Category: Post-Operative

Hello,

I wanted to ask a question about scabs. I am 33 year old African American male and I had surgery done for 1000 grafts about 15 days ago. After the surgery, I was told not to wash them until the next day. I was told I was “poppy” which mean, I bled alot when the surgery was being performed. These forms little round beads of blood when I left, but I could see my hair transplants nicely.

When I washed my head, I was careful not to move them, so I just dabbed them and rinsed. Over the next week, these turned into scabs.

Now, my scabs are falling off when I take a shower, or when I lightly move them, with no bleeding. However, what I am noticing is there is hair stuck on them. I am so afraid that they are taking with them the hair follicles.

Is there a way I can find out instead of waiting 3 months. I still have some scabs remaining and it is exactly 2 weeks since I had surgery.

How can I be sure that my anchors are still in place.

Any ideas, thoughts appreciated.
Thank you

Everyone experiences hair in the scabs when they come off. The key to good management is to get the scabs off immediately after the surgery. Now you should wait until the scabs come off with gentle shampooing of your hair. The hair you see in the scabs should not be the grafts, unless the grafts were not seated correctly on the time of the surgery. Talk to your surgeon about proper aftercare.

I’ve never had blood pressure before, but about 4 weeks after my mega-session it shot up (mostly 144/90 range) along with a light elevation in blood sugar (110 avg.). This all coincided with a family move to the other coast and switching jobs. This went on for about a month before things died down again. Do you think I injured my grafts? Also, would it be deterimental to take just a few (5 or less) Inederol/Propanal to help with calming down during this period?

I do not believe high blood pressure should impact hair growth or a hair transplant. Please follow up with your doctor and get your blood pressure under control.

Hello Doctor,
I have had three hair transplants totaling to about 5,400 grafts. I am about 16 months into my third transplant that i had in March 2010. I have observed that i still see baby like fine hair, as they seem when transplanted hair start to grow, still in some of my transplanted areas of the scalp. And i don’t think these are my miniaturized native hair as alot of them are grafts of two, three or single.

I am not sure if this is happening because i have had that many surgeries and there is lack of blood circulation for the hair to grow properly or the grafts were not transplanted properly by my doctor. I tried talk to my doctor about it, but he kept saying that they are probably my native hair. I am not sure what i can do to confirm this.

I generally want to see the patient 8 months after the procedure to get an idea what it looks like. By that time, I usually see 80+% of the growth that was transplanted. I wouldn’t expect to see blood supply problems.

Since you’re already 16 months in and not fully satisfied, then you should get another opinion from a doctor (in person exam). Hopefully you have detailed before photos to compare to your hair now.

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About four weeks after getting a large hair transplant I had a bit of a major shock to my business which caused a good deal of panic. A lot of adrenalin rushes, flight/fright, etc., off and on for a few weeks. Pretty constant. The worst has passed, but I am wondering if these adrenalin surges hurt my new implanted grafts’ growth chances. I know it is a vasoconstrictor, but assume that the grafts were secure and alive after 10 days or so.

I don’t have a definitive answer, but I would guess that your emotional stress would have no significant impact on your hair transplants particularly since it occurred a month after your surgery. It’s going to be a case of wait and see.

Hello Doctor,
I have undergone HT 2 weeks back with 2 sessions of a total of 5000 grafts done. Till date, I don’t see a single transplanted hair being fallen out. Instead, I see them growing in length. Is this something to be worried?

I’m wondering why would you worry if you are seeing something positive like growth? You must have had a great donor density to get out 5,000 grafts in two sessions.

In general, most people see what appears to be graft growth in the first 2-3 weeks (it is actually the hair in the graft being pushed out of the scalp). As this is actually the shedding process of the hair which is going into telogen, most of the transplanted hairs will fall out in one month. Either way, follow up with your doctor as he/she can better assess your post operative course and progress.

Snippet from the article:

The clinic who treated Wayne Rooney when he had his hair transplant have admitted that developing grey hair can be a common short-term side-effect of the procedure. The Manchester United and England star reportedly spent £30,000 to get a full head of hair earlier this year in a bid to cure his baldness.

However, while it appears to have reversed his receding hairline, the footballer’s new thatch appeared to be slightly discoloured when he took to the field for Manchester United this weekend.

Read the rest — Wayne Rooney’s doctors say going grey is common side-effect of his £30,000 hair transplant

Graying often starts on the sides and sometimes the back of the head, so I would not be surprised to see it turn up in the transplanted area before the surrounding hair, because the source hair could often gray sooner. Since his sideburns and the back of the head are also gray, I suspect that the transplant had little to do with the color change.

This man is only 25 years old, so there’s probably some early genetic graying since it’s showing up in the non-transplanted region. Maybe he was dyeing it before the transplant and stopped following his surgery. I really don’t know.

Regarding graying be a common side effect — I have not seen my patients experience this temporary graying after a hair transplant that the doctor in the article talks about. Transplanted hair will grow and gray just like the rest of your hair.