Are hair transplanted hairs really permanent?

[BobbyLashley]

The reason I ask is because some people who have had a hair transplant said there hair transplanted hair eventually fell out. My understanding is the hair is taken from the DHT resistant area and these follicles are DHT resistant. But some others are saying it's to do with the area of scalp the hairs are transplanted to. Could someone who has had a hair transplant maybe decades ago and does NOT take finasteride confirm their transplated hair is as healthy as it was please. Thank you.

[BobbyLashley]

bump.

[Al - Moderator]

Transplanted hair does not fall out based on where it is implanted. It falls out based on wehre it was taken from. If the hair was taken from an area that later begins to thin then the transplanted hair will start thinning as well, just as if it was in the original donor area location. Every HT Dr will tell you that they take hair from safe areas or DHT resistant areas, so that it will be permanent once transplanted and will never fall out. THIS IS FALSE. It will start to fall out and thin eventually. On some men it will be much sooner than others.

 

Spend a bit of time looking at pictures of men who are over 50 years old when they have a hair transplant and compare them to pictures of younger men with the same type of loss pattern who have a hair transplant. You will find that nearly all of the older men get less coverage and less grafts transplanted due to lower donor densities. Ask yourself why this would be. The answer is because nearly everyone starts to thin even in the so called safe donor areas as they age. Most of the time it's not noticeable until the person gets to a more advance age, but even that is not always true. Even though it may not be noticeable thinning, the density is still lower and the yield will be lower from a HT than on a younger person.

 

The younger man who has a HT will eventually start thinning in the donor area as time goes by. Even though, as I said, it may not be noticeable in the donor area for some time, it becomes more easily noticeable in the recipient area because even the best HT when completed is not at full thickness and is generally at the level of beginning to look slightly thin. So since the recipient area is already at a level where the thinning is noticeable from certain angle or lighting, any amount of hair lost in that area will be more easily noticed.

 

This WILL happen. You just won't ever hear anyone tell you this. See my profile and pictures to understand it better.

 

Al

[Blake Bloxham]

They are highly resistant to DHT. We also have many examples of 10 year plus results "holding strong" shared right here on the forums. In my opinion, and for all intent and purposes, they are permanent.

[BobbyLashley]

Thank you both for your replies. These examples of 10 plus year patients holding strong, can you confirm some of them are not on finasteride please?

I suppose I am questioning the legitimacy of the premise that the hair maintains the same characteristics when it is moved. Whose to say the hairs don't adapt to adopt the same genetic predisposition that the dead follicles around them hold and change their nature.

I read that when body hair is transplanted it starts to adopt characteristics of scalp hair so whose to say the scalp DHT resistant hair would not suddenly behave like the DHT susceptible hair around it and die.

Ultimately in regards to the first post if your donor hair remained thick one could assume the transplanted hairs were still healthy, it just annoys me when people post things like 'all my transplanted hair fell out' and 'it's a myth the hair is DHT resistant.' I hope for my sake and everyone's here they are lying.

[1978matt]

I think Drs Unger did a fairly recent study of non transplanted men aged 65. 80% of them kept at least 80% of the hair in their strip donor area.

 

I think it is fair to say from that that there is a good chance most of the transplanted hair is good until you get quite elderly.

[BUSA]

there is no way to know exactly which hairs are takn from a non DHT zone. some have a full head of hair their whole life and aren't subject to DHT.

 

some surgeons take hairs that they think are from the area not subject to DHT but there is no crystal ball to tell a HT surgeon for sure. this is more common when hair loss isn't too bad and takn too high in the zone but most top HT doctors don't do this but it does happen and we have all seen it happen.

 

I think it gets easier to distinguish when they are at a NW5 or 5a or even 6 as long as its stabilized caused the remaining hair is easier to distinguish with a clear line usually separating bald from hair.

 

but if hairs are takn from a non DHT area those hairs are not likely to fall out ever but as we age we develop medical conditions that can and do contribute to those hairs falling out.

 

not gonna matter if strip or FUE either.

 

however, there is a small % of the ppl that will continue to lose hair in the donor area as they age. not common but it does happn

 

some transplanted hair begins to thin and miniaturize over time for some reason. but the beauty of FUE is one can just transplant more hairs into the thinning area as he/she ages without having to open up ur scalp again and have to suture it back up.