This is a common complaint we hear on the message boards and from patients seeking a revision or reparative hair transplant. This is an unfortunate outcome of hair transplantation and not one that we expect to see after a successful surgery. Many things could cause your hair to look worse off after surgery than it did before. Below, I break down some of those causes.
Failed or botched surgery. A failed or botched surgery could result in your scalp and hair looking much worse than it did before surgery. This could be the result of an infection, necrosis, folliculitis, graft death, damage to grafts during extraction/placement, over-extraction, over-excision, and the list goes on. Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done after a failed surgery, except wait until the scalp heals and seek out an experienced surgeon who specializes in repair hair transplants. If you are concerned about infection of swelling you should meet with a doctor. If you no longer trust your original hair surgeon, you should meet with other surgeons in your area to get 2^nd and 3^rd opinions.
Shock loss. This is a hair loss condition that effects the native hairs in the area surrounding the extraction and recipient zones. Sometimes, the trauma induced by hair transplant surgery can cause the surrounding hairs to go into a state of shock and fall out. This condition can be temporary or permanent. It is likely to be permanent if the hairs were on their way out, meaning they were likely to fall out in the coming years as a result of your progressive hair loss. Shock loss can be prevented with the use of medical management and expert technique by the surgeon so as to limit the trauma to the surrounding hairs.
Graft shedding. This is the best case scenario to explain your post-surgery look. Graft shedding is a normal part of the hair transplant process, in which the newly transplanted grafts shed the current hairs, and allow for the new hairs to grow in once they cycle through their growth phase. This process can take some time, thus why we recommend waiting 6 months – 1 year to determine the full results of hair transplantation.
If you’re concerned about the results of your hair transplant and would like to get a 2^nd or 3^rd opinion on your case, give us a call today. Here at Modena, our doctor’s specialize in medical management of hair loss, complicated hair transplant cases, and reparative hair surgeries.