Was My Hair Transplant Designed for a Particular Hairstyle?

This question, from a member of our hair loss social community and discussion forums, was answered by Coalition hair transplant surgeon Dr. Alan Feller:

I have a little problem with the direction of my transplanted hair. It’s thick and looks like regular hair, that’s not the problem.

I style it short with a small fringe going to the right. This style is OK but my temple point is weaker on the left and I’d like to try styling it to the left to cover this but when I do the hair sticks straight up and it’s a battle to get it to lay down going to the left whereas it looks totally natural when it goes to the right.

Is this a normal characteristic of hair and will the direction change if I blow dry it to the left every day? Or has my transplanted hair been designed to only go in one direction and this will never change?

It’s been about a year and a half since I had my hair transplant.

Most of the time the new transplants are put in at a “neutral angle” not much different than the angle of the original hairs when they were the there. The problem is that in the hairline the original hairs were softer because they were thinner, and this made them more pliable and “styling compliant”. Unfortunately, because the original hairs in that area were thin, they were prone to falling out if male pattern baldness was in your future, which it obviously was. Now you have put in new hairs from the donor area which are comparably thick and not as flexible or “style compliant. The good news is they are not prone to fall out.

It’s great to try to plan for a particular hairstyle before a transplant, but I have learned that it’s best to tell patients to stick with whichever style looks the best after the first year and stick with it, even if it’s not the original style the patient may have been hoping for.

This is not a new concept for any of us since as we were experiencing hair loss we changed our hairstyles to maximize coverage. So go with what looks best with an open mind rather than trying to force it into a particular style. Remember, hair transplants are about the illusion of having more hair than you really do and styling plays as much a role in this deception as do the hairs themselves.

Grow well.
Dr. Feller
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David
Editorial Assistant and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q & A Blog.

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