Picking Off Transplant Scabs a Month After Surgery

Hello, I had a hair transplant early in january, roughly two months ago, it was only a small procedure of about 700 grafts. However I have been reading about the scabbing process and I am very concerned that I may have damaged my grafts. I was very careful after surgery for about two weeks, the scabs were still strongly in place so i followed advice and scrubbed a little harder and let them soak. During weeks 3 – 4 the scabs were still there, not attached to my head but somewhere near the end of the grafts, most of them being lose. The area was very itchy and the scabs looked a mess being very flakey in my hair.

Anyway over 2 or 3 days i used my finger to rub and loosen the remaining scabs, considering it was nearly 4 weeks on i thought this would be ok. When picking the scabs off some of the grafts were still attached to the scabs. I have been told that it is natural for the grafts to come out first with the scabs and that after 2 weeks the grafts are fixed in place so its hard to damage them. However i am very worried that the result i achieve will be poor because I didn’t just let the scabs be, the rate they were going i think it could have been about 5 weeks before they would have gone. I know picking (encouraging) the scabs to come off when the hair is dry is wrong, but i didn’t at the time. Do you think any permanent damage will have been done?

kind regards.

I do not know why your scabs would be there at a month after surgery. Just washing your hair with soap and water should’ve taken them off. I would like to know if the grafts were the large plugs, which used to produce scabs lasting 2-3 months with poor hygiene.

We did a graft anchoring study, which basically concluded that as long as the scabs are in place, the grafts might come out. Pulling scabs and grafts from the scalp just is a set-up for infection (folliculitis). Good hygiene should have started the day after surgery. Where were your post-operative instructions? The surgeon should’ve provided them to you.