At 6 months post-surgery, you’ve gone through the ugly duckling stage of hair transplant recovery, overcome the dreaded post-transplant shedding, (also known as ‘shock loss‘), and hopefully started to see signs of hair transplant results.
At this point after your strip surgery or FUE (follicular unit extraction) surgery, you’ll have an idea of how your hair is going to look when it’s fully grown. Newly transplanted hair won’t be anywhere near full density yet, but you should see noticeable growth.
Learn what to expect 6 months after your hair transplant (with real patient examples) and what to do if you haven’t seen any hair growth at this stage in the hair transplant timeline.
Most hair transplant patients see more than 50% of their grafts start to grow after 6 to 9 months [1]. This hair growth will give you visibly thicker hair or even hair where there was no hair before. During this time, you’ll now be able to see substantial new hair growth.
These photos show Wimpole Clinic patients before their hair transplant and after 6 months of growth. You can see more in our before and after hair transplant gallery:
Procedure: FUEGrafts: 2,200
This patient’s Afro hair transplant has grown a lot by the 6-month mark. The hair is still a little thin on top, but eventually, this will thicken up as the remaining grafts grow through. Already his new hairline looks completely natural, with the slight M-shape designed as part of an age-appropriate hairline.
Like the previous patient, this patient underwent a hair transplant of 2,000+ grafts. After 6 months, the hair is well-established, addressing his mid-scalp hair loss and receding hairline.
Again, the hairline design is totally natural. The before photo shows a few tiny hairs from the patient’s widow’s peak, so our surgeon has followed the original hairline and fleshed this out across the scalp for a natural-looking finish.
Procedure: FUEGrafts: 1,000
This patient’s receding hairline has been successfully lowered with a hairline transplant. This lucky patient has seen almost total density already, perhaps owing to his naturally thick hair texture and the high graft survival of his hair transplant. Skilled surgeons routinely achieve graft survival rates of more than 90% [2].
Procedure: FUTGrafts: 1,600
Hair transplants aren’t just for men. Many women also get hair transplants to treat female pattern baldness and certain other conditions like traction alopecia. This patient had a FUT transplant to address hair thinning around her temples.
After just 6 months, she has a much denser, more even hairline. As a result, she can wear her hair in a greater range of styles without worrying about her temple hair loss.
After 6 months you should start to see noticeable growth. If you don’t have the density you want yet, that’s OK. Final results aren’t usually visible until 12-18 months after surgery.
However, if you have minimal hair growth or very little density, this could be a cause for concern. Speak to your consultant about what you can do to stimulate hair growth. They may suggest treatments such as PRP injections after your hair transplant or recommend that you start taking Finasteride (if you’re a man and not already using it). Finasteride has a few potential side effects, but these are very rare, and it’s extremely successful in reducing symptoms of male pattern baldness.
Finasteride can take a few months to kick in, so you may need to wait at least 12-16 weeks to see the effect on your hair density 6 months after a hair transplant.
Find out if Finasteride is safe to use.
The post-transplant shedding phase typically starts around 2-6 weeks after hair transplantation surgery and lasts for a few weeks. Shedding your hair grafts is a totally normal part of the hair transplant recovery process.
Healthy hair follicles shed and regrow as part of the natural hair growth cycle. A person with healthy hair loses anywhere from 50 to 100 hair strands a day. Your transplanted hair may fall out as part of this hair growth cycle, but it will regrow within a few months.
That said, it’s unusual to see a lot of graft hair loss after 6 months. If you notice this, speak to your consultant. A particular risk of FUT hair transplants is taking hair from outside the safe donor area [3]. If this happens, it may result in premature graft hair loss.
The only lingering side effect you might experience is numbness across the scalp. All other hair transplant side effects should have cleared up 6 months after your procedure.
Learn more about the stages of the hair transplant timeline in our series:
If your hair transplant isn’t growing as quickly as you’d like and you want a second opinion about the success of your procedure, book a free consultation with the Wimpole Clinic.
We’ll answer any questions you want to ask and talk you through your options for getting the most from your previous surgeries. We can even discuss top-up or repair surgery if needed.
Find out more in our list of questions to ask before a hair transplant guide.
Alternatively, if you’re interested in getting your first hair transplant, we’ll offer all the free, impartial advice you need to make the right hair restoration decision.
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