The Patient's Guide to Hair Restoration - New Hair Institute

Chapter 11
What to Expect Following Surgery
After your hair transplant procedure, you will be given written instructions
that explain in detail how to care for your scalp until your return visit.
Prescriptions for medications may be given at that time (or before the procedure).
Most doctors give their patients an analgesic such as Tylenol with codeine.
Antibiotics may be prescribed to prevent infection. Some doctors give
medication to prevent swelling, although these have limited value. Tranquilizers
and sleeping medications are prescribed to help the patient over the first few
days of healing.
Immediately following surgery, your grafts are held in place by fibrin (the
body’s natural glue) produced by a chemical reaction in serum when the graft
sites are made. The grafts are loosely held in place for the first 2-3 days and
become fully secure at about the eighth day. The hairs that are present in your
new grafts usually fall out during the first 2-6 weeks after the procedure (see
Growth of New Hair section below). At this time, the patient will usually look just
like he did before the transplant. Follicular Unit Transplantation is a relatively
minor surgical procedure; most people recover in several days, and many return
to work right away. Some discomfort generally exists in the donor site for a few
days after the surgery. The discomfort is best managed beyond the first day in
most people with Tylenol (with or without codeine). Athletic activities should be
restricted for 1-2 weeks. Some limited restrictions apply in the second week.
Although we caution patients not to put undue stress on the donor area for
several months, normal activity may be resumed 1-2 weeks after the procedure.
There are several different approaches to post-surgical treatment. The
patient may leave with no bandage after the surgery or he may be given a small
sweatband to keep pressure on the donor area. The recipient area is left open or
lightly covered. This enables the transplanted area to be exposed to the air for
drying and healing.
Patients often worry about the potential visibility of their new grafts. Scabs
that tend to form on the scalp surface should be washed off as they accumulate
for the first few days following the surgery. With the very small sites used in
Follicular Unit Transplantation, no new crusts will form after the second day.
Other than the stubble of transplanted hair and some faint redness, the
transplant should not be visible after the first week.
For those individuals who wash their transplanted grafts well, the full
extent of the transplant looks and feels (in the days following the procedure) just
like a five o’clock shadow. Swelling of the forehead is present in 25% of people
between the third and fifth day, but rarely lasts more than one day. Rarely,
swelling of the eyelids occurs.
Sutures
After three years of research, the physicians of the New Hair Institute have
switched to a totally absorbable suture for most of our hair transplant procedures.