When Can the Grafts Come out?

Hi there Doctor Rassman, I’ve got a question for you about graft safety/anchoring. It has been roughly 13 days (12 days, 14 hours) since my procedure – I had a temporal/hairline restoration of about 2200 grafts.

My question is simple, at 12-13 days post-op is there any single circumstance that can dislodge a graft? My crusts started flaking off about 9 days post-op. I have been washing using the fingertips to gently massage and soak the crusts, and they seem to be flaking off no problem. Sometimes throughout the day, i will gently massage the scabs with my fingertips (without washing my hair, just dry) and the crusts will continue to flake off. I am noticing hairs in many of the scabs, but I know this is normal.

However, I noticed a few particularly persistent scabs. I did not peel or pull on the scab, but rubbed it much more vigorously with my finger tips until it came off, however, I noticed a slight bit of bleeding in the area where the scab was.

I have two questions.
1) If you do not see any bleeding, but see a hair/bulb in your crusts as they flake off, is it 100% certain that the growth center has not been dislodged?
2) If you DO see bleeding, is that generally a guarantee that the growth center has been dislodged with the scab?

There are no 100% guarantees, but it is probable if there is no crusting and you did not pull out the graft (and it shed on its own), a hair with a bulb after 12 days will leave behind the growth center. See the medical paper I co-authored, Graft Anchoring in Hair Transplantation (PDF file).

Bleeding should not change what I said above, but why are you bleeding 12 days after a surgery?