What to Expect After a Hair Transplant

The recipient area can look pink or red, while both donor and recipient sites may feel tight, tender, itchy, or mildly swollen. Small crusts commonly form around transplanted hairs. These changes should settle rather than steadily intensify.

Some transplanted hair shafts fall out during early healing. This does not necessarily mean the follicles have been lost; visible growth follows the follicle’s natural cycle and is gradual. The clinic should explain when it expects to assess growth and density.

Use the spray, shampoo, and washing method supplied by your transplant team. Avoid scratching, picking crusts, rubbing with a towel, or directing strong shower pressure onto new grafts. Sleep in the position recommended by the clinic if swelling is present.

Take prescribed medicines exactly as directed. Check with the treating clinician before restarting strenuous exercise, swimming, close-fitting headwear, hair products, or treatments that touch the scalp. Shade the healing area from strong sun without pressing on it.

Contact the transplant clinic promptly for worsening pain, spreading redness or warmth, pus, a bad smell, fever, persistent bleeding, rapidly increasing swelling, or darkening skin around the grafts. Seek urgent help for breathing difficulty, facial or throat swelling, fainting, or a severe medicine reaction.

A graft that is accidentally rubbed or struck should be discussed with the clinic, especially if there is fresh bleeding. Do not attempt to replace tissue or apply an unapproved antiseptic.

Ask when and how to wash your scalp, which products and medicines to use, when you may return to work and exercise, and what level of shedding is expected. Also confirm how to reach the clinic outside normal hours and when photographs or an examination are needed.