My Boyfriend’s Hair Transplant Didn’t Grow Back After Shaving His Head!

Dear Dr. Rassman,
My boyfriend had a FUE operation using hair both from the back of his head and his chest (all together about 1200 follicular) to cover the toothbrush look of his previous punch graft operations on the frontal part of his head. After less than six months the result was so great that everybody was under the impression that with another operation or two on the crown part of his head he would have a 70 to 80 percent of his previous normal hair days look back.

Approximately eight months after the operation he completely shaved his head with a Gillette Fusion razor with the hope that his new and old hair may look thicker and more ready for the next operation, but to everybody’s surprise (not to mention his horror) only 40 to 50 percent of his newly transplanted hair has grown back (after two and half months now) and the look of his frontal head now can be described as balding with previous plugs being visible again. I would really appreciate your comment and/or advice on the matter.

FUE is not a perfect technique and it has a higher failure rate than the standard strip surgery, as the follicular units are often stripped of fat at the bottom of the grafts. Also, body hair transplants do not work to my satisfaction, because body hair does not grow the way scalp hair does. Body hairs do not grow continuously like scalp hair, as it is in its resting phase much longer. That is why most doctors do not perform body hair transplants; it’s not because body hair transplant is difficult.

Aside from these generalizations, I would only be guessing as to what caused the hair to not regrow after shaving it. And providing a guess would not be fair to you, your boyfriend, and even the surgeon. He needs to go back to his surgeon and follow up with this issue.