Hair transplants are an investment in your appearance. After a year, you should be starting to see the final results of your hair transplantation, not worrying about losing more hair.
So what can you do if your transplanted hairs are falling out after 1 year?
In this article, we’ll explore the causes of hair loss after a hair transplant procedure, help you figure out what’s causing your post-transplant hair loss, and how you can stop your transplanted hair follicles from falling out.
Yes. While a hair transplant is permanent in almost all cases, some people see some kind of hair loss even after their procedure.
In the short-term, this is usually due to shock hair loss. Your scalp reacts to the trauma of hair transplant surgery, usually within a month of the procedure, causing hair transplant shedding. Despite the appearance of hair loss, most of the hair grafts will have been implanted safely. You just now need to wait for them to regrow.
However, in rare cases, your new hair can fall out a year or more after your FUE or FUT hair transplant procedure. So what causes longer-term transplanted hair loss and how can you tackle it?
Firstly, it’s very uncommon for your transplanted hairs to fall out after a year. Most patients who have undergone a high-quality hair transplant operation see excellent results within 12 months of surgery. Here’s a selection of Wimpole Clinic patients, and their 1 year post-procedure hair transplant results:
Crown hair transplant before and 12 months after FUE
Hairline transplant before and 12 months after FUE.
If your hair transplant is falling out after a year, here’s what could be happening.
A hair transplant replaces your lost hair. However, it won’t prevent ongoing hair loss. Supplementary medicines like Finasteride and Minoxidil are designed for this purpose. However, if you haven’t been taking any hair loss medications, your hair may continue to fall out, despite your hair transplant.
In this case, the hair that falls out isn’t usually your transplanted hair grafts. Instead, the native hairs around your new grafts (which are also vulnerable to the hormones and androgen receptors that lead to male pattern baldness) start falling out. This may look like your new hair is falling out due to decreased density (hair thinning) in the transplanted areas.
A healthy person sheds 50-100 hairs every day [1]. However, if you’re suddenly seeing more extensive hair shedding, you may be experiencing telogen effluvium.
Telogen effluvium is a type of temporary hair loss that happens when you’re stressed, anxious, or depressed. The hair follicle prematurely enters the shedding stage of the hair growth cycle, calling more hair to fall out than usual. This can happen after other operations, too; find out more about hair loss after surgery.
Telogen effluvium affects both transplanted hair as well as non-transplanted existing hair. So if you’ve been going through a tough time, this may be the cause of your late-onset hair loss. Fortunately, this is a temporary condition — after a few months, any stress-related hair loss should start to regrow.
In rare cases, you may develop an unrelated hair loss condition like alopecia areata. This autoimmune condition causes small round bald patches to develop at random areas on the scalp. It can affect hair that is transplanted as well as non-transplanted existing hair.
Alopecia areata has a very characteristic appearance, as shown in the photos below. This type of hair loss is unrelated to your hair transplant, so you should head to a trichologist or your GP for advice.
If you’ve only just started using Minoxidil or Finasteride to manage your ongoing hair loss, you may see some temporary hair shedding. Find out more:
Temporary shedding is a common side effect of these treatments and will stop after a couple of weeks of use.
Just like regular hair, hair that has been transplanted can become brittle and snap off if it’s not properly cared for. Dyeing, bleaching, and heat styling your hair can result in breakage and hair thinning, which may look like hair loss.
If you’re worried about losing hair from your hair transplant, here’s what you can do to keep your hair transplant in great condition.
You may need to take Finasteride to stop any continuing hair loss if you’re a man. Finasteride works by blocking the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), the hormone responsible for male pattern hair loss.
There are some potential Finasteride side effects to be aware of, such as erectile dysfunction and loss of libido. But these only affect a small proportion of Finasteride users. If you’re concerned about the safety of Finasteride, consider using a Finasteride alternative.
If stress, anxiety, or lifestyle choices are causing hair loss or damage, try to tackle these underlying issues. Find out how to regain hair after stress, and make sure you’re taking good care of your new hair.
Your hair transplant clinic can give you advice about how to maintain your hair transplant, or even arrange a top-up hair transplant if necessary. If you trust the clinic that performed your original transplant, they should be your first port of call.
If you’re not sure they’ll give you the best advice, you can always seek out a second opinion. The Wimpole Clinic offers a free consultation for anyone looking for guidance about their hair restoration options and we recommend reading our hair transplant uk guide where we look into costs and choosing the right clinic.
If your hair transplant is falling out after 1 year and you’re not sure why, book a free consultation at the Wimpole Clinic.
We’ve helped more than 10,000 patients restore their hair with a successful hair transplant and we can help you do the same.
We’re happy to answer any questions you may have. Check out our list of questions to ask before your hair transplant to help you get the best out of your free consultation.
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