Doesn't it look odd as it grows in comparison with other hair?

[Bobbo]

I've read the many posts which describe the amount of recovery time for the procedure to be non-obvious. (one week for many.)

 

However, I have a question about how the hair comes in. Won't it look rather strange as it comes in? ... the length and texture of the transplanted hair would seem to be very different from the surrounding hair as to make it look strange. What does it look like and how do people deal with this?

 

Does gray hair provide any additional challenges or benefits?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Bobbo]

I've read the many posts which describe the amount of recovery time for the procedure to be non-obvious. (one week for many.)

 

However, I have a question about how the hair comes in. Won't it look rather strange as it comes in? ... the length and texture of the transplanted hair would seem to be very different from the surrounding hair as to make it look strange. What does it look like and how do people deal with this?

 

Does gray hair provide any additional challenges or benefits?

 

Thanks in advance!

[the B spot]

Bobbo, one of the FEW truth's in hairtransplantation is the fact that the coarse donor hair appears different when placed on the top of the head. This usually lasts for about a year to 18 months, and after that the hair begins to take on the characteristics of your normal top of the scalp hair. You will usually see this referred to as "softening", which is what makes some of the photos you see, 18 months to 2 years AFTER surgery so amazing, because by then the individual hair characteristics have completely softened to match up with the rest of your hair. This is simply something everyone deals with until the change occurs. Some people combat this by shaving their hair shorter on top, others will lightly apply a concealer like toppik or dermatch just to give the impression of uniformity which will make all of the hair you have the same shade and will help the overall look. I have no knowledge of gray hair presenting any real difficulties, unless you have extremely dark skin and a light/dark contrast occurs (much the same as someone who is really tan with very fine/light hair).

Hope this helps!

[Hair Apparent]

Bobbo,

 

I can address the topic of grey hair, at least from my personal situation.

 

First, continuing on with the skin tone/hair colour characteristics that the B Spot raised, the conventional wisdom also stipulates that fair skin and light hair colour creates a better illusion of fullness. Thus, if one's hair was all grey or all white, and his skin is fair, then it is to his advantage.

 

In my case, I have salt-and-pepper hair--about 60% grey/40% dark brown--and my skin is fair. That creates--at least, in my case--curious problems with perception.

 

Like most men greying naturally, the hair at the back of my scalp is the last to relinquish its natural colour--and, naturally, this is also the area from which the donor hairs are taken. This, in and of itself, does not create a cosmetic problem when transplanted; while the hairs harvested from that portion of my scalp are still more brown than grey, the difference wouldn't be enough to make it stand out when it grows in on the top of my head.

 

The problems created by salt-and-pepper hair manifest during the growth period. And they are purely problems of perception. During the growth period of my first HT, I noticed that in bright, but indirect lighting or lighting from the side or back, the newly growing grey hairs tended to "wash out", making only the burgeoning dark hairs readily visible. Since the transplanted hairs hadn't yet matured, the dark hairs were not individually thick enough, nor collectively lush enough to provide contrast to the grey hairs.

 

This, of course, created the illusion that less hair is growing than actually was, because I only readily saw the dark hairs.

 

However, in bright direct lighting, particularly when overhead, such as on a sunny day, the light tended to reflect off the grey hairs and wash out the dark ones. Since I had fewer transplanted grey hairs than dark ones, this made it seem even sparser.

 

The good news is, now that the hairs from my first HT have matured and the hair from my second HT are now, after four months, starting to fill in, the dark hairs are getting substantial enough to start providing contrast for the grey hairs, and the "wash out" effect is subsiding.

 

I would imagine that when it comes to concealers, salt-and-pepper hair would be a problem, as well. Concealers only address one hair colour at a time, and I would think that one whose hair was greying would have to opt for either covering the grey with a concealer of his original hair colour or "go grey" using a grey-coloured concealer.

 

I don't use concealers as a rule, but I have experimented with them, to test the results. Using a concealer of my original dark brown colour is less satisfying. I look a bit younger by getting rid of the grey, but it doesn't provide that much of an illusion of more thickness. (It's still too soon for me to be to expect a serious improvement with concealers, anyway.)

 

When I apply a grey concealer (actually "white") to my hair, my appearance ages a bit (but at the age of 50, not enough to make a serious impact), but it does a better job of making my hair seem more robust--again, because of the low contrast between my fair skin and the light hair.

 

And we're talking relatively, here. Even "going grey", no-one is going to look at me and say "Wow! Look at that full head of hair!"

[JakeVig]

B Spot, after spending a long time reading through this forum, that is definately something I did not know. So are you saying when the new hair grows in that it does not have the same characteristics as your existing hair?

 

Im thinking it can't be too noticeable as hair transplants by nature are meant to be undetectable.

[dhuge67]

It starts off thinner and kinky for a while and over the course of the 12-18 months becomes mature and thick (more like your existing hair). It probably looks decent at 7-8 months...until then I am gonna keep mine short.