Hair Transplant Aftercare: Your Practical Checklist

Graft survival depends partly on the surgery and partly on the fortnight that follows it. This is the practical side: what to do, what to avoid, and when.

Your surgeon's specific instructions override anything on this page. What follows is general guidance to help you understand why each instruction exists, not a substitute for the plan you are given.

For what to expect rather than what to do, see hair transplant recovery: the first two weeks.

What to expect, by timeframe

The essentials

Getting home

Arrange a driver. The local anaesthetic will still be wearing off and you should not drive yourself.

Do not wear anything that pulls over your head. A button-up shirt on the day is a small detail that matters.

Sleeping

For the first several nights, sleep semi-upright, propped on pillows or in a recliner. This reduces swelling and keeps the grafts away from the pillow.

Grafts are least secure in the first 48 hours. Rubbing them against bedding is the most common way people dislodge them.

If your grafts are at the crown rather than the front, sleeping position advice may differ. Ask.

Washing your hair

Do not wash until your surgeon tells you to. When you do:

• Wash by hand, not under direct shower pressure
• Pour or cup water gently over the area rather than spraying it
• Use only the product you have been given or advised
• Do not rub, scrub or massage the recipient area
• Pat dry with a clean towel, or air dry. Do not rub
• No hair dryer on the grafted area in the early period

The aim is cleanliness and gradual softening of the crusts. It is not to remove them.

Do not pick

Every graft forms a small scab. Each one should come away on its own during gentle washing.

Picking a scab off can take the graft with it, and there is no recovering it. This is the single most avoidable way to compromise a result.

Pain relief

Take what you are prescribed, as prescribed. Do not add over-the-counter anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen or aspirin unless your surgeon has approved them, since they affect platelet function.

Discomfort should decline day by day. Increasing pain warrants a call.

Antibiotics

If you are prescribed a course, complete it, even once you feel fine.

Swelling

Keep your head elevated. Cold compresses on the forehead can help, but never applied directly onto the grafted area.

Swelling typically peaks around days two to four and settles from there. Severe, asymmetrical or worsening swelling after day five should be reported.

What to avoid

Sun

Healing skin is vulnerable to both burning and pigmentation change. Keep the scalp out of direct sun.

A hat is generally not appropriate over fresh grafts in the first several days, so shade rather than headwear is the answer early on. Ask your surgeon when a loose hat becomes acceptable, and what kind.

Exercise and sweating

Light walking is usually fine early. Beyond that, defer to your surgeon's timeframes.

What is deferred and why:

• Strenuous exercise. Raises blood pressure, which increases bleeding risk in the early period
• Anything causing heavy sweating. Sweat on healing wounds is an infection route
• Heavy lifting and straining. Puts tension on a strip closure, which is the main mechanism by which a fine scar widens
• Contact sport. Direct trauma to grafts that are not yet secure
• Swimming, pools and the ocean. Introduces chlorinated or non-sterile water to healing wounds
• Saunas, steam rooms and spas. Heat, moisture and shared water

Full return to unrestricted exercise is commonly around a month, but this is your surgeon's call, not a rule.

Smoking

Nicotine constricts the small blood vessels the grafts rely on to establish a blood supply. For a procedure whose outcome depends on that supply, this matters more than usual.

You will be advised to stop for a period before and after surgery. The longer the better.

Alcohol

Affects clotting and interacts with post-operative medication. Avoid during the period your surgeon specifies.

Products and styling

No styling products on or near the grafted area until cleared. No hair dye. No chemical treatments. No cutting or trimming the recipient area until your surgeon says so, though the donor area is usually cleared sooner.

Wound care

Donor area

After FUE, the extraction sites are small and heal quickly. Keep the area clean and follow washing instructions.

After FUT, there is a closure to look after. Avoid tension on it, which means no heavy lifting, no straining, and care with how you move your neck and head. Sutures or staples come out at your follow-up.

Watch for spreading redness, warmth, discharge or wound edges separating.

Recipient area

Keep it clean and leave it alone. Those two things cover most of it.

Do not apply anything to it other than what you have been given. Do not attempt to speed up crust removal.

Follow-up

You will have at least one follow-up appointment, usually within the first fortnight, to check healing and remove sutures if applicable.

Attend it even if everything feels fine. Problems are easier to address early, and the appointment is also when you can raise anything that has been worrying you.

Beyond that, longer-term reviews track growth over the twelve to eighteen months results take to develop.

When to contact the clinic

Do not wait and hope on any of these:

• Pain increasing rather than decreasing
• Pain not controlled by prescribed medication
• Fever
• Spreading redness, warmth or swelling
• Pus or foul-smelling discharge
• Bleeding that does not stop with gentle pressure
• Wound edges separating
• Severe or worsening swelling after day five
• Anything that concerns you

Ringing unnecessarily is better than not ringing when you should have.

Downloadable checklist

A printable version of this guidance is available so you have it to hand rather than needing to find this page. It covers the same material in a single page you can keep with your post-operative instructions.

[Implementation note for Replit: link a downloadable PDF here. Do not gate it behind an email capture. This is clinical safety information and should be freely available.]

What good aftercare actually looks like

There is not much to it, honestly. Sleep propped up for the first few nights. Wash gently when told to, and not before. Leave the scabs alone. Take what you are prescribed and finish the antibiotics. Stay out of the sun. Do not go back to the gym early because you feel fine. Ring if something changes for the worse.

Most complications that do occur trace back to one of those being skipped.

Before you proceed

Every surgical procedure carries risk, including bleeding, infection, poor graft survival and scarring. Outcomes vary between individuals. Read our risks and complications page in full.

A GP referral is required before a cosmetic surgery consultation. Book a consultation at our Bankstown clinic.

Related reading: hair transplant recovery: the first two weeks, hair transplant growth timeline, hair transplant scars.