shock loss

My 27 year old sister underwent a hair transplant to lower her hairline. To my knowledge she had no hair loss but just wanted to kind of frame her face better. The hair transplant surgeon who performed the surgery claimed to have done the same type of surgery on many female celebrities so my sister was excited. Today she looks like a women with a hair transplant and has become extremely withdrawn. She no longer wants to go to work. She does not date and is very depressed. She is also now losing her normal hair since she had the hair transplant.

Is there anything I can do to help her? Can her hair be fixed? Is it normal protocol to do a hair transplant on a 27 year old girl with no real hair loss? Her surgeon is basically ignoring her calls now. Please give me some advise.
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Thank you for your letter. It is unfortunate that your sister did not receive the results that she was hoping for. It sounds like there are two issues that need to be addressed, hair loss in a woman and a transplant result that is not completely natural. I will attempt to give you some options regarding both of these problems.

By your letter it sounds like your sister has started losing her “native” hair since the transplant. You didn’t mention where this is occurring but the situation should be evaluated like any woman with hair loss. This involves obtaining a history of the condition as well as an examination by an experienced hair restoration surgeon. The treatable cases such as thyroid function abnormalities, anemia, elevated testosterone or polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) should be ruled out. Read the Story

I am thinking about getting a hair transplant but I would like to know what percentage of people experience shock loss. Is there any data for this? Is there any way to know beforehand what your chances are of having that happen?

Unfortunately, I am not aware of any scientific studies which have sought to determine the exact frequency of post operative shock loss. Even if such a study were performed, the results might not be applicable in the real world because there are so many individual factors that influence its occurrence. Nevertheless, it is clear that it is a real problem, especially for certain subsets of patients. Patients who seem to be at highest risk include: 1. Those who are experiencing rapid hair loss; 2. Women; 3. Those who have miniaturized hair in the recipient area; and 4. Those who are having a transplant densely packed into an area of the scalp with a lot of the existing hair. The incidence of post operative shock loss in each of these cases varies. I would estimate that some shock loss occurs in up to 50% of the high risk cases; whereas, I would estimate some occurs in about 10% of regular cases. Read the Story

I have a question about shock loss and recurrent shedding (I am a woman, age 55). In May of 2002 I underwent a hair transplant of 750 micrografts, mostly on top and in front, some on the crown. After the procedure, I went into a bad shock loss – in addition to losing the original hair around the new transplants, I also lost a lot on the back of my head to above my ears, above the donor incision, which took a half inch strip of scalp out from ear to ear. On top of that, I was on minoxidil which kicked in further hair loss like it always does in the beginning. The shock loss areas grew back but not anywhere near as thick as they were before – which was never that thick! The minoxidil did nothing for me that I could see, although it may have speeded up the regrowth of the shock loss areas.

Here is my question – it is now nearly 4 years later and I am having a terrible problem with shedding the past few months, and once again I am thin on top and above the scar all the way up to and including the crown. In fact, it’s every place above the donor area, same as the first time. Is it possible that when you lose a lot to shock, the hair cycle of all those follicles resets to that specific point in time, and if the cycle is 4 years long, you will lose it all again in 4 years? Or, after a shock loss, do the follicles involved revert to their previous individually staggered cycles the next time around? Read the Story