Post-op care washing and scabs with absorpable tricophytic closure

[futguy]

Hello all!

 

I just had my FUT strip surgery this past Friday, so its day 5 post-op, and I had a few questions. I don't want to release the name of the surgeon yet until I have all the documentation done, so please bare with me. The HT doctor's english was so-so, and its a lot easier to describe to you guys and get several responses then waiting a response (especially since they are in a different time zone). With that being said, I have a few questions that maybe you could field for me.

 

Hair washing:

I have yet to wash the transplanted area at all and its day 5. I'm scared that I would ruin the grafts. As you could imagine, its full of dry skin and small scabs. I planned on washing it on day 8 or 9 since by then the grafts would be fully anchored into the scalp. Are there any disadvantages of waiting? Should I spray water in the mean time to keep it moisturized? I wear a surgeon cap provided by the doc and check every morning for loose grafts and luckily, I have yet to find one! What about finding a Vitamin E spray? Would that be harmful or hurt?

 

Scab cleaning:

I had the tricophytic closure method performed. My primary physician took a look at it, and he said the sutures look good, and to not touch it. On the other hand, the HT doctor said to make sure I scrub the sutures hard to get rid of the scabs to prevent scarring. Which one should I do? Someone has been helping me clean the scabs and even after rough scrubbing (as tolerable as possible), the scabs are still there. I'm scared the sutures would rip open (as it felt today) and cause more damage than good. Furthermore, the HT doctor used absorbable thread, and from reading other threads, it should completely dissolve in 2-3 weeks. Being a good 1/4 of the way there, I'm sure the thread is already weak, and I'd rather not rip it apart.

 

Thanks again!

 

FUTguy

[Mallyboy]

futguy,

 

I had my FUT procedure Feb 2 with one of the coalition doctors. The doctor's office gave me graftcyte shampoo to keep the grafts moist for the first week. I also rub the shampoo on the donor area for faster healing. I gently pat the recipient area dry after I spray the shampoo mixture on then I gently rub the donor area horizontally with antibiotic gel as well. I would not rub the donor area too hard because it may stretch the scar. Don't use shower pressure on your head till after 7 days post-op. For as the vitamins I take 5mg biotin & propecia to help stabilize hair loss. Like you said the main thing is not to disturb the grafts within the first week & wear a loose wave cap or durag if possible.

 

Did your doctor give you some kind of shampoo mixture & antibiotic gel to help aid in healing?

[futguy]

futguy,

 

I had my FUT procedure Feb 2 with one of the coalition doctors. The doctor's office gave me graftcyte shampoo to keep the grafts moist for the first week. I also rub the shampoo on the donor area for faster healing. I gently pat the recipient area dry after I spray the shampoo mixture on then I gently rub the donor area horizontally with antibiotic gel as well. I would not rub the donor area too hard because it may stretch the scar. Don't use shower pressure on your head till after 7 days post-op. For as the vitamins I take 5mg biotin & propecia to help stabilize hair loss. Like you said the main thing is not to disturb the grafts within the first week & wear a loose wave cap or durag if possible.

 

Did your doctor give you some kind of shampoo mixture & antibiotic gel to help aid in healing?

 

Thanks for the quick reply! The doctor gave me tablet meds (antibiotics, anti-inflammatory and pain killer), but didn't give me any spray or gel. I was thinking of picking up something just to mist my scalp with water just to keep it moist.

 

Would it be bad if I did NOTHING or minimal until day 7 as far as cleaning the transplanted area?

 

Thanks again!

[Mallyboy]

I would try to keep it moist to manage the scabs but doing nothing I think would not hurt. Get advice from your doctor on the first week post-op.

[Eman]

You should definitely be washing the transplanted area at this point. I was instructed to take baby shampoo and mix it in a cup and gently pour it over the recipient area. And then when out of the shower drip vitamin E oil all over the recipient site.

 

Your grafts are anchored at this point, but still be gentle with the area

[SADbutTRUE]

eman , do u have anyics of how you wear your hair now, your result is amazing,

[Eman]

will post in separate thread in a few days

[nativeremdies]

As best as I have read, it will not hurt to do nothing for 7 days, and let your head just sit there.

It might be optimal. You want those grafts to take root, 5 - 9 days.

 

After that you are solid

[gillenator]

For most patients that heal normally, the grafts are pretty well seated at 72 hours post-op, meaning, you won't lose them from "normal activity" after 3 days. If the patient is not employing a post-op spray or other topical, then at 5 days, the grafts are pretty well attached, again from normal activity.

 

There is an extremely wide variance of post-op care instructions and the number one rule of thumb is to contact your surgeon and/or one of his care staff. They may or may not want their patients applying certain products like Neurosporin, Nioxin, etc.

 

The larger concensous will advocate the use of some post-op topical wound care treatment. Many simply advocate the use of spraying the recipient area and even the donor area with a saline based spray that you can purchase in your local pharmacy very cheap. The saline facilitates the healing of the tissue and yes there are other top[icals like Graftcyte spray and others. But the fastest alternative IMHO would be to purchase a bottle of saline and put it in a spray bottle. Moisten both recipient area and sutured area 3-4 times a day.

 

Yes at this point IMHO you can pour a diluted mixture of mild shampoo and water over the grafts daily and yo can also spray your donor area with this shampoo. Water in itself has healing properties.

 

IMHO, you clearly do not want to apply pressure on the sutures as you gently clean the area. The water and shampoo will gently soften the scabs and excess tissue and will eventually come off by "gently" using your fingertips over and around the area. But the healing in the strip zone takes more time than the recipient area and you don't want to rub off the top layer of those dissolvable sutures too early from applying too much pressure.

 

For most, the scabbing in the sutured area can take as long as 3-4 weeks before all of the scabbing and material is gone.

 

You can IMHO get more aggressive in scrubbing off the "crusts" from the tips of the grafts in 8-10 days post-op. But you may notice that the hair shafts in the grafts coming out with the crusts. This is completely normal.

 

Best wishes to you!