Concealing a Hair Transplant from Friends, Co-Workers, and Family

This question was posed  by a female hair loss sufferer seeking hair loss  help  on our hair restoration forum  and answered by  Dr. Michael Beehner  of Saratoga Springs, NY who is one of our recommended hair restoration physicians. His professional answer is below.

I am scheduled for hair transplant surgery in a few weeks and am concerned about hiding it from my co-workers, friends, and family.   In some cases, I can wear a hat, but there are times where I can’t.   I can only take 2 weeks off from work.   What is the best way to conceal my hair restoration?

I think the most important key to your problem is whether you have already existing hair down to the area you want your new transplanted hairline to be or not. If your existing hairline now is way up high and it will be brought down an inch or so, then you will have a slightly noticeable situation, although in 8 of 10 patients, it is fairly unnoticeable two weeks after hair transplantation. The redness and scabbing will most certainly be gone in two weeks. The problem sometimes are the persistent hairs that stay at the transplanted length and just sit there, or the ones that actually do take off and start growing. They will appear somewhat different from your pre-transplant appearance. You could shave them as they grow. If you do have some hair, no matter how miniaturized or scant in the same area you want transplanted, then either Toppik or Dermmatch (or both) can do a nice job of camouflaging both the transplant and hair loss until the transplanted hair starts growing out.

Assuming the hairline or temple areas will have hair implants that you want no chance of someone noticing, then the temporary hair piece is an option; but I should warn you that it is very difficult to get one that matches your present look of thinning hair. You will need a very skilled salon to pull this off. Most will put something on you that looks considerably more than what you want and will be a give-away as a non-surgical hair loss solution. If you do get an alopecia wig, be sure and get a clip-on attachment, and, if you use if for more than a very few months, have the salon every few months change the location of the clips so that they are not pulling on the same clump of hairs, which can lead to little bald spots. One last suggestion, ask your hair transplant surgeon for a Graftcyte kit. I have seen several miraculous healings, even within a week with all follicular unit hair transplants, in which you can barely tell any surgery occurred.

Mike Beehner, M.D.

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Bill
Associate Publisher

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