Months After Transplant, Hair Became Thinner
Dear Dr Rassman
First of all i would like to thank you for the great support you have been providing.I am 27 year male. I had my hair line done(1400 grafts) 5 Months ago in LA. Around 4 months after the surgery i had good number of hair on the left side. But with in last 1 month i have noticed that my hair have become thinner in this region. Is it possible that i have lost few newly transplanted hair. And also i do not see much hair (not even baby hair on the right side). I am a social smoker i smoke between three or five cigarettes a week. Does this has any thing to do with poor hair growth .
Thank you very much for your advise.
Regards
Patients react differently to their newly transplanted hair. In some people, the transplanted hairs completely fall out before regrowing after a few months. In rare times, they grow and keep growing after a hair transplant. The final results of a transplant must be assessed no sooner than 8 months from the time of surgery, because you want styling length to about 1 1/2 inches to see the benefits of the new hair. Your thinning may have been part of the initial shock loss and may grow it back (I recommend that my patients use Propecia to reduce the risk of shock loss). With a good surgical technique more than 90 percent of your grafts are expected to take.
Smoking, as we discussed several times here before, is bad for your overall health and decreases blood micro-circulation in tissues, possibly contributing to poor wound healing. Proper wound healing is essential for the transplanted grafts to ‘take’. Smoking may potentially stop the growth of implanted grafts and in your case you may have lost some of the grafts as a result of that. Again, most patients who have less than targeted results from transplant are smokers. Maybe it is a good time for you to quit smoking. See the doctor who did your hair transplants and hold him accountable to give you the direct answers to your questions with you in the same room. If I were your doctor, I would want you in front of me at about the 8th month after the surgery.
dear doctor rassman.
i am in a bit of a confusing state. i had a transplant with a reputable doctor in canada 9 months ago to restore the hairline and provide some coveredge on the top and not the crown (i was a norwood 5).
i had roughly 3600 grafts, mainly focusing on the hairline. 9 months have past and i can say honestly that im not impressed. whilst i see an improvement on the top of the scalp, the main area which is the hairline is unexceptional. from temple to temple, it still looks like a receded hairline and the surprising thing is, its just the hairline area which is from temple to temple and approximately half an inch in lenght i.e. hairline lenght (temple to temple) x half inch which has shown no improvement. its extremely thin and whilst i can feel some stubble in various regions there, i honestly think that for 9 months, it is unexceptional. my head is visible through my hairline and anyone can say that i am balding.
i have been imforming my doctor on regular basis and he says i should wait a full 12 months before coming to a conclusion. i have not been satisfied with my hairline for the past 9 months, is there any hope that the next 3 months could make a difference?