Many patients who’ve had a hair transplant can become very concerned about the newly-transplanted hair. In the months following the procedure, you might start comparing your own hair growth to other people’s pictures posted online, and realize that you are falling behind. Are these emotions unfounded? Very often they actually are.
Ugly Duckling Phase
When a harvested graft is transplanted into the recipient area, a process begins which takes several months, and it may not be what you’d expect. In the first 3 days post-transplant, the grafts begin working to regain their blood supply1,2. Because of this, the hair shaft is shed after, starting from week 1 up until week 6 after the hair transplant surgery has been performed. What’ comes next is often called the “ugly duckling phase”. Only a very small percentage of patients don’t shed their hair after hair transplant surgery. Earliest hair growth starts generally from month 3.
Before we continue it is important to realize that every patients transplanted hair grows at a different rate. Some might be quicker than others. Every patient is unique and the final result should not be evaluated until 12 months in. Yet, we can give out a rough estimation of hair growth following a hair transplant.
First of all we need to distinguish the actual hair shaft penetrating the skin surface and “maturation” of the hair shaft. When a hair shaft has just has penetrated the skin it will still undergo many changes in overall appearance that will contribute to the end result. When the hair shaft will penetrate the skin it will often still be very fine, weak and very light in color. This will gradually get better and better as time passes until it is indistinguishable from your donor hair.
A very rough timeline would look like this:
Remember that this is on average and a very rough estimation of where a patient should be in a certain time period. While most people for example see their end result pretty much for the full 100% at the 12 month mark, some very late growers might actually see their final results later at around the 15-18 month mark. Like already said, the final result shouldn’t be evaluated for at least 12 months in.
What is important is to be really patient. If you still don’t have the desired result by 6 months, don’t start panicking as your result will still most likely improve much. Happy growing and hopefully this post has made it more clear how a hair transplant result develops as time passes by!
References:
- Perez-Meza D, Leavitt M, Mayer M. The growth factors. Part 1: clinical and histological evaluation of the wound healing and revascularization of the hair graft after hair transplant surgery. Hair Transplant Forum Int.2007;17:173–5.
- Perez-Meza D. Wound healing and revascularization of the hair transplant graft: role of the growth factors. In: Unger W, Shapiro R, editors. Hair Transplantation. 4th edn. New York: Marcel Dekker; 2004. pp. 287–94.
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