HT 15 days PO. Q-tip gentle roll over scabs has caused 1 tiny bleeding dot on the Q-tip?

Question

Hi, I had scabs remaining 15 days PO. I read few posts suggesting to roll qtip gentley after wash which I did. It helped taking out the scabs but I noticed a tiny blood spot on the qtip. Didn’t see any hair with a pulb root coming out. Did I damage a graft? The rolling was very gentle and it didn’t cause any pain while doing it.

Bernardino Arocha, MD, FISHRS · Answer

Hi logisense, thank you for posting your question on realself.com. It would take much more effort than cleaning the scalp with a Q-Tip at 15 days Post-Op to damage your grafts. It would bleed more than a small spot as well, since your surgeon probably used medications during your procedure. Please make more of an effort to clear away any remaining crusts and scabs. I use a tiny punch to create a very small recipient site. This can help to minimize the size and duration of the crust remaining. After one week we recommend, in most cases, for patients to gently encourage the crusts to be removed from the scalp. There may be some issues with your medical history which your surgeon should be aware of that would modify the duration for clearing the scabs. Please ask your surgeon for advice and clarify your post-op instruction. If the crusts and scabs are allowed to remain on the skin over a longer period of time they can become a source of irritation to the scalp. Some patients have noted after a swim the crust may soften making them easier to remove. Others find if they use a warm, moist compress over the recipient area or even soak in a bathtub (face out of the water please) this may also soften the crusts to make for an easy way to clean and clear the scalp of remaining crusts. Bernardino Arocha, MD, FISHRS

Jae Pak, MD · Answer

It is best to contact your doctor about post operative care and instructions since each doctor has a different regimen.
Even if you did damage a graft, one graft will not impact your final results.

Ilhan Serdaroglu, MD · Answer

You may start to wash your transplant area at second day of surgery with care and massage the transplant area gently so the scabs will fall off... After two weeks of hair transplantation it is acceptable to wash hairs as normal /preoperative period of surgery. All scabs should be cleaned with pressured (not gentle) massage to transplant area after 2 weeks .Dont forget that you may wash your head with normal pressure and if you need you can use a wet towel with soap for massage the scabby area, it Works very well to remove scabs .Patient may feel free to loosen any scabs on his/her head by massaging and that will not damage the grafts after 2 weeks .

Greg Williams, FRCS (Plast) · Answer

Taking advice from 'Dr Google', patient chat forums, and on-line medical posts is never a good idea. Your hair transplant surgeon should have given you explicit post op instructions that you should follow. Any questions should be directed to the team that performed your surgery. If you trusted them with your appearance, you should trust their aftercare instructions.Having said that, it is highly unlikely that, at day 15 post procedure, you will have done anything that will impact the outcome of your hair transplant.

William Rassman, MD (retired) · Answer

I make a habbit to get all of the crusts off of the recipient area on the day and the day after the surgery. Your concern is what always would worry me as crusts taken off can pull out hairs, at 2 weeks rarely

HT 15 days PO. Q-tip gentle roll over scabs has caused 1 tiny bleeding dot on the Q-tip?

Answers (5)

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