The post-operative hair wash
The single most common way patients damage their own result is washing wrong — too rough, too early, or not at all out of fear. Your first wash is done for you at the clinic and taught to you on video. This page is the written version, for 7am in your own bathroom.
What you're protecting: each dot is a graft that spent the first days anchoring itself. The wash exists to clear scabs without disturbing that.
Five steps, once a day
- 1
Soften with lotion
Dab the lotion from your kit gently over the recipient area with fingertips — no rubbing — and leave it for 30–45 minutes. It softens the scabs so water can lift them instead of your fingers.
- 2
Rinse with still, lukewarm water
A jug or cup, not the shower jet — water pressure is the enemy for the first ten days. Lukewarm, never hot.
- 3
Lather in your palms first
Work the medical shampoo into foam between your hands, then place the foam onto the scalp. The bottle never touches your head.
- 4
Dab with fingertips, never nails
Press gently straight down and lift — tiny dabbing motions across the recipient area. The donor area can take slightly firmer circular fingertip washing; it's tougher than it feels.
- 5
Rinse and pat dry
Rinse with the jug again, then pat — never rub — with a clean paper towel. No hairdryer heat near the grafts for two weeks; cool setting at a distance is fine from day 10.
How long, and what not to do
Daily from day 3 to roughly day 12–14 — until the scabs have fully cleared. After that, you transition back to normal washing with a gentle shampoo; we confirm the switch at your photo check rather than leaving you to guess.
- No shower jet on the grafts for the first 10 days
- No fingernails, scratching or picking — a scab picked early can take its graft with it
- No hot water, and no leaning the recipient area against the shower wall
- No regular cosmetic shampoo, gel, wax or spray until we clear it
- No towel-rubbing — pat, with paper, every time
If a graft comes out anyway
Seeing a hair with a tiny bulb in the basin during week one happens and is usually just a shed shaft, not the follicle. Don't panic, don't scrub to check — photograph it and send it to your coordinator on WhatsApp. That's what the 2am number is for.
Taught in person, backed up on video
Your first wash happens at the clinic on day 3 — done for you, then by you, filmed on your own phone so the technique goes home in your pocket.
Questions at the basin?
Send a photo before you guess. Your coordinator answers on WhatsApp — the same number for the whole year of aftercare.