Frequently Asked Questions about Hair Loss and Restoration

Hi my name is Dr Ken Anderson and I’m here at the Anderson Center for hair and today I’m answering some of your frequently asked questions today’s question is for morah and he wants to know how long after his hair transplant surgery can he exercise and golf great question we get this one a lot it’s kind of a two-part answer for light exercise it’s seven days and for really strenuous exercise it’s 14 days so for things like golfing when it’s not too hot out going for a walk after dinner some light exercise like that you can start doing that at about 7 days for really effusive exercise you’re going to get on that elliptical and tear it up or you’re going to go for a strenuous run or if it’s really hot outside and you want to go golfing that’s going to involve a lot more sweating which is a very diffusive process we kind of want all the wounds to be healed up completely before you do that one of the follow-ups necessary after a hair transplant surgery after a hair transplant surgery I’d like to see patients back at two weeks if they’ve had an FUT linear surgery this of course is to remove the stitches if you’ve had an FUE surgery of course there are no stitches to reboot sometimes when patients are traveling on a plane or from out of stand on a long drive they’ll stop by the clinic the very next morning for just to have us have a look at things and get them rewrapped for their trip back home so sometimes patients can opt to come back the very next day but two weeks for suture removal and then really I don’t need to see patients again until fully one year later it takes one year for the hair to fully grow in I think we’re going to be giving you a call in about 3 months or so and of course all patients are welcome to come back and see me whether virtually or in person to have me check on things but at a year we’d like to see all pences to make sure you’re happy to have a look at the results and to just talk about further hair loss prevention how long after my hair transplant surgery can I go scuba diving and we get questions like that a lot about scuba diving swimming wearing a snowboard helmet a lot of people like to take some time off and go on a little vacation after their procedure the short answer is two weeks and the reason for that is we want all the follicles to be well anchored and fully healed in and we want the wounds all to be healed whether that’s from a linear strip FUT where we’re going to have some stitches removed at about day 14 or with an FUE procedure where there are no stitches but the wounds will be fully healed by two weeks so whether it’s wearing a construction helmet a motorcycle helmet a scuba gear swimming getting into the lake or the pool we want you to wait about 2 weeks if I shave my head how long does it take for the hair to grow back well really you know this question is about how fast does scalp hair grow and the short answer is about 1/2 inch per month on average some may grow a little quicker some a little slower but roughly 6 Ines per year is the rate that’s generally quoted so if you’re planning on trimming down your hair and want to know how long it’s going to take back going to take to get back to its current length plan on 1/2 inch a month if I’m having an FP e procedure do I shave down my head or or do you guys do it for me the short answer is let us do the work a lot of people are aware that especially for larger FUE procedures some of the doar area has to be trimmed down but it has to be trimmed down to a very specific length and that is 1.0 to 1.2 millimeters and we’ve got special trimmers just for that you don’t want to do it yourself I back believe it or not once in 2004 before a big fee case someone came in and they shaved their head with a razor there was no it was there was it was just right down to to the scalp and we had to postpone that case because I need a little bit of the length of the hair sha to help me determine the angle at which to remove that hair from the scalp so don’t do anything when you come in we’re even going to shampoo your hair with a special surgical shampoo so let us do the work and and don’t shave your head before and after you procedure plus you might you might shave too much we try to minimize the amount that has to be trimmed down how long after the hair transplant surgery can I wear a hat great question this kind of depends on the areas that are treated typically all of the follicles that are planted are going to be sort of on top of the head or under where a typical like say baseball cap would fit and so patients can actually wear a baseball cap the next day we don’t want any tight fitting hats or hats that where the material sits right on the scalp but a baseball cap that kind of where the part above the head doesn’t really touch the scalp that’s fine the one exception would be if we’re doing reconstruction of the temporal points which are the little TPS of the hair right in front of the ear on the side of the head if we’ve done reconstruction work there you’d want to wait at least a week before wearing a baseball cap but that’s not typically the case so if we’re just doing a trace line up on top you could wear one the next day your head will be a bit swollen so you’ll kind of want to loosen up that cap before you put it on and kind of put it on carefully so you’re not dragging it across the freshly implanted follicles I’ve read about having to sleep in a reclined or upright position after the surgery for how long do I need to do this I would like patients to sleep in a reclined position if you have a recliner that would be great for three nights after the surgery we do provide one of those inflatable neck pillows like you see a lot of people using on on the an airline flight or you might even use one yourself to help sleep and support your neck this keeps you from rolling around and touching your follicles in the a few days after the procedure it also helps to speed away any swelling keeping the head above the level of a of the heart in in a vertical gravitational sense for as continuously as possible after the procedure for 3 days really helps to speed away any of the swelling that occurs and is most noticeable sometimes in the eyes and face after a procedure one of the questions I get a lot is how do I shower after a hair transplant procedure the main thing is that we don’t want the shower Jets directly hitting the transplanted area where the follicles were placed for a good 5 days after the procedure during this time you’re going to take a plastic cup into the shower with you you’re going to fill it up with some baby shampoo and make a slurry of water and just pour this water onto the treated area on your scalp where the follicles were placed but you’re not going to actually physically touch the the new follicles or your scalp and you’re not going to let the shower Jets hit them directly until day number six after the procedure again all the instructions will be provided but that’s that’s the short answer how long after a hair transplant procedure can I dye my hair the short answer is I wait about 3 weeks after a hair transplant surgery to dye your hair and the reason is because we want all the wounds whether it’s from the stitches in the back or the recipient area follicles where they’re placed we want everything to be nicely healed up and the skin to be completely intact before the dyes are applied to the hair and the scalp is a hair transplant surgery painful great question that’s actually primary concern of a lot of patients well I’m here to say that no I would most patients do not consider it a painful ordeal many patients comment that it really is less intense and less painful than having your teeth cleaned at the dental hygienist I mean this is elective medicine and you know to be truthful pain is bad for business and so we go out of our way to make sure it’s not a painful experience during the procedure when you leave after the procedure patient tell us that where the follicles are placed in the treated area it’s no it doesn’t hurt at all in the back in the donor area if they’ve had a linear FUT procedure where there are stitches there feels a bit like a mild bruise if they’ve had an FUE procedure where follicles are extracted individually and there is no linear scar it feels a bit like a sunburn but it’s a mildly a mild pain most patients will take a single pill of the narcotic medication on the evening after the procedure and then don’t take any more narcotic medication for the duration of their healing process