Why Would Shock Loss Cause Permanent Hair Loss?

Why does the hair that you lose from shock loss not regrow? I asked my dermatologist about my shock loss and he said he expects that the hair will grow back and that it would be unlikely that the scalp would just stop working and stop growing hair because of the surgery.

Nobody really knows for sure. Shock loss in a man with genetic hair loss often just accelerates the hair loss process. In women, a telogen (sleep) phase occurs and the hair almost always grows back. In men, it is thought that hair lost from “shock” after a hair transplant surgery is mainly the weaker miniaturized hairs that were already predestined to fall out as part of the male pattern balding. The “shock” from the surgery would cause these hairs to fall out earlier than normal just as any stressful event (even an appendectomy). Thus Propecia (finasteride 1mg) has a protective effect on preventing some hair loss from “shock” loss in miniaturized hairs. This is the reason why younger men who are actively losing lots of hair are at an increased risk for shock loss and must use finasteride to protect themselves from the awful complication.