I Have Less Hair Now After My Hair Transplant a Year Ago

I had about 2,500 grafts transplanted approximately one year ago. The grafts grew in pretty well for about 7 or 8 months, then I exerienced some shedding. I know have less of the transplanted hair that I did 3 months ago. Funny thing is that it seems I also lost some of the hair from a prior transplant years ago. This is dissapointing and depressing. I believed that hair that had begun to grow would not fall out again, and I do not have an auto-immune disease. Any ideas? (I’ll try and get a follow-up with my surgeon. Thanks

If you had any original hair still left in the transplanted area, you could lose that hair and cause your problem. If all of the hair that is thinning is transplanted hair only, that is rare. We call the donor area hair “permanent hair,” but is it really permanent? In a very small percentage of the population, the donor hair can thin permanently. If that happened in your transplanted hair, the same would be apparent in the donor area, as both have the same source. I always measure the density of the donor area prior to a transplant so if this happened, I would have a measurement to compare to.

In a very small percentage of patients, hair that has been transplanted can be lost… and if that happens it will usually return. I do not understand the cause of this when it does occur, but I have seen it a few times and most of the time the hair came back. Please do have a follow-up with your surgeon and express your concerns.