Hair falling out - other questions

[Aurorasky]

Hi everyone,

I had BA and SRS on 4th September, it is approaching one month now and I have some questions I would like to ask what the experience was like. I have appointments with doctors and will probably ask these questions but I still would like to know yours, everyone.

So, I have curly/wavy hair (used to be curlier before HRT) and after the surgery since I spent a whoke week at the hospital, when I came home it was all tangled. It was so painful to brush and enough hair fell to fill a wig. It was scary, I cried a lot. The thing is my hair continues to fall out a LOT so I even bought some vitamins to try make the root stronger. Is this normal after surgery and the anaesthesia?? Granted, I have really long hair and my head is full of it,  I am not talking about male pattern baldness. However, it still concerns. Did anyone experience this?

As for dilating what is your routine? I sleep with a dilator because I already have classes and need to study. However, I also dilate one hour in the morning and one hour at night. I am afraid of the biggest dilator  i an afraid sex will hurt.

BTW how long did your vulva look swollen? Mine still is very much so and almost a month has passed.

Thank you

[echo7]

Yes, this is very normal after any kind of surgery, not just transgender-related surgeries.  It's called "Telogen Effluvium" and occurs because an environmental source of stress (in this case your surgery and recovery) causes your hair follicles to go into shock and stop growing hair.

Your hair will start growing again and grow back on its own, don't worry.  There's nothing you need to do except wait.  Even cis women experience telogen effluvium, especially after giving birth (since that is a major physical shock to the body as well).

[Julia1996]

I'm sorry I forgot to warn you about hospital bed head Aurora. To everyone else with long hair, if you're in the hospital or even sick in bed at home for a few days, make sure you brush your hair every single day! If you can't brush it yourself have someone else brush it for you. When you lay in bed for an extended period of time , longer hair can get unbelievably matted and tangled. Almost like dreadlocks. I  had one client who had a bad case of flu and spent three days in bed and it took an hour to get her hair untangled. Another one was in the hospital for 4 days and her hair was so bad I had to cut it to get it untangled.

If your going to be in bed for a while make sure your hair gets brushed daily. If its long enough put it in 2 braids. If you know your going to be in bed for a few days use a silk or satin pillow case.

[Aibhilín]

Yep, this happened to me. Had my surgery exactly 1 year ago, and my hair is long enough to touch my bum, so needless to say I was unable to properly take care of it for the week I was in bed. So much hair fell out, I'd find it on my carpet balled up like a furball, it wasn't the nicest thing to see.

As for swelling, i'm a year in and I think I still have some swelling. The area seems to be prone to holding into swelling, so it can take a while for it to reduce. I think by about 6 months, the swelling will be greatly reduced.

[xFreya]

This didn't happen to me but I had eczema(or something like that) on my fingers. I used some creams and they eventually healed(it took weeks). I think a big surgery, anesthesia and a lot of antibiotics cause a shock to the body. I'm guessing your hair will turn back to normal on its own. If it doesn't maybe see a doctor.

[Mariah]

As others have stated already hair loss after major surgery is normal. It can sometimes happen rather quickly or even months down the road.  Don't worry, it will come back and as good if not better than before. Even I experienced some from my surgery too. Hugs
Mariah