Can I go swimming after a hair transplant? Scuba? Marathon?

I generally advise my patients differently depending upon what type of hair transplant they had. The recipient area usually heals within 4-10 days. If it is washed well, it will not scab and if there is not scabbing, then you can do any activity without losing your transplanted hair.

For those with the traditional strip method of harvesting, the donor area should not be stressed with exercises that strain the neck muscles for a period of at least 3 weeks. These people should not swim until around 2 days after their sutures come out. Prolonged soaking is not a good idea, so scuba is not something I would recommend in these people for a good 3 weeks. You can run a marathon 5-6 days after the hair transplant with this ‘strip’ approach, but not complete in Olympic weightlifting.

For those with Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE/FOX Procedure), other than the restrictions for the recipient area, you can do anything, including scuba, marathon and even Olympic weightlifting after 5 days.

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