My Hair Is Thinner After Transplant

I had a hair transplant in August 2005. The doctor used the slit technique and placed 900 grafts in the frontal 2.5 inches of my scalp. He told me that the “see throughness” would be corrected. I am a 33 year old female who did not notice thinning until after the birth of my son. I waited until he was 22 months old to have the surgery to rule out any acceleration in my hair loss and make sure I was done with the post-partum shed. I had previously seen one other transplant doctor before electing to have the surgery, and he had suggested two procedures in the frontal area, covering about the first 1.5 inches of my scalp. I chose the second surgeon because he said he did two female transplants a week (thus he had experience with women) and could do the whole thing in one procedure.

Immediately after my surgery I was thinner and the doctor said it was normal to lose hair during the procedure; but that it would grow back. Three months after the procedure I had lost so much surrounding hair that it totally negated any gain from the 900 grafts, 25% of which kept growing from day one on, the rest of which had begun to grow at 3-4 months. Today, 10 months later, I am about 25% THINNER than I was before the surgery. The doctor said I suffered some permanent hair loss, probably hairs that were predestined to fall out anyway. Shouldn’t he have known this when he examined me, prior to the procedure????

Now I am very upset because two transplant doctors have told me I was not a candidate in the first place; that I hadn’t lost enough hair to have the surgery. If I choose at some point in the future to have another transplant, to try to put me back where I was beforehand, what is the likelihood that the grafted hairs, and/or additional surrounding permanent hairs will be shocked out? Are there any new techniques in the works that would minimize or eliminate the irritation to existing follicles? Is a smaller procedure (100-200 grafts) in the very frontal region less likely to put my surrounding hairs at risk? Lastly, is the individual follicle removal technique okay for me, as opposed to another strip technique? To give you some idea of the condition of my donor area, the doctor noted that my density was 3.5 out of 5.0.

Thank you in advance for any insight you can offer. I am sorry I don’t live in your area, as I would definitely come in for an in-person consult. I live in the Boston area and would appreciate any sound, competent and surgically conservative referrals you could give me.

I have said many times on this blog that if any doctor tells you that he/she does many hair transplants on women, that you should run for the hills. Women generally make poor hair transplant cases, because the hair from the side and back where the hair is taken from is not normal — so why would one put not normal hair into areas of thinning, where the hair is not normal as well? You need to see a good, honest doctor with a lot of experience in this field — seriously, someone who is impeccably honest. May I suggest that you make a trip to New York and see my colleague Dr. Robert Bernstein?