My Surgeon Said Some Grafts Can Be Dormant a Year After My Hair Transplant

A year after a successful transplant I can still feel some grafts on my head that never shed a year later.

Hello doctor, it is about 12 months since my FUT procedure of 2350 grafts. I and all concerned are very pleased with the results. As expected by this stage, almost all of the grafts are grown out and have matured for quite some time now. However, I find it strange that in one or two areas of my head I can still feel some of the short shaved implanted hairs that never shed or started to grow in the whole 12 month period. Now this number is very small, im talking maybe only 10 to 15 hairs over my entire scalp, most of which are in the hairline region.

I discussed this with the transplant surgeon at my 12 month review, and he told me that it was acceptable that even after 12 months there may still be very small number of grafts still in the dormant phase, and that these would eventually grow out in time.

I was just wondering if you had ever come across this before and if it was normal? Perhaps my growth is just a little slower than average as I noticed my real thickening happened around month 9/10 as opposed to the normal month 6 that one usually reads about. I also have been on finasteride for the past 5 years.

Thank you and I appreciate any response you may have for me on this.

Kind regards

You may also have the hair from the original transplant that just never shed and is just stuck in there (without shedding or growing). You can test this hypothesis by finding this “stubble” and gently tugging on it. If it slides right out, it may have been the original hair in the grafts from a year ago. Imagine a splinter stuck in your scalp. In this case, the splinter would be your inert hair.

Otherwise, your guess and your surgeon’s guess is as good as mine. I have no idea what you may actually be experiencing without an examination.