29 Year Old Female Dissatisfied With Hair Transplant Results - Do You Do Repair Work on Women?

I had a hair transplant about two years ago from a well known hair loss clinic here in Chicago. I am very disappointed in the results and was wondering if you do repair work on women. I an 29 years old and had 400 hair grafts placed in a thin area of my hair line. My hair seemed to have gotten worse after the hair transplant. Can this be fixed?
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Repair work traditionally refers to a surgical procedure that is designed to improve, remove or camouflage the adverse effects of a poorly performed surgical hair restoration. Common problems requiring attention during a repair procedure include detectable plugs or minigrafts, asymmetric hairlines, and visible scars. Your letter seems to imply that you have had one or a combination of the following: 1) poor graft growth; 2) not enough grafts to satisfy your density needs; or 3) damage to the residual native hair follicles.

The fact that your hair density has deteriorated may be related to progression of your hair loss process, or it may have arisen from shock loss secondary to the transplant procedure itself. Read more

Women’s Hair Transplant Advice

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 Today she looks like a women with a hair transplant and has become extremely withdrawn.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 more

My Sister’s Hair Transplant Looks Artificial, Please Help.

My sister underwent a hair transplant two years ago and is very unhappy with her results. To tell you the truth, to me it looks like she has much less hair than when she started this whole thing. The hair that she has in the front looks kind of artificial to me. I know she is very unhappy and I’d like to help her if I can. Do you think having another hair transplant by a reputable member of your organization is a good idea or do you think she is destined to wear a wig?- - - - - - - - - -

Thank you for your inquiry. There are several issues with your sister’s transplant that need to be addressed. The first one is the issue regarding her “artificial” appearing result. Reputable, experienced physicians should be able to create a frontal hairline that appears totally undetectable as a transplant. Some of the factors that may cause an unnatural appearance are the use of grafts with too many hairs, improper direction or angulation of hairs, or a hairline that is too “linear.” Read more

Female Hair Transplant Advice

Hello, I am a 36 yr old female that has been dealing with thinning hair for a number of yrs. My hair loss is in my temporal region as well as at the top of my head. I am being treated for low iron (a current ferritin count of 46) and for sub-clinical hypothyroidism (current TSH level .098, before treatment; 2.9). My iron levels were much lower and have been stable for 1 ? yrs now so I am assuming that although it may have contributed to my overall thinning, it is not the only cause. My thyroid treatments have been going on for only 3 months so I have yet to see whether some regrowth may happen due to my new TSH levels.

I am adopted but I believe I may have a genetic disposition to thinning as a half-sister is apparently also dealing with this issue. I met with a dermatologist who specializes in hair transplantation and he said I have nothing to worry about in terms of balding but suggested I try Minoxidil if I was concerned. I have not yet started using the product as I am concerned with the initial shedding that can happen and fear that I will lose more without any regrowth. I know the density of hair I had in my 20’s and I know that I am definitely thinner (much) than in my younger years. I am very concerned with this and am interested in learning more of the drugs propecia, nizoral etc. I would welcome any correspondence and advice you could offer. Given my situation would I be a candidate for a hair transplant? I am finding this to be a very scary and upsetting– help!
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Hi there, and thanks for the question. Both iron deficiency and thyroid abnormalities can contribute to hair loss. It sounds as though you have wisely corrected your iron deficiency for an adequate length of time to see any effects on your hair growth. However, the 3 months time period during which your thyroid deficiency has been corrected is not nearly enough time to see a reversal of hair loss caused by this problem. Read more

Female Hair Loss at 32 - Can I Have A Hair Transplant?

As a woman with thinning hair I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate the opportunity to ask experts questions about my situation. Here’s my story. I am 32 and for the past six years my hair has been getting thinner and thinner. I have not had children and have never taken oral contraceptives. I’ve had every possible blood test known to man and every thing appears to be normal. I have never been diagnosed with Female Pattern Baldness but I think that this is what I am going through. I would like to have a hair transplant but read on The American Hair Loss Association website that most women are not candidates. Is this true?

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Hello, I’m sorry to hear about your hairloss. I know this can be quite be distressing. First, I’m going to assume you have had all the appropriate blood tests and have been evaluated by a Board Certified Dermatologist. You say you have had numerous blood tests but not been diagnosed with Female Pattern Baldness. Have you been given a diagnosis or possible explanation for your hair loss? If you have not seen a Board Certified Dermatologist, preferably with an interest in hair loss, or Hair Restoration Physician that would be my first suggestion. A scalp biopsy would help provide a more definite diagnosis and this is necessary before discussing treatment of course. Assuming you are diagnosed with Female Pattern Baldness, then we would have several options to consider. You certainly would deserve a trial of Minoxidil 5%. Spironolactone, a diuretic with hair growth effects, could be added as well. If you are post-menopausal some doctors use finesteride, although this is only approved for use in men but has been reported to be sometimes effective in women. Read more

Women’s Hair Transplant - Shock Loss | Minoxidil Isn’t Working, Please Help

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 more

Women and Hair Transplants - Who Are Candidates?

I am curious to know what qualifies a woman as being a candidate for hair restoration. It seems that there are bunch or opposing views about this floating around on the internet and I just wanted to clear it up for myself. I am confused as to why some doctors state all women, or most women, are candidates even with androgenetic alopecia. Is it not the nature of female pattern hair loss that the thinning is overall, and because of this the donor hair is not stable? I ask on behalf of sister who is seriously considering this as a viable option. I think she stands a chance of being severely disappointed and perhaps in a worse hair loss spot than she is now. Her hair loss has been steadily occurring over the last 10 years and the thinning is equally distributed all over her scalp with perhaps more thinning on the sides. Please help to clarify the women’s hair transplant debate. Thanks.

I believe that hair loss in female patients is a much more complicated issue than it is for male patients. Most often I encounter three basic categories of female hair loss – two that are good candidates for surgical restoration and one that is not. Read more

My 52 Year Old Mom Had A Terrible Hair Transplant

My mother had a hair transplant with terrible results. She is 52 years old was was told by her hair transplant surgeon that she was a perfect candidate for the operation. She has lost so much hair I the last year and the transplant looks very unnatural and sparse. She is very depressed to say the least and wishes she never had the hair transplant. Do you think it was the doctors fault that the hair did not take or is it my mother’s age. Can anything be done to rectify the situation. Thank you for your help.

Hello. I’m very sorry to hear you mom is disappointed with her results. I’m going to make the assumption that we are, in fact, dealing with female pattern alopecia in your mom’s case when I answer your question. However, I just want to say, in an effort to be thorough, that you mom should be checked out by a Dermatologist to rule out other causes of alopecia in women. And this might include blood tests and a scalp biopsy as well as a thorough medical history. So assuming your mom is suffering from female pattern alopecia, what could have gone wrong? Or did anything go wrong? I have found that it is quite common for women to have extreme “shock loss” following an initial hair transplant procedure, so I always advise them of this and the fact they are very likely to require an additional procedure or procedures to achieve reasonable cosmetic density.Now since “shock loss”generally affects hair that is destined to fall out anyway, the procedure did not “cause” the hair loss, but it certainly did speed it up. Assuming your mom has sufficient donor hair available an additional procedure or procedures should help your mom achieve reasonable cosmetic density. Soassuming that all the grafts transplanted did grow, my only concern would be that these issues were not discussed in advance in a frank and professional manner. Doctors can’t always tell you what you what to hear, but we can make very sure that we tell you the absolute truth.

Gregory Pistone, MD
Member, International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons