i had a hair transplant about 3 months ago. is it normal to feel a sensation when you had goose bumps especially on your scalp (recipient area)? as if you could feel that the hairs are erected? i didnt feel this prior to my surgery at all. thank you doctor.
I’m not sure what you may be experiencing. If you have hair in a spot you never had hair prior to surgery, maybe you’re feeling your small nerves recovering from the surgery. Ask your doctor to examine you and give you a better assessment.
I had a transplant about 10 months ago. I can feel the stubbles since back then but it doesn’t seem to grow. It’s now 10 months later and it’s still the same. I had transplants before and almost very quickly, i would notice the thickening and darkening from the previous procedures.
This last procedure was my fifth and don’t seem to see a good result at 10 months. By this time my the transplanted hair should be maturing, correct? I now have about less than 3000 grafts done. Each procedure done in the past, the doctor could never extract enough donor. Perhaps it’s my donor area. Any thoughts?
At 10 months following your hair transplant, you should definitely see growth. Unless I am misreading your question, if you had five procedures that totaled under 3000 grafts, that is not today’s standard of care… however, I can not judge what your doctor was doing.
I’m not even sure what kind of surgery you had — strip or FUE. Plus, I don’t know if he was chasing your hair loss, if you were on finasteride, what your scalp laxity was, etc.
Have you talked to your surgeon about why there’s been no growth after 10 months? If you need a second opinion, you can either schedule a visit in my office or see another good doctor if I’m not local to you.
Hi Dr. Rassman,
I’m 4.5 months post-op and noticing some issues in the past 30 days. I’ve been seeing a lot of dry skin/flaky areas all around where my transplant was completed (dandruff like). These patches of dandruff tend fall off in the shower or when my hair is brushed and have hair attached inside them. Today, I noticed a new one formed and I dabbed at it with my finger and it came off! There was three hairs inside the piece of skin and my head begin to bleed where the hair came from. I thought this flaky skin was a sign of the new hair coming through, but why is hair coming out with them and I should surely not be bleeding? I went through the shedding phase the first month; it should not be happening again.
Clearly there is something wrong, but I do not know what is going on without an examination. In general, you should not have these issues. You may have an infection, you may not be keeping your hair clean, you may have a skin condition, etc. These are all wild guesses, though.
Please go see your surgeon. What you’re describing is not normal.
I’m gonna have a hair transplant in 2 months, In the meanwhile I wear a contact skin bonding foil system applied by glue on the scalp. Can this damage my existing hair or handicap my hair transplant success? I’m removing the contact skin on a weekly basis for washing my scalp.
At the moment there’s no single sign of irritation on my scalp, everything looks fine.
The glues can cause damage to existing hair, but it shouldn’t cause problems with a hair transplant surgery as long as you don’t continue to use it after the procedure. Ask your doctor what they recommend in terms of your preparation and post-surgery concerns, as every doctor is different.
I used minoxidil with no alcohol. Have had 3 transplants with a scar revision. My scalp periodically itches with dry skin flaking off. The scar line also itches at times. I typically use copper peptide solutions. You briefly commented once they can reduce redness after a surgery, but I do get a soothing effect if I apply the product to help the itching
1. Have your thoughts changed at all on copper peptides?
2. Do you they promote hair growth versus some soothing scalp effect?Thanks Doc
1. In my practice, I use a copper peptide shampoo for the first week as an option for hair transplant patients. My practice and thoughts on copper peptides is not new or different.
2. It does not promote hair growth nor does it provide much soothing effect on itchy scalp. I do know that minoxidil can cause scalp irritation (even without any alcohol).
Hello doctor. My question is an honest one and one that hasn’t been asked before.
I had a hair transplant 2 and a half months ago but I still have a lot of pain above the linear scar (when I press it) and also the sensitivity on the top of my head in terrible and is constant. It’s like my hair is being pulled. My surgeon said in 17 years he has no idea what is causing it and never had this problem before. There is also a gap of about 10mm where the scar is and said he said to me he can do a scar reduction in a year. I am so sorry I had this procedure done as the pain is not letting up.
It sounds like you may have a scar entrapment (nerves squeezed by scar) or damage to the occipital nerves in the scarred area. I have had patients report symptoms like what you’re describing when they had a nerve entrapment. Sometimes, a scar will form around the occipital nerves just from the strip surgery, or the nerves could be mechanically damaged, or even partially or completely cut.
Doctors who will examine you will look for something we call a Tenels’s sign, which simply produces some of the symptoms as the doctor taps the area above the nerve. Surgery is a last resort to fix the problem if it is just induced by the scar. If the nerve is cut completely, a surgery most likely wouldn’t help.
I’m 37, male and had 1700 graft hair transplant 10 days ago. I’m very careful of not touching the grafted area even if when it itch. there still a lot of scabs and now my head smells. Even with daily use of shampoo, it still stinks. Is it infected or is it normal? Do I need to start rubbing my graft area when showering to get rid of scabs? Can I now use medicated shampoo like selsun blue or nizoral? Is the graft now fully secured?
These are questions you should pose to your surgeon. It seems that you didn’t get proper aftercare instructions. I always recommend a washing routine starting on the day following surgery; however, it seems that you did not do this.
You might have an infection, so see your doctor to have that checked out.
Dr,
It’s exactly 6 months since my hair transplant. I have plenty of hair that came through at month 4 but it hasn’t changed for 2 months! It’s the same weak, whispy hair that looks awful. I was hoping the transplanted hairs would match my forelock but no luck.
Why is it taking so long?
Maybe it was a bad hair transplant. Maybe you still have have to wait 6 more months. I do not know. You may see results as early as 2 months and as late as 18 months. In general, it takes 6-10 months to see results from a hair transplant.
You also must consider that you may be losing your non-transplanted hair in the area where the transplant was done as a natural progression of balding (which has nothing to do with surgery). You will learn much over the next couple of months. In the meantime, you should follow up with your doctor.
So, I’m getting a hair transplant over in India, which is about a 20-30 hour series of flights, and would like to know if it’s okay to wear a hat afterwards? Like even if it’s just a light bandana, would it be okay for it to touch the grafts lightly for the trip at 6 days post op?
Wearing a hat should be fine. Just make sure that the hat does not rub against the grafts. We give out standard trucker’s hats after the hair transplant procedures we do. You can also double check with your surgeon to find out what he/she recommends.
I had a hair transplant done about 7 weeks ago, with about 1200 follicles transplanted. Up until a month ago everything went as my doc had said. For the last 15-20 days i am seeing many bumps in transplanted site, which I showed to my doc. Firstly i took 50mg cynomycin and when my condition didn’t improve i was advised to increase the dose to 100mg (took total of 10 days). Now I am supposed to be using 4 doses of 750mg of amikacin injection, but so far I took 2 of them. Still, my condition is more or less the same. At this time there are more than 10 bumps and so far I have drained pus from more than 20 such bumps.
My doc got the pus checked for bacterial or fungal growth but there was none in lab finding. In all these days i took even more care than doc has asked to. I want to know if transplant has failed and have these bumps and pus damaged follicles? will these change the final result?
Only your doctor can tell you what is going on and if your transplanted hairs will grow. After all, he was your surgeon and only he fully knows what happened.
In general, pimples after surgery can be common and they can persist for many months, reflecting the production of sebum under the skin from the sebaceous gland that was part of the follicular unit. In some patients, until there is hair growth the sebum collects in small pockets (unable to escape along the non-yet-existent hair shaft). We often drain them with a simple, sterile needle in the office. Transplanted hairs usually grow despite these pimples.
Most patients that experience pimples do not take antibiotics and do well, so it seems that in your case there may be something more than just pimples (with all the antibiotic you are taking). Again, this is something you and your doctor need to talk about as there are other diseases that show up in some patients with autoimmune diseases.
I am in week 7 after my HT and I am seeing plenty of fine new hairs in the left frontal area sprouting up while the right side shows not even a third of that growth. I realize that the transplanted hairs grow at different rates but the difference is too great to ignore. Another cause for concern is that the right side was also the first to shed (I noticed it as early as 10 days after the procedure) so I would assume it would have a ‘head start’ over the other side.
I know that growth usually starts after 2 to 4 months but it still leaves the burning question: why has one area started to show this kind of growth and not the other? My worst fear is that many of the grafts placed in the right area were somehow inferior or died off. I have voiced this to my surgeon, who is very respected and well known, and he tells me to just wait for the full effect after 11 months. I just wanted to hear your opinion. Thank you
I frequently see different start rates on graft growth from different areas. I don’t have an exact answer for why one side grew faster for you. Assuming that the team members that placed your grafts were highly skilled, the only thing I can suggest is to follow your surgeon’s advice and wait it out.
I’ve studied a number of HT docs for hair loss info and I’d say you and Dr. Bernstein are at the top of my list as far as knowledge and being trustworthy. You say that shock loss or additional hair loss from a transplant is uncommon these day though Dr. Bernstein says that you will probably have some loss from the transplant itself. I think he said it would be unrealistic not to expect some loss. Obviously a confusing contradiction for me. Could you address this?
I also find your history with Dr. Bernstein interesting. How do you 2 originally connect? You were partners at one time?
Dr. Robert Bernstein and I do not disagree on much. Hair loss secondary to a transplant is what is commonly called shock loss (it is a matter of degree of loss) and I think that is where your problem is. Traditional shock loss has been satisfactorily treated with finasteride in young men, but hair transplants do damage some existing native hair. Hair that is miniaturized is what is lost first, so what you see may not be a radical change even if you lose some miniaturized hairs that did not contribute to the hair bulk you have.
As for the second part of your email — Dr. Bernstein worked at New Hair Institute with me for 10 years before he opened his own practice in New York. We are good friends and colleagues. We published many groundbreaking medical articles over the years.
Hello doctor,
Just over 4 months into my HT I’ve noticed 1 side is growing faster than the other side! Should I be worried?
I wouldn’t be worried at this stage. The other side should catch up in the next couple of months. We frequently see different rates of growth in different areas for reasons that I can not explain. For example, when we transplant the front and the crown, often one area grows significantly ahead of the other area.
You’re only 4 months post-surgery, so give it at least 2-4 more months to give it a chance to grow in. The full results will be seen within the next 8 months (a year after your surgery).
Hi,
I had a hair transplant 5 years ago. Some months after the procedure, I noticed some persistent pain and sensibility in my scalp, mainly in the scar and areas near it (example: where the eyeglasses touch my head). But it did not heal. The areas near the scar are extremely sensitive. I need eyeglasses to work but its impossible to use them (my astigmatism is incompatible with contact lenses), so my situation is very hard.
Some surgeons said that its necessary to remove the scar, because I could have some neuromas. The scar is very homogeneous, it is not wide, and the HT was made by a very experienced surgeon. He said that this never happened to his patients and has no idea of what happened with me.
I went to some pain specialists (psychiatrists) that told me to take amitriptilin (50mg/day) and pregabalin (Lyrica, 225mg/day). None of them had any effect. Other things I already tried are: laser therapies, topical capsaicin and local injections of corticoids. No results.
Now, the surgeons think that the only thing to do is to a surgery to completely remove the scar, like a new strip (very very thin) for hair transplant, without transplanting follicles. Do you think it is a good idea or the situation can become even worse?
I already did lots of search and some web sites and surgeons comment that it is possible (very rare) to have persistent pain after years of HT, but I never found suggestions of how to treat it.
Thank you.
You have risk no matter what you decide. Have you had injections of steroids into the painful part of the scar? I would need to evaluate you before giving you a recommendation. I’ve written before about nerve damage from a hair transplant in some past posts that might have some value to you:
Can grafts be displaced or dislodged, although they look normal and well stuck in the scalp? I had hair transplant with a combination of HUT and HUE techniques 3 days back. I had a tight dressing on my head after surgery, which was removed 24 hours after surgery. Everything was normal except that I had banged my head sitting in car a few times while going home and jerked off after 6 hours of surgery unaware of the consequences.
The hairs look well stuck in the scalp but is it possible that they may be misplaced from their original position and are lying at the skin border and may fall off. I have seen a few grafts dislodged while cleaning my head, but that no. could hardly cross 5.
I doubt that masturbating after a hair transplant would be a problem. I guess it depends on how vigorous you are with yourself. If you are concerned that some grafts were dislodged, I’d talk to your surgeon about that.