What to expect after the surgery

     Patient may experience mild to moderate swelling on the forehead area for a few days following the surgery. There will be many scabs where the grafts were implanted and some redness on the recipient area. The redness will eventually go away on its own, while the scabs will start to flake off about 7-10 days after the transplant. Severe infection is extremely rare due to the abundant blood supply in the scalp. In occasions, some pimples or acnes may occur on the scalps at the transplanted sites but will simply respond to antibiotics. Patient who receives megasession hair transplantation is more likely to have some degree of numbness on the scalp that could last for months, but the symptom will gradually subside over time.

     During the first 2-6 weeks postoperatively the transplanted hairs will continue to grow in their new location. Then virtually they will fall out, which is completely normal and is to be expected, and will leave behind the transplanted follicles beneath the scalp. It will take another 2-3 months before the new hairs begin to erupt from these follicles. Finally, the new, healthy hairs will grow normally and continue to thicken the same way as the hair in the donor site does. The grafted sites in the recipient frontal area usually heal with almost no visible scarring and are covered by the transplanted hair. Minor scar that occur in the donor scalp as a result of the removal of donor skin is narrow and can also be hidden in the surrounding hair.

Postoperative Appearance

     This is an example of how hair transplantation result progresses postoperatively at each period of time, from the day of surgery to the final postoperative follow-up which is 6 months later. This is an actual THT Centers patient who had 2,487 grafts done in one session on 06-24-2006(24th June 2006)

	PICTURE A, SURGERY DAY. Dr. Pong designed the frontal hairline, an important and integral part of the hair transplantation, to fit the patients face, age, and nature. The purple line indicated the frontal hairline and the area to be transplanted.

	PICTURE B, DAY 3, POST-OP. Small scabs appeared around the base of each graft. Some dyspigmentation or redness on the recipient area was present. Stubble of the transplanted hair can be seen here. These areas can be camouflaged with the surrounding hair.

	PICTURE C, DAY 9, POST-OP. Transplanted hairs grew a little longer. Redness started to subside. Scabs gradually fell out.

	PICTURE D, DAY 12, POST-OP. Scabs completely fell out. The recipient area stayed pinkish for the next few weeks.

	PICTURE E, 3 MONTHS POST-OP. New hairs started to grow. This was an early stage of their growth, so they appeared to be short, fine hairs and would thicken as time went by.

	PICTURE F, 4 MONTHS POST-OP. New hairs continued to grow and transplanted area got denser. Hair was groomable. Patient might see some textural changes in hair.

	PICTURE G, 5 MONTHS POST-OP. As the new hair grew longer and the hair texture definitely changed to become thicker, hair density was present.

	PICTURE H, 6 MONTHS POST-OP. This was the final follow-up. Most of the transplanted hairs have grown out. The patient was evaluated for a possible second procedure if needed.