How did you cope with Down Time?

[Cant decide]

How did you guys cope with the downtime after a HT. More specifically, how did you deal with covering it up and avoiding question the first few weeks? Did you tell anyone? what were their reactions? Especially those of you who had to shave down. Many of us work in offices and I just dont see how in the world one can hide it and avoid question/comments, etc.

 

Thanks Again

[Sparky]

I'm not coping with it really, I'm only just past 2 months and wishing the days away! I shaved right down then had 3 weeks off and hid at home, then went back to work and nobody said anything.

[Cant decide]

Sparky - Thanks for the reply. So, you shaved down right after the surgery and then took three weeks off and nobody said anything? Did they not see the stiches or do you suspect they just left it alone?

[Sparky]

I had fue, so no stiches and i'm self employed and can wear what I like, so to start with I wore a hat, I dont deal with a lot of people during the day, no one knew about it, no one knows what modern day hair transplants look like anyway, most of them still thinks its all dolls hair.

 

My hairline was just pink by the time 3 weeks was past, so nothing to see. Look at my hairloss site and you will get a better idea of my situ.

[CHB81]

I had FUE done as well and quite a bit of native hair at the time so I went back into work after 2 weeks. No one really said anything although I had a bit of pink in my hairline. It was slightly masked by the native hairs. I kinda just holed up a lot and didn't really go out too much until about 3 months out. I didn't have good results still but had enough native to get by.

 

Now I have to go through the ordeal again later this year with less native hair so we'll see how that goes...

[phil mascallpen]

How did you guys cope with the downtime after a HT. More specifically' date=' how did you deal with covering it up and avoiding questions the first few weeks? Did you tell anyone? what were their reactions?[/quote']

 

First off you need to realize that the stated down time of 2 weeks by most clinics is a stretch.

 

From my own experience and from other patients I have spoken with I would estimate the average minimum time before you could go into a well lit work place without a hat to be at the very least 2 months. The exceptions, of course, would be very small procedures and if you had plenty of hair behind the recipient area to sufficiently hide it.

 

As for dealing with their reactions I think most adults are too nice to point out what they might perceive to be a HT so you might not know what they think anyway. But I did get several comments and I just ignored them as much as possible and changed the subject. This was probably at about the 3 month mark as I was able to wear a hat at work until then (position change at work took away my ability to wear a hat at that point).

[Fingers Crossed]

I agree with Phil. The length of "down time" varies from patient to patient. I went to a funeral 7 weeks after my operation and nobody could really tell what happened. I applied dermmatch to the donor scar and the recipient region was a slightly pink but nothing too noticeable. The main thing to do now is to stay away from a mirror and stay busy to keep your mind occupied.

[SoccerBoy]

Youtube will be your best friend. A million free tv shows and movies. its only a couple weeks, enjoy the downtime.