Why Do Hair Transplant Patients Always Comb Their Hair Back? (with Photos)
I am often asked why hair transplant patients seem to always comb their hair back (particularly in the After photos on the web). The answer is that they do it because they love their hair and want to show their normal hairline. I think that secretly, they get a thrill from taking a chance that someone might identify that they have had a transplant and they challenge that risk. You can comb your hair any way you want after a hair transplant, but by combing it straight back they can show off the hairline that they didn’t have for many years.
Here is a great example of a patient who had 4196 grafts (before and after) over a two year period. Click the photos below to enlarge.
After:
Before:
You can also hide some of the thinness created by hair transplants by combing your hair back versus leaving it up. The Pat Riley hairstyle is often adopted for this reason I feel.
What people don’t realize about hair transplants is that your hair is still very thin where it is transplanted, often “see through”. As a result many patients are forced to comb their transplanted hair forwards or back as indicated in picture.
The see through look can be due to a number of factors — hair/skin contrast, hair characteristics, amount of hair transplanted, styling, etc. I have some patients with remarkably thick hairlines that were entirely transplanted.