How long does it take for a wound to heal?

So, I just went through head surgery, and now I’m wondering—roughly how long does it take for the skull bone and the skin to fully heal? If anyone here has been through this and can share their experience, I’d appreciate it. Thanks.

I can't really see the incision or what they actually did to me, but others tell me it's all healed over and looks great.🤷
It’s been just over two months since the surgery.

What's bothering you?
Is there pain?
An itch?

It’s not that I’m in pain, per se—I’m just wondering how long the healing process actually takes. Since my head surgery, the area feels pretty soft; if I press down too hard with my fingers, I feel like I could almost puncture the bone. I'm asking because, honestly, it's starting to worry me a bit.

Honestly, you can't really "break through" bone, so there's no need to stress about it. If they put that bone flap back in place after your surgery and secured it with titanium plates, it’s locked down tight—there's zero chance you're going to shift anything by accident. It's a whole different story if they didn't replace the bone flap and left that part of your skull open... obviously, in that case, you'd want to be super careful and protect the area.

Thomas Peterson5 said:It’s not that it hurts, I’m just curious about the recovery timeline. Right now, the area where I had head surgery feels pretty soft. If I press down too hard with my fingers, I feel like I might actually push through the bone. That’s what’s bothering me, so I'm asking.

I’m pretty squeamish about surgical incisions, so I haven't even touched mine. 😉
I finally felt okay enough to handle things after about a month. You could still feel the cut under your fingers, but it wasn't nearly as swollen as it was right after the stitches came out (I accidentally bumped it back then).
The spot where they worked on my skull was definitely more sensitive to the touch—I even felt some tingling—but you could feel the bone underneath the skin. I let someone else check it, though, not myself. 😍
Everything is fine now.

And why would you squeeze it any harder? 🤷
I just washed my hair very gently, nothing heavy-handed.

Scott Allen10, why wouldn't they just close up that bone gap? 🤷
I mean, leaving a hole in your head makes zero sense. 🤷

Well, it really just boils down to why things went sideways during surgery or what the situation looks like on the table. Sometimes they can't put the bone flap back in—maybe because the bone itself got too damaged from the initial trauma, or more commonly, because once they perform the craniotomy, the brain starts swelling up. If you get that brain edema where everything starts pushing outward, and even after hitting it with a heavy dose of mannitol, diuretics, or steroids, the swelling just won't budge, there’s simply no way to put the bone back when the brain is literally bulging out of the gap.
In those cases, the surgeons just stitch up the subcutaneous tissue and the skin, and they might tuck the bone fragment under the skin somewhere else, like in the abdominal area. Then, once things have settled down and the inflammation dies down, they can go back in for a second procedure, take that piece, and slot it right back into place like a Lego brick to close everything up properly.

They didn't even use any titanium plates—just some kind of "lamella." I have no idea what that actually is—maybe there's a different term for it.

So that’s really all there is to it... I mean, maybe it isn't made of pure titanium (though I'm pretty sure it is), but at the end of the day, it's just that essential piece of hardware holding the bone to the skull so everything can actually heal up right.