Does transplanted hair always match in colour?

[PeterD1983]

For example, some people begin greying around the back and sides long before they go grey up top. So is it possible before someone begins getting greys that hair grafts taken from the donor area might be due to turn grey before the native hair in the area they are transplanted to? possibly leaving the person with a noticeably unusual pattern of greys sprouting from the crown or perhaps with a rebuilt frontal hairline of almost entirely grey hair?

 

and greys aside, do some people maybe have slightly darker or lighter hair colour variation from back&sides compared to up top, and similarly, could this mean weird or unnatural looking crown or hairline?

[MusoInOz]

To answer in short no, not always however the follicle will match itself somewhat to the recipient area.

I have many white hairs that were from the donor area. Also hairs are never grey, they are white

 

Mike

[Dr. David Josephitis]

PeterD,

 

Mike is right that the transplanted hairs do not always match exactly the surrounding native hairs. The color and sometimes the caliber can be slightly different.

For patients who are already starting to lose the color in their hair, sometimes we can avoid certain areas of the donor when transplanting. For patients like yourself that have not yet gone gray, it is really unknown what your the future distribution of hair color will be.

 

One positive fact that plays a part in all of this is how the hairs are actually transplanted. When they are sorted under the microscope and finally transplanted into the recipient area they are placed in a somewhat random manner. White hair is mixed with the darker colored ones. This should somewhat assure more of a random distribution of white and natural colored hair in the recipient area for the final results.

 

With large sessions of FUT and FUE this question of placement of white or non white hairs can be an issue. With smaller sessions in someone who is concerned about it, FUE may be a viable choice. By doing a smaller case, we can select out for only the hairs that still have their native color.

 

In the end though, most people over the years do lose the color of the hair and after a transplant the final distribution may be unknown. Dying the hair may ultimately have to be done for those who have had a transplant who decide that hair, even though it is graying is still better than thinning.

[PeterD1983]

ok, thanks for the informative replies guys. And can you tell me also please, is there generally any correlation between hair loss and hairs greying? - in so much as do typical patterns of a people's hair transitioning from their colour in early adulthood to their genetically predetermined colour for older adulthood (if destined to turn grey say) correspond in any way with how male-pattern baldness progresses?

I'm curious whether the donor area is also the area more likely to turn grey first.