Effects of Smoking During Hair Transplant Recovery

Are you planning to undergo hair transplant surgery? Are you a chain smoker and not sure how this habit would affect your recovery? You have come to the right place! Here we will share with you effects of smoking during hair transplant recovery.

For all those suffering from the embarrassment of baldness, surgical hair restoration is no less than a blessing. A hair transplant surgery not only allows you to get the locks back but also your lost self confidence and self esteem as well. It usually takes 8 to 12 months before a person starts enjoying full results of the treatment.

While the results surely make the year-long wait worth it, there are certain instructions that you must follow to have a successful hair transplant. Pre- and post-op care plays a crucial role in determining success rate of your surgery. One thing that you have to strictly avoid before and after surgery is smoking. Regardless of whether you are a chain smoker or smoke a couple of cigarettes every day out of habit, you will have to call it quit for a couple of weeks before and after your hair transplant, if you really wish to have a successful surgery.

People usually believe that the hazardous effects of smoking are limited mouth, lungs and heart only, which is not the case in reality. Research has shown that smoking affects almost every nook and cranny of the body, from the brain to the extremities. You must have read and heard about hazards of smoking to a person who is in basically good health, but did you know that its risks are more severe in people who have just undergone a medical procedure, including surgical hair restoration.

Smoking and Hair Loss:

So, if you are planning to undergo a hair transplant surgery in the next month, you are highly recommended to quit it at least three weeks prior to the surgery and refrain from it for another three weeks post surgery. Cigarettes that you smoke before a transplant will adversely affect your hair transplantation, whereas smoking after the surgery has some serious consequences on hair transplant recovery. Several studies have been conducted to determine any connection between smoking and hair loss. A study conducted in 2007 found that intense smoking (1 to 20 cigarettes a day) can trigger moderate to severe hair loss in men of advanced age. While they failed to find the exact connection between smoking and hair loss, it is believed that effect of smoking on blood circulation is actually the reason behind smoking-induced hair shedding.

Smoking and Hair Transplant:

Now, if smoking can affect once-healthy adult hair, there is probably no need to warn you about its effects on highly vulnerable, newly transplanted follicles. Healthy blood circulation to the scalp is absolutely essential for the survival of hair follicles just transplanted. But it is proven that nicotine in cigarettes constricts blood vessels, affecting their ability to supply blood to different parts of the body, including your scalp. Anything that affects blood circulation in the body can affect healing process big time. If you will smoke after hair transplant, it will affect blood supply to the scalp, causing the newly transplanted follicles to wither and die even before they begin to grow in their new locations.

In fact, smoking should be avoided after any surgery, regardless of how invasive or minimally invasive it is.

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