Q: After my procedure I had some shock loss, and then after about 4 1/2 to 7 months I had tremendous growth — really thick. I was amazed actually. Now, at 8 months it has thinned again, quite a lot compared to the growth I had before. I just wondered if this was a normal growth pattern and whether further growth could be expected?

A: This is not the most common situation, but should not be a cause for concern. The newly transplanted hairs are initially synchronous when they first grow in — i.e. they tend to all grow in around the same time (with some variability). This is in contrast to normal hair, where every hair is on its own independent cycle. Sometimes the newly transplanted hair will shed at one time before the cycles of each hair become more varied asynchronous.

Q: I had a hair transplant 10 days ago and I lost some hair that looks like the hair fell out at the root.

A: When there is shedding after a hair transplant, it is the hair that is lost, not the follicle that contains the growth center (the follicle eventually produces the new hair).

Since the “hair” usually consists of a hair shaft and the inner and outer root sheaths, which creates a little bulb at the end of the hair, it looks like the hair is “falling out at the root.” Do not be concerned as this is not the growth center.

Q: I recently had a hair transplant about a month ago. Currently I’m on Propecia and I am a stickler to taking it at the same time every day. I don’t, however, use Rogaine namely because I fear the irritation it can possibly cause will halt graft growth and because I’ve heard that the grafts [...]

Q: I recently had a follicular unit extraction procedure of 320 grafts to fix an old strip scar. The donor area where the FUE’s were taken looks very diffuse – worse than the original scar ever was, it looks horrible. My doctor said this was just shock loss. Have you seen that happen where the [...]