How Will I Look After Hair Transplant?

The best way to envisage how you will look following a hair transplant is to visit our extensive library of before and after images, case studies and patient testimonials – including exclusive celebrity stories!

Picking a patient with hair loss concerns similar to yours, whether a hair, eyebrow or beard transplant, ensures you can see real-world images and videos and get an idea of how your healed hair transplant will look.

Prospective hair transplant clients can also contact the experienced surgical team at KSL Clinic to arrange a convenient, free and private consultation at any of our nationwide clinics. During your consultation, we’ll evaluate your scalp and hair and advise you on the outcomes we can realistically achieve through a bespoke hair transplant.

The General Stages of Recovery Following a Hair Transplant

KSL Clinic provides sector-leading consultancies, treatments and aftercare guidance and believes every client should be 100% confident they know what to expect before, during and after a hair transplant – including the appearance their hair and follicles will have.

Part of the puzzle is comprehending the natural growth phases our hair enters into, which make up the normal cycle of growth and shedding:

• The anagen growth phase is where hairs actively grow – most follicles stay in a growth phase for up to three to five years, although sometimes they continue growing longer. 
• The catagen transitional phase happens when the follicle has reached maximum growth and begins to shrink. Up to 5% of all your hairs are in this phase at any moment.
• The telogen resting phase continues for about three months, meaning a follicle doesn’t automatically shed when it stops growing.
• The exogen shedding phase then occurs, following which new hair will begin to grow in its place.

These phases clarify why finding a few hairs on your brush or pillow is entirely normal and why initial shedding following a hair transplant is also expected – and never an indication that there is anything to worry about.

How Will a Hair Transplant Look After One Week?

Immediately after your hair transplant, you should expect some redness and small red dots at both the donor site and the transplant area. Once your procedure is complete, we apply sterile, gentle bandaging to protect the transplanted area and your skin from contaminants.

In the first week, we’ll often recommend pain relief and anti-inflammatories where required and according to your preferences to keep residual discomfort at bay. You should also avoid wearing a hat, washing your hair, rubbing or itching your head or playing intensive sports for the duration of this part of the recovery.

How will I look after Two Weeks?

During the second week, you’ll see further signs of early healing, where swelling should go down, and any remaining areas of redness will heal over. As long as your surgeon has advised that exercise is fine, you can return to your usual routines after 14 days.

At this point, the natural shedding we’ve mentioned will usually occur, which means that new hairs are forming in the follicles and will start growing in the coming months.

Provided there are no concerns, and your scalp has returned to its normal flexibility and comfort, you can resume normal washing. However, you can continue using medicated and gentle shampoos if you prefer.

How will I look after a month?

Following a month of healing, your transplanted follicles will almost definitely have entered the telogen phase if they haven’t shed already.

Some people see initial hair growth in patches – this can often be concealed with a hat or scarf or by trimming hairs to ensure a consistent and even appearance.

It’s possible to have a very mild amount of redness in the hairline, although anything more than this should be raised promptly with your hair transplant surgeon.

Hair Transplant Results After Two Months

By the two-month point, your hair will be fully into the growth and shedding parts of the cycle. The speed at which your hair grows will differ from somebody else’s, but most clients can see visible, noticeable signs of new hair growing in the transplanted area.

Over the next four weeks, more hairs will begin to grow with greater density. Some fresh follicles look a little thinner than usual, which is simply due to the hair being very young – your hair will improve in thickness over the next few weeks as it becomes stronger.

Once you reach four months post-hair transplant, you’ll see a more uniform amount of growth throughout the transplant location. You should anticipate fewer patches of growth and a thicker, more cohesive appearance.

How Your Hair Transplant Will Look After Six Months

The six-month stage is around halfway through the initial growth cycle of the newly implanted follicles. At this point, clients may see a spurt of faster, thicker hair growth, setting the tone for continued growth.

FUE hair transplants provide permanent, invisible results up close, and from six months onward, you’ll get a far better idea of how the fully healed transplant will look as new hair continues to develop. You see a uniform spread of hair throughout the target location.

Although it is normal for hair transplants to still be growing at six months, without the full impact of the healed procedure, the pattern and shape of your hairline should be more obvious.

For other types of hair transplant, including beard, eyebrow and less extensive hair transplants to the temples, initial growth after six months may already blend well with existing hairs or become a natural part of the hairline where longer regrowth around the transplant area conceals the shorter sections.

What to Expect One Year After a Hair Transplant

Most people’s hair grows by up to two cm per month once it’s in the all-important growth phase, which provides a general indication of how quickly your new follicles should grow. 

The great news is that, from nine months onwards, those hairs will also mature and thicken.

Having your first post-transplant haircut or trim is often an excellent experience. However, if you find that some aspects of your transplant start growing far faster than others, it can be beneficial to maintain an attractive appearance.

Many people find that gradual, minimal haircuts are a great way to conceal the staggered growth of their transplanted follicles. 

It is also common for clients to request a shorter shave or trim prior to a hair transplant—this can make the procedure quicker and more straightforward and ensure that the initial signs of recovery are difficult to spot.

Scarring After a Follicular Unit Extraction Hair Transplant

Some healthcare professionals characterise an FUE transplant as leaving lots of tiny scars but the reality is these are so small they are incredibly difficult to see, even by a qualified, regulated hair transplant surgeon.

This type of transplant is widely thought to be the best possible solution because the benefits include:

• A pain-free, minimally invasive procedure without general anaesthetic, stitches, incisions or scarring. Instead, microscopic tools are used to extract donor follicles and implant them in the desired area.
• Invisible marks that heal very quickly, minimising trauma to the scalp and hair and resulting in a faster recovery period.
• Precise, personalised hair transplant results, where your surgeon places each graft carefully into a pre-mapped pattern, ensuring the hairs have consistent texture, density, colour and growth direction to deliver a natural result.
• Permanent outcomes, provided you follow all the aftercare guidance, which ensures your newly transplanted hair will continue growing in the years to come.

Because FUE transplants are performed under local anaesthetic, they remain comfortable without requiring an overnight stay in the clinic. Instead, clients can return home once we have recapped the aftercare instructions, bandaged the transplant areas, and reviewed any medications or pain relief recommended.

Those bandages can usually be removed in 24 hours, at which point the early recovery stages and the growth of fresh new follicles will begin.

Consulting With KSL to Review Before and After Hair Transplant Images

Dr Matee, the Director of Clinical Services here at KSL Clinic, strongly recommends that all potential hair transplant clients visit our galleries of images, videos, and reviews to gain a better understanding of how a hair transplant looks at each phase of the recovery process. He says:

‘Worries about visible scarring, an unnatural appearance or uneven hair growth are common – and if you’re toying with the idea of a bespoke hair transplant but are concerned about how this might impact your confidence, rest assured you are not alone.

The perfect solution is to find a couple of weeks during which you can rest and recover without feeling any need to return to your workplace or other activities immediately while your follicles and hair are still recovering.

After two weeks, your scalp and hair will begin to settle down, and if you wish, you can opt to wear a hat or hair covering if you perceive that the tiny red marks created by a hair transplant are noticeable—for most clients, they are already very difficult to spot.

During your consultation, we’ll be happy to provide more information about the recovery expectations following a hair transplant and show you the recovery journey of other clients with similar hair loss or thinning to your own to ensure you make informed choices at every stage.’