Did Scratching My Head Damage My Hair Transplant?

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

So I had a hair transplant of 2192 grafts on Monday, Aug 29. Almost all were on the front of my head, temples, sides, etc. A few were placed in the back of my head where I am thinning in just a few spots. Last night, was six days later. I was scratching what I thought was just dried blood. As far as I know, only one graft came out. There was no bleeding but definitely a graft.

I am very OCD and picked around on some dried bloody spots, mostly trying to not touch the graft or follicles. This went on for 15 minutes. But I am wondering if the bulb or whatever will make the hair grow fastest will stay in the head at day 6.5 if the graft is pulled out. I was pulling out what I thought was dried blood so it was pulling more than picking with fingernails. Again, I don’t recall any blood. Please give me your best advice. I am done picking or pulling back there.

Typically if a follicular unit graft is pulled out or broken off at this point, the follicle has not been injured. These grafts should regrow like normal. We always advise not to pick the grafts or pull on them even up to two weeks just to lower the risk of permanently damaging hairs.

In your case, I would suspect that either the follicle had just broken off and you were looking at a bit of dried blood or skin that looked like a bulb of the follicle. Otherwise, occasionally a graft during placement may be lying on top of the scalp and not in the incision. This graft may just be trapped under a scab until it is removed by water or the hand. This graft is of course not going to grow.

Usually, if there is no fresh blood seen with a graft during the first week, then the graft was not pulled out. Actually is is quite difficult to pull out a graft after 6 days. In the clinic here at Shapiro Medical, we removed a few grafts from a patient who had been at another hair restoration clinic. The patient just wanted a few grafts removed to help make the hairline more natural. The grafts after this time did come out, but were very tightly adhered already. Also, the resulting hole did bleed for a few minutes.

Dr. David Josephitis
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David
Editorial Assistant and Forum Co-Moderator

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