My normal hair not growing after hair transplant? (photo)

After a hair transplant surgery some patients will say it looks worse than before in the first few months.  In general it can look worse before it gets better.  It is always a good idea to follow up with your doctor if you are concerned.

Hair transplant is moving hairs from a person’s
permanent zone located at the back of the head to the areas that are thinning
or need hair. Initially, the hairs will take and then they will go through a
temporary shedding phase called shock loss. In addition, the trauma of having
surgery to existing or native hairs in the adjacent area can also cause shock
loss. Combining the two causes of shock loss would result to an area where
there is no growth. This is the time that patients would often panic because
they feel that that they are losing their grafts. Fortunately, shock loss is a
normal phenomenon and is temporary. A strategy is to just wait for the hair
growth cycles to synchronize and to start growth again in the course of several
months to a year.



There are factors that are part of the long-term
viability of the transplant. This includes the actual take of the transplant
that was transplanted. In a standard hair transplant, not all hairs will stay.
One can get 5% loss or they can get only a few hairs. They can even lose almost
90% of the transplanted hairs.



When I perform hair restoration surgery, I developed
a system called Hair Regeneration where I use a wounding healing material
called extracellular matrix by ACell and combine it with platelet-rich plasma
and vitamin D. With this, we have been successful in helping people to have
better growth rates with their hair transplants. It seems that this
extracellular matrix wound healing technology accelerates the healing and
reduces some of the initial shock loss or long term loss based on the viability
of the hair grafts. In addition, the hairs that are thinning will actually
become thicker. We’ve had many patients from all over the world who had a
transplant and learned about our hair regeneration and came to us to have the
injection to help support their transplant. Usually they’ll do that within the
first month after their transplant.



Wound healing is the key aspect of
understanding what you’re going through. So a normal process of wound healing
does involve shedding of the transplanted hair and shedding of the existing
hair. Also, you could try using some minoxidil and/or propecia to help slow
down the progression. However, this is something that you need to discuss with
your surgeon who performed the transplant. I hope that was helpful, I wish you
the best of luck, and thank you for your question.

What you are experiencing seems perfectly normal at this point. Significant growth after a transplant can begin to occur at 6 months, but in some normal cases, can take longer. Final outcomes cannot be determined until 12-18 months. Give it time, although it can be difficult and stressful for patients. Numbness and/or strange sensations are almost universally temporary and can take up to 6-12 months to full resolve.