My girlfriend had the decompression surgery three weeks ago and she now has hair growing back but she can pull it out very easily (the closer to the scar the easier it comes out, an inch or more away is in much tighter). To anyone that has had the surgery or knows someone who has, is this at all normal or common and if so will it get better or does she need to talk to the doctor. She's reluctant to mention it right away at her one month meeting with her doctor but I think it's important to bring it up just in case it's not normal. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

sounds like medication is causing that .

I agree with Razzle that it might be medication induced, but there's also a possibility that it could be a reaction to a dye that would have been used if they did any prolonged fluoroscopic imaging during the surgery.

I did a web search for you and found many articles related to hair loss (alopecia) following brain surgery, and here's a link to those sites for you to browse through. I hope you find something useful there.
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...meta=&aq=f&oq=

Thanks I looked through them and maybe that's it...but my question is then why is it only the new hair and only in certain places near the scar that it comes out easily and not the entire head? The place where hair comes out easily, I just found out after more questioning, is where they removed a thin layer of dermis from an area above where the plate was put in to cover it up. So maybe it's related to a layer under there missing and hopefully it will fix itself over time if that's it. Or maybe it is related to medication. But thanks guys for your time.

it's a layer of pericranium that was removed not dermis.

I had the surgery. My hair did the same thing. Go ahead and ask the doctor, but it happened to me too. Tell her not to worry, it all grows back.