Hello doctor

I see a lot of HT photos, a lot of the patients seem to have their hair up and raised back like they’ve been in the wind. Is that just the way they style it? If I was to have a HT I’d want my hair down towards my eyebrows..

Is every patient different?

Regards

Hair normally grows forward in the front (parallel to the ground when standing upright). As one moves back from the frontal edge, the angle starts to change with hair pointing a few degrees upward until it reaches the front of the crown, where the frontal pointing hairs are about 35 degrees to the ground. So you see, the hair when placed by the surgeon is never placed perpendicular to the horizon. At the crown, the hair changes direction in a circular pattern (swirl) and as you look further back, eventually the hair points down and away from the front.

What you see in our patient photos reflect each patient’s styling (or lack of it), not something we do. I always put the hair back in the direction it would have been had they never lost hair and depending where I am working on the scalp, the rules I discussed above are followed with every hair placed by me. Patients generally like to play games with their hair and although a few comb it forward, most do not. Some comb it to the side with a part on one side, others comb it back with some product that they apply to the hair. Some just let it stray, taking on the character of the hair itself. If the hair is curly, then the natural state will look less groomed than if it is straight or has a nice wave to it. If you want to comb it down to cover your forehead and point to your eyebrows, you can do that also.

Every patient is different and the results we get depend upon texture of the hair, density at the area we are looking at, thickness of the hair shafts, the degree of curliness (or lack of it with very straight hair). But the hair transplant you get will be your hair, and it will bring all of its characteristics that are present in the back of the head where the hair grafts are taken.