Over a Year After My Hair Transplant, I Look Exactly the Same

This has been a great blog for unbiased info- appreciate it.

I had a transplant surgery about 13 months ago, mostly on my front area, as one side of my hairline was receding and thus giving me a comb over look. It wasn’t that bad yet, but I could foresee it becoming worse so I wanted to get it taken care of immediately.

Well, 6 grand later and 13 months and I look exactly the same. After the surgery, I had plenty of thin, short hair spurting where the transplant was done. I was told those would fall out and grow back in thicker. Well, they fell out and have yet to grow back. I followed all the guidelines for recovery, have remained on Propecia daily as well.

One thing I did notice during the surgery (I was awake) was that the actual doctor did very little of the ‘harvesting’. His interns/aids did 95% of that and the doctor would come in every hour to take a look. Would this have anything to do with the hair not having grown back?

In this economy, 6 grand is a lot to lose and I feel as if I’ve been duped here. At the consultation their representative assured me I’d have a full hairline again and this surgery would be all I needed for life providing I stay on Propecia. Well, unless something drastic happens with my appearance due to this surgery, I will have to have another surgery providing I can afford it in the future.

Also, from what I’ve read, Rogaine will not help me in the frontal areas for hair regrowth/maintaining. Is there anything that will help?

Appreciate your time so much!

How long were you on Propecia prior to the surgery? Have you considered that you have continued to lose your native (non-transplanted) hair and now are left with just the transplanted hair? It would sort of be a one-to-one trade off. Unfortunately, you will continue to lose more of your native hair even with Propecia. Some people respond better than others, but perhaps you weren’t a good responder to Propecia. I’m just guessing though, as I don’t have all the information.

Another possible scenario is that your surgery was a failure due to problems that occurred during the procedure. Again, I’m just guessing as I have no idea what was done during the procedure. I’ve written before about what issues could’ve resulted in the transplant to not grow, and it seems that most of the problems that occur are with the technical staff. Technicians are an important part of the procedure in cutting and placing the grafts, and the doctor does the cutting of the strip and placement/design of the graft sites. Have you spoken to the doctor that did your surgery?

I stress getting a Master Plan to remind readers as well as my patients before undergoing any surgery.