subject: What to expect after your hair transplant [print this page] Author: David Author: David
Different clinics have varying instructions on how to care for your hair transplant after you have had your procedure but the basics are pretty simple. First, when you have your procedure most clinics will give you medications to take for the first few days. These usually include, but are not limited to, anti-biotics, pain killers and sleeping pills. Anti-biotics are usually only given as a precaution against infection as infections are relatively rare with todays methods. The anti-biotic is usually a variant of penicillin. The first four or five days are when a patient is most susceptible to recipient site infection so this time period. Pain killers are usually in the form of Tylenol 3 or some other prescription strength medication. Patients that visit better known clinics with solid reputations usually do not need to take pain killers but they are there just in case. The amount of pain killers will vary from enough for two or three days to enough for one week. Sleeping pills are also not always needed but they can help the patient to relax and sleep soundly. This can be especially helpful when patients are particularly worried that they will damage their new hair grafts from too much tossing and turning in bed. Sleeping pills generally will put the patient into a deep enough sleep that they will wake up in the same position they fell asleep in thus reducing the chance that they will damage their new hair transplant grafts while sleeping. Some clinics will recommend saline water spray to keep the grafted area moist as some hair transplant doctors believe that a moist recipient area will heal better while other clinics recommend dry healing. Other treatments can include vitamin E oil to help lift recipient scabbing and reduce recipient area redness. One of the biggest discrepancies between clinics is how soon one should wash their new hair transplant grafts. Some clinics recommend that the patient carefully wash their hair two or three days after their hair transplant while some other clinics recommend not touching the transplanted area at all for up to three weeks or more. These clinics believe that the scabbing will come off on its own in this time frame and that this natural approach is best. With regards to physical activities, again, most clinics have similar requirements. Two or three weeks is needed to wait for any cardio activities such as running or biking. This is to prevent too much sweating in the recipient area which could cause any minor infection to spread to other areas of the scalp. Heavy lifting is almost always recommended at one month. This will include bench pressing, leg squats and other heavy activities that could potentially cause undue stress for the hair transplanted grafts or the donor are. Some clinics are so cautious about this that they recommend no strenuous physical activity for up to six months post-op. Ultimately, in the end, if you do decide to undergo a hair transplant always follow your particular clinics advice. If you dont and something goes wrong then you want to be able to say you followed their instructions to the letter so that they cannot use that as an excuse to not back up their work. A great source for hair transplant information- www.hairtransplantinsider.comAbout the Author:
