Postoperative Instructions for Our Patients

Please follow our personal haircare instructions and regime to ensure a fast and smooth recovery.

The first night after the procedure:

You can expect to feel completely normal immediately following the procedure, we recommend you to get some good rest.
A light dressing (bandage) will be placed over the donor area of your head (backside), however the recipient hair transplant area will be left uncovered. Do not let anything touch the recipient areas during the first 3 hours after the surgery. During this short time, the grafts will become dry and loosely attached to the recipient channels. Sitting in a comfortable position, keep the head elevated and untouched during these 3 hours.

Immediately after and 3 hours after FUE.

You can go to bed to rest or sleep about 3 hours after the operation. We provide an inflantable travel sleeping pillow. The best sleeping position would be to lie on your back, this way the back donor areas of your head would be propped up with the neck pillow. You should elevate your head slightly and prevent the recipient areas from coming in contact with anything.
We will provide any required medications (painkillers and antinflammatory drugs) that you may need during the post operative recovery. If you had been taking any medications prior to the surgery, you can continue to take them following the surgery.

The first month after the procedure:

The light dressing over the donor area will be removed on the day following the intervention (Day 1). No extra care or treatment will be necessary for the back donor areas of the scalp. The tiny holes on your scalp will be healed in a day. No need for washing the head for the 4 days following the FUE transplant.
After the removal of your bandages, you can begin to use a hat to camouflage your head. We will provide you with a hat for you to use during the first 10 days. Said hat is just for your embarrassment, – if you wish, you can either leave your head uncovered or cover it with the hat when you go outside. You can use any hat 10 days after the operation.

Some patients may experience a slight edema (swelling) around the eyes 2-3 days after the surgery. This will improve in 2-3 days.
You will be able to resume your normal daily activities the day after the intervention. You may travel by plane or by other means of transportation the next day of the surgery or any time afterwards.
After we remove the bandage the next day, you can sleep in any position – over the back, sides or on the stomach. Additionally, you can lie on the donor areas too. However, for the first 10 days you should avoid letting the transplanted areas touch the pillow or anywhere for that matter. The grafts should not be moved or swept.
You can begin light physical exercising 5 days after the surgery. Rigorous physical exercises or full sport activities in general may be started or resumed 3 weeks after the FUE transplant.
You can go to the beach, sunbath and even swim and dive about 10 days after the operation.
You will protect the transplanted area from direct trauma during the first 10 days following the operation. Nothing else -sun, rain, dusty environment etc.- needs to be worried about.

Washing the head after FUE transplant:

No need to wash the head for the first 4 days after your FUE transplant. However, you can begin washing the rest of your body the very next day of the surgery.
You will begin to wash your head 4 days after the operation. That means, the next day of the surgery is day 1.
As an example, if you were to undergo the operation on a Monday, the first day of your head washing would be Friday. You may wash anytime of the day.
After the first washing day, you will continue washing your head once or twice a day until the scabs have fallen out and the transplanted area becomes clean. This may take 10-15 days of washing after your first start.
We provide you with a Bepanthenol lotion and a Sebamed shampoo to wash your head. If you lose them during your return trip, you can buy and use any baby shampoo and perform the washing using only it. No need to get a lotion in this case. The baby shampoo replaces them both.

The 1st week of the washing (starting after 4 days postoperatively, between the 4th and the 12th days of post transplant):

During the first week, you will only be tapping (gentle touching) the transplanted areas during the washing and shampooing of your head. You will not apply any rubbing or massaging. You can wash the donor area as you wish, this means that you can also rub or massage the donor areas with shampoo.
Without wetting your head beforehand, apply the lotion (Bepanthol) on the transplanted area, make a thick layer of the lotion there, then wait about 10 minutes. Nothing wrong in applying some lotion over the donor areas but there is no actual need for that.

10 minutes later, apply the shampoo on top of the lotioned transplanted areas and perform some gentle tapping to mix the shampoo with the lotion there. Also, you may apply the shampoo over the donor areas.
Immediately, you can begin rinsing your head by means of lukewarm water and with low pressure. To be as gentle as possible is important during the first week of the head washing. Additionally, you will tap the transplanted areas only with your fingertips during the washing and shampooing of your head.
After some rinsing, add the shampoo again one or two more times and continue rinsing with water until you clean the residues of the lotion and then rinse with water abundantly at the end.
You can touch and dry the donor area and your face with a towel. However, do not touch the transplanted areas with a towel and leave it to dry by itself.

2nd week of washing (between the 12th and the 20th days of post transplant):

Everything is exactly the same as the first week of head washing. Put the lotion first over the transplanted area, wait 10 minutes, then add the shampoo over the lotioned area and over the donor area. Begin to wash the head with gentle/low pressure lukewarm water.
This week, in addition to tapping the transplanted areas by hand, you can also begin very gentle fingertip rubbing and massaging during the washing process. Shampoo and rinse 2-3 times with gentle fingertip massaging and rinse abundantly with water at the end. Again, do not use any towel to dry the transplanted area this week, leave it dry by itself.
During the 2nd week of the washing, the accumulated scabs begin to fall and the area becomes cleaner and neater. Once the transplant area becomes clean, you can stop using the lotion and continue with your favorite shampoo to wash your head.

3rd week of washing and after (beginning the 20th day post transplant):

You can go back to your normal washing habits, this means washing your head however you wish, basically you can go back to the same life style that you had been leading before the operation and also using your favorite shampoo. Furthemore, you can perform a massage with your fingertips and hand palms normally while washing your head. Any scabs left at this point, leave them alone and they will detach themselves spontaneously a few days later. Do not try to remove any scab forcefully with your nails or through rough rubbing.

Use of Proscar if Recommended and Provided:

We provide you with 2 boxes of Proscar (Finasteride 5 mg tablets) which is an enough for 1 year after the surgery. Using the pill splitter tool which we give you also, you will split the pills first in halves – ½, then split each one of the halves in two, this way you will get 4 portions (quarters- ¼) from each pill (1.25 mg of 5 mg pill).
You can start taking the proscar in a week after the surgery or even the very next day of the operation day. You can take it in the morning or in the evening, it is totally up to you, just decide your best time to take it. You will start taking a quarter -1/4 of a tablet daily and you will use this dosage for the first 4 months of the treatment. For the remaining 8 months, you will proceed with a quarter -1/4 of a pill every other day (one day you will take, one day you won’t and so on).
One year after the operation, you can send pictures to Dr. Maral to evaluate the result of the operation and of the effectiveness of the Proscar as well. If you were glad to use Proscar you can continue taking it for moderate or long term after consulting with Dr. Maral. Long term maintanence dosage is a quarter of a pill every other day. If you opt to stop taking Proscar, you can gradually lower the dosage every month (a quarter of a pill every 3 days, then every 4 days for example) and then you can stop.