Does transplanted hair shed regularly as if it were a normail hiar. If a graft gets ripped out does it grow back?

Once your transplant grows in and fully matures, the grafts will cycle as normal hair. It is extremely difficult to rip out a graft unless you have some sort of issue within the first 3 or 4 days post-op. If you pull out a hair (after your scalp has healed from surgery), you will not pull out or destroy the graft itself.

Once your hair is rooted after at least 7 days. You hair will continue to grow as normally. It will act like all your other hairs and will cycle through a growth phase and a resting and shedding phase. I suggest patietns be careful even up to 7 days. You can still rip the graft out as early as 3 or 4 days in my experience.

Ricardo Mejia MD
Juptier FL
561-748-0510
Hair Transplant Network Surgeon

i was always VERY careful up until 10 days post op..Just tried to protect my investment.

quote:

Originally posted by Dr. Mejia:
Once your hair is rooted after at least 7 days. You hair will continue to grow as normally. It will act like all your other hairs and will cycle through a growth phase and a resting and shedding phase. I suggest patietns be careful even up to 7 days. You can still rip the graft out as early as 3 or 4 days in my experience.

Ricardo Mejia MD
Juptier FL
561-748-0510
Hair Transplant Network Surgeon

Dr. Mejia,

Your response could be misleading to some who do not know that most all hair growing from the new grafts shed after 14 day plus. Then, they return as normal after three months or so. Time varies from individual of course.

I think Dr. Bernstien wrote a nice article on when grafts are securely rooted and it is about 9 days. Lots of research was done on this which he was a part of. The article is available on his website.

MRJB is right, take care of your investment.

Once the transplants are producing hair again they are doing that in such a way that they did in their previous location.
As a funny note I also tell people that if your kids pull your transplanted hairs it will hurt in the same way they would pull native hairs.

No Buzz: Yes, the hair follicles are in a phase of anagen, catagen and telogen; the main phases of hair growth and resting and the shedding phase. As you stated, most of the hairs will shed or enter into a telogen or resting phase which lasts approximately three months. Some hairs do not seem to enter into a telogen phase and will continue to grow in anagen(growth phase) immediately once the hair follicle is revascualarized. Patients need not worry if they seem to have lost all there hair after surgery or even shock loss or native hair. They will regrow.

I am very well aware of Dr. Bersteins excellent study. 9 days is accurate if you are grasping the hair follicle with forceps and yanking at it in one quick motion and or grasping the scab. This is what was done in that study. Most of my patients are not doing that. However, it demonstrates the worst case scenario which we do need to consider. Maybe giants wife is “ripping” his hair out.

My practical reasoning for at least 7 days in my reply is as follows: From standard dermatologic and plastic surgery, the skin epidermis reepitheliazes within 3-5 days. It is very common to remove facial stitches in 5-7 days. By this time the graft is held fairly securely in place. It may only have achieved 10% of its initial holding strength at this time. Research has shown that early revascualrization of the graft occurs within 3 days and by day 7, new blood vessels are formed including lymphatics which extend into the dermal papilla and the follicular implant. In my opinion the hair follicle is rooted and growing whether in anagen or telogen phase. By day 6 pulling on the hair follicle did not dislodge the grafts according to Dr. Bersteins study.

I also want patients to properly care for their hair after a hair transplant. This is especially important in the first few days. It is good to protect and properly care your investment. However, I have some patients that “Over protect their investment” and do not touch their scalp for fear of damaging and losing their grafts. The result is improper after care and too much scabs. As Dr. Bernsteins study also indicated, the presence of scabs and crusting increases the risks of grafts being lost. It is important that patients do not fear the after care and follow the recommended protocols by their physician in the early periods of shampooing and rinsing or other routines. From my practical standpoint and along with Dr. Bernsteins, patients should be able to return to their normal hair activities in one week.

Ricardo Mejia MD
Hair Transplant Network Physician
Jupiter FL

Dr. Mejia,

Just wanted to say thanks for participating last night on the chat session. Also thanks for answering many questions here on the forum aswell. Its always great to have a recommended Hair transplant Dr. give us advice.

Thank you Dr. Mejia for the clarification. I was more or less looking out for the newbies. Look forward to seeing some of your work.