1 week post op... & Hurricane Harvey

[curiousgirl]

Hey y'all, I'm in an unusual situation... So before I even share my experience of my recent hair transplant on here, I'm concerned about some unexpected issues I've been faced with this week. I'm staying with family in Houston (fine timing, right?!?!?) & had an FUT earlier last week with Dr Arocha. I realized by Monday I wouldn't be able to get my sutures taken out this week because of the flooding here in Houston. Unfortunately, 2 nights ago we had to evacuate the house due to quickly rising flood waters. Luckily, we barely got spared water in their house by inches... a pure miracle, & we're in a safe, dry, & clean place with food until things are settled down & I head back to my own home. It was really an ideal place, all things considered!

 

So here're my concerns... The night before we evacuated, I did light yoga stretching (no poses putting my head below my heart) for the 1st time in a couple of weeks. But when we had to evacuate, I had to help my parents move things around to prepare for the worst a little more than I intended. I also had to go in & out of the house in the pouring rain to take things to the car. There was a little pressure & tightness in my head from squating down (I tried to avoid bending, but did a few times)... & just when the pain had finally subsided from last week's procedure. I figured the sensation may have been from the movement. It was fine the next day, but any worry there with all that moving around?

 

The next issue is ever since earlier this week because of all the rain, I've had to keep my head covered a lot more than last week, when I hardly went outside at all. I'm in another location around strangers where i need to keep it covered this week until I get to my home this weekend. I'm alternating scarves & even beanie hats (it's actually been very cool here because of the excess rain). Should I worry about having to cover my head so often only a week post-op?

 

My parents' house is now safe to stay in, aside from no power, but it's very musty & messy, & there could be hidden mold for all we know. So should I avoid staying there so as not to expose my head to any extra rain/storm related elements in & around the house? Logic tells me yes because I've already been exposed to so many varying elements.

 

On a good note, the transplanted area is looking better. The hairs are slowly growing & they already feel like a buzzcut. The forehead area is little itchy still (which I mentioned in another thread), esp from taking the hats & scarves off & on. What a mess...... Anyway, any ideas & suggestions are appreciated. Hopefully I'm just overthinking some of this, but it is causing me a little worry, now that I can actually sit & think about it.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Honestly, everything sounds fine. Even though hair transplant doctors tell you not to do anything to put a strain on the donor area and keep your head covered in the sun, a little bit of movement is not going to hurt things long term. I have been in situations while I was healing, even as early as a couple days to a week after surgery where I was moving around and I felt more pressure in my head then I thought I should and I began to worry. But everything turned out just fine. Even though hair transplant doctors tell you not to do anything to put a strain on the donor area and keep your head covered in the sun, a little bit of movement is not going to hurt things long term. I have been in situations while I was healing, even as early as a couple days to a week after surgery where I was moving around and I felt more pressure in my head then I thought I should and I began to worry. But everything turned out just fine.

 

Far as your scalp being exposed to the sun on and off, that shouldn't be a problem either. It's not like you were sunbathing on the beach with your scalp pointing at the sun and you have severe sunburn.

 

You can and probably should check with your hair transplant surgeon just to doublecheck and make sure, it never hurts to get extra reassurance especially from the expert… The from my years of experience with surgery as a patient and a knowledgeable advocate, I believe you will be fine.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[curiousgirl]

Thanks for your knowledge, Bill. I figured some of it was precautionary because men tend to be more active than women & I would imagine they would be more restless. I'm not too active anyway because I'm not athletic, so I'll keep the activity to a minimum anyway except some light yoga & walking. I finally had the sutures taken out today (only got delayed a couple of days), so from what I've read on here before, that'll help out a lot with the pressure I'm still having a little.

 

It's not the sunlight I was worried about. We hadn't had sun in about a week here until today, & I wore a cap on top of a light scarf today (the cap is a little loose without something underneath). I was just worried about rainwater seeping thru my beanie hat or scarf to the donor area. I eventually had to put a shower cap on, it was raining so hard. I'm leaving tomorrow though & going back to my home, so it'll be drier & cleaner... So hopefully no worries about another storm coming to my area!

 

I did ask about activity at the follow up today & the tech guy said just no heavy lifting, but I can bend forward & down. I've just been extra cautious about that because I've had other surgeries before where I had to be gentle with those kinds of movements for weeks while the scar areas stretched safely. My skin is generally very tight, which I've been told is common with women. I'm amazed that some guys can have more than one FUT. I definitely don't think that'll be possible with me, so I plan to have an FUE next (pending how this one grows). I learned more about it after my FUT last week, & it definitely sounds less painful!

[gillenator]

I think you will be just fine CG...does not sound like you did anything that will put your grafts at risk.

 

Just was concerned to hear that you were in the Houston area during the hurricane.

 

Wishing you the best in your recovery and please know that many of you Houstonians are in our thoughts and prayers!

[curiousgirl]

Thanks Gillenator, prayers are very much appreciated! We were VERY lucky. Thankfully I had the surgery done the week before the worst part. It would've been terrible if i had to have dealt with evacuating the house & moving around a lot the day or 2 post op.... Eek!!! At this point, I'm a little worried about the impact of stress on a HT. But the tech guy that pulled out my sutures yesterday said they look good & rooted. The only issue he saw was scabs in the donor area... Cuz I wasn't able to take a good shower for a couple of days & this week has been crazy since. My head was feeling VERY funny today since he took them out, so I took more pain medicine & it helped. My best friend is a nurse & said the skin is shifting & not to worry.... It was slightly uncomfortable, I can't really describe it, but it's better than it was this morning. Once I can get past this sensation & back in my own home, & able to finally sleep longer in my own bed, I'll be a lot more relaxed!

[gillenator]

Sounds like you are healing well and you will undoubtedly notice improvement more so week to week, rather than day to day.

[curiousgirl]

Thanks! It's looking better than it did last week. I'm now 2 weeks post op, the redness is gone, & the scabs are finally starting to fall off. It just worries me when little transplanted hairs come down with them, but I watched some videos & I've heard this is normal? My regular hair has been shedding quite a bit too... & also a few sometimes come out when the donor scar scabs come off because I have long hair & they're hard to get to :-/

 

My biggest worry for the week is the head sensation. The top of my head felt very strange yesterday... Almost like there was a bump & some other weird sensation, & it was hurting. It felt better today, though. My nurse friend said I should expect to feel sensation there for a while, although he's not familiar with this procedure, of course. So I'm wondering how long this head sensation is gonna last? There's still some numbness too above the donor scar. I watched some 2 week post op videos over the weekend & it sounds like this is common. The good news is I can lay my head on a regular pillow & ive been catching up on sleep... Still worn out from last week's flood ordeal, along with healing from this.

[gillenator]

CG,

 

All of those sensations that you are feeling are undoubtedly related to the countless number of blood vessels and nerves that get severed when hundreds and hundreds of recipient incisions are made to the scalp. And the numbness above the donor scar is also related to nerves.

 

The good news is that they do heal and nerve endings grow...it does vary as far as how long it takes for those feelings to subside but they do eventually.

 

The graft hair typically does come off with the scabs and crusts. And yes oftentimes there is sympathetic shock loss to the existing hair. All very normal and even expected.

 

This is why it really does take a full 12 months for everything to heal and mature but it was always well worth it for my own experience having had 4 separate procedures in my life so far...

[curiousgirl]

Gillenator, thanks again for the response & explaining what the sensations are. I figured it had something to do with nerve endings. I'm finally off of pain meds this week! I was running out anyway & had to alternate with some Valium to not freak out about it. I had some serious power sleep this past weekend, & my head is feeling MUCH better so far this week. The only thing bothering me is the itching, but it's somewhat tolerable. It's still numb in the same areas, but it's not as tight as before. I do have past experience with numbness. I had a bad car wreck in college & had to have surgery on my hip to salvage my leg... Long story short, the leg & hip area near where they did part of the surgery was numb for months.

 

This HT is for another traumatic accident when I was a toddler.... I haven't been lucky in some ways, but blessed in others (c'est la vie). Maybe I'll write more about it later on here... But I'm just glad to get this through this so I can not have to be reminded of the past all the time. In the meantime, I'm reading up & watching as much as I can about people's experiences. So far, things look like they should at the 1, 2, & now 3 week mark, as of yesterday, & I still have most of the hairs. It's past the buzzcut feel, & now feels weird like doll hair... I don't even know what hair feels like at various shortened stages cuz I've always had it long, so I've had to ask some of my male friends

[curiousgirl]

Ok, I'm almost 5 weeks post op now. I've experienced some shedding in the past couple of weeks, but I still have many of the transplanted hairs left. Feeling has slowly gotten back to the top of my head. I have a couple of questions...

 

1) I took a few weeks off of physical fitness & yoga, but I needed to get back on it as soon as possible. Yoga is my medication for anxiety & depression, & without the meds I was on right after the surgery, symptoms started creeping back. I'm able to get into some downward dog positions (although I'm not trying to hold them too long or intensely). My question is when would it be safe to do poses that require pressure on the head, like headstand? Not that I'm wanting to go into one anytime soon, just curious if I should wait several months to a year. The top of my head is still numb a little where one applies pressure for a headstand, but it's gotten better. Honestly, I'm not even going into child's pose all the way because you have to press your head down on the mat as well.

 

2) I've mostly been wearing scarves & headbands around town, & only wear my hairpiece (which just covers the top part, no adhesives ever used before or after) if I need to look presentable / dressed up, which is only a few isolated hours a week. Now that some of the main shedding is out of the way, is it ok to wear tighter fitting headbands, or should I stick with looser fitting ones? The ones I bought are all tight fitting at first & then loosen up with wear, & you can wear several to a dozen different styles (i.e., beanie, do-rag, bandana, pirate, headband, & more). I usually wear them for a few hours around the house after work, but not all day. It's still a couple of months away in Texas before I'll be able to wear beanie hats comfortably. They're also in different colors... Which means they've been dyed. Any concern there with them affecting transplanted hairs & hair growth? Someone mentioned on Amazon reviews that they wash theirs before use, so it made me wonder. That's why I wish I could wear beanies because they don't press down on the head as hard.

[gillenator]

CG,

 

Hey it's nice to see that you are doing well regarding your recent procedure...

 

First off, with FUT, the main concern with the scar is that it does not stretch and heal wide so that it is visible.

 

Being that females tend to wear their hair length longer, they can easily hide the strip scar as compared to men who wish to wear a much shorter hair style.

 

So wearing head bands that are loose, avoiding exercises that do not put tension on the head especially where the strip scar is, are all precautionary measures to avoid a wider than desired scar as it heals.

 

So even if you intend to keep the length of your hair in the back long, it's always nice to heal with a thin scar rather than a wide one.

 

And if you do have another procedure some time in the future, it's advantageous for the surgeon to be able to take out the first scar with the second strip that is harvested so that you always end up with one thin linear scar, instead of 2.

 

And it would not hurt to wash your headbands or scarfs before you wear then for the first time just to be on the safe side. I really don't think it would be an issue.

 

Looking forward to reading about your regrowth in 3-4 months from now and wishing you the best result possible CG...

[curiousgirl]

Hey, I'm almost 3 months post op & thought I'd post a quick update. I don't have any good visible pics to share yet, but I AM getting hair growth! I saw the Dr a couple of weeks ago & even then he said it was good seeing the hair starting to grow at that early of a stage. I was barely starting to see baby hairs poke out about mid October / 2 months post op, which was encouraging to see. He did PRP the day of surgery to help stimulate the scar tissue, & the hair is growing just fine.... So when it really starts growing, a lot of the surrounding scar tissue will be covered even more.

 

Some general things... The strip site is looking good & clean. The sensation on my head FINALLY went away after a couple of months. It felt like it took 4-EH-VOR for my head to feel normal again!! It was driving me nuts. I can still see & feel it under my hair pretty easily (when I pull my hair up), but it's covered very well with my thick hair. I'm hoping some of the short shaven hairs that fell out around it will grow back & make the strip less noticeable. I did have an abscess of some sort on the right side of the strip that wasn't clearing up last month (it wasn't painful), so I was given antibiotics & it cleared up within days. The scabbing left from that area is almost finally gone.

 

As the hairs are starting to grow in, I'm getting some red bumps. There're a couple of them right now on the right side. They feel tender for a few days, & then go away.... I'm assuming these are normal because there wasn't hair there before? I only had a couple of pimples early on, but that was about it.

 

All in all, I cannot WAIT until the hairs really start growing in & get longer, & I'm very glad I was finally able to go thru with this procedure! I've had to cover my head with hairpieces since elementary school in public. My eventual goal is to ditch them, but I'll have to have another HT to fill in the rest. But if this hair grows in right, I hope to pull my hair over to the left side to cover those spots behind the new hairline until I can have an FUE in the future. I won't be able to have FUT again... My skin is just not flexible enough. But I can probably get some "alternative" haircut with the hair shaven below to pull it off. In the meantime, I continue to wear headbands & am enjoying them (i.e. Apha Defense & some other brand I found on Amazon), & wear the hairpiece sparingly. I'll try to post some pics in the upcoming weeks & months once there's more progress to show. I'm really looking forward to Christmas time progress when it's 4 months postop

[gillenator]

Very nice update CG. Everything you are experiencing confirms several things: You are a good healer, you have a healthy auto immune system, your early regrowth is a good sign that you are responding well to the procedure, you should experience a good high yield, and lastly, you had a good surgeon for the procedure.

 

So congrats and continue to wish you the best in your journey...

[curiousgirl]

Thanks again, Gillenator! It's been a while, & I'm around 4 1/2 months post-op, so I'll share another quick update...

 

The hair continues to grow... slowly, but surely. Maybe I should stop looking in the mirror every single day, but it's starting to thicken up on the sides. The only thing I'm worried about is that the top hairs aren't growing in as thick as they are on the sides. I'm guessing (& hoping) that this is because those side hairs fell out from shock loss a few months ago before the top hairs? I've been watching monthly videos of random people to see what kind of growth they have, & it looks pretty similar & consistent... so I hope it thickens up soon on top. I know it doesn't grow in evenly, I just wished it would.

 

Now that it's actually been colder in Texas, I'm trying to wear a beanie hat more often than a headband so that the hairs can get more air. In the meantime, I've been playing around with hair extensions... I never realized this was such a thing with modern women's hairstyles. Once the tops hairs grow in more, I can mix these in to cover a few bald patches fairly easily, & it'll look a lot more natural than a hair piece. I was a bit worried about how I was gonna cover it before. But luckily, both of my parents had thick hair in their youth, so I'll be able to cover up a good deal. I'm looking forward to playing around with where I'm going to put the hair... but it's still gonna be months, probably not until the summer, until I can wear the extensions by themselves without wearing some other scarf, headband, or hairpiece.

 

All in all, it's so nice to see hair growing in onto a large area where not much hair has existed since I was a toddler. It'll be refreshing to not have to feel so self conscious about it in the near future. Here's to more hair growth...

 

And cheers to the New Year!

[gillenator]

CG,

 

Ha!...I can relate to the looking in the mirror every day and sometimes umpteen times in one day to see if are any noticeable visual changes...anyone who has ever had a HT procedure can relate to this...

 

One thing for sure and something you can look forward to is when you get beyond 6 months post-op...that's when the regrowth really kicks in.

 

Also, hair grows on average 1/2 inch per month so it takes roughly 6 months to gain 3 inches in length....but it will happen!...:cool:

[curiousgirl]

6 months... got it! This may be a silly question that's most likely been answered a bunch of times by now, but it's been tricky trying to search for a straight forward answer. How long do new hairs actually come out of the head? This past week, I noticed I had some new ones poking out on top (the part that's been slower to grow in because of the delayed shock loss)... spiky feeling for a few days, then they smooth out. So how much longer should I expect new hairs like that to pop out? Do new ones pop up over several months still or longer, & when are MOST of the implanted hairs out as they continue to grow? Or is that different for everyone? I keep hearing percentages on some videos (like 45% growth), but I don't know if they're talking about the hairs that've already come out, or the length of the hairs that've already been growing. I noticed a chunk of regular hairs that were shaved from the strip site have grown in & are already a few inches long, while the implanted hairs are obviously not that long... darn. The longest ones on the right side are almost as long as my pinky tip to the knuckle.

[gillenator]

You can have new grafts coming through up to 12 months or so post-op although most of the growth will take place between 5 - 9 months. The key word is "most".

 

There are always variances especially with new grafts...some grow out to length faster than others. And the growth cycles behave intermittently. So there's really no way to predict how things will go until enough time has passed, meaning at least 12 months post-op.

 

The blood supply will also vary throughout the recipient zone and improves with each month that passes but the healing period takes time and like anything else, will vary between individuals. There are so many blood vessels that are dissected from the recipient incisions but once they heal up, things improve.