Do i have permanent shock loss

[Joanne1]

I had a transplant in August, 2007. Needless to say it has been over a year and a half, and to my sadness and distress, I have yet to see ANY results. I had a full head of hair going into the surgery, and I went to Tijuana with the doctors of the Gardel institute, maybe that was my first mistake.. I was 19, and I am a female, and now I find I might not even have been a good candidate to begin with. I say I had a lot of hair because it is a lot compared to what I have now, it was diffuse thinning all over, but still, something I wish I would have appreciated before. After the surgery, my hair fell out like crazy. I was patient, thinking it was temporary shock loss, but it has been more than a YEAR, and I now have to use Topikk all over my head, something NEVER necessary before, and my hair is CONSIDERABLY thinner than before. With this information you now have of me, my question for you is whether it seems like the shock loss I suffered is permanent. I am deeply saddened over this and stressed, but I would like to know the truth and have a definite answer. Any help given would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Joanne1]

I had a transplant in August, 2007. Needless to say it has been over a year and a half, and to my sadness and distress, I have yet to see ANY results. I had a full head of hair going into the surgery, and I went to Tijuana with the doctors of the Gardel institute, maybe that was my first mistake.. I was 19, and I am a female, and now I find I might not even have been a good candidate to begin with. I say I had a lot of hair because it is a lot compared to what I have now, it was diffuse thinning all over, but still, something I wish I would have appreciated before. After the surgery, my hair fell out like crazy. I was patient, thinking it was temporary shock loss, but it has been more than a YEAR, and I now have to use Topikk all over my head, something NEVER necessary before, and my hair is CONSIDERABLY thinner than before. With this information you now have of me, my question for you is whether it seems like the shock loss I suffered is permanent. I am deeply saddened over this and stressed, but I would like to know the truth and have a definite answer. Any help given would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Dr. Michael Beehner]

Joanne,

By 15 months one can usually see almost the full "flowering" of the transplant's results. The fact that you feel certain it is worse would indicate that you probably did have some permanent shocking of some of the vulnerable hairs on top that were partially miniaturized. My guess is that a fair percentage, possibly 15-30% of the hairs on the back donor area of your scalp were miniaturized also. Do you recall if the doctors there did a microscopic exam of the hairs in back to make sure there wasn't a lot of miniaturization present? That is the biggest risk factor in my experience for a poor result in a female. The fact that you have evidence of female pattern hair loss at only the age of 19 is significant also. Then there is the whole matter of the technique used and whether the recipient sites were kept small and the grafts were cut correctly and placed in a safe, non-traumatic manner.

All of the above having been said, I have seen two females in my 20 year experience of transplanting females in whom the growth of hair was rather stunning around 15-20 months out. I had no good explanation for the delay in them, except that one of them had Sjogren's Disease, an auto-immune condition.

I wish you the best, but it may turn out that a lightweight, natural appearing hair piece may be your best answer.

Mike Beehner, M.D.

[miked]

Joanne1

 

Sorry to hear that your HT in '07 actually may have accelerated your hair loss.

 

Being 19 then means you are still relatively young now (21-22?).

 

Given the little info shared at this point I would suggest you get some basic tests done, if you haven't already, to determine if you suffer from any deficiencies or have been exposed to chemicals or radiation that may have contributed to your hair loss.

 

As far a shock loss and whether it is permanent Dr Beehner is probably correct, but I have seen it mentioned that hair lost to shock loss can sometimes re-emerge after several "years". Definitely the results of the HT itself however should have been evident by now.

 

What is the Tijuana clinic saying about this?

 

Also was the HT FUE or strip?