13 days post FUE...too much hair falling out?

[titansfan777]

So the day before thanksgiving I had 2,000 grafts done. I had a great surgery and everything went as planned.

 

The recovery was easy and on day 10 I got a haircut. I instructed them to not touch the recipient area and she did a great job of not touching the area minus running the clippers over it accidentally right where it met with the regular hair. But she barely touched it so I didn't care, even though it made my heart skip a beat when she did it.

 

Anyway, almost none of the scabs/crusts were falling off even with me washing it as instructed (wait 3 days after surgery, then use a cup of warm water + baby shampoo + lightly massaging). So I put a little argan oil on my hair before I went to bed yesterday and voila - all of the crust started falling off this afternoon.

 

So I washed my hair this afternoon and all of the crust is off of my head...however, tons of hair came off with the crust - I mean I may have lost 500-1000. Some pieces had 2-4 hairs in them. I did not see anything that looked like a bulb at the end but the hairs were so tiny and my eyesight isn't the best. I am wondering how many hairs with the bulbs I lost?

 

Anyway, I lost hundreds and hundreds of hairs all in one day here which seemed a bit over the top. I understand the hair will start to fall out around two weeks, but this just seemed startling to lose that many and right at two weeks on the dot. I figured I would lose a bunch every day for a couple of weeks, but not half of it in only the span of one afternoon. Has this happened to anyone here? And if so, what did they say/what did you find out? Is this normal?

 

 

 

 

Pictured below is a picture of my sink. I cleaned it out a few times today as I washed my hair, and each time was like what is pictured. Just tons of hair falling out in addition to the crust.

Edited December 10, 2014 by titansfan777

[FUE2014]

Hmmm, are those all your grafts? Hopefully someone will chime in.

[Cryingoutloud]

Jesus !!

 

I don't know about anybody else but it looks to me like there's a bit more than just hairs there. Definitely looks like full grafts.

 

I was going to suggest that they wouldn't be so fleshy after all this time but if the sink still had some water in it, then the dried up, dead grafts could still absorb the water and look like fresh grafts.

[mikeey]

titansfan777 .... Relax dude this is "NORMAL " you are doing fine after 8 days the grafts are secure and embedded in your skin ..... what u see is just the scabs that are fallen off with the dead hair that was discarded by the roots/ grafts ...... you are absolutely fine !

[FUE2014]

titansfan777 .... Relax dude this is "NORMAL " you are doing fine after 8 days the grafts are secure and embedded in your skin ..... what u see is just the scabs that are fallen off with the dead hair that was discarded by the roots/ grafts ...... you are absolutely fine !

 

Really?? That does look like a lot of grafts, should there really be that many falling out in one go, it is pretty startling as the OP says.

[Cryingoutloud]

That doesn't look like just hairs with the usual scabs attached. More than a few of them look like grafts.

 

Of course, I could be wrong because the photo isn't hi res but I'm just saying what they LOOK like

[titansfan777]

I assumed that after 8 days or so that the grafts are permanent as I was told. However, do you guys really think these are full grafts or just hair with a lot of crust?

[Gram]

You should ask your doc. I hate to say it but even if it's negative he may hedge and say it's fine and to wait 12-18 months for the full result but if he's ethical perhaps he shoots you straight. I'm assuming you trusted your doc otherwise you wouldn't have proceeded so he will be your best resource and you have little choice but to trust what he says for the time being at least. I had a fue procedure where the new grafts eventually fell out but there certainly wasn't a massive shed like that. My procedure was years ago and presumably with a different doc so it's possible given his methodology it's completely normal. See what your doc says as the rest of us are only speculating and in reality don't really know what's up. Good luck man

[Cryingoutloud]

I assumed that after 8 days or so that the grafts are permanent as I was told. However, do you guys really think these are full grafts or just hair with a lot of crust?

 

Typically, when grafts are placed deeply enough into the recipient incisions, it's difficult to dislodge them 8 days post op but if they're not, the grafts will simply dry up and die.

 

However, they won't usually fall out by themselves especially when the patient is being ultra-careful in the immediate post-op period.

 

As soon as the patient gets a little more vigorous in his haircare after the first week, those grafts will fall out. This happened to me and I was getting grafts falling out after 10 days. They looked dried up as you can see below

 

 

If they got into contact with water, they looked a lot like those in the sink in your pictures

[titansfan777]

And since that massive shedding yesterday I haven't lost any hair at all.

 

Well I have an appointment for my 2 week post-op checkup this afternoon to see whats up. Most people seem to think they are just hairs but I have gotten some people saying its something that I do have valid concerns over. Hopefully all will be well. I'll try to post an update as soon as I can tomorrow.

[gillenator]

IMHO, it's definitely the crusts with the dead hair shafts attached that were inside the grafts. Nothing abnormal about it.

 

Your transplanted hair follicles have simply gone into the resting dormant phase and as a result, shed the hair shafts. When the crusts are removed, the dead hair shafts come out readily with most of them.

 

But your follicles are imbedded into the dermis layer of your scalp where the blood supply is. After those transplanted follicles have rested for approximately three months, they will re-enter the growth phase and you will start to see the new growth emerge above the scalp line.