A recent patient of ours is looking into lowering her hairline to give her a more feminine and youthful frame for her face. She was a bit concerned when she read on our site that not many female hair loss patients are good candidates for hair restoration surgery.  Her concerns also included the probability of losing her newly transplanted hair, recovery time and if hair restoration surgery has any negative effect on the body itself.
Hair transplant surgery is a very useful procedure for those whom have lost a significant amount of hair.

One question many patients have asked our facility is, “How do I know if I’m a good hair transplant candidate?”.  Of the many patients whom are most concerned are our female hair loss patients.  Women with significant miniaturization or thinning of hair shafts associated to female pattern baldness are not good candidates for the surgery. On the topic of hair line lowering, as long as the donor area has not been compromised by female pattern hair loss it is possible to do the surgery.

Hair transplant surgery is a permanent and safe procedure for both men and women. In some cases, patients may experience some degree of shock loss or loss of native hair after the hair transplant procedure. This is sometimes seen in patients whom have a high level of miniaturization as is seen in male or female pattern baldness.

Recovery time does vary for each patient but it is not enough to limit your everyday function. Most patients can go back to school or work the next day after their surgery and can conceal their transplant easily with a hat, head cover or by combing their hair in a different style temporarily. The most common residual effect is generally swelling and redness at the recipient area. This is usually resolved within or after 3-4 days from surgery. Most clinics, like ours, will provide our patients with special medication to alleviate these symptoms.

Hair restoration surgery does not have any adverse effect on the rest of the body. The most that can result from hair transplant surgery is primarily in regards to the induced medications the day of surgery. We always recommend that you disclose any allergic reactions possibly associated to medications and to food to prevent any complications or even discomfort during or after the procedure. Hair transplant surgery is considered a minimally invasive procedure and the possibility of it having a negative effect on the body are considered unlikely.

We answer to our patients and other patients who underwent or planning to undergo a hair transplant surgery in our hair restoration blog.  Here is one of the question from a patient who has hair transplant around four months ago. Patient is anxious to see growth of his transplanted hair as soon as possible.  He stated that he underwent a procedure four months ago and it has been hard to tell the growth of hair.

He continues as follows, “In November at least over 2 months after the surgery I started using a buzzer on all unaffected areas of my head to balance out the length of the shave of the recipient area.  I wasn’t totally bald before so eventually, my already existing hair in the front starting getting a little out of balance.  I was pretty cautious about shaving the recipient area, so roughly around mid-December I started shaving it all to balance everything out. I also did it so I could monitor the improvement better, as it’s not easy when it’s uneven.  It seems like I have more hair than I used to, but it’s still barely half the density of all the surrounding hair on the sides and around the top, not the front, which is approximately half as dense.

Can it be the side effect of the finasteride? But I barely remember the holes being poked in the recipient area when my hair transplant doctor performed the procedure.  One thing that concerns me is that I was never told exactly how many grafts were transplanted.  It never really worried me until now.  When I had a previously replacement at X hair clinic, to be exact, they told me, but then I wasn’t under any strong sedatives so perhaps that’s why I’m concerned.”

Patient asked, “Does transplanted hair regrow at different rates?  I know that some has grown in, but to me it’s not enough, as it’s very noticeable that it’s much less dense in the area I expected to get treated the most.  Like it doesn’t seem too much improved when compared to before the procedure. To put it frankly, I’m already considering undergoing another transplant procedure, because my expectations were not met.

I must admit that my doctor was very nice, and answered all of my questions.  However, I must say that I’m not impressed.  This isn’t the first hair transplant procedure I’ve undergone. Actually, it’s the third.  I don’t clearly remember the dates involved, like basically how long it took to see a difference, but for some reason I’m expecting to see more of a difference this most recent time around, because this hair restoration procedure involved the largest number of grafts.  I’m just hoping that it takes longer for all the transplanted hair to actually kick in, and that it ramps up over time.  Basically I’m hoping that seeing any difference doesn’t mean that that’s it.

If you have similar question after hair transplant surgery, don’t panic. The growth of transplanted hair could be very gradual and full result may not be seen before one full year after hair transparent.  Of course you need to discuss your concerns with your hair transplant doctor.  Transplanted hair generally sheds in 90% of people and you do not see anything for about 3 months after the hair transplant surgery.  After the third month you may start seeing growth of most transplanted hair.  That is more obvious for the patients who do not have any hair at all.  People who already have some hair should not be able to see much before 6-8 months from the time of their surgery when transplanted hair is long and thick enough to be distinguished.

I understand that you are anxious to see the final result as soon as possible, but you cannot rush the growth of grafts.  I do not perform nor recommend doing a second procedure before 6 months from the previous hair transplant because many of the grafts are not even out at that time.  Be patient and you will see your transplanted hair growing in a few months.