propped up on several pillows for the first 3 to 4 days.
8 . Dressing removal: The donor area dressing can be removed by the patient and cleaned with betadine scrub and a topical antibiotic every morning and evening.
9 . Avoid sun/Apply sunscreen: Stay out of the sun for the first two days and later use the cap given by the doctor or any soft cap.
Also, apply sunscreen as per doctor’s advice as sun protection is a must for one month at least, to avoid pigmentation.
10 . Washing hair: From 4 to 14 days, you can start head wash as per specific instructions using 10ml of the prescribed shampoo diluted with lukewarm water. Otherwise, you can also use baby shampoo or a medicated shampoo.
You should wash your hair twice daily over the next 5 to 6 days; this will help slowly remove scabs and crusts. You can resume regular shower once all the scabs are gone.
Do not use towels, or blow-dryers, allow your hair to dry naturally. Take care not to disturb the scalp area as the grafts will be disturbed.
After day 14, with doctor’s advice, you can return to your regular hair washing regimen.
11 . Stitches: The surgeon will remove the stitches within 7-10 days. Be sure to attend all the follow-up sessions with him to keep a look-out for infections.
12 . Hair regrowth creams/solution: The doctor might advise you to start applying Rogaine, minoxidil or Propecia after day 14 to enhance your hair growth. Use it only at night on the transplanted area, usually for about six months or continuously post-operation.
Do not use any other hair product such as hair spray or gels.
The complete hair growth happens in 11 to 12 months, till then follow your doctor’s advice. If you have any question, you can call or visit the clinic.