Have any smokers or know any smokers that have had successful hair transplants ?

[Newbieht]

Anyone know someone or anyone here who was a smoker and had a successful hair transplant ? I quit a month before my OP. 4 days after I had sheesa. 7 days later started having 3-5 cigs a day and then after two weeks continued with 5 cigs and then quit again. I have been going through some personal issues and I fell for the trap and I feel horrible. Are there high chances I've ruined the whole surgery? Would nothing grow ? One month post op I've had little shedding and I'm paranoid it's because of smoking and maybe the grafts are dead or something. Please share your experiences thank you

[JohnCasper]

Others may weigh in but I've never heard any negative correlation associated with smoking and unsuccessful hair transplants. I'm sure you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Relax and look forward to hair growth in 3-4 months.

[Spanker]

I was a smoker at the time.

[mattj]

There is no data on this subject that I am aware of, but it is recommended not to smoke simply because nicotine is known to affect blood circulation - and as we all know, transplanted follicles need a good blood flow. With that said, I doubt if the effects are that drastic and it sounds like you haven't smoked that many. Or perhaps you're under-estimating how many you've actually smoked!

 

I can confidently say that your smoking won't result in no grafts growing or your surgery being ruined.

[Dr Blake Bloxham]

New,

 

You didn't ruin the surgery. I've done transplants on many, many, many patients who smoke -- probably too many when you consider what we know about it in 2017!

 

Smoking affects hair transplantation in two ways:

 

1) Patients who smoke have a higher incidence of poor circulation. There are a lot of factors at play here, but generally the blood supply to the scalp is lower in chronic smokers. This means that graft survival rate may be lower in a very dense pack and also your chances of overwhelming the blood supply and causing something like necrosis (small patch of focused tissue death) is higher. Your doctor likely took this into account while performing the operation.

 

2) Patients who smoke generally become a little more anxious and stressed while attempting to stop or cut back before, after, or during surgery. While smoking is always a negative in surgery, so is stress in the post-op. This is why I believe many hair transplant clinics don't recommend trying to quit "cold turkey" right around or after the time of surgery. I've actually had several patients book surgery and end up quitting or switching to something like gum or the vape pen by the time the procedure rolled around 3 months or so later. These guys have done fine. But usually trying to quit the day before or right after puts a lot of stress on your body during the post-op period, and this will need to be considered when coming up with your overall plan.

 

But I don't put any weight on certain things said about smoking and hair transplants. You can have a successful HT if you smoke, and I do not believe cigarette smoke itself has any external effect on the healing grafts.

 

Happy growing! And do quit when you get the chance! Think about the HT as a whole new healthy chapter in your life. Imagine how great it would feel to get your hair back AND kick the habit.

[Ernie]

Anyone know someone or anyone here who was a smoker and had a successful hair transplant ? I quit a month before my OP. 4 days after I had sheesa. 7 days later started having 3-5 cigs a day and then after two weeks continued with 5 cigs and then quit again. I have been going through some personal issues and I fell for the trap and I feel horrible. Are there high chances I've ruined the whole surgery? Would nothing grow ? One month post op I've had little shedding and I'm paranoid it's because of smoking and maybe the grafts are dead or something. Please share your experiences thank you

 

I smoked immediately after each HT, and continue to smoke. Filthy habit, and everytime I think about quitting, it reminds me of smoking and I light up. FML.

 

It had no impact on my HT #1, and I'm only 45 days post-op from HT #2. Both of my HTs are documented in this forum (links below, in my signature).

[PSG]

On 5/11/2017 at 1:57 AM, Newbieht said:

Anyone know someone or anyone here who was a smoker and had a successful hair transplant ? I quit a month before my OP. 4 days after I had sheesa. 7 days later started having 3-5 cigs a day and then after two weeks continued with 5 cigs and then quit again. I have been going through some personal issues and I fell for the trap and I feel horrible. Are there high chances I've ruined the whole surgery? Would nothing grow ? One month post op I've had little shedding and I'm paranoid it's because of smoking and maybe the grafts are dead or something. Please share your experiences thank you

Hey @Newbieht

Man, sorry for bothering you after so many years with this.

But I'm going through exactly what you went back in 2017. Just had my FUE transplant 3 weeks back. Didn't smoke 2 weeks post op. But I've started smoking 4-5 cigs per day since the 3 rd week.

 

Very worried if it will ruin my transplant or not. Could you please advise, did smoking negatively affect your transplant results? How did it go? 

Many thanks in Advance ! :)

[Britanium]

@PSGHe hasn't logged in since making that post 4.5 years ago. Dr Blakes reply is a good one though. After 2 weeks your going to be fine. 

Edited August 14, 2021 by JohnAC71

[PSG]

5 minutes ago, JohnAC71 said:

@PSGHe hasn't logged in since making that post 4.5 years ago. Dr Blakes reply is a good on though. After 2 weeks your going to be fine. 

Thanks @JohnAC71 You are an invaluable resource for this forum! 💪💪👋

[Britanium]

11 minutes ago, PSG said:

Thanks @JohnAC71 You are an invaluable resource for this forum! 💪💪👋

Thank you 👍🏼👍🏼

[JohnCasper]

Thanks for your insight Dr. Bloxham regarding smoking and hair transplants.  Interesting.