Greetings,
A question I am often asked is how soon after a hair transplant procedure can one return to work. Part of the answer to this question lies in exactly what kind of work you do. After the hair transplant procedure you are not supposed to perform heavy lifting (over 25 pounds) for about 10 days. If your job involves heavy lifting or very vigorous work you should take a little time off. If your job is an office job you should be fine to return to work the next day. I have had multiple hair transplant procedures myself and I retuned to work performing hair transplants on others the day after my procedure. If you feel a need to conceal the fact that you have had the procedure from others, there are a few options. You can wear a hat (which we give to all our patients) immediately after the procedure. If you have a large amount of pre existing native hair you can creatively style your hair to cover the areas worked on. Typically the transplanted hairs form tiny scabs that look like little grains of sand. These scabs last for 5-7 days and then they fall off. After that your scalp looks very close to normal. The small transplanted hairs usually fall off within 3-4 weeks after the procedure and then begin to grow back at around 12 weeks. In fair skinned individuals their is some redness in the scalp that may persist for weeks before it resolves.
I hope this clarifies the immediate post procedure phase in hair transplant procedures.
All the best,
Marc Dauer, M.D.