Hi,

This is the 6th month after my hair transplant was done. After 2 months my transplanted hair shed out, then after 4 months I noticed there was new hair that started growing. At the 6 month mark, the weak hair started falling out. Is this shock loss after the fact? Is this normal or there is any other issue? Can you please give me your suggestion.

Thanks

It does sound like it might be shock loss, perhaps somewhat delayed for the first round of it. The progressive hair loss that occurs in all of balding men can get accelerated by a hair transplant surgery.

I usually prescribe finasteride (Propecia) for my patients to minimize this impact. Were you on this medication? If not, you should consider going on it to slow down the acceleration of the hair loss that yet still may come. As always, if you have questions or concerns with your surgical procedure, you should follow up with your surgeon to get his/her take.

What do you tell prospective clients who say that they want hair restoration surgery, but it is absolutely imperative that all signs of the procedures, as well as the result, be undetectable? Let’s say for example that I was able to take 3 weeks off of work to have this done while I go on “vacation”; with what degree of certainty could you say that signs of the procedure, including scabbing, and what I’m more worried about being the “pinkish” scalp, would have subsided within a lets say 17 day period?

As is the nature with the internet, I have read posts with wildly different interpretations, and have also seen very different outcomes in the online photo-blogs I’ve looked at. I have no doubt you must receive hundreds upon hundreds of questions, so thanks so much for what you do for so many of us in this frustrating predicament; any help with my question would be greatly appreciated.

Every patient is different, but in general the scabs and the redness (if there is any) goes away anywhere between a few days to around 2 weeks. On the other hand, the short hairs from the transplant look like a newly grown beard, and in a woman that might make it detectable if she does not style her hair to cover it; however, these short hair will all fall out in about 3 weeks, so by that point there should be no trace of a transplant. The hairs that fall out will reappear somewhere between 3-6 months and then start growing at about 1/2 inch per month.

Most people have no signs of the surgery between 3-4 weeks afterward; however, on rare occasions there have been some patients that will hold redness in the recipient area for up to 8 weeks. With a simple scratch test (where you scratch your forehead with your fingernail with some moderate pressure), the skin might produce a red mark in the scratched area within a few minutes of doing this. That indicates a positive scratch test, and those with the positive scratch test will often hold the pinkness of the recipient sites for a few weeks.

I had a hair transplant about 3 1/2 months ago. I was curious if drinking espresso coffee could impact how well the hair transplant grows out. I get pretty zippy from a cup of starbucks espresso. I believe it has 150 milligrams of coffee. I drink atleast one per week. I also drink a cup of tea in the morning. That’s probably another 50 mg. Is this something that could hurt a hair transplant?

Another question I had was that I was taking 2 Vicodins per day for about 10 days after my hair transplant. I had not read the medication instructions because I had lost them. The doctor gave 25 tablets of the Vicodin so I presumed that I should take them all. Could this hurt the growth of the hair transplant?

Thanks for writing such an informative blog. If I had ran into this before my procedure I would have came to you for my transplant. My doctor was good but you are great. Perhaps I will come to you for a second procedure if it is needed.

There is no problem with drinking coffee or taking Vicodin (hydrocodone/acetaminophen) following a hair transplant. Once the pain is gone, I generally tell patients to switch to Motrin or Advil (ibuprofen) for pain relief.

I’m currently 9 months into my hair transplant, I’m certain the left side is thicker than the right side!

Is this normal?

It may depend on what your doctor did during the surgery. I would follow up with your surgeon.

If the growth is equal in numbers of hairs, you probably will see the two sides equalize over the next month or two. It’s important to note that once hair starts growing, it grows at about 1/2 inch per month.