Picking at scabs 12 days after hair transplant?

[futbol9]

Hello I been reading a lot about people freaking out because they were picking at their scabs. I started picking at some of my scabs with my finger nails after the 12 th day of my surgery. I have done this in a gentle manner though. However Iam afraid I did some damage already to my grafts. I removed some of the crust with my nails and sometimes just the crust came off with no hairs and some other ones the crust came out with hairs. No blood or nothing just the crust and the hairs. I won't be picking at them no more, but I would like to know if I maybe damage some of my grafts by picking at them with my finger nails? Thank you

[futbol9]

I forgot I also scratched my hairline really hard when I was half a sleep for about 2 to 3 seconds:(. Thank you for your belp

[TakingThePlunge]

futbol9,

 

While I don't recommend picking your scabs with your nails at all, if you were already 12 days post-op you have probably not done any permanent damage. Your hair restoration physician should have provided you with post-operative care instructions. Normally, these directions instruct patients to gently massage the scabs off in the shower using their fingertips.

 

It's perfectly normal for some hair follicles to be lodged in the fallen scabs.

 

If you've seen no bleeding, your grafts are probably just fine. Even if you did damage one or two, it is unlikely that this will affect your final results.

[futbol9]

Thank you very much for your response:). Now I will sleep better:) another thing That bothers me is that I started to shed a lot of hair everytime I shampo my hair:(

[Dutch]

That's normal pal. Nothing to worry about! Grow well & try to relax.

[bonkerstonker]

Everyone worries it's part of the process if you had damaged or moved a graft it would likely sting.

[Louise]

Try not to worry too much. As David mentioned above, you shouldn't have used your nails (that's a no no!!). At 12 days post-op you likely didn't do much harm (especially since you didn't see any blood) - losing a hair wouldn't have made a huge impact on the final result.

 

Shedding of the transplanted hairs is normal and part of the process. You will see your new hairs sprouting soon!

 

Hope this helps.

[mattj]

If you still have scabs now you can take steps to remove them. It's best to do it while they are softened. They'll be softer when wet - with water or vitamin E lotion they'll practically slide off.

[Mathematica]

My head is covered in scabs 12-days post op. Is it OK to leave them be to naturally fall off or better to wash out gently with warm water? They don't itch or bother me in any way.

[hsrp10]

use something to make them soft and gently massage them off, soak in a bath for a while or keep them moist with spray bottle for example. I wouldn't pick at any hard scabs you could do some unwanted damge.

Also check with your doctor/clinic for their specific instructions.

[Mathematica]

Thanks, gently washed under low-power shower for 20 mins on two separate days and they all fell off, along with hairs but not too many hairs! Now wait and see.

[Badboi]

Hi just wanted to ask, when washing and little hairs also come off with scabs. Is that something to be worried about? Im 10 days

[Janna]

Nope, that's normal.

[gillenator]

The real risk to using our fingernails post-op is causing potential infection at the base of the recipient incisions where the grafts were inserted and placed. There is a fair amount of germs and bacteria that hides under the fingernails.

 

Although we all heal at varying rates, chances are, the recipient incisions have healed enough at this point in time to prevent the germs and bacteria from impeding into the blood.

 

IMHO, the reason you want to begin removing the crusting in the shower as David advised is because once the epidermis (outer scalp layer) has healed, the scalp begins to sense the crusts as foreign objects and the scalp can potentially begin to fester to ward them off. In addition, the removed crusts allow the newly grown hair shafts to come through and not be blocked as they emerge above the scalp line.

 

The hair stubbles that you see within the crusts are the actual graft hair shafts and yes many of them come off with the crusts because the underlying follicles have retreated into the dormant resting phase (telogen) and shed the graft hair with the crusts.

 

Those crusts that come off without the graft hair implies that those transplanted follicles remained in the anagen growing phase however they too will eventually resume cycling and will shed with time.

 

Hair follicles, whether the ones that were transplanted along with the native hair follicles cycle intermittently. So time in itself will work everything out and why it takes up to 12-15 months post-op or longer for the fully matured visual result to manifest.

[Hair to Style]

My head is covered in scabs 12-days post op. Is it OK to leave them be to naturally fall off or better to wash out gently with warm water? They don't itch or bother me in any way.

 

Soak and shower GENTLE massage them use Johnson's Baby shampoo!

 

Even twice a day is ok !

If they are heavy I'd keep spray bottle of water weting them down.

Mineral oil too on heavy scab area's!

 

No finger nails please.

[mohsinkhan973]

my scrab and crust was a little bit hard and not easily remove whith wasing hair , i also not touch them during washing till 20 to 25 days of my transplant , because i think that if i touch them i loss my grafts. after 25 days of my transplant i start to touch them with fingure smotly . the crust is also soft and its easily remove. but now i am a little bit worry about this. so kaindly tell me that its normal or not.i upload pictures thankeyou

[BaldingBogger]

I’d be very careful with scabbing. I had a small very scabbed area in my first procedure in which resulted in poor growth in the small area....

[ILikeMyHair]

I'm at day 12 now. I started using coconut oil to gently rub the scabs from day 10. I have seen some scabs coming out with hair as well. Here are the pics. I'm wondering if this is normal hair shed or the grafts are coming out that never took? I've had around 20 scabs like these on day 10, about 10 on day 11 and about 30 on day 12. Is this normal?

[Steeeve]

I'm at day 12 now. I started using coconut oil to gently rub the scabs from day 10. I have seen some scabs coming out with hair as well. Here are the pics. I'm wondering if this is normal hair shed or the grafts are coming out that never took? I've had around 20 scabs like these on day 10, about 10 on day 11 and about 30 on day 12. Is this normal?

 

You need to ask your doctor. No one on this forum can give you an answer with absolute certainty unless a doctor happens by this thread and gives you an opinion and even then it’s just an opinion until a doctor can really, truly, see your head in front of them.

 

You should really ask your doctor.

[hitherehair]

i'm no doctor but i think a good rule of thumb is if they don't come off after a vigorous rubbing of shampoo and warm water in the shower they're not ready to come off. When the area is completely healed the scabs will not be anchored to anything and will have no choice but to come off.

[gillenator]

my scrab and crust was a little bit hard and not easily remove whith wasing hair , i also not touch them during washing till 20 to 25 days of my transplant , because i think that if i touch them i loss my grafts. after 25 days of my transplant i start to touch them with fingure smotly . the crust is also soft and its easily remove. but now i am a little bit worry about this. so kaindly tell me that its normal or not.i upload pictures thankeyou

 

This is definitely not normal...and it appears that these are dried out dislodged grafts that have many hairs in them.

[ILikeMyHair]

This is definitely not normal...and it appears that these are dried out dislodged grafts that have many hairs in them.

 

This seems normal to me. It makes sense that the hair has shed at day 25. It was already shed by the root and only remained on the scalp because it was anchored by the scab so when he removed the scab it came off. This is normal hair shed. And he's noticing a lot of these because he's just removing the scabs at day 25.

[gillenator]

It's not the timetable of the shed that I am referring to...it's the appearance of the grafts and the number of hairs in each shed graft.

[leomanish]

Hi, I am kinda have the same problem but I have lot of that kind of yellow thing.

Its been 7 days after my FUE hair transplant and everything went good.

But after my 3rd hair wash I started to see some more white/yellow liquid kinda things around my transplanted hairs, I know scabs and crust appear, but i want to confirm from educated people here with their opinion, please tell is it scabs or something else.

I observed after hair wash these things looks more and pop out but later it dry out and doesn't highlight that much but still can be seen if look closely.

Some hairs can also be seen in hand when you rub a little, so is that also okay or is it a sign of something.

Please tell with the help of attached images that the white thing/liquid surrounded my hairs are crust/scabs or should I worried and also is it fine to have these hair fall out like this during gentle rubbing.

[gillenator]

A couple of comments....first, usually the hair stubble within the graft comes out with the crust.

And it's sort of hard to tell from the pics regarding the yellowish bumps you are seeing but I would definitely encourage you to contact your surgeon to make sure it's not an infection because it looks like that to me.