How many days does it take for grafts to 'take'?

Day 10 is a key milestone in hair transplantation.

After about 10 days days, hairs are pretty well adapted to their new location. There is still a need to continue proper post operative washing steps but there is little that can go wrong for most patients after Day 10.  In fact, there is really only two ways that hairs can be damaged at this point

1) the patient forefully pulls them out or bumps the head

2) the patient allows thick crusting to develop on the scalp that ultimately causes the hair to come out when the crust is removed

 

Washing and post op care is key

Post operative washing is very important and we explain these steps very carefully to our patients. We like patients to wash with a gentle stream of soapy water for day 1-6 (without touching the grafts) and then gently massage the grafts from day 7-14 to loosen any crusts. We routinely ask patients to use baby oil from day 7-14 to loosen up and soften up crusts. 

Is there much that can go 'wrong' after day 10?

Provided the patient does a good job with crust removal and does not bump his or her head there is little that can do wrong at this point. Hairs are allowed to start coming out a few days after FUE. More and more hairs will be seen coming out week 2, 3 and 4.