A: In a properly performed follicular unit hair transplant, the patient can remove any bandages the day after the procedure and gently shower/shampoo the transplanted area.

The bandages do not need to be reapplied.

The reason the dressing can be removed so soon is that follicular unit grafts fit into tiny needle-size incisions that heal in just one day.

A: At five days after a hair transplant the grafts are pretty secure, but still can be dislodged.

However, if there was no bleeding, it is unlikely that you lost any grafts.

A: Before you go to bed, take a long shower and shampoo during the shower for at least 5 minutes, with a very thorough rinsing. As soon as you get out of the shower, while your hair is still wet, put on a shower or bathing cap that will hold in the moisture. Sleep in this cap and then take a long shower/shampoo when you awake. This will remove some or all of the crusts. The process should be repeated each night until all the crusting is gone.

At 10 days post-op the grafts are permanently in place, so any residual crusts can be scrubbed off. However, I wouldn’t scrub before 10 days following the surgery. For your next hair restoration procedure, I suggest that you are more vigorous with showering, particularly the day following the hair transplant, to remove any exudate (oozing) so that the crusting can be prevented. This is much easier than having to remove them after they form.

A: Grafts are generally permanent 9 days following a follicular unit hair transplant procedure, so you may shampoo the flakes off at this time. If larger grafts were placed (with correspondingly larger recipient sites), the grafts will be subject to being lost for a slightly longer period of time. After 9 days, you may shave or clip the hair in the transplanted area if you like, but this will not affect the success of the hair restoration one way or the other.

Visit: Graft anchoring following a hair transplant

A: Patients leave the office after the surgical hair restoration wearing only a tennis band wrap and a surgeons cap (that can be worn under a baseball cap).

The morning following the hair transplantation, the dressing can be removed and no further dressings or bandages need to be used.

The day following hair transplant surgery I suggest patients to take 3 or 4 showers to remove the crusting as it forms. The crusts are removed by gently shampooing with a copper-peptide based product. After the 1st day following the procedure, the crusts no longer form and showering/shampooing can be decreased to twice a day; morning and night.

After the first week, showering once a day is fine.