Another Hair Transplant Failure, This Time with Photos

We’ve written about hair transplant failures before (here and here), but this time we have some photos that we’ve been given permission to share.

This patient had 1000 grafts placed into the frontal area 10 years ago (not with us). Around 95% of the grafts have failed to grow either initially or since the surgery. In looking for a cause of the failure, I found that the donor area was taken from neck hair, not scalp hair. The incision high in the neck from a strip surgery healed better than most neck incisions, but below the incision the hair is significantly thinner than the area above it (see photos below).

The cause of the failure of the grafts could be from:

1. The use of neck hair in the recipient area. It is well known that neck hair is not permanent and as this patient has thinning of the neck hair today (10 years after his transplant was done), it is possible that aptosis (cell death) was induced from the neck hair transplant.
2. A failure of the quality control in the hair transplant process.
3. A failure of the technique at the time of surgery.

Click the photos to enlarge.