Darker Hair Growing In After Transplants (with Photos)

Dr. Rassman:
I noticed that my hair transplants are not blonde like much of my head hair. You transplanted my head 1 year ago (1500 grafts) in the front and the hair has grown darker where the transplants are. Much of the other hair is blonde, that is, except my beard which has red hair. Now I have a three toned hair color. I can come to your office if that will help!

(This patient subsequently visited my Los Angeles office; see photos below).

The transplanted hair came out of the back and sides where you hair is brown (today). This is the dense area that does not get sunlight and you clearly need sunlight to have the sun bleach out the brown color and turn it blonde. I call this phenomenon the ‘Summer Blonde’. My three sons are all Summer Blondes who have brown hair in the winter. When we met in the office today, you did tell me that the brown color was evident this fall, after the surfing season was over for you and you had to spend more time indoors. You then deprived your hair of the sun that it needs to turn to blonde. That is why the problem was not evident this summer when you ‘lived’ on the beach and in the surf.

The red beard is kind-of funny looking coloring, as long as you keep your goatee. If you like the three tones, then keep at what you are doing. The fact that you grew the goatee means to me that you like the red color. If you want that blonde color to show up all year around, you must either spend more time in the sun, or hit the bleaching bottle.

The photo on the left shows the brown roots of the transplanted hair in the center of his hairline; the photo on the right shows the blonde non-transplanted hair from the corner of his frontal hairline. In the summer, the area that is now light brown will become blonde like the hair on the sides. Please click the photos to enlarge.