What causes a failed hair transplant?
Individuals struggling with alopecia are turning to modern techniques like FUE, DHI, U-FUE, which show a 97-98% success rate. Usually 2% to 3% failed hair transplants occur due to outdated techniques, poor clinic choice, novice surgeons or negligence of patients in post-op care.
When analyzing the causes of a failed hair transplant, it is important to know who or what caused the problem. 3 main people&institutions may have played a role in this problem:
- patient who came for baldness treatment
- mistakes made in the clinic – during surgery
- the surgeon has insufficient experience or has not received adequate training on hair transplantation.
In the rest of this article, we’ll look at who and what causes hair transplant failures, how they happen, the signs to look out for and ways to handle the result.
Causes of Failed Hair Transplant
The professionals say that there are lots of different things to think about. From before the operation to the first 6 months of recovery, care should be taken at every step. It’s important that patients stick to the instructions to make sure they get the best results. The most common causes are below:
Graft rejection is the main cause of failed hair transplant
Hair graft rejection is not a common symptom, but it can still happen in a few patients. After a hair transplant surgery, if this condition occurs, transplanted hair follicles won’t grow. Lichen Planopilaris (LLP) is often the cause. LLP leads to inflammation of the roots of the follicles, which causes hair strands to fall out.
Inexperienced surgeons may be related to failed transplantations
Turkey is the top choice for hair transplant procedures. If anyone wants to open a clinic there, they’ll need to have a sterilization unit or buy sterilization services. Their staff will need to be trained in areas like medicine, nursing, anesthesia, or other health sciences. Surgeons must have graduated from a medical faculty at a university. Please, take hair transplant procedures (FUE, DHI, NeoGraft, etc.), PRP treatment, mesotherapy, i-PRF or micropigmentation by a surgeon who has enough training and experience.
Inadequate post-transplant care may lead to failure
Even if your hair transplant procedure is successfully completed, after care can turn everything upside down. You will have a minimum 6-month care period. You will need to consider many factors including the hair care products you use, your sleeping positions, your diet, whether you pull & scratch your hair, sun exposure.
Not being a suitable candidate for a hair transplant surgery
Some clinics may refer you to hair grafting even though you’re not a suitable candidate, just to make a profit. In these clinics, if you need a 2,000-graft hair transplant, they may try to transplant you with 4,000 hair grafts because they get paid per hair graft. There’s a risk that the procedure won’t be carried out in a sterile surgery room. So, make sure you’re a right fit for hair transplant operation and choose a clinic with a good reputation.
Infections and scarring can result in unsuccessful hair transplant
If there are any complications after the transplant, such as infections or wounds, it can lead to a bad hair transplant result. For example, older techniques like FUT might end up leaving linear scars. These scars can be quite noticeable. However, modern techniques like FUE and DHI are minimally invasive, so only tiny holes are formed, they heal within 1-2 weeks. If they don’t heal, there’s a risk of infection. In such a case, get in touch with your clinic as soon as possible.
What precautions should I take to avoid a failed hair transplant?
Preventing a failed hair transplant is possible if you take some precautions beforehand. Before you notice any signs of failed hair transplant, make sure you take these actions:
Make a detailed search about hair transplant techniques
Please be aware of old and new hair transplant procedures. You can minimize the risk of poor hair transplant results by choosing the right method for you. While FUT is a fairly old technique, new ones include:
- Follicular unit extraction (FUE)
- Direct hair implantation (DHI)
- Unshaven follicular unit extraction (UFUE)
- Ice FUE
- Forehead reduction
- Female hair transplant
- Afro hair transplant
- NeoGraft
- Robotic FUE
Google hair transplant clinics and countries
There are thousands of clinics and hospitals in many countries prominent for hair transplantation like Turkey, Poland, UK, and USA. You can use platforms including Whatclinic.com, TrustPilot or Google Reviews to choose a hair transplant clinic that suits your budget and expectations. Therefore, you can minimize the risk of failure hair transplant in a reputable address.
Trust your surgeon
Read reviews about your surgeon, examine their certificates, research the clinic where they work, contact the clinic and ask any questions you may have. Find out their pricing policies, details about pre- and post-op care. Thus, you can trust your surgeon and comply with their postoperative instructions more.
Take time for yourself to rest
When you get back from your trip, try not to go back to work unless it’s an emergency. If you can, try to give yourself some time to rest. Hair transplantation is not a life-threatening procedure. However, you can take some simple steps to get successful hair transplant results. It’s best to avoid touching your hair too much, scratching your scalp and using products with chemicals.
Follow aftercare instructions
Once the procedure is complete, the medical team will provide you with a list of instructions on how to care for your hair after the transplant [do’s and don’ts list for post-hair transplant]. Just make sure you stick to what they’ve said here. As a general rule, it’s good to eat a protein-rich diet, drink plenty of water and get a good night’s sleep in the right position (like using a double pillow or neck pillow). On the other hand, it’s recommended to avoid drinking alcohol and smoking, not to use hair straighteners and dryers, and to steer clear of hairstyles like braids and ponytails.
How do I know if my hair transplant failed?
If a hair transplant surgery gone wrong, it is nearly impossible not to understand. Since the hair affects the appearance of the face, one of the first areas that people pay attention to is the scalp. Therefore, it is easy to notice bad angles, bald spots, thinning and split hair.
Infections may also lead to these systemic signs:
- lethargy
- fever
- headaches
- swollen lymph nodes
- vomiting
- nausea
It is useful to see a dermatologist if you think you are not getting enough service from the clinic. That’s why we’ve explained the common symptoms of failed hair transplants below to help you.
Signs of Failed Hair Transplant
Typically, patients with androgenetic alopecia experience these symptoms when the treatment doesn’t work:
- Excessive itching of the scalp. This is usually a symptom of an infection.
- Severe hair loss outside the shock loss period.
- Wounds do not turn into scars even after 14 days.
- Problems like extreme dandruff, acne, scaling, or oiliness on the scalp.
- Hair at an angle unlike your existing hair.
- Insufficient grafts resulting in low-quality grafts even after a few months.
- Unnatural results with visible and permanent scars.
- The hair grafts that aren’t placed evenly, there are patchy areas and the hair is thinning.
- Swelling, redness and scarring that won’t go away.
Take action immediately if you have some of these symptoms. For example, you can call the clinic staff. In case you don’t get enough support from them, contact another clinic or dermatologist.
What does a failed hair transplant look like?
When checking failed hair transplant photos, you’ll see that they all have different shapes of bald spots, scarring, and signs. This is because there are many reasons for failed hair transplantations.
It may not only be a bad situation in the transplanted area. If there is over-harvesting in your donor area, there may be symptoms such as balding, late healing, and thinning in that area.
Do you suspect infection? If there is an infection on your scalp towards your hair bulbs or follicles, you can check by separating your hair strands. If you experience burning, oozing pus, itching, pain, bleeding, redness, acne, etc., first consult the clinic where you had the hair transplant treatment.
Failed Hair Transplants Photos
Below you can view bad hair transplant shots. It is useful to examine the images according to the timeline after hair transplantation. The 1st week images may not be very understandable, but after months have passed, when your scalp has healed and new hair has started to grow, then you can understand if you have had a failed surgery.
What can I do to fix a failed hair transplant?
Hair transplant surgery takes time to heal, which often leads many patients to believe they have had a poor procedure. However, once the wounds have healed and new hair has started to grow, patients start to enjoy the results from around the 3rd month.
If, after several months, your hair has not grown back to your expectations, you can try other methods of treatment by talking to your surgeon. You can use anti-hair loss shampoos and serums, undergo PRP therapy, or start using medications like finasteride and minoxidil.
However, if you want up to 98% success and your donor and recipient areas are suitable for a new procedure, a second hair transplant would be the most effective method. With a reputable clinic and a skilled surgeon, you can achieve a significantly different hair transplant result. If your graft count is sufficient and you have healthy grafts, there is no need to hesitate about a 2nd transplant. Right away, without delay you can visit our clinic and meet your new appearance!
FAQs about Failed Hair Transplant
Among hair transplants, FUE has the highest success rate. It involves transplanting the healthiest grafts extracted from the donor area to the recipient area. Rarely, issues may occur by patient or junior surgeon like poor aftercare, selection of wrong hair grafts from the donor area, or overharvesting of the donor site.
After every hair transplant surgery, losing about 5% of the transplanted hair is normal. So, in the case of 1000 grafts being transplanted, 50 of them may fall out during the procedure. However, the risk of losing noticeably more than 5% applies to 3 out of every 100 patients. Most of these patients either do not take proper care or choose a clinic with a bad reputation.
If you do the following, your likelihood of experiencing hair loss in both transplanted and existing hair may increase:
- not providing a good care,
- consuming alcohol and smoking without following instructions,
- having an unbalanced diet,
- using shampoos containing heavy chemicals,
- exposing your scalp to sunlight,
- wearing tight hats,
- exposing your hair to dust and dirt.
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