samantha

It's been 6 weeks since my surgery and the swelling was gone on the 5/6th day. It did leave me a black eye which didn't go away until the 10th day:cool: I have seen many post op pictures by other patients and I would say the swelling I have experienced was at a moderate level. My biggest concern back then was my FUE donor area, because I have long hair and I wasn't sure when to start washing my donor area and my hair above. It was definitely a more complicated process comparing with fellow male patients with short hair. Nevertheless, I tried to be very gentle to my donor site and everything turned out fine. Hope this helps, good luck!

Thanks for replying! When I changed the gauze on the donor area on the first op day morning I had no problem taking it off because it was soaked in yellow discharge and a little blood. However on the 2nd post op day, I did the same routine but it was hard to take off because the gauze dried up after being soaked in the discharge(less than the first day). I followed the instructions given by my surgeon, applied Polysporin on the donor area and put on new gauze. Today is my 3rd post op day. I still found yellow discharge and little blood on the gauze. The gauze was dried up, which again was sticked to my donor scalp. The instruction sheet said I could wash my ungrafted hair and donor area with warm water, so I decided to clean it up for the first time after my operation. I left my hair on top dry and only washed the donor area and hair below, because I have long hair and it is hard to wash the top part without getting the grafted hair wet. The gauze was hard to be removed at first, it took me a long time pouring warm water over my donor area trying to soften the gauze and seperate it from my scalp. When it eventually got removed, I gently cleaned my donor area, no pain was felt throughout the process. After cleaning I dried the donor area with gauze and still found little blood stain on the gauze, but it was nothing major. I pressed gauze on the parts to stop them from bleeding and sprayed saline on the donor area. After a while I checked again and found that the bleeding seemed to have stopped on the entire donor area! I'm glad that I gave it a clean up and some fresh air! At this moment healing seems to be back on track. The swelling has come down from the forehead to my right side of the face, I guess this is normal. Should I still continue to apply Polysporin? My donor area looks pretty clean now and I'm not sure if I should do the same routine by applying the cream and wrapping it with gauze again.

I just had my first FUE with 1300 grafts to lower my inherited high hairline. I'm not suffering from any hair lost at this moment. I'm a girl in my 20s and have long hair, therefore on the day of surgery my surgeon didn't shave all my hair on the back. After the surgery I was advised not to wash my hair for long as I could tolerate, because he was concerned that my long hair would get stucked to my donor wound and cause complications in healing. On my first post op day, I woke up with a wet gauze on my donor area. I was told that it was mainly because of the anesthesia discharge. I removed the gauze, applied Polysporin cream on the wound, and put on new gauze on top of the donor area. I did not wash my hair on the first day. Today is my 2nd post op day. I tried to change the gauze on my donor area again. Some parts were dried up and stucked to my scalp(I could see that the gauze was soaked in yellow liquid, which I supposed is anesthesia discharge, and dried up), making it hard to remove, I sprayed saline on top of the gauze to soften it, and then carefully removed it. There was still some minor bleeding on my wound, I pressed a clean gauze on the bleeding area as instructed, and then applied Polysporin cream on top of the entire donor area, wrapped it with clean gauze. I have 2 questions here: 1) When will the bleeding on donor area stop? I have seen FUE diaries of other patients saying that their donor area stopped bleeding on the first or 2nd day. Mine doesn't seem to be healing that quickly, today when I woke up my gauze was still soaked in some blood and yellow liquid. I'm not sure if I should change my gauze tomorrow because this morning the gauze turned hard after being soaked and dried, making it hard to removed from my scalp. 2) Should I wash my hair tonight or anytime soon? I have read FUE diaries of patients washing their hair since the day after their surgery, but all of them have short hair. My hair is very long and I don't know if I should do the same. I hope to hear some good advice from experienced fellow patients and professionals, thank you!