Back in the early to mid 90's I had three transplant sessions, spaced about a year apart, of, as they were called then, mini and micro grafts. I had about 1,000 total grafts implanted, all placed in the frontal hair zone, this despite the fact that I was also thinning on the top of my head. The combination worked rather well and restored a great deal of my natural thickness but, with me in my mid-to-late 40's, I had experienced a bit more thinning that I finally decided to address late last June.
I ended up having a mega-session of approximately 2,200 grafts performed by Dr. Haber in Cleveland. The grafts were apportioned approximately 50% in the front and 50% covering the top of my scalp, and I believe that the grafts on top were exclusiely 2-hair grafts. With the short, transplanted hairs in, I could tell in the aftermath of the transplant that I should have nice coverage over the top of my head. Of course, the transplanted hairs fell out and I'm rather certain I also experienced some shock loss so that by mid-to-late September I had never had a thinner head of hair. Nevertheless, by December, it seemed that a fair amount of the transplanted hairs had started growing in and quite likely the shocked follicles were now growing, too. I could also tell that the coverage on top was pretty decent and I then had a thicker top than I'd had in quite some time.
About a month ago, I started noticing that my hair seemed thinner than previous. I started wondering if it was simply a product of it having grown too long but, after a hair cut, it was quite clear, I had thinned out once again, primarily on top. My front looks pretty nice, thicker than prior to the transplant, I'd say, but my top is back to where it was in September - seemingly thinner than prior to my transplant. My guess is that this is a temporary phenomenon. After all, if the transplanted hairs had grown in in he fall, I can't see why there would be some form of permanent damage or dysfunction in the transplanted grafts. Nevertheless I figured I'd register here and ask others who have gone through the newer hair transplant sessions if they have had similar experiences. So, please share your experiences with respect to the growth cycles of the newly transplanted hairs. Is my experience normal?