It is very important to take good care of your new transplanted hair in order to get the best possible results; don’t worry, we have collected the best post-op care for hair restoration surgery.
Immediately after Hair Restoration Surgery
You need to spray the transplanted area and the donor area every 20 minutes for the first 12 hours after surgery, use a spray bottle filled with a water solution, and put some towels around your shoulders to let the water drip down, we advise you to use both hands to spray vigorously, which will ensure that you cover all the transplanted and donor area.
Under any circumstances, you should not touch the transplanted hair, after spending the first 12 hours spraying your head, you should sleep for a few hours. In addition, drink as much water as you can during this time and eat healthy food to strengthen your body.
Day 1 to Day 3 after Hair Restoration Surgery
As we told you before, you need to spray your head every 20 to 30 minutes during your waking hours, then you sleep normally at night; use tap water to add to the solution when it is over.
Spraying your transplanted and donor area is important since it prevents any scab formation, in addition to hydrating transplanted grafts to keep them alive through this period.
Day 4 to Day 14 after Hair Restoration Surgery
On day 4, you need to start a tea tree shampoo routine; fill a clean bowl with tepid water, then add 10ml of shampoo and mix them up until they are soapy. After that, you need to pour the solution over the transplanted area and the donor area using a cup, rinse off any soapy solution, and pat it gently with a clean towel. This routine needs to be applied every day from day 4 until day 14 after the procedure.
During this time, you shouldn’t stand under a power shower nor wearing a hat. you shouldn’t also use any product for your hair, applying any towel nor blowing your hair to dry it; you should allow your hair to dry naturally.
Your surgeon will remove your stitches between day 7 and day 10 from your procedure. Patients who have done FUE hair transplants could develop yellow crusting on the transplanted area after 7 to 10 days of surgery. Don’t worry, this will resolve by itself after two weeks. We advise you to start using Regaine after the second week to enhance the growth of your transplanted hair, use it at night only for 6 months, or continuously post the operation.
Day 14 and after Hair Restoration Surgery
At this point, you are allowed to wash your hair normal hair normally, after you finish using the tea tree shampoo, you can return to your regular shampoo, wash your hair using both hands to remove any crusts in this area. During this time, you can get your hair cut, color your hair and continue using hair products like gels and hair sprays. However, we recommend FUT patients use a scissor cut only.
Avoid strenuous activities for 4 weeks post-surgery for FUT, and 2 weeks for FUE patients; in addition, you need to avoid gym, swimming, cycling, tennis, golf, heavy lifting, and intense hill walking to protect your scars from any stretching.
In addition to all of the above, hair transplant patients could experience these things immediately after the surgery:
- Swelling: It could happen in the first 24 to 48 hours after a hair transplant. Swelling could appear in the forehead and travel down towards the eyelids. It could look asymmetrical, and resolve itself after 48 to 72 hours from surgery.
- Bleeding: You may notice some bleeding directly from the donor area; apply pressure with some gauze on those areas for as long as it takes to settle the bleeding.
- Pain: Some patients experience some pain in the donor and the transplanted area; take pain killers medications every 3 hours to relieve the pain.
- Numbness: You may feel some tingling in the recipient area; however, this will resolve by itself after several weeks to months from surgery.
- Infection: As with any other surgery, there is a very slight risk of infection. You must visit the clinic if you notice any signs of infection such as localized redness, or pain.
We should also inform you that the transplanted hair will begin to fall after 2 to 4 weeks from surgery. However, you will notice your hair growth after 6 months of the surgery.
After 9 months of hair transplant, 70% of your hair will appear, they won’t be fully grown until 18 months of the procedure. You could notice some shedding of the native hair postoperatively. However, this is very rare and the fallen hair will always re-grow after some time.
References:
https://hqhairtransplants.com/hair-transplants/post-op-aftercare/
