Could very dry winter weather damage a hair transplant?

[Transhair]

It's more a random thought, but I had my transplant in February towards the end of summer, which from month 2.5 or so, it was all very cold winter weather in excessively dry rural Australia. My scalp remained red/pink for 9 months, and the moment it stopped being so cold and dry, it immediately returns to a relatively normal skin colour.

I had seen a dermatologist and a hair tranplant surgeon who both didn't see anything 'wrong' with the redness, so could it be a possible physiological condition related to the weather?

 

I'd also add that I rely on T gel and occasional nizoral to fix scalp flaking in winter while I just about never shampoo in summer, normally

[Dr Blake Bloxham]

Hi Transhair,

 

Altogether, no; dry, wintery weather wouldn't damage your transplant. It can definitely wreck havoc on your skin and cause drier, brittle hair (that looks a little thinner) in general, but it should not affect a maturing transplant.

 

The pinkness in the scalp with the weather changes may be related to the transplant in some sense. There are a lot of changes that happen to the scalp when you pump it up with fluid, make thousands of cuts in it, and then place thousands of new little organoids into it and expect it to regrow new nerve and vascular supplies! But even if you did have some pinkness that was secondary to some change in the skin, it wouldn't hurt the follicles growing in. And it very well could be something that the blood supply in your skin did naturally before the transplant (this is actually one of the ways our body regulates temperature) and you're just noticing it it more now because you're paying attention to it. But it doesn't seem abnormal either way, and it sounds like you did the right thing by seeing a specialist -- who said something similar.

 

The only real weather phenomenon that can affect the transplants is a legitimate scalp sunburn between month 0 to 6. Long story short, the follicles don't have good defense mechanisms against this type of direct light/heat, and it actually can affect yield. But you would have definitely known if the pinkness you're describing was secondary to a real burn like this.

 

Hope this helps!

Edited December 8, 2016 by DrBlakeBloxham
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