I am approaching the 3 months mark post Artas robotic (FUE) hair transplant. Should I see more growth?

A hair transplant procedure, whether performed with a linear strip method, or with an FUE procedure, as the ARTAS System performs, places a physiologic shock on the hairs being transplanted.  Think about what the follicles go through: they are removed from the scalp, and their blood supply, then placed into a tissue bath that is cool, around 4 degrees C.  Then the follicles are replaced back into the scalp.  There are several different types of micro-injuries that the follicles endure, one is due to the cooling of the grafts to slow their metabolism while they are outside of the body, and another one occurs when the follicles are replaced back into the scalp, and it's called a "perfusion-reperfusion injury."  This causes many of the transplanted follicles to come out of their growth phase (anagen) and enter the shedding phase (telogen).  The resting phase of hair follicles on the scalp is roughly 3-8 months long.  The hairs that shed out after being transplanted will return slowly, and asynchronously from month 3 to about month 8.  Some even experience growth for fully 12 months.I tell my patients to pretend that every day from the day of surgery to one year from that day is like a long movie, with each day being a single frame in this movie.   We won't know exactly how the movie ends until the movie ends.  Further, it's different each and every single day as the follicles slowly re-enter the growth phase from month 3 to about month 8.  So, in the next 3-5 months you should expect significant growth.

Generally, the transplanted hairs will fall out between 2 to 6 weeks after surgery. New hair growth begins around week 10 after surgery. At 6 months, patients can often see growth throughout the transplanted area. The full outcome of the transplant is not apparent until a year or so after the procedure. To evaluate the final result, the surgeon should wait at least a year after the procedure.

After a hair transplantation procedure it is common for up to 3/4 of the transplanted hairs to fall out in the first three months.  This is because when the follicles are removed from the scalp and then transplanted into the new sites they are subjected to a physiologic stress.  This causes the follicles to enter the telogen (shedding) phase of the hair cycle.  The hairs fall out and the follicle enters the resting phase which can last from three to seven months.  After this they will enter the anagen (growth) phase and start to grow again.  Each month after the fourth month more hairs will begin to grow.  So it can take up to about a year for all of the transplanted hairs to grow.  So it is not surprising at all that you haven't noticed growth three months out from the transplant.

Patience is the key here.  Hair growth after an Artas or any other procedure takes some time.  The key here is that you are transferring hairs from one area to another which can cause hair grafts to undergo a shift in phase from anagen (growth) to telogen (shedding) phase.  For most patients this process will take between month 3 and month 12.  We try to minimize the shedding process by using a combination of hair transplantation technology with regenerative medicine to help decrease the shedding phase.  

At 3 months post-transplant, regardless of the harvesting technique used, patients will not be seeing the results. It takes 6 months to begin to see the results, and a full 12 months to really assess the results of the transplant. Over this period of time, the hairs mature by growing longer and more robust.
All the best,

db70,Most of the growth after a hair transplant procedure occurs between 4-8 months. The growth continues to the 12 month mark, however, studies have shown that there is still further thickening of the hair transplant beyond the 12 month mark. To see the evolution of a hair transplant see the adjoined video.