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