Long Term Redness in Recipient Area?

[Rootz]

It seems in most HT cases the redness in the recipient area is either gone or unnoticeable by the time the transplanted hairs are in full blossom, sort of speak. But I see a few cases here and there where long after post op, when doctors are taking final result pictures, there is still a lot of redness. In hair lines this creates a red line effect, and looks pretty odd.

 

A good example I saw recently is a FUE result on Dr. Lorenzo's website where the entire hairline was redone. I've attached pictures, these are his 8 month post op pics.

 

What causes this? Can it be permanent or does it always eventually fade? What makes someone predisposed to this prolonged redness?

[tacolinowest]

im not 100 percent sure but i think this happens when you expose the transplanted area to sun to early, you should keep it outa the sun for a min of 6 months they say

[Rootz]

im not 100 percent sure but i think this happens when you expose the transplanted area to sun to early, you should keep it outa the sun for a min of 6 months they say

 

That was one of my suspicions, sun definitely will not help. Curious if there's any other factors, or maybe ways to get rid of the redness faster. I wonder how early after a HT you can start putting sunblock on the recipient area?

[Garageland]

Skin tone plays the biggest factor in post op recovery and lingering redness, you will find the immediate hairline where the highest number of grafts are placed will be reddest for longer. I have seen patients recover with no redness within 1 week and I have seen patients still complaining about a pinkness in their scalp for 6+ months.

 

If you have very pale skin you are going to be redder longer. You should wear a hat if out in strong sunlight for 6 months, you can start applying suncream factor 30 plus around the 3 month mark if you are going to be in the sun, but best to wear a hat.

 

Aloe vera gel helped me when applied to the recipient area post op, I was doing this around the 1 week mark.

[northernslaphead]

I have read on here a few times about using distilled witch hazel which is supposedly very good at reducing lingering redness. I think it was spex who posted it.

[TommyLucchese]

I still have some redness, it's quite noticeable when I just get out of the shower with wet hair. I don't think I exposed it to sun as I had my hat on when going outdoors for the first 2 months and by that point, it was the winter in the UK - not much sun!

 

It's a complete non issue but yeah, I admit I didn't expect there to still be some redness in the new hairline by 18 months post op.

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

I generally recommend oil free sun block as soon as the scabs have fallen off. Even a little sun exposure early post operatively can cause a lasting redness.