PRP Hair Aftercare: The First Week, Day by Day
Two numbers cover most of it. Leave the hair unwashed for about 48 hours, and keep away from sun, heat, saunas, steam, swimming and vigorous exercise for two days. Beyond that, mild redness or a heavy feeling in the scalp is common and usually settles within 24 hours, while tenderness or a little bruising can last two to three days. There is no recovery period in the surgical sense — most patients go straight back to their day.
What the first week will not give you is a result. That is not a disappointment to manage; it is how PRP Hair Regrowth Treatment works, and knowing it in advance is what stops people abandoning a course in week two.
Day 0 — what do I do for the rest of the day?
Nothing to the scalp, and that is the whole instruction. The 48-hour no-wash window starts now, so plan the appointment for a day when you are not going somewhere that will have you reaching for shampoo in the evening.
The scalp may feel heavy, or look mildly red at the injection points. Both are common and usually settle within 24 hours. The injecting itself takes around 20 minutes after the numbing, so you will likely feel more aware of your scalp than sore.
Practical point for anyone riding home: the two-day sun rule starts immediately, and an open two-wheeler in Bangalore afternoon sun is exactly what it means. If you cannot avoid the ride, cover up properly.
Day 1 — is a heavy, tender scalp normal?
Yes. Some tenderness or a heavy feeling in the scalp for a day or two afterwards is expected, and mild redness should be fading by now. The hair stays unwashed — you are roughly halfway through the 48 hours.
This is also day one of the no-sweat window. No gym, no run, nothing that has you properly hot. Saunas, steam rooms and swimming are out for the same two days. If you train daily, the honest version is that PRP costs you two sessions each time, which is worth knowing before you plan a course across three to five months.
Day 2 — when can I finally wash my hair?
At about the 48-hour mark, and the restrictions on sun, heat, steam, swimming and vigorous exercise lift at two days too. So day two is when normal life resumes.
Wash gently rather than vigorously when you do. Nothing in the protocol asks for a special shampoo, but there is no sense scrubbing a scalp that was injected less than two days ago.
In a humid Bangalore week, 48 hours of unwashed hair is genuinely uncomfortable rather than trivial, and it is the instruction people most often shorten. Shortening it is the one piece of this week that is actually within your control and actually matters — the window exists so the injection points are left alone while they close.
Days three to five — what if something still aches?
Tenderness or bruising lasting two to three days is within the documented range. By day three the heaviness should be gone and any bruising should be fading rather than spreading.
What is not in that range: anything getting worse rather than better after the first couple of days, anything painful rather than tender, or a site that looks infected. Those warrant a phone call rather than a wait-and-see, and we would far rather you rang the clinic and were reassured than sat on something for a week. Ring Bellandur or Indiranagar, whichever you attended.
Days five to seven — should I be seeing anything yet?
No, and this is the part worth being clear about. Reduced shedding is usually the first change patients notice, and that arrives within the first few weeks rather than the first few days. Visible density takes longer still — which is precisely why scalp photographs are taken before your first session, so the change at review is measured rather than remembered.
So if you are standing in the shower on day six counting hairs, you are reading noise. Everyone sheds daily; a week is far too short a window to tell a trend from a Tuesday.
What about the rest of the course?
The same first week repeats, because the typical course is one session a month over three to five months, with spaced maintenance sessions once that initial course is complete. Each session brings its own 48-hour no-wash window and its own two-day pause.
Two things are worth carrying into every session rather than only the first. The first is the medication conversation: blood thinners and aspirin usually need to be paused beforehand, and PRP is not carried out while you are on antibiotics — so if anything has changed in your prescriptions since the last session, say so before the blood is drawn rather than afterwards. The second is that PRP sits alongside topical and oral medical therapy rather than replacing it, and your doctor decides that combination. If you have quietly stopped something between sessions, that is relevant information, not an admission.
Progress is reviewed at the three-month mark rather than fixed at the start. The number of sessions depends on how much thinning there is and how you respond, and results cannot be promised — they vary with the cause and the stage of your hair loss, and an area that has been fully bare for a long period is unlikely to respond at all.
Is this week the same for the other scalp treatments?
Not identical, so do not transfer the rules. GFC Hair Loss Treatment and QR678 Hair Growth Treatment are different preparations with their own protocols, and the written aftercare you are given on the day is the version that applies to what you actually had. This page describes PRP.
If you are partway through a course and have mislaid the written instructions, telephone rather than reconstructing them from memory or from an article about a different treatment.
Where to start
If you have not had your first session yet, the useful first step is the scalp assessment — it establishes whether your follicles are likely to respond before you commit to months of appointments. The consultation fee is waived against treatment if you go ahead. Book an appointment and bring your current medication list.