Hair falling from transplant area after 25 days of surgery?

Question

Dear Sir am Rajesh and i had taken hair transplant surgery 25days back, I had followed what ever precautions given by surgeon but now am observe that my hair is falling from transplant area (forehead side). My surgeon told its happens. Could you please tell me whether hair falls or Not. And any side affect is there of hair transplant.

Ken Anderson, MD, FISHRS · Answer

Hair shedding from the transplanted area is normal.  It typically occurs between 14 days and 42 days (2-6 weeks) following a hair restoration procedure.  This is very normal, and in fact, expected.  You should have been informed of this prior to your procedure in a discussion brought up by your treating surgeon.Here's why: hair follicles are like little organs in the skin that do one thing: make hair.  They are sort of like your nail beds at the base of each fingernail.  However your nail beds produce fingernails continuously and without 'breaks' for the duration of your life.  As in, you don't shed your fingernails every few months. Well, that's what's going on with the hair on your head.  The hair follicle on the scalp is in the growth phase, or "Anagen" phase for many years (3-8 years) and is the phase most of the follicles on your head are currently in....growth phase.  It's a fact that most people have about 100,000 follicles on their head (without hair loss), with each producing an average of about 2 hairs per follicle.  Every month, 50 to 100 hairs on a person's head (with no hair loss) enter a regressive phase and then a resting phase, which lasts a total of about 3-7 months.  These phases are called Telogen and Catagen phases, respectively.  Every day people shed 50-100 hairs, and at the same time 50-100 hairs re-enter the growth, or Anagen phase.  If a person has no hair loss, it looks the same all year round.  It's like walking up to a pine tree, a tree that appears never to lose its needles.....yet looking down there are thousands of pine needles under the pine tree.  The pine tree looks the same but constantly sheds needles.  Genetic hair loss in men and women is about shrinkage, and eventual disappearance, of hair follicles as they cycle through the Anagen, Telogen, and Catagen phases on every person's head on Planet Earth.In the pine tree example above, it is like your scalp hair, the hair follicles on your scalp are like the pine tree: constantly making and shedding pine needles.....on your scalp, your follicles are constantly making and shedding hairs.  Incidentally, typical male hair loss itself (e.g.: male pattern baldness) is a condition where the hairs that are susceptible (e.g.: all areas of the head but the back and sides of the scalp....the "horseshoe" area) fall out as per normal physiology and come back smaller.  That's what hair loss is.....it's not that the hair falls out and fails to come back, it's that it falls out as a normal course of the cycling described above, and then comes back smaller then the previous hair. The growth phase in areas of hair loss drops from 3-8 years to perhaps 3-12 months, depending on the severity of the hair loss.  Then when the follicle in the affected area goes through the stages again, the hair produced is even smaller. Eventually, the hair produced by the follicles on your head will be like the hair produced by the follicles on your forehead: it's there, but the hairs are "vellus" hairs, and don't cover any scalp, and do not provide for a hairline whatsoever.Now, to answer your question directly:The process of hair restoration involves the surgical transplantation of follicles from the permanent are to the areas of loss in a highly controlled, orchestrated fashion.  When you look at the nitty-grit, technically the blood supply to the tiny follicles is being cut off, and the follicles are being stored a storage solution.  This is not as good as a direct blood supply, so the chilling of the follicles (if it's done according to the strict Standards of Practice to which I adhere), the immersion of the follicles into a holding solution, and then the re-implantation of the follicle into it's new recipient site places a physiologic stress on the follicle.  Like it had to run a marathon it had not trained for.In plastic surgery, hair follicle transplants are technically called "free tissue transfers," in that the tissue being moved about on the body does not remain connected to its blood supply, which is the norm in most every plastic surgical procedure performed today.  As such, re-vascularization of the follicles becomes a major issue with hair restoration procedures, and in dedicated Centers, steps are taken to mitigate the many possible injuries to the follicles, including desiccation and perfusion-reperfusion injuries that so often plague organ transplants.In short, the physiologic stress placed upon the hair follicle during transplantation can often prematurely end the follicle's anagen (e.g.: growth) stage, and cause it to enter the regressive and resting stage.  So a follicle 2 years into its 7 year growth phase (e.g.: anagen phase) may be sent into the regressive phase where the follicle sheds its hairs and appears to produce no hair.  This is not a time to worry however, because if the grafts were well-taken-care of outside your body by competent, full-time technicians in proper biotech organ-preservative solutions, it will produce another strong terminal hair in 3-8 months.  The follicles don't know they have been moved from the donor area, and this is what makes hair restoration a permanent solution to an incurable, progressive physiologic phenomenon.  It is up to your hair restoration surgeon to replace the hair you've lost.  It is up to you, the patient, to try to curb the rate in which your hair loss occurs.  It's a team effort.

Jae Pak, MD · Answer

It is normal for transplanted hairs to fall out (shed) days to weeks after surgery.  Your surgeon is correct.

Jeff Donovan, MD, PhD · Answer

It's normal for hair to fall out 2-5 weeks after the transplant - this is normal and expected. The transplanted hairs need to fall out to allow the brand new hair to grow in.Are there any side effects of a hair transplant? Yes. Fortunately, most are rare and modern hair restoration is a fairly safe procedure. But it is important for anyone considering a hair transplant to sit down face to face with their surgeon to go over how the procedure is done, expected results and side effects. The most common side effects include:1. tenderness in the donor area2. swelling in the forehead and eyes for 2-5 days post op 3. redness and crusting in donor and recipient area4. itchingLess common side effects include:5. nausea6. headaches for a few days7. folliculitis8. persistent redness in the recipient area. Dozens of other rare side effects exist - be sure to sit down with your surgeon and get to know the top 10-20 side effects. Hair transplants are pretty safe and recovery is pretty straight forward for most patients. However, this is a surgical procedure (regardless of whether FUE or strip!). Far too many people ignore the fine details of just what is involves with having a hair transplant surgery.

William Rassman, MD (retired) · Answer

Of course the question I would want to know is: Was the patient on Propecia (Finpecia in India) prior to the hair transplant. He is talking about what sounds like shock loss, a condition that is common in young men who have had a hair transplant and were not treated to prevent it with Finasteride (Propecia or Finpecia). If I am correct, then the hair loss he is experiencing is an acceleration of his normal genetic balding pattern and is not reversable in most young men. This man should go on Finpecia as soon as he reads this post to stop it from getting worse.

Michael Meshkin, MD - Account Suspended · Answer

hair follicles go through their normal cyclic activity of anagen (growth phase-90%),catagen (shedding phase), and telogen (resting phase-10%).  Hair shaft loss after hair transport is normal, the follicle will remain and each follicle will go through its own cycle of growth.  This cycling process is considered normal. Your hair usually will start to grow in gradually after three months and may take up to 18 months for full growth.

Hair falling from transplant area after 25 days of surgery?

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Answer: Hair is falling out one month following a hair transplant

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Hair falling from transplant area after 25 days of surgery?

Answers (6)

Answer: Hair is falling out one month following a hair transplant

Answer: Hair is falling out one month following a hair transplant

Answer: Post op expectations

Answer: Post op expectations

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Everything you need to know about FUE Hair Transplant

Our mission is to create a world where every investment in modern beauty is Worth It.