Is it normal for the donor area to look patchy? (Photo)

Question

I had my hair transplant done on the 20th of July (so 3.5 weeks/25 days ago). I feel as the surgeons/technicians over harvested the donor area. There are a lot of patches and some feel as if there are no hairs growing. I spoke to the doctor and they informed me that it is shock loss? But to me it looks like they did a bad job. He informed me that it could take up to 2-3 months for the donor area to look normal. Can anyone advise?

Jae Pak, MD · Answer

If you have excess number of hair grafts harvested, your donor area will look depleted.  This is a problem with FUE harvesting many people don't consider when they have FUE mega sessions.

Ilker Apaydin, MD · Answer

With only one photo and very short time post op, it is not really easy to say if it is an over harvesting or not. On the other hand I can say there might be two possibilities.Over harvesting or temporary shock loss.It is better to check with your surgeon for a close control.

Jayanthy Ravindran, MS, DNB, MRCS · Answer

Hi There,
It is too early to evaluate whether there has been an over harvest of the follicles. The no of follicles harvested would depend on the area needed to be covered. Hair is not a point. As the remaining hair grows in length hopefully the donor area would not appear patchy. I presume that the surgeon would have harvested as much grafts as  possible to give you a good density over areas of baldness while considering that once the hair grows in donor area the patches would be concealed.

William Rassman, MD (retired) · Answer

It does look like that there is donor area over-harvesting; however, you may just have some vascular changes and shock loss which, if the case, will recover. I certainly hope so.

Is it normal for the donor area to look patchy? (Photo)

Answers (4)