Hair Transplants, Shock Loss, and Propecia for Women?

(female) I heard of the possibility of shock and its harm to cause loss of existing hair from hair transplantaion. How frequentlly does this happen and does is the risk lower with follicular unit extracton?

Many women can not get real benefits from a hair transplant, so that is why I want to see pictures. There is no substitute for a direct examination of your hair with miniaturization studies to determine just where your hair loss is and how good your donor area is. Most women with genetic hair loss have a poor donor supply because of the thinning and the high degree of miniaturization in the donor area so they do not qualify for a hair transplant. Too many doctors will still perform surgery on these women when there will be no benefit just for the money. You need to find a good, honest doctor who keeps your interests central to your evaluation (not your purse). I am not convinced that Propecia would work for woman’s hair loss and in fact, it is not FDA approved for treating female hair loss because there is no proven benefit of it for women.

When a transplant is done, shock loss may occur in the recipient area so the method of extracting the donor hair is what is important. The best way to reduce the risks for shock loss is the use of Propecia (for men only) to be taken orally prior to the surgery and for the subsequent 6-8 months. For women, hair loss from shock loss usually reverses if it occurs (less than 10% risk in women) and it is possible the Minoxidil may help prevent it.