If you are thinking of going for a hair transplant, then the knowledge about the hair growth after hair transplant is absolute essential for you. Hair transplant will give you excellent hair growth. But hairs do not grow immediately after the transplant. Rather the hair growth occurs in stages. Once the follicles area removed from the body, because of the changes in the surrounding environment they go in a phase called dormancy similar to hibernation. This is what results in a growth pattern we see after the hair transplant.

Immediately after the transplant:

Immediately after the hair transplant, the grafts appear whitish in colour as they have a bit of epidermis attached to them. From 2^nd day onwards this epidermis shrivels off and scabs form on the grafts. This is not painful! The patient is absolutely comfortable as the area is numb and feels nothing. But it is important that we show every step of the process.

 2nd Day to 10th day after the hair transplant:

In a high density transplant, the scab may take up to 10 days to come off. We do not recommend hasty removal of the scabs by washing or scrubbing of the area. Picking of the scabs in this period may results in accidental removal of the grafts. But not to worry, the scabs usually fall off causing no trouble in majority of the patients. Some people do get swelling over the forehead from 2^nd day which may last for 2-3 days ahead. But use of sharp instruments has reduced the incidence of swelling in our patients. We generally do not prescribe oral corticosteroids to reduce or prevent swelling as the patient may become more vulnerable to infections. A harmless swelling even if it looks bizarre is much better than an infection which is a dangerous scenario.

7-10 days to 1 month after the transplant:

After the scabs fall off, the planted hairs stay in the place till 15 days to 1 month. After 15 days, the hair shafts (and not roots) start to shed off. The expanded portion at the bottom of the hair is a bulb and not the root. Roots don’t fall off during this time. Although the situation is alarming to the patients, there is nothing to worry. The upper portion of the hairs which is called ‘shaft’ falls off. The root goes in hibernation or a dormancy mode.

1 month to 3-5 months after the hair transplant:

After the hair shafts shed off, the root goes in dormancy. During this time there is hardly any growth of the hair. It looks as if nothing has been done on the scalp. No growth can be visualized in this period. In stage of dormancy, the metabolism of the hair roots is slowed down. It’s like a reboot mechanism which takes about 4-5 months’ time.

4-5 months to 7 months after the hair transplant:

After the roots come out of the dormancy, hairs start appearing as fine growth over the transplanted area. Once hairs appear they start growing at the rate of 1cm per month. During this period they grow synchronously. This mean all of the hair enter in a growth phase together. This is unlike the normal hair where every hair is in a different stage of growth (that’s why we don’t get intermittent periods of baldness/shedding like other animals). This is however not very noticeable by the patients. The normalization of the growth cycles may take up to 2 years some times.

9 months to 1 year after the hair transplant: Final Growth:

Assessment of the hair transplant is done at 1 year duration. This is a time where your transplanted hair would have grown up to 6 cm in length (if you have not cut them).