Surgery is only half the work. The first two weeks after a hair transplant decide how many of your newly placed grafts survive, and this is the period patients most often get wrong. The grafts are anchored but not yet fed by your blood supply, so they need protection more than anything else.
Days 1 to 3: leave it alone
Expect crusting around each graft and possibly some forehead swelling as fluid settles. Sleep with your head elevated to reduce it. Do not touch, scratch or pick, and keep the area dry unless your clinic instructs otherwise. Any bleeding should be minor; heavy bleeding warrants a call to your clinic.
Days 4 to 7: gentle washing begins
Most clinics start a careful washing routine now, pouring lukewarm water and using a recommended shampoo with no rubbing. The goal is to soften and remove crusts without dislodging grafts. Let water run over the scalp rather than aiming a shower jet at it.
Days 8 to 14: crusts clear
By the end of the second week the crusts should be gone and the recipient area looks pinker and cleaner. Grafts are becoming more secure, but the area is still healing. Light daily activity is fine; strenuous exercise is not yet.
The mistakes that cost grafts
- Heavy exercise, saunas or swimming too soon, which cause sweating and swelling.
- Alcohol and smoking, which impair the blood supply grafts depend on.
- Direct sun on the healing scalp.
- Wearing tight hats that rub against the grafts.
- Scratching an itchy scalp instead of gently patting it.
Keep your clinic's aftercare sheet somewhere visible and follow it to the letter. If you are ever unsure whether something is normal, ask, the aftercare staff at Rubenhair would far rather answer a small question than see a preventable problem. And once you are healed, tracking regrowth against your pre-op baseline at trichotest.lt gives you an objective way to watch the result come in.
Thinking about hair restoration? Results start with an honest diagnosis. Book a professional hair and scalp analysis at trichotest.lt, then plan your procedure with the experienced surgical team at Rubenhair.