Are transplanted hairs lost over a period of years?

[gillenator]

The honest truth is actually yes can lose some transplanted hair over time because donor density actually drops with age somewhat. More for some or maybe almost negligible for others.

This is called "donor zone thinning" and does not noticably happen to everyone. From my observation, that too is a part of how MPB can potentially affect the entire scalp.

Yet take a look at the donor zones of someone like Newt Ginrich who is in his 70's and yet no signs of MPB whatsoever and also has a very strong donor zone. Jay Leno had a strong zonor zone, Judge Anthony Napalatano has a strong head of hair also in his upper years.

Is all of this a genetic disposition of the individual and have nothing to do with how hair follicles are individually genetically programmed?

[gillenator]

Anything is possible. With seasonal shedding, the hair will eventually cycle back to the growth phase. If it does not, then IMHO, it's not seasonal shedding.

[sea of possibilities]

can't it be just seasonal shedding?
google spex's post on seasonal shedding

[Follicle Death Row]

The honest truth is actually yes can lose some transplanted hair over time because donor density actually drops with age somewhat. More for some or maybe almost negligible for others.

[Jimmyhair]

The key thing to remember when you ask questions like this. When you get your answers, where are they coming from, and what is the agenda of the person giving them to you. What is the biggest part of the hair loss equation? MONEY!!! Greenbacks, Benjamins, Scratch, whatever you want to call it. If everyone in the HT field knew that when they did a procedure on you that all the hairs would fall out in a few years would they tell you knowing that you would not then waste money on the procedure??? NO of course not, because then they won't have the big house and fancy car and be able to give their kid the GI Joe with the kung fu grip!! After years and years of transplants going on there has to be literally thousands upon thousands of former patients that the industry could clearly see results from. Most men who have had procedures with big time failure are embarrassed and do not want to talk about it in public. Many are hiding under a weave or wig and cry in secret and this works to the advantage of the HT industry because obviously they don't want those people out there spreading the word. We need more people to step up and tell us what happened over time so we can get a true picture. If you get enough time to go through all these forums you eventually find many men with stories of great pain, bad scarring, shock fallout, unnatural looking hair, no growth from the transplants, and rapid fallout of the transplants years later. This even though all doctors and companies that do HT advertise painless, minimal hidden scar, scarce change of shock fallout, natural looking results, growing hair from transplants, and hairs that last the rest of your life. Am I Right???? Have we all not heard all of these things? How can they tell you the hairs will last the rest of your life when they haven't spent the rest of your life with you so far? HT is relatively new. How long have they been doing transplants for hair? 30 years or so with the more modern procedures being just 10 to 15 years. In such a small time frame with little true research how can they make so many claims of lifelong hair, and the hairs on the top of your head being preprogrammed to dht and the ones on the back of your head not. Over all the centuries medical people have claimed to know things just to find out later they were wrong. Did you ever read about urine curing pink eye and blood letting to get rid of disease. We laugh at those things now but a hundred years from now they will be laughing at our cures too. the main thing to remember is never trust the answers that are coming from someone that is looking for your money. Money blinds everyone.

[VictimOfDHT]

I had 2 procedures about 5 yrs ago with excellent results. However, in the past 4 months it seems to me that the crown is getting thinner. Since there was hardly any hair on the crown to begin with, I am wondering if I am losing transplanted hairs. Is this possible?

Vegas, the answer to your question is a DEFINITE YES. IT IS POSSIBLE. In fact I now believe it's more common than we're lead to believe. I'm saying this because this happened to me. You'll see my threads all over the place talking about my own experience with this hell. I've had 4 1/2 HTs over the past decade totaling around 4500 grafts if not more. ALL or most IN JUST THE FRONTAL AREA ( hairline and temples) and now I look worse than ever before after a massive shed all of a sudden. Now, I look like a Norwood 2 if not worse. Again, that's after 4500 grafts. My last HT doctor told me I was losing those hairs as some unfortunate men do for some god damn reason. I tried to convince myself that I was losing native hair as I had a lot of it when I first started getting HTs. But now I have no doubt that I am losing transplanted hairs. However, in my case it was more of a sudden thing rather than gradual. The only explanation I got was that the hairs were being rejected by the body. I don't know. Why would they grow for some random time then get rejected all of a sudden? I'm sure there's also gradual loss even thought it's not that noticeable. Unfortunately it is the truth and it is a sad truth that we don't hear about often. More than $22,000 might be lost in the end if I lose all my transplanted hair. I still have maybe half left but I don't know for how long.
It's been beyond devastating for me. I'll never get over it, EVER.

Yeah, the last couple HTs were done as a result of the thinning in the transplanted area.

[Jimmyhair]

I think this happens a lot as you here from guys that had HT years ago. I personally think there is a very good reason which everyone in this industry tries to pretend is not possible. We are told only hairs in the male pattern baldness zone are susceptible to dht because they are "programmed" that way thru our dna from birth, and the donor zones are not affected by dht. I think this is baloney and it wouldn't be the first time experts were wrong. A transplanted hair gets blood supply right? Why wouldn't get a dose of dht like all other hairs? I believe the dht travels to the top of the head and affects those hairs because of where they are, not because they are preprogrammed. It seems natural and I am always in favor of what God or nature shows us verses what men think. When it comes to health and illness men have been wrong about almost everything going on 10,000 years now. We have more diseases now than anytime in history so its obvious we are not good at figuring things out. i think you take good hairs off the back of your head and put them on top and wammo, the dht starts doing its thing all over again on a new set of hairs. The key is blocking dht or not letting it start. Nobody can convince me that male pattern baldness is not escalating rapidily over the years. When I was younger nobodies granddad had male pattern baldness. Every old man had a full head of hair. Now guys in their 20's are losing it. As the industrial age marched on more tampering with our food supply has taken place and over the last 20 years they have been pumping cattle with synthetic hormones to fatten them up and get more beef and milk. We eat and drink those fake hormones and it messes up our hormones giving us dht. I think its a pretty solid theory probably proven when its too late for us.

[gillenator]

So does Rogaine Foam actually "re-vitalize" transplanted hairs that may have fallen out ? I have experienced a loss of transplanted hair and am looking for a "miracle" !!

Yeah Scotty for some men, there's some degree of recovery/regrowth, whatever it is. The higher degree of coarseness actually works toward our favor over a thinner caliber characteristic.

[scottyd1218]

So does Rogaine Foam actually "re-vitalize" transplanted hairs that may have fallen out ? I have experienced a loss of transplanted hair and am looking for a "miracle" !!

[gillenator]

You may be possibly experiencing a momentary shed in the area.

Some guys have told me that they used the new Rogaine foam when this type of thing has happened. Some have revitalized enough past transplanted follicles back into the anagen growth phase.

But like Dr. Charles stated, there are many possibilities as to what is going on in your crown area.

I myself switched over to the foam version at the beginning of 2009 and experienced one of the most aweful sheds in my crown. It freaked me out! And me of all people knew better to slowly make the transition.

But no, I switched from the liquid version of minoxidil to foam overnight and boom, a shed started. It got so bad at one point that I had to start using Dermatch for about four months, then Toppik again. Just in the past two months have things started filling back in with new growth although I am still using Toppik there and then I expect to be able to drop that in another month or so.

I'll never do that again!

Let us know how things go in the next couple of months. You are welcome to call me if you want to learn how to rejump some new growth from the Rogaine foam.

Best wishes to you!

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

There are a lot of possibilities here. You could of had more native hair in the crown than you thought. The grafted hair could be going through a normal cycle and be dormant until it regrows at its normal interval. Although donor hair is described as permanent, like anything else in this world there is no never and no always. Meaning anything is possible and some of the transplanted hairs could have fallen out. Are you using Proecia, Rogaine, or laser treatments to try and prevent further progression of your hair loss?

[Coligion]

It could be possible you are losing the native hairs surrounding your grafts, but you already mentioned it was mostly bare from the get-go. Also, perhaps the grafts you had moved to your crown were not really "permanent." Unfortunately, even hairs that are from our donor zone and are thought to be permanent can thin and be lost.

[vegas13]

I had 2 procedures about 5 yrs ago with excellent results. However, in the past 4 months it seems to me that the crown is getting thinner. Since there was hardly any hair on the crown to begin with, I am wondering if I am losing transplanted hairs. Is this possible?