Following surgery, and after arriving home, patients must take some precautions, such as applying an ice-pack on the forehead area for 15 minutes per hour to prevent swelling.
It is also important for patients to be accompanied by someone because, although the sedation is not strong, it can induce drowsiness in some cases and we don’t advice to drive the car alone after the surgery.
The next day, patients returns where the doctor will wash their hair and teach them how to do it. This procedure conducted by Dr. Cruz Dinis will give patients more confidence when shampooing at home without being afraid, a task that is best done 2 or 3 times daily. After washing the hair, it is applied in the transplant area a sterile substance which patients must continue to apply for the following two weeks.
The patients then have a lymphatic drainage session for the forehead to minimize the risk of post-surgery swelling.
Before patients leave Madeira Hair Clinic, Dr. Cruz Dinis provides them with advices on medication requirements and new post-surgery cares. By following this guidance, a post-surgery period of 2 to 3 days is adequate for patients to return to their routine activities.
With the Strip Harvesting technique, the stitches in the donor area are removed on the 10th day.
The first hairs begin to grow only in the third month after surgery. The growth rate is about 1 cm per month. Patients will therefore effectively achieve an almost definitive result in the 7th or 8th month, although new hairs can still grow during the next 18 months.
A more concise idea of the post-surgery steps is shown in the following table:
| Post-surgery period | Transplanted area | Donor area |
| 1st day | Dressing removal, head wash and lymphatic drainage. | Sensitivity due to stitches or slits |
| 2nd – 3rd day | Removal of some scabs, some forehead swelling, operational rashes. | Less sensitivity |
| 7th day | Poucas crostas, melhoria do eritema | Still some sensitivity |
| 10th day | Few scabs, rash improvement | Removal of stitches (Strip Harvesting technique) |
| 2 months | Large amount of transplanted hair has fallen out. Resting phase. | |
| 3 to 4 months | Growth of transplanted hair starts | |
| 4 to 6 months | Increase in amount of transplanted hair grows and can be in different form from natural hair | |
| 8 months | Large portion of transplanted hair has already grown | |
| 12 months | 90% of the end result hair with normal characteristics | |
| 18 months | New hairs can still sprout | |
| 2 years | Evaluation of need for new surgery |
