Total shock loss two weeks after 1300 FUT Procedure

[James Koss]

I had 1300 grafts performed to address hairline issues and have lost all of my native hair on my scalp. I am 49 years old and have been no finasteride for 12 months prior to surgery. Surgery was performed by a Houston surgeon who has been in practice for 30 years or so. He indicated that he has never seen a case where shock loss hair did not grow back. I have researched online and it seems like this is the consensus view. I am obviously concerned and wanted to post to see if anyone has been through a similar situation. My surgeon indicated that total shock loss is very rare but occurs from time to time.

[NARMAK]

24 minutes ago, James Koss said:

I had 1300 grafts performed to address hairline issues and have lost all of my native hair on my scalp. I am 49 years old and have been no finasteride for 12 months prior to surgery. Surgery was performed by a Houston surgeon who has been in practice for 30 years or so. He indicated that he has never seen a case where shock loss hair did not grow back. I have researched online and it seems like this is the consensus view. I am obviously concerned and wanted to post to see if anyone has been through a similar situation. My surgeon indicated that total shock loss is very rare but occurs from time to time.

Your situation does sound very rare and unique if it's as extensive as the title implies. 

Do you have any photos you can share pre-op, post-op and when you feel the shock loss occurred in full. It could help people offer an opinion. 

Which Dr and clinic in Houston did you go to? 

[James Koss]

Thanks for the reply. The surgeon is Dr. Carlos Puig...he is the owner of Physicians' Hair Restoration Center here in Houston. He has been around for a long time.  I am traveling on business right now but will post pics this week.

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, James Koss said:

I had 1300 grafts performed to address hairline issues and have lost all of my native hair on my scalp. I am 49 years old and have been no finasteride for 12 months prior to surgery. Surgery was performed by a Houston surgeon who has been in practice for 30 years or so. He indicated that he has never seen a case where shock loss hair did not grow back. I have researched online and it seems like this is the consensus view. I am obviously concerned and wanted to post to see if anyone has been through a similar situation. My surgeon indicated that total shock loss is very rare but occurs from time to time.

Wait, so you had surgery two weeks ago? I’m confused. 

[James Koss]

The shock loss occurred 14 to 16 days from my surgery date. It has been 7 weeks since my surgery date. I had a whole lot of itching in the scalp area that finally subsided a week or so ago.

[Melvin- Admin]

13 minutes ago, James Koss said:

The shock loss occurred 14 to 16 days from my surgery date. It has been 7 weeks since my surgery date. I had a whole lot of itching in the scalp area that finally subsided a week or so ago.

7 weeks is too early for shock loss to return. I'm close to 10 weeks and my shock loss is barely returning. Shock loss takes around 4 months to resolve. You still have a lot of time left.

[O Hare 57]

Go to dermatologist and get your scalp checked out.  See if you can get a biopsy.  I did.  I was worth it.

 

https://www.newlookinstitute.com/resources/blog/304-burning-scalp-syndrome-what-it-is-and-how-to-treat-it.html

[James Koss]

Thanks man. I will definitely have a biopsy completed. The itching has stopped but I will definitely have one completed. 

[gillenator]

I had no idea that Dr. Puig was still doing HTs...he is one of the original Medical Hair Restoration (MHR) doctors that Dr. Matt Leavitt founded and later sold the entire hair  chain operation to Bosley.

Before and after pics would definitely help yet I can tell you that total or acute shock loss is rare indeed...shock loss is almost always related to the level of trauma the scalp reacts to the surgery both in terms of the incisions and fluids injected into the scalp, etc.

But since your procedure did not involve that many grafts, it's very possible that the recipient incisions were more invasive...I don't know if that was for sure the problem with your case, but it's worth finding out...the other factor is a diffused thinning pattern whereby the existing native hair becomes so diffused that it is very vulnerable to shock loss.

[tosh2004]

Re: shock loss, my understanding is that this is normal, and as long as the surgeon did not place the grafts on top of the existing hair follicles, your natural hair should grow back. If this is your first HT surgery, they should have grown by 7-8 weeks. If you have had other surgeries before, regrowth could take longer because your scalp has scar tissue from previous procedures.

 

Re: Puig, you should know his [past]“reputation”/”history”. Search for “puig” in the forums. Also, I have found a few websites online on this:

 

Best of luck.

Edited April 18, 2022 by Melvin- Moderator
Removed links

[tosh2004]

For reasons I don’t understand at all, the links in my post were deleted, something I consider to be censorship.

 

In any event, you can find out what I was talking about by searching in Google for “Carlos J. Puig”.

[Melvin- Admin]

9 minutes ago, tosh2004 said:

For reasons I don’t understand at all, the links in my post were deleted, something I consider to be censorship.

 

 

 

In any event, you can find out what I was talking about by searching in Google for “Carlos J. Puig”.

 

We don’t allow outside links, that’s not censoring your posts.