What to Expect 6 Months After Hair Transplant?

I am very sorry you are unhappy with your result. Without seeing you in person it is very hard for me to have an opinion on whether your results were normal or abnormal. As far as additional growth goes, our patients can expect growth all the way to 12 months in some cases. However, by month 9 all the hairs are typically showing, but have to play catch up with the hair that broke through from month 3 and 4. 

Every case is different. Three and a half to four months is typically when FUE begins to yield new growth. Being at only 6 months, your grafts are still relatively young--it is not time yet to panic. Most patients see the lot of their hair come in by 12 months post-surgery. And new hair will continue to fill out and mature for up to 18 months. Word to the wise, since the grafts are extracted individually with FUE, careful selection of surgeon is paramount. An advanced FUE surgeon will... more

At six months you should see most of the hair growing and certainly by eight months. If there's not much growth the orginal grafts may have not had healthy follicles.

Each patient is unique, but most patients have most of the hair growth by the first year. At 6 months we traditionally have between 60 and 70 percent of the transplanted hairs growing. When using the FUE, follicular unit extraction technique, I have noticed that many of the grafts (30-50%) stay and continue to grow immediately after transplantation.

Some areas can take a little longer to grow out, however it sounds like not all your FUE grafts were viable. One of the problems with FUE work is that not all patients have good follicles for the proceedure and not all technicians are adequately trained in how to remove them properly, leading to a bad result.

Normally you would be seeing hair growth in all areas that were grafter. If none is seen after 6 more months I would advise a second opinion.

Although transplanted hair typically starts to grow by 3 months there can be continued growth and thickening up to 12 months after surgery. For this reason, though a 6 month followup visit is a helpful indication of your growth, it is not the "final" result. For this reason, I ask my patients to follow up at 6 months and 1 year. By 1 year you should have a good idea of your "final" result.

Patience is indeed a virtue. I counsel patients that at about 3 months you can get an idea of what things will look like, at 6 months you should be able to tell if additional transplants are necessary, but the absolute best results may not be visible for 9-12 months after the initial transplant. It all comes down to the much talked about hair cycle. Some hairs will start to grow early, some may take a bit longer. If you are concerned though - talk with your surgeon.

Grafts grow at varying rates and depends on what stage of the hair cycle they are in. Some patients I have experience tremendous growth at 3 months. Some I have to wait until a year that goes by before I see anything. Most start having appreciable changes starting at 6 months and continue to improve toward a year with slight improvements further to 18 months. A few patients paradoxically dip at 12 months. A few dip early at 3 or 6 months. In other words there is variability. Also, most... more

Patience is your best ally at this time. The initial growth of hair  will not be the same in all follicles. Wait at  least another 3-4 months. If you're not satisfied, discuss this with your surgeon. You may have more transplants or consider flap surgery which provides much greater density.