Can I Wear a Hairpiece to Hide New Hair Transplant Surgery?

This following question from our Hair Restoration Social Community and Discussion Forums was answered by Coalition hair restoration physician Dr. William Lindsey:

I’ve had to wear a hairpiece ever since I was a little girl because of an accident when I was a toddler. First I wore bonnets that my mom & grandma made for me, but after I got out of that cutesy phase, I grew into hairpieces. I’ve gotten a new one every year or so, & it’s only for the top of the head, not an entire system. I’ve always clipped mine on with a few bobby pins because I never liked adhesive.

I already have a hair transplant scheduled for next week & was planning on wearing one after the first week or 10 days. I assumed I would take it off as much as possible & do it anyway because they’re annoying & get itchy. I rarely sleep with it on & certainly won’t after a hair transplant. But there’s no way I can just shave my head & go to work without people wondering unless I were going for the Sinead O’Connor look, which wouldn’t work well on me at all. I guess I’ll call or send an email to my hair restoration clinic & see what they think. Not wearing my hairpiece just isn’t an option. Plus I live in Texas & won’t be able to wear beanie hats until maybe December, but I won’t be able to wear them at work half the time anyway.

I guess I should’ve scheduled it earlier in the summer if I had known this little detail ahead of time. Advice please, or I don’t need to worry about it?

I feel your pain. I guess it depends on the doctor you go with but we consistently have low hair growth in hairpiece wearers, yet not any trouble in four fighter pilots who were back in the helmet at 12 days.

So, I will not offer surgery to system wearers and almost weekly I see a celebrity on TV that we did who swore he would not wear a system post-op and have 2 cases with me wearing the same unsightly hairpiece he has always worn and he never returned after suture removal. Drives me crazy as it’s an awful hairpiece. Everyone in the country knows it’s a wig.

We do have a few female patients who have easily gotten by with scarves post-op with no problem.

Good luck to you.

Dr. William Lindsey
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David
Editorial Assistant and Forum Co-Moderator