After hair transplantation, care is an important issue that patients undergoing hair transplant should know and follow religiously.
All patients who have had a hair transplant with a banding technique usually leave our hair transplant center with a bandage around their head. The bandage is only used to support the newly closed donor wound on the back of the scalp. Patients are prescribed a prescription for pain and anti-inflammatory drugs in the first few days after the operation. On the first night after a hair transplant, the patient should be careful not to rub or scratch the transplanted area. It is recommended that all patients be calm for the first few days and avoid strenuous exercise.
These patients will need to come back for a medical examination and wash their hair the day after surgery. During this first visit, the dressing is removed and the donor’s wound and transplanted hair are evaluated. The donor and recipient areas should be washed very carefully while teaching the patient at home on the second to fourth day after hair transplant. Shampoo after hair transplant should be done twice a day using a special method to minimize the risk of graft displacement. Patients ask if they can not wash their hair in the first few days to avoid damaging the grafts. The answer is no. “Washing the hair is an important step in hair transplant care that ensures normal growth of transplanted hair follicle grafts.
We have certain restrictions on the patient’s activity after a hair transplant. Some clinics recommend very strict rules for physical activity. It is best for the patient to maintain normal daily activities with some minor restrictions. Activities that increase the tension of the wound edges in the donor area should be avoided in the first four weeks after the operation. These activities are: extreme bending of the neck and lifting heavy weights.
Hair transplant patients should return to the hair transplant clinic on the tenth day after the hair transplant to remove the clips (in patients who have had strip surgery and the donor is closed with metal clips ) and reassess the donor and recipient area. For patients whose donor is closed with absorbable sutures, it is recommended that an exam be performed within ten days to assess the health of the recipient and the donor area. This includes patients with FUE, eyebrow hair transplant, hair transplant, or body hair transplant. All follow-up exams are included in the initial cost of the hair transplant and patients are not billed for any follow-up exams.
Patients who have had hair restoration surgery should avoid direct sunlight on the recipient area for about six months after a follicular unit transplant. Extreme, direct sunlight can damage growing grafts. Contact with the sun can also cause skin color to change.
The last follow-up appointment for hair transplant care is between ten and eleven months after the hair transplant when the transplanted hair has reached its final thickness and length. In the last session, Dr. Parsa Mohebi evaluated the transplanted hair transplants and assessed the final size and condition of the donor’s scar. This visit is a good time for patients who want to consider repeated surgery to increase hair density or to cover areas that were not fully covered by the first hair transplant due to limited scalp softness. or an enlarged bald area. Not all patients planning repeat surgery need to wait that long and repeat surgery can be done any time after the 5th month after the first hair transplant.
Hair restoration patients should be considered necessary for a variety of reasons in addition to the above visits. A good patient-physician relationship is an important part of successful hair restoration procedures in American hair restoration clinics.
Dr. Parsa Mohebi is the Medical Director of US Hair Restoration. Her hair transplant goal is to naturally use the most advanced surgical approach to hair.