redness after hair transplant

[squiz]

I'm not one to write reviews or posts but I swore I would write 3 things following my HT 6 months ago if it was successful, as these caused me concern at the time and hopefully will help others. This is post 3.

I took 2 weeks off work, which by many accounts should be enough to be able to return without anyone noticing. This was far from true in my case.

I have fair skin and light hair and my HT was the front third - i.e the bit everyone see's when in everyday conversation. On the weekend before returning to work, the redness was still very visible and the difference between my forehead skin tone to above really stood out. I started contemplating ringing in sick to get another week off, I was desperate as I hadn't told anyone and wanted to keep it secret. My wife agreed it was very noticeable.

I'd been away from home for the previous 10 days and was surprised to find my children did not notice anything for while, except when one saw my crusting. I put this down to sunburn, which seemed to diffuse the situation. After reading some forums, I then bought some witch hazel and toppik/nanogen which the clinic had also recommended.

Not sure if the witch hazel did any good, but at least I was being proactive, but the Nanogen did improve things. I also put on some "holiday skin" moisturizer which made my skin slightly darker.

Armed with these, I nervously went into work. I was shocked to find whenever I spoke to anyone their eyes did not move up to look at my hairline. I was dreading it and would have noticed, but it never happened. At lunch time I would re-apply the holiday skin moisturizer - it just took the edge off. It was a long week but I made it!

A few days later I met up with a few friends and was sure one of them would draw attention to it, but no, nothing… Wierd. Then a week later met some relatives, again no mention. The redness never did fade, until the grafts starting growing and covered it. In fact, with shock loss, I think it got worse.

So I guess the moral of the story is, although we are fixated with our hair, other people aren't. I know my wife has been upset a few times when I have not noticed her new haircut, so it's a similar thing.

My advice for anyone about to have surgery to the front hairline is to be prepared. Pre buy - Toppik / Nonogen and Witch hazel and get used to using them. Also I read someone had started wearing hats a few months before surgery, so people would get used to seeing them in one and would not think twice when they wore one after surgery. That's a great idea if suitable for lifestyle.