8 weeks post-op, way too much alcohol

[secondtryuser]

Hi, 

I’m 8 weeks post-op and last night after work I went out with colleagues as we had a reason to celebrate. I ended up having about 8 drinks. It’s the first alcohol I’ve had since the transplant. 
 

I’ve looked at many resources online and they (often coming directly from doctors) all say you can drink. But then the grey area of ‘just don’t over do it’. What is over doing it? 

More importantly, what impact does over doing it have on your grafts? Specifically, can it limit their growth or kill them? 
 

Any advice warmly received! 😀

[DomTransplant]

Youre over worrying. Advice on the cautious end stops at 30 days. You've done no harm.

Overdoing it would mean frequent binge drinking which may restrict blood vessels and hence slow potential growth.

Edited January 25 by DomTransplant

[TheGreatPretender]

You're absolutely out of harm about 8 to 9 days post op lol. There's no way you can damage grafts after so long. 

Forget about it and move on. 

[secondtryuser]

2 hours ago, DomTransplant said:

frequent binge drinking which may restrict blood vessels and hence slow potential growth.

And would this be a concern only in the first 30 days, or afterwards too (and if afterwards, for how long?)?

[Chrisno]

It will not impact your growth. Relax.

[HappyMan2021]

you could consume all the alcohol and drugs in the world right now, and it will have no effect on the HT. 

I do not advise this at all, but there is no correlation. 

The correlation between alcohol/drugs and hairloss is an overhyped old wives tale. If drugs/alcohol were truly bad for your hair, every down-on-their-luck person living in the street would be bald. This is NOT the case. 

[Sunset Dune]

8 hours ago, HappyMan2021 said:

you could consume all the alcohol and drugs in the world right now, and it will have no effect on the HT. 

I do not advise this at all, but there is no correlation. 

The correlation between alcohol/drugs and hairloss is an overhyped old wives tale. If drugs/alcohol were truly bad for your hair, every down-on-their-luck person living in the street would be bald. This is NOT the case. 

There are lots of alcoholics and drug addicts out there that don’t even have MPB lol

[secondtryuser]

Firstly - thanks to everyone for their contributions. 
 

I guess now this has moved more to interest rather than my own personal experience, and hopefully others who come to search the forum will find this thread useful. 

Totally get the point on zero correlation between alcoholics and MPB, but, isn’t there a difference between newly implanted grafts and hairs that haven’t been implanted? And if so, when can we stop thinking of grafts as ‘new’, i.e. when do they behave like normal non-transplanted grafts? Is this after that precarious 10-14 day post-op period, as soon as they are completely bound to your scalp and would require surgery to remove them? 

Or alternatively, do they continue needing extra nutrients (and where alcohol may become problematic as it is also carried in the bloodstream) for a while in order to survive? And if the answer to this is ‘yes’, then how long is a while?

Edited January 26 by secondtryuser

[Cooper48]

I think of it simply.  At 8 weeks your grafts are normal functioning hair follicles. They are just in the telogen phase.  If what you do would affect your hair before transplant it probably will affect the hair that has been placed in a different position on your head.  Chances are you have had a few nights out before the transplant and had no impact on your hair.  Obviously heavy regular drinking would wreak havoc on your body's nutrients, minerals, etc. and you could expect all of your hair to become brittle, etc. 

[secondtryuser]

On 1/26/2024 at 3:40 PM, Cooper48 said:

I think of it simply.  At 8 weeks your grafts are normal functioning hair follicles. They are just in the telogen phase.  If what you do would affect your hair before transplant it probably will affect the hair that has been placed in a different position on your head.  Chances are you have had a few nights out before the transplant and had no impact on your hair.  Obviously heavy regular drinking would wreak havoc on your body's nutrients, minerals, etc. and you could expect all of your hair to become brittle, etc. 

I like this way of thinking about it