What to expect after the FUE

Below are the post-op guidelines. Conditions and symptoms can vary considerably, so can their duration. Some patients may see results after only 4-5 months after the surgery, while others may see results in 10-12 months. Growth is dependent upon your natural biological predisposition, unfortunately My Hair Clinic has no control over your natural hair growth.

During the operation and the following days

Some patients may develop swelling on and around the forehead and face, in some cases it can be quite severe. It’s not a sign of an infection and nor is it painful. It usually wears off in 2-4 days. Severe swelling is very rare, though.
Most patients will feel no pain, whereas some may need paracetamol for pain. Rarely will the pain be pronounced.
Swelling along with fever, redness, soreness and/or generally being unwell may be a sign of an infection – if that is the case, contact your doctor!

First 2 weeks:

You may experience pain around the donor-area. Paracetamol is usually sufficient to treat the pain.

First 12 weeks:

Itching, pimples, pop-ups and dry skin are relatively common. Anti-histamins (used for allergic rash), petroleum jelly (vaseline), baby oil and/or Aloe Vera may be helpful. In larger surgeries, numbness may occur specially in the recipient-area. The transplanted hair will/may shed but the growth centre is left intact in the skin.

3-4 months:

Growth starts. Usually the itching, pimples, pop-ups and dry skin is gone. Numbness in recipient-area may persist.

6-8 months:

Cosmetic change starts appearing. Numbness is gone in most patients.

1-1.5 years and even up to 2 years:

Final results.

Returning to work and social life

Thinning but not bald

If the recipient-area is not bald, but only thinning is taking place, most patients will be able to take up normal social activities after 10-14 days without drawing any attention.

Bald recipient-area

If the recipient-area is bald or nearly bald, 3-5 weeks may be required before the recipient-area becomes un-noticeable. However, in few cases a light pinkish colour and irritation may persist even beyond 8 weeks.

Donor-area

In most cases of FUE HT with punches of 1 mm or below, the donor-area will hardly be visible after two weeks. If the hair and skin colour contrast is great, the extraction may be visible with a very short hair cut (number 1).

Caring for your hair transplantation

It is essential that patients comply with the following instructions to ensure a successful result of the HT and a fast return to daily routines.

Shower

The patient is encouraged to take a low-pressure indirect shower, 2-4 times, following the last day of the operation. This helps the scabs go away and speeds up the process of making the operation un-noticeable. Take completely normal showers after two weeks.

Sleep

The patient should sleep using two pillows for the first two nights. In case of grafts implanted into the lower crown or a strip-scar, the patient should sleep on the side for the first two nights.

Do’s

Take the antibiotics you’ve been prescribed. Other medicines are not compulsory. Normal shower after two weeks.

Dont’s

Take Aspirin or other NSAID in the first 3 days after your operation.
Smoking before full growth of the transplanted hair (no hard evidence for this, but makes sense from other studies related to effects of smoking on outcome of operations).
Over exertion for the first 4 days after the operation. Mild exertion (jogging, bicycling and mild weight lifting) may be resumed after 4 days. No body contact.
Violent activity (hockey, soccer) or body contact for the first two weeks.

 

Disclaimer

Any surgery, minor or major, involves the risk of infection, bleeding and/or any other pre-operative or post-operative complications and undesired effects, including death. Follicular Unit Extraction hair transplant surgery is no exception to this risk, however small it may be.
To minimize the risk of any such undesired outcome it is strongly recommended that precautionary measures and guidelines provided by International Hair Centre are adhered to strictly.
International Hair Centre does not guarantee any specific growth rate or any specific cosmetic result. All information, including pictures, given on the website, in emails or otherwise serve as a general guideline and it depends on many factors, including but not limited to donor-hair quality, colour contrast, age, smoking habits, post-operative measures, maturity of hair loss and many other factors. It does NOT imply that similar growth or results can be expected in this present case.
The undersigned patient understands the information given above and hereby relieves International Hair Centre of any responsibility for complications, undesired effects, cosmetic result or other consequences whatsoever, of this procedure.

Patient instructions

Before the surgery, you are strongly advised to follow the instructions mentioned below. Failure to do so may increase the risk of an un-successful transplant, infections or other complications.

1. Stop all your medicines, including vitamins, one week before the surgery. Please consult your doctor/GP before stopping if you are using prescription medicines. Stop using Minoxidil (Rogaine, Regain) 1 week prior to your surgery.
2. No alcohol for 1 week prior to your surgery.
3. Stop smoking 4 weeks prior to the operation and preferably till full growth of the transplanted grafts. If smoking is not discontinued before and after the operation it may cause poor or no growth.
4. You may have your normal breakfast or lunch at the day of the surgery.
5. Come to the clinic with clean hair. No hairspray, hair fibres or other hair products should be used/applied please.
6. At the clinic your hair will be trimmed to 0.5-1mm.
7. Wear comfortable clothing. A button-up shirt is helpful to avoid pulling anything over your head. Make sure to bring spare button up shirts for the first week post surgery.
8.  Please provide a recent test (less than 3 months) for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.
9. Bring any outstanding fee if not already transferred before the surgery.

After the surgery

You are strongly advised to follow the instructions mentioned below. Failure to do so may increase the risk of an un-successful transplant, infections or other complications.
Washing your hair after the procedure, rinse the recipient-area with running water from an indirect low-pressure shower. The shower should not hit the recipient-area directly. You can apply shampoo by padding it onto the recipient- and donor-area.

1st day after FUE

● Shower as above 2-4 times

● No Aspirin, NSAIDs or alcohol for 3 days

● No smoking until full growth of the transplanted hair

● No bending over. No exertion!

2nd day and onwards

● Shower as above once daily

● From day 4 you may use baby oil, vaseline, Aloe Vera or anti-bacterial ointment in case of itching or dry skin

● No exercise for the first week

● You may experience some swelling around the eyes 2-4 days after the surgery. It goes away in 3-4 days. This happens for around 15% of the patients

7 days and onwards

● You may engage in exercise activities that involve mild exertion (jogging, bicycling and mild weight lifting)

● You may NOT rub the recipient-area 

14 days and beyond

● No restrictions on exercise or physical activities

● You may shower and shampoo your hair with no restrictions

First 8 weeks

Cover your donor- and recipient-area when in direct sunlight.
If you have any doubts or queries after the surgery you can contact us by email or call on the following numbers:

+92 334 515 2299 (mobile) or +92 51 8358 704 Pakistan

+47 98 404 515 Norway

 

Download the patient form from here :

PatientForm-en 

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