A Second Hair Transplant Surgery

Dear Dr. Rassman;

Second Surgery.
How long should one wait for a second hair transplant procedure? I’ve read some articles of men who have had a second surgery only six months after the first and a third only within six months after the second. Is this correct? I had my first surgery 7 months ago and I’m still seeing new little hairs coming up where there were no hairs before. I had to look at my 2 days post op pictures to realize that these are transplanted hairs. So if I’m still getting new hairs coming in after 7 months how can a Doctor suggest to a patient to get a second procedure after only 6 months?

Again thank you for your honesty and for answering our questions.

Kind Regards.

You are absolutely correct. I generally tell my patients that 8 months is the minimum waiting time between hair transplant procedures, because as you suggested, more hair is still growing in until that time. By 8 months, you can generally expect 80-90% of the growth and by 1 year, 95+% of the growth.

There is usually a big difference between the first procedure and the second procedure. In the first procedure, the doctor will make most of the decisions with the patient’s guidance. In the follow-up surgery, the patient makes most of the decisions, because now the patient understands that value of the new hair, particularly with regard to hair and graft distribution.