When you get a hair transplant, it’s important to take care of your new grafts while they settle in and take root. That means taking a few days off work to recover — but it also means limiting your sexual activity.
Surgeons recommend that you avoid sex for at least seven days after your hair transplant, but ideally two to three weeks. This will give your grafts the best chance of anchoring into your scalp so they can produce healthy new hair.
It’s important to avoid having sex immediately after a hair transplant. In this article, you’ll learn:
Key takeaways
It may be safe to have sex around a week after your hair transplant procedure. But if your hair transplant is still healing and hasn’t yet fully scabbed over, you should hold off a little longer. If possible, it’s a good idea to wait two weeks before having sex after a hair transplant to give your grafts the best chance of survival.
If you’re worried about how to bring this up with your partner, a gentle and honest approach works best. You might explain that your scalp is healing and that this short break will help you get the best long-term results and avoid hair transplant side effects.
You can still maintain closeness in other ways: spend time cuddling, watching a film together, or going for a gentle walk once your surgeon approves. This can help you stay connected in those early weeks while your new hair begins to grow.
Let’s explore the four key reasons why it’s important to wait before having sex after your hair transplant.
Like exercise, sex can cause your heart rate and blood pressure to increase [1]. This elevation is usually short-lived, but when your hair grafts are healing, there’s a small chance that this rise in blood pressure will cause the wounds to rupture and bleed.
This can make hair transplant redness last longer, and may even put you at risk of increased hair transplant scarring if your wound healing is delayed.
In the first 14 days after a hair transplant, increased blood pressure and heart rate can also worsen or prolong hair transplant swelling around your forehead and eyes. Ice, head elevation, and avoiding strenuous activity (including sex) gives your body the best chance to naturally settle any inflammation after surgery to the face or head [1].
During sex, it’s very easy for your grafts to be moved or dislodged. Protecting your grafts is an essential part of hair transplant aftercare, so it’s really important to avoid touching or moving your hair grafts in the first few weeks after your hair transplant.
If you or another person touches your hair grafts, it can also put you at risk of hair transplant infection, which means you’ll need additional treatment and can also increase the chances of hair transplant failure.
During sex, you’re likely to sweat from your scalp. Sweating can pose a risk of infection following surgery, and it also makes it more likely that you’ll nudge or dislodge your grafts as you wipe away any perspiration [3].
Infection can lead to more serious complications if it’s left untreated, so it’s important to let your clinic know if you have any symptoms of infection. These include:
Rest promotes recovery during your hair transplant downtime, so it’s important to get lots of rest. Sex can tire you out, meaning you don’t get as much rest as you need for your hair grafts to heal successfully.
It may be safe for you to have sex after a hair transplant if:
A staged hair transplant involves multiple hair transplant sessions over several months or years, allowing surgeons to gradually achieve greater hair density while minimising side effects. It’s often recommended for large procedures.
Sexual activity restrictions apply after every transplant session, even in later stages. Each procedure creates new donor and recipient sites that need time to heal and for grafts to anchor. Although smaller sessions may feel less tender, the healing process is the same.
If you’re unsure whether it’s safe to have sex following your follicular unit transplantation (FUT) or follicular unit extraction (FUE) procedure, don’t be embarrassed to ask your clinic. We’re often asked, and we can help you decide whether or not it’s safe to have sex after your hair transplant based on your unique symptoms and recovery stage.
Recovery times and when you can return to sex may vary slightly depending on whether you’ve had an FUE vs FUT hair transplant. Dr Thomas shares:
“We know that FUE recovery and discomfort is better. Patients after FUE will recover sooner and can get back to light gentle activities after a few days, whereas FUT patients will have tightness and more discomfort at the incision site which persists longer.”
Even after you’ve got the go-ahead from your clinic, you should be careful when having sex after a hair transplant. Take the following precautions to minimise damage to your transplant and maximise the chances of hair growth success:
Worried you’ve done some damage to your new grafts? Dr Thomas describes the signs of complications to watch out for, and when you may need to contact your clinic:
The graphic above gives you an idea of what to expect in terms of hair transplant recovery, and how long it’s normal to experience symptoms like bleeding, redness, itching, scabbing and swelling.
While masturbation is unlikely to cause problems with hair transplant recovery in the same way as sex, it’s still a good idea to avoid it in the first few days after surgery.
Masturbation can still increase your heart rate and blood pressure, and may interfere with the rest you need for successful recovery. However, masturbation is a safer option than sex in the first week or so after your hair transplant.
Medications used for sexual performance, such as sildenafil (Viagra), tadalafil (Cialis), and vardenafil (Levitra), work by widening blood vessels to improve blood flow. While this effect is helpful for erectile function, it may temporarily increase blood flow in the scalp, increasing your risk of bleeding or swelling in the first few days after a hair transplant.
Research suggests that sildenafil widens tiny blood vessels and boosts the growth of new ones around hair follicles [4]. In one study, it increased small-vessel blood flow by more than 400% compared to a placebo [4], suggesting that sildenafil can strongly increase circulation and affect blood flow in the scalp.
There’s no strong evidence that these drugs directly harm graft survival or long-term healing, but most surgeons advise avoiding them for at least a couple of weeks after surgery to reduce the risk of complications. It’s always best to check with your surgeon, especially if you regularly use these medications.
Sex isn’t the only thing you’ll need to avoid for a period following a hair transplant. It’s also recommended that you:
Fortunately, your hair transplant will be worth it. Taking care of your hair grafts is really important, and can make or break the success of your procedure. Ben Stokes’s hair transplant was performed at the Wimpole Clinic, and his aftercare vigilance helped ensure a successful procedure:
“I was told the aftercare was very very important. So I didn’t properly wash my hair for two weeks, just sprayed it with water in the shower. Avoided knocking it, slept with one of those neck pillows you get on the plane to make sure. I was very lucky, I didn’t scab that badly. But as soon as I felt I could put a hat on, I was going out.”
Ready to learn more about recovering from a hair transplant? Check out our related resources below:
The Wimpole Clinic, awarded best hair transplant clinic for four years running, is one of the most established hair clinics in the UK. Since we opened in 1975, we’ve performed over 25,000 successful procedures.
Our results speak for themselves. Check out our hair transplant before and after gallery for examples of the results you could achieve, and our patient testimonials to learn more about the Wimpole Clinic hair transplant experience.
If you’re a good candidate for a hair transplant, you’ll have access to some of the best hair transplant surgeons in the UK at our clinics. Book a consultation at your nearest clinic location to learn whether a hair transplant is right for you.
Yes, gentle kissing or cuddling is safe as long as your scalp isn’t touched or rubbed. Avoid anything that could cause pressure, friction, or sweating on your scalp. Keeping your head elevated and clean helps protect healing grafts during early recovery.
Yes, because drinking alcohol can slow down how your body heals. Even one drinking session can reduce blood vessel growth around a wound by more than half, making it harder for oxygen and nutrients to reach the area [5].
Alcohol is even linked to hair loss, and can delay recovery after a transplant and increase the risk of poor healing. It’s best to avoid alcohol completely for at least a week post-surgery, or longer if your surgeon recommends it.
Yes. If you still have swelling in your scalp, forehead, or around your eyes, it’s best to delay sex. Strenuous activity can worsen inflammation or bleeding, so you should wait until swelling has fully resolved before resuming sex to protect your transplant and reduce discomfort.
Not necessarily, because the absence of hair transplant pain doesn’t mean your grafts are fully secure. Newly implanted follicles take one to two weeks to anchor, so early sexual activity could still dislodge them. Follow your surgeon’s advice and wait until they confirm your scalp has healed enough to return to sex.
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Talk to a specialist
Dr Mir Malkani MBBS, MISHRS, FRCS, aged 59, is a pioneer and leader in the field of FUE Hair Transplants in the UK. He has performed over 7,000 hair transplant procedures in the last 21 years and is an innovator in FUE surgery due to his extensive experience. In-fact, Dr Malkani is one of the first three FUE surgeons in the UK and has developed modern FUE surgery techniques and is registered with the GMC (4702052). He has been performing FUE surgery since January 2008 and for the last five years almost exclusively performs this technique. Dr Malkani takes a keen interest in every patient and their surgery results. He performs surgical aspects himself thereby ensuring a high standard of work and accountability for each individual patient whilst complying with UK Law.
After achieving a Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1997, Dr Malkani had the opportunity to work in a range of specialties in Dublin, London, Sussex and The Midlands. This included Trauma Surgery, General Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Dermatology. Additionally, Dr Malkani has achieved qualifications in General Practice and has been a practising hair transplant Surgeon on a full-time basis since 2004. He worked for the Wimpole Clinic from 2013 to 2016 as a specialist FUE surgeon before setting up his own hair clinic in 2017 which eventually merged with Wimpole Clinic in 2019.
Since 2015 Dr Malkani has become the expert witness for the UK judicial system in order to provide expert medical opinions to the courts for hair transplant medical malpractices in the UK. He has been pivotal in helping the UK courts in improving the quality of hair transplant surgery in the UK and in patients suffering malpractice from poor unregulated work here in the UK. Dr Malkani has performed hair transplant surgery in England, Scotland, Ireland and in Sweden.
Dr Malkani has taken a keen interest in and practised facial aesthetics, body sculpting and hair loss for many years. His surgical qualifications, experience, skills and understanding of facial cosmetology has enabled him to master the most modern and advanced techniques and artistry of FUE hair Surgery. These outstanding skills have helped transform the lives of his male, female and transgender patients. He is one of the few around the world whose transaction rate (damage to grafts during extraction) is extremely low and is under 2%. This ensures a high volume of viable grafts and a good result without compromising the donor area. Dr Malkani is also one of a few surgeons in the UK who can harvest body hair in a hair transplant where there is a depleted donor area.
In 2008, Dr Malkani had the honour to be invited to lecture on The Art and Sciences of Hair Restoration surgery and Hair loss in the annual meeting of the British Association of Cosmetic Doctors at The Royal College of Physicians in London. Dr Malkani has trained others in the specialty of Hair Restoration Surgery in The United Kingdom, Italy and Asia. He has worked on thousands of hair transplant patients over the past 16 years and has kept abreast of constant new developments in the industry.
Membership of professional bodies by Dr Malkani includes full membership of The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery and The British Association of Cosmetic Doctors and British Medical Association. He has been featured by the national press and BBC as one of the key seniors, versatile hair transplant surgeons in the UK.
GMC Registration No: 4702052
