Hi…can I wear a hat after my hair transplant? Cause i work under the sun! I know u cant get sun for 2 or 3 months. thank you
Absolutely, yes. In fact, I give all of my patients a free baseball hat. It can be worn within the first day.
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I have a one inch wide scar from hair transplants. What can I do to treat this scar? Can you help me?
There are genetic conditions that make some people prone to scar stretching. Diseases like Marfan syndrome and the worst of them all, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, produce wound healing problems. “Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a group of rare genetic disorders caused by a defect in collagen synthesis. Depending on the individual mutation, the severity of the disease can vary from mild to life-threatening. There is no known cure. Treatment is supportive. produce hypermobility of joints and may also be symptomatic of a serious medical condition that can impact the blood vessels of the body.” (source: Wikipedia)
The most severe of the conditions that stretch the skin has an incidence of 1 in 10,000 people. But everyone is not either black or white on the stretching scale. Some have less stretch than the most extreme cases, but more than the normal patient. With a 1 inch size scar, I would think that your scar could be caused by genetic factors, and if so, there is no surgeon who can make it better and you run the risk of making it even worse. The risk of worsening of a one inch scar is about 1:10,000 people, but in your case, I suspect that you may have some healing problem that could put you at a higher risk for scar stretching. The other factors that may have caused the stretch include the number of surgeries and the techniques that contributed to the scars that are now plaguing you. Without examining you, I can not be sure. Actually, even with examining you, there will be risks on the genetic side that I will not be able to anticipate.
I have had several HT procedures. The latest was in March 06 and had HT’s placed on the frontal part of my scalp. They have not yet began growing. I know this because I can’t see any new hairs growing on my hairline. How long does it take for hair to grow after you have had three to four in that particular area? Can I do or take something to start making them grow? I looked on the Hasson and Wong website and they recommend doing Scalp Laxity exercises to give skin more flexibility prior to surgury. If you do these a few months after you have a HT in prep for another HT will this cause the scar to stretch? Will this improve blood flow to the scar for possible better HT’s into the scar in the future?
Thank you Dr.
Hair transplants always take up to 5 or 6 months to start growing. Previous hair transplants will not affect the start-up phase. Some doctors believe that minoxidil helps get the hair growing faster. I have tried minoxidil on one side of the head on a number of patients and did not see a difference in the rate of growth.
There is an exercise to increase the scalp laxity. It generally will take a month to get some gain from such exercises. Scalp exercises after the first 3-4 months of a previous surgery should not cause the scars to increase in size, nor will it increase the blood supply.
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Dear Dr. Rassman,
Does a young man (mid twenties) who has been on Propecia for a few years run a high risk of permanent shock loss in the recipient area after an HT surgery? Also, will the HT speed up the normal balding process?
Thanks
Usually, Propecia will protect a man against shock hair loss and acceleration of your hair loss, but alas that is a general rule and not everyone follows that rule. It is about 90+% predictable. Those at greatest risk for acceleration of hair loss are the young men who have very active miniaturization going on and are showing fast-track balding in process.
I first had 2500 grafts transplanted in Oct of 2005. I thought this went well and my clinic ran a special [per graft price] if I did the next surgury in July, 2006. Exactly 9 months after my first surgery. I had 3000 grafts this time and it went OK. I started using minoxidal 2% five days after surgury per post op instructions. I feel like I had some shock loss about 3 to 4 weeks after surgury. Now I am at 7 weeks post op. My question is this: Since I was stage 6 baldness, Is it possible that new hair from my first surgury could get shocked out? Will it grow back? Also my post op instructions say that I can discontinue minoxidil after 6 weeks. What do you think about what I have told you? Thanks
You should direct these questions to you doctor. Shock hair loss for the second surgery 9 months after the first surgery is very, very unusual. I do not recommend minoxidil right after surgery unless you were on it prior to the surgery. Usually, shock hair loss reverses within 2-5 months after it happens.
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Dear Doctor Rassman;
Thank you for your advice and for taking our questions. I had 2700 FUs done this past February. I’m very happy with the results. I’m thinking about doing a follow up surgery to thicken the front area some more around mid December. I’m afraid about all of this talk about Shock loss. I’m 48 years old, male, and in very good health. I’ve been taking Propecia since January of this year and have noticed some improvement on the crown area. Please let me know your Opinion on this matter of Shock loss. I’m a bit confuzed and I don’t want to worsen my frontal area.
Thank you and Kind Regards.
I would doubt that you would experience shock loss because:
Don’t worry, be happy… and don’t be confused. Go for it!
I had a hair transplant earlier in february of this year for 5005 grafts. Covering the front and crown. Its been 6 1/2 months and I’m wondering if the seemingly looking baby hairs will eventually straighten out. What textural changes will I see and when?. Thank you…
Transplanted hairs grow out in waves — some probably at 3 months, some at 4 months, some at 5 months, and so on. Hair cycling is the cause of the delayed growth start, since your hairs are coming out of their cycle at different points in time. Each hair that was transplanted was in a different part of its growing cycle and after a transplant it starts growing again, picking up possibly where it was in its growing cycle before it was transplanted. Most people confuse hair shaft thickness with the new density as it appears. Could you be referring to the overall thickness of your hair (which would reflect the numbers of hairs), and not necessarily the thickness of each shaft?
I tell my patients to wait out a full 8 months and then you should see 80-90% of the growth to some reasonable styling length. If there is a shaft thickness issue with these new hairs, get them measured by your doctor and compared to the hair from the donor area and you will have answers to your question about ‘baby fine hair’. There should not be baby fine hair there by the 8th month.
How long should a patient wait after a hair transplant to use hair dye or bleach? Will either of these products speed up hair loss or kill the new grafts?
You can dye or bleach your hair after all of the scabs are gone (usually 2 weeks at most), provided that you are clear.
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I’m two weeks post op and I’m almost positive that I haven’t lost a single transplanted hair yet. I’m hoping that these little guys are going to stay in my head and continue to grow out with the rest of my hair. Is it possible to that the shedding stage can be avoided sometimes and the transplants grow out? If shedding is inevitable I’d like to speed up the process. Would it be beneficial to pluck the small guys so they can start their regret stage sooner? Thanks again for all your help!
The transplanted grafts often stay in for 2-4 weeks. If they grow past 3/8 inch and keep on growing, they will most likely stay. That happens in about 5% of patients. Leave them alone, ignore them and just wait it out.
Dear Dr. Rassman:
I’m very interested in an HT to fill in my hair line but I am concerned about the redness in the recipient area after the procedure. Is there anything I can do to speed up the healing? I’ve heard using Aloe Vera can help as well some specific items such Graftcyte or Bioton spray. What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks very much and thanks for writing this blog…..it’s a great source of info for me.
Aloe vera has been known to have good healing properties. I had a great number of these plants growing in my garden in Hawaii and the leaves can be broken. One rubs the broken leaf on your wound or whatever you want to cure and according to local Hawaii folk lure, it cures everything!
I do not recommend its use but I do not see any harm by its use either. In my practice I often give a shampoo containing copper-peptide to decrease the redness after a hair transplant.
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