Did I Get Folliculitis after My Hair Transplant Surgery?

This question, from a member of our hair loss social community and discussion forums, was answered by Coalition hair transplant surgeon Dr. Alan Feller:

I’m 18 days post op and this thing appeared on my head almost instantly. It’s like a whitehead pimple. Is this folliculitis? I’ve sent the images to my hair restoration physician as well, but it’s the weekend so I can’t expect a reply until Monday most likely. I received an antibacterial shampoo from my surgeon in case of folliculitis, but it burst in my luggage flying home, so would just betadine shampoo suffice? Thank you.

If you were my patient I would not be too concerned. I only see the one pimple, the rest looks normal from the photo. Applying topical antibiotics isn’t going to help, just leave it alone until you can contact your doctor. If you really want to play it safe go to a local doctor and show it to him. He will likely put you on an appropriate oral antibiotic, that’s what I would do.

When a hair transplant is performed, the skin can become irritated for so many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the area now has “foreign bodies” in it, like splinters, which sets off an inflammatory response. This is normal and will usually just fade off in time. A pimple like that may simply be some bacteria that got into the skin in a higher dose than the rest and the body is fighting it by walling it off.

With your doctor’s approval you may want to apply warm soaks, which is just a warm wash cloth with tap water that you hold over the area a few times per day until the cloth cools. This will allow something like that to drain a bit quicker and if there is a graft under there it may spare it. Every graft counts, right?

Dr. Alan Feller
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David
Editorial Assistant and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q & A Blog.

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