Why Some Hair Transplants Work and Some Don’t
Why do some patients have great hair transplant results, and some have terrible results. Is it the doctor, or the patient? My doctor made it sound like this is a very routine surgery, and would be hard to mess up. If that is the case, do some people’s bodies just not respond well to the grafts?
This hair loss question was answered by Dr. Cam Simmons of Toronto, Canada, who is one of our recommended hair restoration physicians.
Hair transplantation is a multi-step process and is only as good as the weakest link in the chain. A great result is due to the whole transplant team and a poor result is the responsibility of the doctor. Simple. Unless a patient goes out of their way to knock out and abuse their grafts, he or she gets no blame.
That said, there are certainly patient factors that can affect how transplanted hair grows.
As an extreme case, if a hair loss doctor decided to do a hair transplant on a patient who had smoked 3 packs per day, had poorly controlled diabetes for 30 years, had vascular disease, and diabetic skin ulcers, impaired scalp circulation could very well lead to poor hair growth. That truly would be a question of bad patient physiology.
More commonly, patients with fine, straight donor hair and small follicular units will not get as dense results as someone with coarser, wavier hair and more hairs per follicular unit, if the same number of grafts are transplanted into the same area. That is more a question of anatomy and math.
Rarely, patients get less than satisfactory results when there is no obvious explanation.
As a doctor, it is my job to try to assess how good a candidate a patient is before offering surgical hair restoration and to offer realistic expectations for each patient. This should be based on their medical status, hair loss, and their hair characteristics etc. By the way, having complete coverage and the hair density of a hair system or a teenager is not a realistic goal for the vast majority of my patients. Sometimes I need to turn away patients who are not good candidates or who have goals that cannot be met.
We do our best but no doctor is perfect. Hair transplantation is a very reliable procedure but it isn’t perfect either. Almost all of my patients achieve or exceed their expected results. For that to happen, the goals have to be realistic, the plan has to be correct, and there has to be good execution of every step of the hair transplant process. If patients don’t achieve the expected results, whether it is because I don’t incorporate patient factors well enough in my plan, our execution of the transplant isn’t perfect enough, or the reason is unclear, it is up to me to make it right. I am the team leader and make all of the decisions and therefore have to accept the responsibility if a hair transplant is not satisfactory. If there is a great result, the credit properly belongs to the whole team.
Fortunately, almost all of the hair transplant procedures “work.” For the rare ones that “don’t”, it is best to first figure out why and then to fix it.
Dr. Cam Simmons
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Bill Seemiller
Associate Publisher/Editor
Technorati Tags: hair transplant, hair loss, Hair transplantation, hair loss doctor, hair growth, hair restoration, hair characteristics, hair density, hair system
June 29, 2016 @ 9:53 am
Brian,
Have you tried consulting the doctor who performed your second hair transplant to find out what may have went wrong? Circulation could be an issue if too many grafts are transplanted in a small area. There’s only so much blood flow and it’s possible that the new grafts weren’t properly nourished. It’s also possible that the grafts were damaged during excision.
Think of it like gardening. If you uproot a plant without all it’s roots intact and/or with damaged roots it may not grow. Likewise, if you put too many plants too closely together, there may not be enough room between them and they will compete for nourishment. Only one may survive or both of them may die. Perhaps this is what’s happening with your second hair transplant
The other possibility is if the first hair transplant caused too much scarring, it would be more difficult for the new grafts from the second procedure to grow. Imagine planting seeds in the desert or dry, infertile ground. It simply wont grow.
There are so many variables and possible reasons why your second hair transplant didn’t grow. I suggest speaking to your second surgeon and seeing what he can do for you.
Best wishes
Bill – Managing Publisher of this Community
June 27, 2016 @ 11:15 pm
My first transplant had moderately good results. Two years later I went to a different doctor and it was a complete failure – there was no growth at all. The other negative aspect was that my head still felt frozen from the anesthetic for another 8 months. I don’t know if that is a clue because that was months longer than any of my doctor’s previous patients. If it was impaired circulation ,as mentioned by Dr. Cam Simmons as a possible cause for transplants not working, how would I go about finding if my scalp circulation is OK?
June 15, 2015 @ 3:39 am
Don’t do it! Hair transplants DO NOT LAST! I had 3200 PAINFUL grafts done in 3 sessions 15 yrs ago and 3/4 are gone. I’m basically bald and can’t do a thing about shaving my head with that 10″ scar. I’m planning to sue ever last Dr. that uses the word “Permanent”
July 5, 2014 @ 10:18 pm
I have had numerous hair transplants and none of them have produced the results I was promised. I went to Elliot and True in 1998 and had sub par work done. I went to Eastwood medical (now operating under the name professional image and laser care)and had two transplants done with them and again had poor work. I went to Bosley in 2002 and again was promised a full hair of hair- again I was lied to and cheated out of my hard earned money. I waited until 2006 and found a doctor who came highly recommended off of a very reputable website. I had 800 grafts dense packed into my hairline by Dr Allen Feller of Feller medical and AGAIN the work was sub par and not what I was promised. My final Hair transplant came in 2010 by Dr Umar of Derm Hair it was 10,000 FUE grafts transplanted to the front of my hairline. I was told that my hair line would be finished_ but it isn’t it is pluggy and odd looking! Transplants DO NOT work and I am now going to start talking about it and exposing these “doctors” for what they are- money hungry frauds! You probably won’t post this, so I will take my complaints to the forums and hope that some people will listen to me! Pictures soon to come!
February 25, 2011 @ 7:52 pm
I had an fut procedure 12 months ago and the yield is very sparse with patchy growth. I have had previous surgery years ago unfortunately which has left scarring but even with previous surgery it should be better than it is, maybe I am a late bloomer. The fact that some of the hair has grown suggests that maybe th recipient site is ok in spite of being surrounded by scarring from old surgery, maybe it was the doctor or someone in his team who knows? Hopefully the hair will grow sooner or later, I have started rogaine 5% so I’ll see what happens.