Difficult Question about Healing Process of Grafts after HT

[Guest]

A probably difficult question regarding the graft healing process.

 

I could learn from diverse forums that grafts will be healed in around 48 hours after the ht operation, thus are quite secure afterwards.

 

Again after 10 days it is safe to do sports of any kind - there is a huge opinion variety among doctors, some say doing sports (inclusive fitness training ) 3 days after the ht will cause no problems.

 

According to the information I have gathered, incidents like bumping the head (no bleeding, but happened to me twice on day 6 & 8) should not interfere the normal growth process of the grafts, but nevertheless I feel insecure. In order to lessen this sinsecurity I really would appreciate to get an explanation about the healing process of the grafts after an ht. I know the first 3 weeks after a ht are the most difficult one, where probably nearly everybody gets paranoid about doing anything wrong.

 

Therefore my request to any knowledgable person participating in this forum, can you please explain the healing process of the grafts in its various phases. E.g. what happens in the first 24 hours, than after 48 hours, 5 days, 10 days.

What could occur, that grafts get damaged after the initial 48 hours heal in time?

Why should the sun be avoided for up to half a year if the grafts are already completely healed in after 10 days?

 

I can imagine these questions are of vast interest for a lot of patients. Therefore I aim to publish any valuable outcome of this thread in other ht related forums.

 

Thanks a lot for all information in advance

 

dit

[Guest]

A probably difficult question regarding the graft healing process.

 

I could learn from diverse forums that grafts will be healed in around 48 hours after the ht operation, thus are quite secure afterwards.

 

Again after 10 days it is safe to do sports of any kind - there is a huge opinion variety among doctors, some say doing sports (inclusive fitness training ) 3 days after the ht will cause no problems.

 

According to the information I have gathered, incidents like bumping the head (no bleeding, but happened to me twice on day 6 & 8) should not interfere the normal growth process of the grafts, but nevertheless I feel insecure. In order to lessen this sinsecurity I really would appreciate to get an explanation about the healing process of the grafts after an ht. I know the first 3 weeks after a ht are the most difficult one, where probably nearly everybody gets paranoid about doing anything wrong.

 

Therefore my request to any knowledgable person participating in this forum, can you please explain the healing process of the grafts in its various phases. E.g. what happens in the first 24 hours, than after 48 hours, 5 days, 10 days.

What could occur, that grafts get damaged after the initial 48 hours heal in time?

Why should the sun be avoided for up to half a year if the grafts are already completely healed in after 10 days?

 

I can imagine these questions are of vast interest for a lot of patients. Therefore I aim to publish any valuable outcome of this thread in other ht related forums.

 

Thanks a lot for all information in advance

 

dit

[Mahair]

It depends who your Doctor is . When I had my first hair transplant , if you want to call it that . My hair fell out my scap was red full of holes and bumps and very sore I also had incredible swelling and two black eyes.After two months of going through shock over what was happened to me the "Dr."William Magdalin informed me that I had just had a head trauma what did I expect and declared that this was a healed surgery and I was a slow healer . The second was done by a real Doctor to try and improve some of the asthetic damage and camoflage some of the hairloss and scaring caused by "Dr. " Magdalin. I had NONE of the complications from it including the fact that I could'nt tell anything had been done . It looked like a crew cut in the area that was worked on. You must pick your Doctor wisely . PS I still havent recovered from the first "surgery" .

[gillenator]

DIT,

 

Again it would be nice to hear a physicians' response to this ever important issue. Since I am not a doctor, I will offer you my layman's response.

 

After the initial placement of grafts, the blood begins to clot in the sites and works somewhat like glue to hold them in place. This serves well while we go about our "normal" activity post-operatively. Yet most docs/clinics wiil advise the patient to sleep with their head elevated to preferably at least a 45 degree angle such as a recliner, etc for at least three days following the procedure.

 

Within the first 48-72 hours post-op the tissue of the graft is "attaching" or "mending" to the tissue in the recipient site. As we know the "graft" is the tissue that carries or transports the hair follicules for implantation. It is during this period that the grafts have their highest potential of popping out especially caused by heavy cardiovascular activity too early. This includes intense sexual and masturbation activity post-op. Keep in mind that the inner layer of tissue is "soft" and with blood supply and has no external air flow around it like the outer layer (epidermis) during the healing process. The epidermis works like an orange peel, a protective cover for what is inside. Sorry if that was poor analogy but I think you get what I am saying here. So the inside tissue in the dermis layer can take up to 60 days to heal. Severed nerves take longer to repair themselves and re-grow.

 

Finally there's the issue of the transplanted hair follicules getting their blood supply re-established. As you may have already researched, a good percentage of those transplanted follicules go into the dormant phase (telogen) so the concern of exposure to the sun is really the potential damage to the follicules caused by the high ultra-violet rays and subsequent potential to "toast" your transplanted follicules. Once the blood supply is established and flowing to the follicules, they won't be subject to that type of ultra-violet damage.

 

A good recommendation is to cover your head if out in the direct sun exposure for at least six months post-op. Some docs will advise after three months is fine. Hope this has been helpful.

[Guest]

Thanks Mahair, gillenator for your insights and sorry for my late reply.

Your answers gave me some hints already. I am now 16 days post-op and hope that I cannot screw up too much anymore. According to my doctor, AP, I can return to all my normal activities after 10 days. Just have to take care not to stretch my scar by doing heavy exercises until the 20th day post-op.

gillenator there is a sentence, you have posted, which makes me somewhat confused:

"So the inside tissue in the dermis layer can take up to 60 days to heal."

If this is the fact, my grafts are still more endangered than normal hair far above the 10 days mark. Not only by exessive sunshine exposure, but also by other external factors like heavy bumping of the head (resulting in a lump) or doing heavy workouts, which rise the bloodpressure in the head region. Did I understand you correctly? Would really appreciate if we can have several opinions on this topic, because this information would heavily contradict the normal post-op advices of most of the ht doctors.

Besides of this, since day 10 post-op I cover my grafts with Dermmatch and Toppik. All information I could find on this webpage and at the manufacturer's webpages indicate that these concealers do not interfere with the growth of the grafts at all. I wash them out every night.

Besides of the concealing effect I assume that these products also protect my grafts from the sun during the next 3 - 6 months.

Thanks in advance for all new posts to this topic. Perhaps there are some doctors out there who can give us their insight.

Thanks DIT

[gillenator]

DIT,

 

Sorry it took a little while to get back to you and let me propose that the information is not contradictory at all. Normal activity is most often considered "just that" like normal walking, sitting, resume sleeping in a normal position vs that of an angle, etc. In addition, most post-op instructions are addressing the healing period of the outside scalp (micro-incisions and crusts). That's why most clinics will state that it's okay to resume "normal" activity after roughly 7 to 10 days because they know the epidermis is healed. So my friend "head bumping", long exposure to intense and damaging ulta-violet rays are not considered that of normal activity. Now please don't get me wrong, some folks have activities and even occupations that require long periods outside in the elements and "they" may consider that normal. But within the realm of post-op activity from a HT procedure which requires a fair amount of healing in both layers of tissue, extra precaution should be taken. That's the consensus of most HT doctors which I am not. An occasional head bump won't present any threat unless you break open the sutures or something like that. BTW, should that ever happen to anyone, go directly to the ER room or after hours care facility "if" you do not have immediate access to your HT surgeon.

 

Further, I agree with you in that there can be some variation of oral and written post-op instructions between clinics and yes at times it can be confusing. Half of the post-op instructions I have perused do not even cover post-op exposure to the sun! I have always advocated that the clinic goes over the post-op instructions when they "check out" the patient after surgery. It is also a good time to go over post-op healing products and how to use them so the patients have a thorough understanding of how to care for themselves when they leave and also to provide the patients the opportunity to ask any questions just like the ones you are asking now. Post-op pain medications and potential swelling should also be addressed.

 

Yes it's okay to use the cosmetic products you mentioned because you are sixteen days post-op, your epidermis is completely healed by now so you are correct in that they will not interfere including the new growth. Just make sure you are cleansing your scalp routinely as you stated earlier.

 

Hope this has been a little more helpful DIT, and will close with this advice to you and any others reading. If ever in question, "ask your doctor directly" for his/her advice. After all, you are their patient. Take care.