HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

I have a question for you guys regarding my circumstances, I had 1800 grafts put in by Dr. Rose July of 2005, it was the strip procedure. Since then I have been taking 1mg of propecia every other day and been using Nizoral twice a week. I am at the end of my 11th month, and i have noticed improvement from last year, however, i don't feel like all of the grafts have grown in, I would say may be 40-50% has grown only.

For example, at the hairline, one side has grown in pretty well, while the other side of my head hasn't filled in at the hairline. And for the side that has the filled in hairline, the hair hasn't thickened behind it very welll, and the side where the hairline hasn't grown in, the hair did fill in decently behind where he placed the hairline. I dont know what to think.

At the 6 month post-op the doctor said that it was normal to not have even growth and to give it some time but when i saw him a couple weeks ago, he himself said that normally by this time most of the grafts would have grown in. He did say "normally" and that some rare times it takes longer. He told me to give it another 2-3 months and we will decide what to do from there but i'm a bit worried. Another notable thing is that when i press down on the front of my head where he put the grafts, for example when i pat my head to dry it after a shower, i can still feel a sort of sensation, almost like a mild throbbing or something, i can't really explain it, and i do still feel a few little hairs growing in at certain spots.

I want to know from you guys, why would it take this long? Have you heard of people who just don't get the growth from all the grafts? Have you heard of people who get full growth, but it just takes longer than a year? I dont know what to do, i dont want to do another procedure later at the risk of not getting growth again, but may be i should be patient, i dont know.

the Dr. suggested maybe i've had more loss over the past year, but i dont think so b/c i noticed less loss since i started the propecia, i do only take it every other day to reduce my side effects but i still noticed a difference. Also, the areas i'm not happy with in terms of growth are areas that i had little to no hair before the procedure anyways. And there is some growth but not to the density to which he grafted. Any advice would be helpful!

Sorry to hear your growth is lagging. It does happen. Hair is slow sometimes. One needs to give it 12-14 months for the grafts to come along. You can see maturation and changes in hair quality even after 14 months.

In some cases the yield is going to be off. This is sometimes due to poor surgery and other times it is patient physiology. We should not assume yield is off yet.

See if you can post some pics. I think Dr. Rose is right as you need to give it the proper chance before assuming anything is wrong.

Keep us posted.