How Long Does It Take for a Hair Transplant to Work?

Hair Transplant

In the 21st century, hair loss, baldness, and shedding are common problems worldwide. Factors like lifestyle, health issues, and adulterated food speed up the hair life cycle. It supports the genetic alopecia that causes early hair loss and baldness. But if we talk about the solution, it is possible to reduce hair fall and slow down the hairline receding. But, it is not possible to revive dead hair follicles. In this situation, a hair transplant is the only solution for dead hair follicles.

A hair transplant is a small surgical procedure in which healthy hair follicles are extracted and planted in the place of baldness or dead follicles. Hair transplants are one of the most popular surgical procedures in 2024. Hair transplants help enhance your hair.

Types of Hair Transplants

Many hair transplant techniques exist such as FUE, FUT, FUSS, NEO grafting, DHI, and scalp reduction. But we only discuss those that are popular in India.

  • FUE stands for follicular unit extraction and is a popular hair transplant technique in which the individual hair follicles are extracted from the donor area and planted individually in the bald area. This hair transplant has a 95% to 100% success rate.
  • FUT stands for Follicular Unit Transplantation, a traditional hair transplant technique in which a strip of scalp skin is extracted from the donor area and planted into a bald area. Each strip consists of a group of 1-4 hair follicles that are planted in the same place.
  • FUSS stands for Follicular Unit Strip Surgery. In which a long strip of scalp skin is extracted from the donor area and planted into the bald area. This technique is famous for its natural results. But the success rate of this surgery is 90% to 95%. This surgery increases the chances of permanent hair scarring in the donor area.

Stages of Hair Transplant Recovery

Healing stage (1 to 4 weeks)

In this stage, our scalp starts healing from hair transplant injuries. This phase starts immediately after the hair transplant. You will face some bleeding, swelling, and pain caused by the hair transplant. You will notice a small scab all over the transplanted scalp. After the hair transplant, you need to be very gentle with your scalp because a small mistake might damage your scalp. The healing stage starts immediately after the hair transplant and lasts 2-3 weeks.

You must follow the post-operation care routine to protect your scalp from damage and injury. There are some tips that you can follow in your post-care routine.

Avoid sunlight: UV rays cause redness and inflammation in your scalp.

Wash your scalp: You can wash your scalp with a mild shampoo at intervals of 2 to 3 days. It helps to prevent inflammation and fungal infections.

Avoid excessive exercise: It can cause sweating and might increase the chances of bleeding.

Sleep in the right position: It is quite obvious that if you sleep in the wrong position you might wake up with a damaged scalp.

Shedding Stage (3-4 weeks)

This stage starts early or later in a month after your transplant. After successfully healing your scalp from a transplant. You will notice that the hair shredding has started on your transplanted scalp. But you do not need to panic. It is expected that your transplanted hair is shredding due to the new active hair in your hair follicles. This stage lasts for 4-6 weeks, which varies from person to person.

Some tips you can follow during the shedding stage are these. These tips help you manage the growth of your hair in the shedding phase.

Don’t panic: people generally start worrying about their hair when their hair starts falling out. However, they need to understand that shedding is part of the hair transplant recovery.

Be patient: Try to be calm during this phase because taking unnecessary stress causes a slowdown in the growth of your hair.

Consult with your dermatologist: If you face redness, itching, and inflammation, then you can consult with your dermatologist.

Exercise and proper diet: during this phase, it is important to take all the necessary vitamins and minerals that will support hair growth. Exercising supports blood flow to your scalp.

Hair-busting or Growing Stage (5 months to 18 months)

After the shredding stage, you will enter the hair growth stage, in which you will notice the new hairs on your scalp; this is the longest stage of hair transplant recovery. You will notice drastic changes in your hair growth after one year of hair transplant. You need to maintain hair growth with the help of a proper hair care routine and lifestyle change.

Some tips that are beneficial to follow during the hair-busting stage.

Proper hair care: Now your hair is growing back normally, so you need to maintain a proper hair care routine to clean and nourish your hair. You can use products like hair oil, shampoo, and supplements.

Maintain your diet: Maintaining a good diet is important for your proper growth. A healthy diet helps provide all the nutrients for your hair, which is essential.

Consult with your dermatologist: you can consult with your dermatologist to change the prescription of your medication.

Conclusion

The complete hair growth after the male hair transplant depends on various factors such as operation care, medications, hair transplant surgery, the health of transplanted hair follicles, and many others. So it is not easy to predict the time interval of your hair transplant work. But we can check the progress of hair transplants over time in different stages. Such as the healing stage, shredding stage, and growth stage.