Hair transplants are a great option for restoring a natural-looking head of hair, especially if your hair loss is caused by male or female pattern baldness. From afar, nobody can tell your hair transplant isn’t your natural hairline.
In addition to great results, the surgery is also very successful. Worldwide, over 67% of hair transplant recipients received the look they wanted after just one procedure [1], and the Wimpole Clinic has a hair transplant success rate of 97-100%.
However, a big question for anyone considering surgery is this: will people be able to spot your hair transplant close up?
In this article, you’ll learn what hair transplants look like up close, and whether they’re visible or noticeable to others if they get a good glimpse of your transplanted hair. We’ll also discuss close up hair transplant scarring, how to improve results up close, and which transplant technique may be right for you.
Key takeaways
Hair transplants heal with minimal scarring, especially if you opt for FUE. With a high-quality hair transplant, it’s difficult to tell you’ve had the procedure with the naked eye.
The only visible sign that you’ve had a hair transplant is a thin horizontal scar on the back or side of the head if you have an FUT procedure. Growing your hair, getting scalp micropigmentation or having a minor FUE procedure can easily hide this.
Wimpole Clinic surgeon Dr Ahmad Moussa sums up whether you can really tell if someone’s had a hair transplant, even close up:
“With a hair transplant, we are creating the illusion that in a normal social situation, you look like a guy with a full head of hair. But if you shine a bright light and see if you can tell if you’ve had a hair transplant or not, certainly someone in the industry would probably be able to tell. But the good transplants, after a few years, even they can be difficult for us to spot.”
Celebrity hair transplants are becoming increasingly popular. Here’s what Rob Holding’s hair transplant looks like up close, before and after his procedure:
However, some older types of hair restoration are more obvious when you look closely (or even from a distance). For example, hair plugs often create a doll-like appearance in comparison with more modern methods:
It’s important to find out which method your clinic will use to restore your hair. In the UK, most hair transplant surgeons use FUE and FUT techniques to create a hairline that looks natural, even up close.
Some surgeons also perform sapphire hair transplants, using a sapphire blade for greater precision and minimal tissue damage, making your procedure even less conspicuous. On the other hand, unregulated hair transplant clinics abroad may use older or less sophisticated methods.
The look of your hair transplant will change as it heals. Initially, your hair transplant will be obvious even from a distance. Most people choose to take a few days off work or wear a hat after a hair transplant to hide a hair transplant and avoid any awkward questions.
But when it’s healed, your hair transplant will look completely natural, even up close. Here’s what you can expect.
This strip of hair has been partially cut into individual hair grafts containing an average of 3-4 hair follicles. The individual grafts are ready to be implanted into the thinning or balding areas of the scalp.
Grafts harvested via FUE look very similar to grafts harvested via strip surgery. The image below shows several hair grafts that have been extracted individually, using the FUE technique:
See the FUE hair transplant procedure up close and in action:
Immediately after surgery, your transplant will be a little raw and may still bleed. Here’s what your FUE donor area may look like close up immediately after your hair transplant:
FUT patients will have the wound closed with stitches. Here’s what the FUT donor area may look like close up immediately after surgery:
Your surgeon will dress your wounds with gauze and hair transplant bandages to keep your scalp clean, dry, and free from hair transplant infection. Learn more about potential hair transplant complications and how to avoid them. You can normally remove the bandage after 24 hours.
Within a day or so, your hair transplant will start to form hair transplant scabs and crusts:
Around 7 days after your hair transplant you will see redness reduce and grafts will begin to secure in an anchoring process. Pulling the scabs can result in lost graft hair, so it’s important to follow your clinic’s hair transplant aftercare protocol. We have a guide on how to wash your hair after a hair transplant to help safely remove scabs from day 3 onwards.
In these early days and the weeks that follow, you may feel self-conscious about your healing scalp. This is perfectly natural and many people grow their existing hair longer around the transplant site to cover it up.
A carefully styled fringe or combover can help you keep your new transplant under wraps, although you’ll need to wait 3-4 weeks to start styling your hair properly again. You won’t be allowed to wear a hat immediately, but you can start to wear a loose hat when out and about after the first 10 days.
Six months after your hair transplant, it shouldn’t be obvious that you’ve had surgery. Any hair transplant redness will be long gone by now, as this usually fades within the first couple of weeks.
You’ll start to get an idea of what your hair will eventually look like around 6 months post-op. These photos show the results you can expect after 6 months:
At 6 months post-op, you likely won’t have full density yet but your hair should look significantly better than pre-transplant. That being said, some people may already have the results they want, depending on hair type.
For example, these images show a Wimpole Clinic patient who had a 400 graft FUT Afro hair transplant for noticeable thinning on his scalp. By 6 months, the new growth blends naturally with his existing hair, making it virtually impossible to tell that he ever had hair loss or surgery.
This highlights how hair type and colour play an important role in how quickly you may experience the results you want. According to a 2025 review [2], thicker hairs cover more scalp, so people with naturally thicker strands often see denser results. People with light hair and light skin, or dark hair and dark skin, usually get fuller-looking coverage because there’s less contrast with the scalp.
On the other hand, darker hair on lighter skin can make thin areas more noticeable, so placement needs to be more precise. As demonstrated by this Afro transplant, curly hair naturally covers more scalp than straight hair, so curly hair transplants often need fewer grafts to get a good result, while straight hair may need more to achieve the same look [3].
A year after your hair transplant, you’ll start to see your final results. Some people may have already achieved their final density by 12 months, while for others, it may take up to 18 months to see the full extent of their hair transplant growth.
Styling choices can make a big difference to the appearance of your hair density as you recover. Keeping your hair slightly longer helps cover thinning areas, while short or flat hairstyles may make areas of hair loss more obvious. A skilled barber or stylist can make a big difference in creating the illusion of thicker hair.
Although it takes a while to see your final results, it’s worth the wait. Research on male hair transplants found that after their surgery, men are often seen as looking younger, more attractive, and even more successful and approachable compared to before their procedure [4].
Some patients are concerned about hair transplant scars, especially if they choose the FUT procedure. This leaves a scar that may be visible through closely cropped hair:
A trichophytic closure is a special technique used to close the donor area after an FUT hair transplant. Before suturing the area, your surgeon removes a very thin layer of skin (around 1-2 mm) from one edge of the incision, usually the top edge. This allows some hairs to grow directly through the scar as it heals, helping to make it far less noticeable, even if you wear your hair short.
In some cases, surgeons use a double trichophytic closure, where a thin layer is removed from both edges. This lets hairs grow through the scar from both sides, camouflaging it even more effectively.
Double trichophytic closures can minimise FUT scarring (see image D above, compared with non-trichophytic in image A and single trichophytic in images B and C). If you’re worried, ask your surgeon which type of closure they’ll use.
Using finasteride, minoxidil, or PRP alongside your hair transplant can noticeably improve its appearance close up. While surgery restores hair in thinning or bald areas, these treatments support the surrounding non-transplanted hairs and can improve the growth of transplanted grafts.
Combined with a hair transplant, these treatments can increase density and improve your final results when compared to surgery alone. Many surgeons recommend using hair loss medications before and after a transplant for this reason.
FUE is the best option for those who want to get a hair transplant without anyone knowing. It also has a shorter recovery time than FUT and tends to be slightly less expensive.
However, FUT may be the best option for some patients, particularly if you need a large number of grafts, have limited donor hair or plan to wear your hair long. You can expect different types of scarring from FUE and FUT: FUE leaves tiny, near-invisible dot scars at the donor site, while FUT leaves a long, thin strip scar.
This FUT hair transplant scar may be visible if you cut your hair very short, but it can often be concealed using scalp micropigmentation or a minor FUE procedure. FUE is generally preferred where possible in modern transplants as it means you avoid linear scarring [2]. Learn more about the differences between FUT and FUE so you can decide which is best for you.
The Wimpole Clinic has been voted best hair transplant clinic for four years running, and for a good reason. As the UK’s leading hair transplant clinic, we’ve performed over 30,000 successful procedures since we opened our doors in 1975.
If you’re experiencing hair loss, our expert trichologists can help. They’ll perform a comprehensive assessment and use diagnostic trichology tests to identify the reason your hair is falling out. If you’re a good candidate for a hair transplant, you’ll have access to some of the best hair transplant surgeons in the UK.
Ready to talk about your hair restoration needs? Just book a free consultation at your nearest clinic location. We’ll happily answer any questions you’d like to ask about hair transplants and advise you on which options are best for you.
About 2,000 grafts usually means around 4,000-5,000 individual hairs (since most grafts contain 2-3 hairs). This amount can restore a receding or M-shaped hairline, but it won’t usually cover the entire head. Learn more about how many grafts you need for your hair transplant.
High-quality hair transplants are often virtually impossible to tell apart from a natural head of hair. However, hair transplants performed many years ago may look less natural as techniques have come a long way in the past couple of decades.
Transplants performed by inexperienced surgeons may look unnatural due to donor hair overharvesting, complications, or a poorly designed hairline. That’s why it’s so important to choose a reputable clinic for your procedure.
Hair transplants are a minor surgery, and no type of surgery is 100% successful. Rarely, complications happen or patients are unhappy with their results.
However, hair transplants have an incredibly high success rate, especially when performed by experienced surgeons. At the Wimpole Clinic, our success rates are between 97% and 100%.
A hair transplant is permanent, meaning you can enjoy your new locks for years to come. Although your transplanted hairs should continue growing for a lifetime, a second hair transplant may be necessary in some cases. For example, if you want further density or if you continue to naturally lose hair around the transplant area.
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