Post-Op Care (worried)

[bighurt]

hey all, first of all thanks for some of the replies i've gotten over the last few weeks. it's good to know that there's a group of guys out there in the same boat that have gone through the same experiences.

anyway, for whatever reason, i'm really nervous about the post-op care procedures. i had 3300 FUE with Dr. Armani and i'm now 12 days post-op. the post-op instructions that they provide are very regimented and i feel like if i diverge from them at all, i will not have a successful result.

they tell you that you cannot touch the recipient area AT ALL for the first 4 weeks. you can't gently massage scabs off or rub shampoo on your head or anything. they also tell you that you can't put your head under the shower for the first 21 days.

all i'm supposed to for the first 21 days is pour baby shampoo/water mixture over my head twice a day and apply vitamin E oil afterwards. also, since day 7, i'm supposed to apply minoxidil before the vitamin E.

i've been following the instructions very well and i'd love to continue to do so, however, i will be going back to work in 4 days (day 16) and i really can't face the idea of going to work with a head covered in scabs.

so now i'm attempting to get these scabs off in the next 4 days w/o damaging the grafts.... today, for the first time, i put my head under the shower. i didn't rub the recipient area or anything, but i put shampoo on and let the shower wash it off. the shower pressure is just medium, definitely not too hard. i then VERY gently rubbed some aloe lotion on the recipient area and let it stay on for 20-30 minutes before washing it off in the shower in hopes of loosening up some of the scabs.

it may have worked a little, but not really. i don't know what i'm more worried about, losing my grafts or having to face co-workers with a head full of scabs (lets face it, ridiculous theories aside, there's no way you can explain that away).

is there anyone out there that has used more aggressive washing techniques (ie. showering regularly after 1 week, rubbing scabs off, massaging shampoo into grafted area, etc.) and still had a perfectly fine result? i guess i'm trying to determine the strength of the grafts after 11/12 days. would it take more than just a gentle shower to dislodge them at this point, or are they really still that vulnerable?

first hand experience w/b greatly appreciated....

 

[hairtech_]

I feel bad for you because 99.9% of the other docs don't follow that approach. Most clinics want the scabs to be gently massaged out by 14 days. Shower full force by 7 days or so but that is your doctors orders and I can only say what others do and not tell you what to do.

The vitamin E will gunk your hair up a little so that adds to the scab gunk mess.

What day are you on again?

 

[bighurt]

today is day 12 post-op for me.

is that right that a lot of doctors have you showering full force by day 7? can others weigh in on what their Doctor said about showering?

i asked a guy at Armani just today if i could start showering regularly (not even touching the scalp with my hands, just letting the water hit it to help remove scabs) tomorrow (day 13) and he said no, that was too soon and the earliest s/b about day 19.

i've read in other places (such as link below) that at least some docs recommended getting the scabs off early, but i resisted taking regular showers or rubbing scabs off since that's not what Armani themselves recommended. now i need to take action though....

http://www.baldingblog.com/2005/12/30/w ... r-surgery/

 

[hairtech_]

Have you seen the list of doctors I worked for? None of them does/did that... but to each his own. He(Armani) has a different way of handling his post ops that's all. :dunno:

Now the thing to realize is that these follicles are healed in bro. They were anchored down pretty damn good by day 4. Now of course you need to use common sense in that you probably don't need to use blunt force trauma such as scraping, smashing, digging, crushing, or rustling up scabs with foreign objects.

 

[WebBubba]

I'm 3 weeks post-op from Dr. Hasson, and their instructions were rather specific about using medium pressure to get all scabs and crusts off by the 10th day. I started gently rubbing with vitamin E about day 8, and all my scabs and crusts were gone about Day 9. A very few hairs came out with the scabs but not many. Now at the third week i'm starting to shed more of the imlanted hairs....which makes me sad, cuz I'm gonna miss them <Sniff> hehehe.

Dr. Hasson's philosophy is a little different than what I've read on here n that the grafts heal pretty well on their own and that there isn't much need to fuss too much with them after the first week or so.

- Eric

 

[Optimist]

You could wear some sort of head bandage and tell your coworkers you got hurt.

 

[s.a.f]

Obviously you can see from the responses above that Armani has a very different view compared to all the other clinics. :roll: Not touching the scalp for 4 wks is ridiculous. As Hairtech mentioned by day 4 the grafts will be firmly in place and at your stage you should be fine to shampoo and treat the head as normal. Good luck with the return to work. (maybe you should throw a sickie for another week).

 

[bighurt]

thanks for the replies guys. i was leaning towards gently massaging the scabs off and after reading your responses, i decided to suck it up and do it.

i did about 1/2 of them late last night and the other 1/2 this morning. i still have a few small scabs. i basically went with the theory that i wasn't going to force anything and any scabs that seemed stuck on pretty good i'd wait and do later.

anyway, all-in-all, i think it went fine. of course a lot of the scabs that came off had hair attached, but i'm at day 13 now and that is just the normal shed of these grafts as far as i can tell.

i feel a million times better now knowing that the scabs are off and the grafts are "safe" at this point. it also looks better and i feel like i can actually go out in public!!

i agree that armani's not touching the grafted area for 4 weeks seems like overkill. how many people can just sit inside their house for a full month waiting for scabs to fall off on their own? not many....

even if that is their general post-op instructions, they should give you a "plan b" if you tell them that you don't have 4 weeks to wait for your scabs to fall off. whenever i asked them about it, they just said essentially "no, you can't do anything but wait". they should have at least said, "well, it's not our first choice or what we typically recommend but if you really need these off in the next few days, here's what to do...."

so again, thanks for the advice.....

 

[hairtech]

Oh and use a non-medicated conditioner with luke warm water, to soften up your hair and scabs...