graying hair and being selective with donors

[Paulygon]

I'm mid 30s and between my 1st HT procedure 2nd HT (which will be in less than 2 months), my scalp has begun to sprout gray hairs. :eek: Obviously graying happens to everyone, and thankfully I had gone through my 20s without a single gray.

 

Anyway, it almost seems like a waste of a graft (and hence $) to actually transplant a gray hair from a donor area to the balding area.. or if the doctor moves a black hair from donor area to the balding area, and that hair become unpigmented, that seems like a waste, since it would be easy to see through to the scalp. It is the pigmentation/color that makes your hair look full and covered.

 

I know we have the option of dying our hair (and thankfully mine isn't bad enough yet to warrant coloring), but is there a way for a surgeon to be selective and make sure to only transplant hairs that are not prone to premature graying?

: :confused:

Edited May 11, 2016 by Paulygon
being more specific

[Rashid36]

I was told if i had a ht only healthy hairs would be selected but now 35 years old

i can see a lot more grey on my sides not so much at the back but there are a few. My beard has grey hairs now as well.

 

My dad is over 70 years of age and is fully grey in the hair and beard so i guess i would be too just a matter of time.

 

They only solution would be to colour there is no certain way to know the pigment would remain.

 

I think grey hair are more stronger and they grow quick too!

[Paulygon]

I was told if i had a ht only healthy hairs would be selected

who told you this?

it would be great but i'm not sure the surgeon has time be selective.

I am getting a strip procedure again, so I don't think the doctor could avoid the gray hairs.

maybe for FUE being selective could work, but again, can the surgeon actually spend the time to be selective?

I think grey hair are more stronger and they grow quick too!

in my case the gray hairs seem to be the same or even weaker than the pigmented hairs.

[voxman]

I am getting a strip procedure again, so I don't think the doctor could avoid the gray hairs.

 

I think you answered your own question - that strip will have a mixture of both gray and native colored hairs - to separate the grays and discard them would be a waste of good grafts and criminal!

 

I'm betting at lease 1/2 of my recently Dr. Mohebi harvested hairs were gray!

 

'Graying' is better than 'straying' any day!

[ndubya]

'Graying' is better than 'straying' any day!

 

Yep, I don't mind if they turn gray as long as they don't turn loose.

[ModernHair]

 

Anyway, it almost seems like a waste of a graft (and hence $) to actually transplant a gray hair from a donor area to the balding area..

 

I'm not seeing it the same way you are. I had a good number of gray hairs transplanted and they look great sprinkled into my natural hair (or what's left!). I'd rather have lots of gray hairs transplanted into the right spots than thinning/bald there so I was just thrilled to have plenty of donor hair (no matter the color) to get a great result!

 

I wouldn't worry much about it. In a FUE, the doctor does hand select what he/she believes are the best candidates for transplant from a growing perspective, but if it worries you, I'm sure you could make a request to have the doctor pull out fewer grays as transplant candidates if you are going for a FUE. Would be interesting to see what the doctor says.

[Rashid36]

The doc who told me he would select healthy hair was from a clinic i went to a long time ago and i cannot remember the doc name. It was a fue ht consultation.

 

I wonder if black hair would give more coverage and better density look than grey hair?

 

How much scalp would show if the hair did turn grey, genetically or from the trauma of the transplant, if that's possible ?

[mikeey]

I think in HT , the Hair starts to loose pigmentation , NOT all hair but some hair definitely do , I think thats coz of the trauma to the scalp . I have seen guys having great hair color before they went into a HT and after that when the need hair took root and grew ... they lacked pigmentation/color .

 

I am sure the online doctors here wud have experienced that on their patients as well ... so it would be great if we can get inputs from the experts here as Greys definitely make you look Older and are more see through .

[Al - Moderator]

My hair has been gradually graying since my early 20s. I just dye it. That is the least of my problems as far as hair is concerned. Gray hair I can fix, but hair that is gone I can't. I'd much rather have the gray ones than none.

[Bill - Seemiller]

I definitely would not consider it a waste to move gray hair from the donor area to the balding area. While gray or white hairs may be a bit more translucent then dark hairs, hair can always be colored. Moreover, as people get older, all of their hair will most likely gray or turn white. There are many people with gray and white hair with very nice looking hair transplants so I wouldn't say that it's not worthwhile to transplant graying or white hair.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill