When Is It safe to Scrub Hair after Hair Transplant Surgery?

The following article posted to our hair losssocial community and discussion forums, was written by Coalition hair transplant surgeon Dr. Robert Bernstein:

My hair transplant surgeon asked me to actively scrub away any remaining hair after 2 weeks, as he felt waiting for more than 3 weeks predisposes to folliculitis.

He said that follicles are well and truly safe after day 10. Any thoughts?

Around ten years ago I did a study to specifically answer this question (Bernstein RM, Rassman WR: Graft anchoring in hair transplantation. Dermatol Surg 2006; 32: 198-204.).

We found that at ten days post-op grafts were no longer at risk of being dislodged. We therefore tell patients to be very gentle when washing your recipient area within the first 10 days. After that you will be able to wash normally without losing grafts. You can read the study here and watch a video describing the study and its findings here.

Folliculitis, a low-grade inflammation or infection of the hair follicle, is relatively common and may occur up to three months after your hair transplant. It is typically caused by picking or scratching crusts or scabs, or poor hygiene, but may occur even without any precipitating factors. The best way to prevent folliculitis is frequent postoperative showering of the recipient area and, of course, not picking or scratching your recipient area.

You can visit our Post-op FUT or Post-op FUE pages for more information on post-operative care, instructions, and a timeline. You can download PDF versions of the instructions for offline use, the link for the PDF is at the top of each of the post-op pages.

Dr. Robert Bernstein
—-
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.

Technorati Tags: hair loss, hair transplant, hair transplantation, Folliculitis