To give a short answer, yes, you can cut your hair after getting a transplant. You can either use scissors or electric razors on both the recipient and the donor area. The question comes down to when you can cut your hair. Keep reading to find out.

Because of the operation you’ve just gone through, your follicles will need some time to heal. They would be very delicate during the first ten days after transplantation and would need special attention, of course. You should watch out for your head until the area around transplanted follicles has fully healed. This includes the scabs, scars, and redness.

Your First Month after the Transplantation

For the first month, you should use the special kind of shampoo we provide. Always be gentle when washing your hair. Furthermore, using a blow-dryer is not suitable at this time too. You should gently dab on your hair with a clean towel.

At this stage, you may notice that the hair in your donor area grows quicker than your transplanted hair. If you do not like how it looks, you can get a haircut. But you are only allowed to get your donor area cut at this point; nothing should touch the recipient area yet. You should wait for at least three weeks before you get a haircut around the donor area as a general mandate. 

Getting Your Haircut after the Hair Transplantation

Transplanted hair follicles are really sensitive at first. They may have visibly healed, but the high velocity of a shaving machine could be detrimental to their health. As the blades of electric razors move very fast with a relatively big momentum, they pose the risk of uprooting the hair follicles.

You will be able to have them cut with scissors at one point. But do not get them shaven with an electric razor until six months after the hair transplantation. Remember, scissors work from a distance while the razor has to be in real close proximity to the scalp skin.

Cutting the Hair at the Donor Area after the Hair Transplantation

You may be considering getting a buzz cut for your donor area. You can theoretically do this fourteen days after the procedure if you have healed nicely. However, we advise patients to wait for a bit more.

The reason for this is the temporary scarring after the donor graft extraction. If you do not give your donor area time to heal before getting a cut, you may have visible scars. The shorter time you allow before getting a haircut, the more scars will be visible.

Just look at the small injuries that you sustained on your skin years ago for reference. They are much smaller than they were at the time of injury, right? The same applies to scars around your scalp too.