Is this hair shedding normal and expected?

[FUEblonde1985]

Hey guys,

I'm on day 12 from my FUE surgery. On day 8, I was advised to begin directly massaging the recipient area to attempt to get off remaining scabs after soaking the the hair for 10-15 minutes. My scabbing/crusting seemed to be pretty stubborn. I was very gentle for days 8 and 9 when massaging, and I was getting a little bit at a time, but most of the junk just stayed stuck in the recipient area. It was clearly loose, but it wouldn't come out, and I was too afraid to do anything outside the instructions.

For reference, this was my left temple on day 5, before there was really any attempt at getting scabs off:

This is how my left temple looked on day 8 right after the washing/massaging:

Today, (day 12) I felt like a little more direct action was needed, I kept the recipient area under the shower head (with the nozzle set to half pressure so its fairly light) while massaging/rubbing. I noticed today that it seemed like the recipient area was looking a lot different than before, so i took a picture and indeed it seems like about half of the hairs have fallen out already. It seems early, since most of what I've read is shedding happens about a month after. But I've also read that the grafts are fairly secure after the first 72 hours, and definitely fully secure by day 8-10. I was by no means scrubbing my hair like I normally would pre-op (think maybe like the same force you would use to pet an unfamiliar dog?). There was no blood or anything, though if there was any pain from it I would not have noticed because my recipient area is still totally numb.

Here is how it compares:

So my question is - is this just early shedding of the hairs? Couldn't see much of anything in the bathtub.

My second question is - I haven't been able to find any pictures on the web of people whose hair is full of the white stuff that my hair has. I'm a little worried that all of those are grafts that just didn't take, or "popped" out post-op due to bleeding (I was told that I had a lot of bleeding during my surgery).

These seem like they might be dumb questions and I think there is no issue, but...post-op anxiety about everything is getting to me.

 

[VicTNYC]

33 minutes ago, FUEblonde1985 said:

Hey guys,

I'm on day 12 from my FUE surgery. On day 8, I was advised to begin directly massaging the recipient area to attempt to get off remaining scabs after soaking the the hair for 10-15 minutes. My scabbing/crusting seemed to be pretty stubborn. I was very gentle for days 8 and 9 when massaging, and I was getting a little bit at a time, but most of the junk just stayed stuck in the recipient area. It was clearly loose, but it wouldn't come out, and I was too afraid to do anything outside the instructions.

For reference, this was my left temple on day 5, before there was really any attempt at getting scabs off:

This is how my left temple looked on day 8 right after the washing/massaging:

Today, (day 12) I felt like a little more direct action was needed, I kept the recipient area under the shower head (with the nozzle set to half pressure so its fairly light) while massaging/rubbing. I noticed today that it seemed like the recipient area was looking a lot different than before, so i took a picture and indeed it seems like about half of the hairs have fallen out already. It seems early, since most of what I've read is shedding happens about a month after. But I've also read that the grafts are fairly secure after the first 72 hours, and definitely fully secure by day 8-10. I was by no means scrubbing my hair like I normally would pre-op (think maybe like the same force you would use to pet an unfamiliar dog?). There was no blood or anything, though if there was any pain from it I would not have noticed because my recipient area is still totally numb.

Here is how it compares:

So my question is - is this just early shedding of the hairs? Couldn't see much of anything in the bathtub.

My second question is - I haven't been able to find any pictures on the web of people whose hair is full of the white stuff that my hair has. I'm a little worried that all of those are grafts that just didn't take, or "popped" out post-op due to bleeding (I was told that I had a lot of bleeding during my surgery).

These seem like they might be dumb questions and I think there is no issue, but...post-op anxiety about everything is getting to me.

 

It looks fine and normal to be honest man.

That “white stuff” looks to be just the build up of the your dried scalp skin that caked on while you it was healing the first several days and probably formed into what they look like while you were messaging with wash, I do not believe that those are grafts the “popped out”.

[nb98]

All looks fine. I had loads of the white stuff too, just dead skin I think, pain as gets stuck in your hair. 

Think a lot of people worry too much about rubbing when washing too hard. 

[FUEblonde1985]

Thank you both for the reassurance. I need to just stop looking in the mirror.