Hair Transplant Patients That Keep Their Hair Cut Short?

Hey! I realize that the whole idea of a hair transplant is to make less hair look like more as there is only a limited donor supply. This seems to work great for those who grow their hair out but I have never seen a transplant patient keep their hair short. I know there are scars that need covering, but just out of curiosity, do you have any examples of shorter hair post transplant? I just can’t imagine it working with less than 50% density.

I generally do not recommend keeping the hair short (crew cut length) after a hair transplant because the hair transplant does not create enough density. For a hair transplant, we generally target about 15 to 25% of the original density. If the transplants is limited to a specific small area, that number will be increased to possibly 35% of the original density. A second or third procedure can bring the density up to ~50% (maybe), but although that density often looks good with longer hair, it does not look very full when cut short. Some of our patients have tried to cut their hair short, and all of them eventually let the hair grow out unless they had Scalp Micropigmentation to diminish the contrast between the dark hair and fair skin. We target fullness, not density. Fullness is a reflection of the (a) thickness of each hair shaft and (b) density. The thicker the hair (e.g Coarse hair) the less density is needed. Fine hair produces a real fullness issue in some patients. If the hair is fine and dark against a light skin, even a 50% density may not look full enough with longer hair. In conclusion, we generally recommend that our patient exploit length to maximize fullness and minimize the number of procedures that are needed to obtain the results that they desire. One must understand the limitation of a hair transplant surgery which is where you are basically rearranging your hair from one location (back of the head) to another location (front of the head). If you move too much, the original area will be bald.