Hair Transplants and the Sun

I was told that I should stay out of the sun for several months after my transplant. I go tanning a lot and so I’ve been wearing a hat while I go tanning but it leaves a very noticeable line on my forehead. I’m just wondering how long you recommend I keep my newly transplanted scalp out of the lights danger?

Keeping out of the sun for about 2-3 months after a hair transplant is the recommendation. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. UV light damages new colligen tissue formation
2. A hair graft has a small amount of skin in the area where the hair exits. This skin has always been protected from the sun in their original position in the back of the head, because the hair has given this skin some canopy of almost complete protection from harmful UV light. In the grafts’ new position, they do not have the protection of other hairs, so the sun may burn the ‘tops’ of the grafts. I have seen white skinned people show a series of red dots from the first exposure to sun (small scattered sun burns in the distribution of the grafts).

You can use a sun screen with a SPF 15 after a month or so if you want to shorten the timeline.