Can a transplant accelerate hairloss? (not shockloss)

[PreviouslyAFool]

I had a transplant to fill in the temples. My middle front was strong, but observing photos only a few months after surgery, I can see how the middle front part also had thinned out. Many years later now, it has not restored. Ofcourse, I know hairloss is progressive, but the fact that it happened right after the procedure makes me wonder if transplants accelerate hairloss.

William Rassman said this: 

 

This is an example of a young man who had a hair transplant in the first one inch of the frontal area and in the crown of his head. His hairline was perfectly restored and he loved it. During the year following the hair transplant, the hair that he had behind the hairline, which was strong before the transplant, fell out.  This is not uncommon in young men as loss of the native hair in a person who has a hair transplant happens as the hair loss process seems to accelerate in men in their 20s following a hair transplant. This man was classified as a Class 3 Vertex pattern of hair loss (frontal loss and crown loss) so we fixed what he wanted fixed.  Then, as hair loss is progressive, he lost the rest of the hair behind the hairline as shown in the photo below. He will now have one more hair transplant to fill in this area.  This is the photo taken on the day of this second hair transplant to show the extend of the hair loss he had in just a year.

[TorontoMan]

Hair loss is due to the genetic sensitivity in your Androgen Receptor to androgens. A hair transplant could potentially damage skin if done incorrectly and lead to something like shock-loss, but it cannot alter the hormonal mechanisms at play on a cellular level. If you're stating what is happening with you is not shock loss, which to me it sounds like it is, then you are likely just continuing to experience hair loss. Are you on any medication?

[Al - Moderator]

I don't think he was saying hair loss increases because of the transplant. I'm pretty sure what he is trying to say is that hair loss generally starts out slow for a few years and then speeds up for some years, then finally slows down again. I think that is usually the way hair loss happens and it's usually around mid to late 20s when it speeds up until mid to late 30s. It varies a lot, but that is probably the most common, although the amount of hair loss is still going to vary a lot too.

So you get a young guy maybe 23 or 24 who has a receding hair line and gets a transplant for the front hair line. Soon after that is when he starts getting into the age when his hair loss speeds up and he starts losing a lot of the mid scalp and crown. This leaves him with a band of hair on the hair line with thin or no hair behind it. This is why most Drs don't want to do hair transplants on young men under 25. You don't really know where their hair loss is going yet and how much it will speed up and spread in the next few years.