The good news is the hardest part of this process, the surgery itself is now over. The bad news is now comes healing and anticipation!
Healing
In the transplanted area, redness, numbness and scabbing will typically persist for about one week. This may limit your return to work or other activities unless you take steps to conceal it (or unless you don’t care).
The donor area healing will depend on what method you used. If you used Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE), the small holes will heal within days and you will feel little or no soreness. If you opted for the linear strip method where a large strip is removed, you will probably experience numbness and soreness and possibly a ‘tight’ feeling. The numbness and tightness can take up to a few weeks to go away. You will probably return to your doctor around day 10 after hair transplant surgery to have any sutures or staples in the donor area removed.
Transplanted Hairs
It takes about 3 to 5 months for transplanted hairs to start growing, and he hair can be thinner than normal at first. The follicles are healing from the surgery and take time to resume normal growth. Over the next few months the hairs will continue to grow and thicken resuming a more normal look and the transplanted hairs should be growing fairly normally by month 7.
Although most hairs will be growing normally at this point, it may take one to one and a half years to see the full results from hair transplant.
These timelines are approximations and will be different for each individual – some will heal and see hair growth slower or faster than others, so do not be alarmed. Keep in touch with your hair transplant surgeon and relay any concerns to him or her.
