POST

SURGERY

 

Following surgery and on arrival home, patients must take some precautions, such as applying an ice-pack on the forehead area for 15 minutes an hour to prevent swelling.

 

It is also important for patients to be accompanied by someone on completion of the surgery to drive them back. Patients should refrain from driving because, although the sedation is not strong, it can induce drowsiness in some cases.

 

The next day, patients return to the hair transplant centre where the doctor will wash their hair and teach them how to do this.

This procedure conducted by Dr. Cruz Dinis will give patients more confidence when shampooing at home without being afraid, a task that is best done 2 or 3 times daily. After washing the hair, the transplant area is applied with a sterile substance which patients must continue to apply for the following two weeks.

 

The patients then have a lymphatic drainage session for the forehead to minimize the risk of port-surgery swelling.

 

Before patients leave the Hair Transplant Centre, Dr. Cruz Dinis provides them with advice on medication requirements and new post-surgery cares.

By following this guidance, a post-surgery period of 2 to 3 days is adequate for patients to return to their routine activities.

 

With the Strip Harvesting technique, the stitches in the donor area are removed on the 10th day.

 

The first hairs begin to grow only in the third month after surgery. The growth rate is about 1cm per month. Patients will therefore effectively achieve an almost definitive result in the 7th or 8th month following their surgeries, although new hairs can still grow during the next 18 months.

 

A more concise idea of the post-surgery steps is shown in the following table:

Post-surgery period                

 

1st day: Dressing removal, head wash and lymphatic drainage. Sensitivity due to stitches or slits

 

2nd - 3rd day: Removal of some scabs, some forehead swelling, operational  rashes. Less sensitivity

 

10th day: Few scabs, rash improvement.Removal of stitches (Strip Harvesting technique)

 

2 months: Large amount of transplanted hair has fallen out. But their folicules remain alive. Folicular resting phase.

 

3 to 4 months: Growth of transplanted hair starts 

 

4 to 6 months: Increase in amount of transplanted hair grows and can  be in different form from natural hair 

 

8 months: Large portion of transplanted hair has already grown. 

 

12 months: 90% of the end result hair with normal characteristics. 

 

18 months: New hairs can still sprout. 

 

2 years: Follow up and evaluation of need for new surgery to increase density even more.