What is healing like after a hair transplant?
Hair transplant surgery is a pretty extensive procedure which can take much of a full day to
perform an example is called FUT or follicular unit transplantation also known as strip surgery
since a strip of hair-bearing skin is harvested from the back of the scalp for the purpose of
obtaining hair grafts to be implanted typically in the front of the scalp another method is called
FUE or follicular unit extraction where instead of harvesting a strip of skin individual grafts
are harvested with circular blades called punches many people with hair loss believe that their
only option is to have a hair transplant and they are concerned about specific issues such as the
healing process as well as the amount of hair growth to expect afterwards I’ll discuss some concepts
related to healing and how we help people in our practice who are considering having a hair transplant
or have already had one I’m Dr Amiya Prasad I’m a Diplomate of the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery
and a Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic and reconstructive surgeon I’ve been in practice in
New York City and Long Island for over 25 years I’ve performed surgical hair transplants throughout
my career as I mentioned earlier hair transplant surgery is a long procedure unfortunately the hard
reality of hair transplant surgery is that there can be a significantly high percentage of hairs
transplanted that don’t grow resulting in frustration for the patient and the surgeon to address
this and other challenges in 2011 I used a wound healing material called extracellular matrix by the
company ACell to enhance graft survival and donor area healing we observed that a year later that
hair grafts and the donor area benefited from the application of extracellular matrix in addition
even of greater significance was that native hair that was not transplanted had increased in number
and grew in thicker inspired by this remarkable event I worked over several years to create a
non-surgical treatment for male and female pattern hair loss called TrichoStem Hair Regeneration
over the many years of helping people from around the world with TrichoStem Hair Regeneration we’ve
helped many people before and after their surgical hair transplants with our system interestingly
we’ve helped many people whose hair transplants were performed many years ago actually improved their
appearance with regrowth of transplanted hairs which appeared to have stopped growing so let’s
take a step back before discussing how to help healing after a hair transplant and ask a simple question
and that question is is this the best time for you to undergo a hair transplant timing is very
important since the number of grafts regardless of technique is fairly limited even if you were to
have several surgeries in my practice I find that most people considering a hair transplant have
thinning hair as such there is a strong argument for maximizing your scalp coverage with a non-surgical
treatment before having a hair transplant simply stated every hair that naturally grows in and is
thicker is a hair that doesn’t have to be transplanted many of my patients considering hair transplant
are younger and are very motivated to have surgery I explained to them that I see many people who have
had multiple surgeries when they were young and as they got older and lost their existing native
hair their transplanted hair didn’t look very good and they had very little scalp coverage it’s
simply logical to see how much of your existing hair can be optimized before having surgery i also
see a lot of people who come into me after they recently had a hair transplant typically they’ve had
an FUE procedure and they’re looking online for information about the possibility of losing hair grafts
after surgery and how to deal with scabs generally speaking after 48 to 72 hours grafts are well
situated and are not likely to dislodge this doesn’t mean that they will necessarily grow basic hygiene
regimens are usually part of the post-operative care but separately in terms of helping people optimize
their hair transplant results we have helped a lot of people soon after they had surgery with TrichoStem
Hair Regeneration the rationale behind the strategy is that our treatment can potentially optimize the
environment for hair graft healing as well as reactivate native hairs to grow and thinning hairs to thicken
this can be significant benefit since FUE procedures yield can be limited due to graft transection during
harvesting and challenges with graft survival specific to FUE surgery as mentioned earlier we see a lot of
people who have had hair transplants years ago and even decades ago many of these people cannot undergo
any more transplantation and have lost most if not all of their native hair this leaves them with very
sparse looking transplanted hair I’ve helped many of these people with TrichoStem Hair Regeneration it’s
been my observation that a lot of transplanted hairs seem to stop growing yet the hair follicle is still
viable which is evident after regrowth post or after TrichoStem Hair Regeneration treatment we effectively
established in 2011 that hair transplant healing can be enhanced with regenerative technology since that
time we’ve established a new way to approach hair loss without surgery in addition to helping people who’ve
recently or not so recently undergone hair transplant surgery hair transplant surgery has limitations in
spite of many new techniques introduced the donor area can only yield so many grafts healing can be optimized
after surgery but in my opinion hair loss management is more than getting a hair transplant and hoping for
the best whether you plan to or already have had a hair transplant I find that developing a strategy which
leverages the benefits of our non-surgical treatment with TrichoStem Hair Regeneration and other medical
management options we’re able to help our patients look their best for the long term I hope you found this
information helpful and thank you for your question