Failed FUE surgery ??

[Folly]

Hi guys,

I'll try to make this short. Had 1,250 FUE grafts in April 2011 to thicken up my frontal hairline. I'm 28 and this is my 1st hair transplant. A couple of months before the surgery i started using Rogaine foam 5% and started shedding serious hair 3-4 weeks before my surgery. My HT surgeon had agreed on 900 -1,000 grafts but due to how much shedding I had due to the rogaine, he suggested 1,250 (to which I agreed). I had a lot of nerve damage to my head after the FUE surgery and my crown area was numb for about 3 months post-op. Basically, 7.5 months on from the FUE surgery and i'm still shedding a lot of my normal hair. However after my surgery, i noticed that i started shedding much thicker hairs. Before surgery, it was just thin hairs i was shedding, which was obviously from the rogaine. My HT surgeon told me that I am experiencing Telogen effluvium but he is not sure what is causing it. I had the normal blood tests done and nothing out of the normal. He pulled out ~13 hairs from a 'pluck' test last time I saw him. I think it might just be aggressive MPB and the surgery/Rogaine have just triggered it all off. I've never shed like this before. I think i've lost 30-35% of my hair in the last 7.5 months. Planning on having a scalp biopsy in a few weeks if the shedding continues. The shedding has been all over my scalp, even the donor area.

Anyway, the reason for this post is that my FUE grafts have grown in the recipient area and then fallen out. My HT surgeon looked at a few grafts that were growing a month ago and easily pulled them out with tweezers. They weren't holding. My grafts started to grow very early on....around the 2 month post op mark, but ALL the grafts seem to have grown and fallen out. My HT surgeon says this is because i'm going through this strange shedding phase and the grafts should re-grow, but i'm not too sure. I've attached a picture of my grafts 2 weeks post op, which shows them growing. I assumed if the grafts grew after the surgery before they fell out and went into resting phase, that it meant they were properly put in and would definitely regrow at some stage.

Does anyone know what has happened to my grafts ? Have they been 'rejected' by my scalp? Are there some people who just can't have hair transplants, i.e. their scalps just won't accept it ? Also, after donor hair extraction, the donor hairs were out of my scalp for many hours (4-6 hours) before placement into the recipient area, as there was only one technician working that day. I was in surgery for 15-16 hours in total. I mentioned this to my HT surgeon and he said that the grafts were placed in a special solution, so this is not the reason for the grafts shedding. I'm praying to god the grafts will grow again, but i guess it's just wishfull thinking. This feels like a failed hair transplant to me (i'm 7.5 months post-op). I'm just surprised because the grafts were growing immeadiately post op, until the fell out at the 3-4 week mark, as expected.

My HT surgeon is pretty well known in Europe and has been accredited quite a few times on this forum. Won't be naming him for the time being....sorry !!

I have one of those USB microscope thingys to view the grafts. I have seen a few grafts in my recipient area lying dead on my scalp (flat on the scalp). Also watched a few grafts grow and then disappear. Seen a few normal hairs doing a strange spiral pattern as well. My HT surgeon said this is due to trauma and they will straighten out in time. Also seen a few normal hairs that appear to be looping in an arc pattern from one point on my scalp to another. Seen quite a lot of those actually. I have pics of all of these if anyone is interested in seeing them. Oh the fun you can have with a USB microscope !!! Seriously, don't buy one after surgery.....it will take over your life .

Any help or advice on what I should do next is appreciated. Thanks guys.