Is Shock Loss Permanent?

Dear Dr Rassman,
I am a 39-year-old male. I recently underwent a transplant procedure at Bosley in Boston. My class was a 3 vertex. I have been using Propecia for 4 years, and it has worked great! However, I still saw some daylight in the frontal region. Admittedly, 99% of friends and family would only say I had slightly receding hairline, and follicular enhancement surgery was ridiculous. My objective was to simply augment my existing hair and stay a head of the curve. With that said, I’m now learning of Telogen and “shock-loss”. Several web sites claim that the shock loss can be permanent, and I could wind up with thinner hair than I began with. I knew up front that trauma could case this to happen. Moreover, I could have waited several years before taking this step. I would be greatly disappointed to lean that this was futile and I could be worse off! My HTP counselor says, new evidence claims healthy non-miniaturizing adjacent follicles should, and will come back after a few cycles. Can you please expound on this topic.

Hair transplant shock (shock loss) is often prevented in men of your age by Propecia, so you have done the right thing by taking it. The shock loss can be permanent if the hair that is lost was in the balding zone. When it occurs and impacts hairs in the balding area in men, the hair loss is often, but not always, permanent. This will only impact non-transplanted hair, so if you had transplanted hair that was lost (very, very rare) that hair always returns. For women who lose hair (with shock loss), the hair almost always comes back.

You need to wait it out. Chances are that it will not come back, but the newly transplanted hair may make enough of a difference to adequately address the area of loss on a worst case scenario.