Beard transplants are increasingly popular solutions to patchy, thinning or uneven facial hair, and working with a skilled team of specialist surgeons ensures you’ll start to see regrowth results remarkably quickly, often within just three or four months.
Initial beard transplant recovery stages following a beard transplant are often the trickiest, where you might be tempted to wear a face covering or scarf, but adhering to the aftercare instructions provided during your no-cost, obligation-free consultation and following your procedure is imperative.
The right care ensures that transplanted follicles are protected and nourished and have the best chance of a speedy and full recovery and healing over the coming weeks. This helps to produce a bespoke, thick and full beard or moustache designed wholly around your requirements.
Recovery Periods After a Beard Transplant
- Growth rates in facial hair mean beard transplants often heal faster than scalp transplants, with most clients seeing new regrowth in around three to four months, provided they follow our aftercare guidance.
- Understanding recovery timelines is essential, ensuring you can plan downtime for at least the first two weeks after your beard transplant, and know when to resume activities like exercise, swimming and skincare.
- Transplanted follicles grow gradually but usually begin to produce new hairs in roughly three months, while you’ll see the full impact and finished result of your transplant a little later.
The Growth Recovery Timeline Following a Beard Transplant
Immediately after your procedure, we’ll apply gentle bandaging to protect the newly implanted follicles and recap the aftercare guidance provided. We might recommend some painkillers and medications to help soothe discomfort and swelling during the first days of recovery.
At this stage, it is normal to see redness and dots where the tiny incisions have been made to extract donor follicles and implant them into your desired facial hair growth pattern, but initial soreness subsides quickly.
One Week After a Beard Transplant
Over the next seven days, you’ll see your skin healing, owing to the precision of the FUE transplant process we offer, which is minimally invasive and results in a faster recovery due to the microscopic equipment used. [1]
In two or three days the donor areas and beard transplant zone may begin to feel itchy, which is a normal result of very small scabs forming, which helps the skin underneath to repair itself.
We strongly recommend you do not scratch the follicles and instead use approved creams or antihistamines, which can help keep your skin supple and irritation-free.
Scratching at your facial hair in the first week is a core cause of folliculitis and beard transplant infections, making it paramount that you do everything possible to adhere to the right aftercare regime.
Guidance on Caring for a Beard Transplant During the First Week
Keeping the transplant area clean and dry is essential for at least a few days, which means avoiding washing or shaving, especially with harsher scrubs or abrasive face washes.
Dr Matee, our leading hair transplant specialist, says, ‘Initial recovery can be the most challenging period, and we recognise that leaving your follicles to heal and embed themselves can be difficult while the skin is slightly sore or inflamed.
This initial caution is incredibly vital, and taking just a few days from your normal routine can make a significant impact on the ongoing growth and recovery times before you see a thick, full facial hair growth pattern.’
Recovery Expectations Between One and Two Weeks After a Beard Transplant
After the first week of recovery, you’ll typically see that tiny scabs fall away, and you can return to washing your face and gently shaving any patchy growth with care – normally, this is acceptable from day eight.
It remains essential to care for your beard transplant, using warm rather than very hot or cold water during bathing and using gentle, skin-kind cleansers and shampoos without any chemicals or ingredients that can strip the moisture from your skin.
Some clients start to see some shedding from week two, although this can happen a little earlier or later. This is nothing to worry about and is often called shock loss – where the transplanted follicles enter a resting phase.
Once they have healed, the follicles can then produce new hair, so the shedding isn’t indicative of a failed transplant but is a natural recovery stage.
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Looking After a Beard Transplant From Week Two
From two weeks you can usually return to all your normal activities, since at this point the follicles are secure and less vulnerable to contaminants or physical disturbances moving the follicles that have been freshly transplanted.
In the next few weeks, you may see patchier growth, either because areas unaffected by the beard transplant resume growing or because the transplanted follicles may start generating new hair at variable rates.
By month three almost all beard transplant clients see new facial hair growth, and while this can happen in stages and isn’t always instantaneous, it is a fantastic sign that your transplant is reaching full recovery.
Recovery Expectations Four Months After a Beard Transplant
During months four to eight you’ll start seeing much fuller, thicker, healthier facial hair, and many people opt to let their beard grow a little, since this can help conceal any final areas where growth is still catching up.
Sticking to a good skincare routine and keeping your beard trimmed is beneficial, since you can shape your new facial hair as it grows, and ensure you optimise the health and appearance of your beard.
After this regrowth period, you’ll be able to see the final outcomes and enjoy the confidence boost that a youthful full beard provides.
Professional Beard Transplantation Services
We consult with thousands of clients who feel that patchy and thin beard growth and hair loss impact their facial hair or facial hairline. Many have always been dissatisfied with how their beard, moustache or sideburns affect their appearance and self-esteem.
There are medications and non-surgical therapies that can help stimulate hair growth, notably advanced approaches like platelet-rich plasma therapy, but a beard transplant is undoubtedly the most permanent and effective solution.
KSL Clinic focuses on the highest standards of client satisfaction, clinical safety and success rates, and endeavours to ensure you know what to expect at every stage of your beard transplant journey, from day one after the procedure through to a year into the future.
Aftercare remains a pivotal aspect of a beard transplant since even the most precise procedure and talented surgical team cannot guarantee full regrowth if the follicles become compromised due to scratching, exposure to chemicals or because they haven’t been properly cared for. [2]
This is why we take all the time you need to chat about your beard transplant aspirations, clarify what to expect and at what stage, and reiterate your aftercare plan to ensure you have all the information necessary to achieve the beard you have dreamed of.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Time Should I Book Off Work After a Beard Transplant?
Downtime from work may depend on the nature of your profession since physical and labour-intensive roles may require a longer break to ensure you don’t put your beard transplant under strain.
We usually recommend at least seven to ten days of rest and, ideally, two weeks, although you may feel comfortable returning to a desk-based role or working from home within a few days of your transplant without any concerns.
Can I Shave After Having a Beard Transplant?
Depending on the size and extent of your beard transplant, we may suggest leaving it at least eight days. You might though wish to leave shaving for longer, depending on how quickly your skin heals, and whether you feel that a little regrowth helps conceal the healing marks.
Care is essential to ensure you don’t dislodge or disturb the transplanted grafts, but assumptions that shaving will have any impact on the follicles is a myth.
Do I Need to Take Medication to Help With Recovery After a Facial Hair Transplant?
There isn’t a universal strategy, but many clients use medications like minoxidil to expedite and augment the recovery times after a beard transplant.
While this and alternative therapies won’t necessarily mean you see immediate results, they can help address underlying hair loss causes and limit shock loss – or telogen effluvium. [3]
Does a Beard Transplant Look Natural Once Healed?
We only use the cutting-edge FUE hair transplant technique, which involves harvesting donor follicles from other areas of richer growth – normally to the back of your scalp, where there are ample follicles to select from without impacting your appearance.
This process ensures that your beard transplant looks 100% natural because the transplanted follicles are your own and specifically selected for colour, density, growth pattern and characteristics that slot seamlessly into the rest of your facial hair.
Traditional hair transplants looked more obvious due to the outdated surgical techniques, the use of larger incisions and stitches, or synthetic hairs, all of which are easily overcome by consulting with the UK’s leading hair transplant clinic.
