How long does hair take to grow after hair transplant?

One of the most frequently asked questions about surgical hair restoration is, “how long does hair take to grow after hair transplant?” If you are also wondering how long it will take before you will be able to see a fuller head after undergoing a hair transplant surgery, then you have come to the right place. Here we will share with you hair growth process after transplantation.

Before discussing hair growth after hair transplant, let’s first have a look at what exactly hair transplantation is and how it works.

What is hair transplant?

Hair transplant is an excellent surgical procedure that moves hair follicles usually from one part of the scalp (one with thicker and healthier hair growth) to another part of the scalp (the one with significant hair thinning or bald patches). Two techniques are used for this purpose. One is Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE).

Hair transplant techniques:

Strip method transplant excises a linear strip of hair bearing skin from balding resistant part of the scalp – the back or the sides of the head. The strip is carefully dissected under a powerful microscope to separate individual grafts for transplantation. FUE method, on the other hand, extracts every follicle individually with the help of a small punch tool, with diameter less than 0.1 mm. The two techniques differ in graft harvesting, whereas the plantation phase is same for both. The surgeon carefully crafts small incisions in the recipient area, at specific angles and in specific directions. The harvested grafts are then placed in these incisions.

When will transplanted grafts start growing?

Transplanted grafts take some time to set into the new place and develop blood supply before they start growing hair. Since the surgery moves grafts and not hair, expect your thatch to remain bald for another few months, before hairs begin to sprout from the transplanted grafts. New hairs generally appear within 3 to 4 months following the surgery. After that they start growing at the rate of 1cm per month. They are not different from the rest of your hair.

Growth pattern of transplanted follicles:

Once they have attached themselves to the new place and start growing normally, the transplanted hairs look nothing less than existing natural hair in the donor or recipient area. Transplanted hair follicles follow the same growth cycle and thus can grow as long as your rest of the hairs do. The recreated hairline looks highly natural and no one will be ever able to guess that you have grown these hairs through a surgical procedure.

Transplanted hairs are permanent:

Most hair transplant candidates fear that hair grown through surgical procedure would fall out after sometime; after all they had lost original hair in that area as well. But the fact is, transplanted grafts are taken from balding resistant areas and they retain this quality even after being moved to balding prone areas. Any subsequent hair fall will be part of hair growth cycle and should not be worrying, as hair will automatically grow from the same planted grafts as they enter anagen phase. The hair grown through hair transplant surgery does not require any special care or maintenance. You can brush and shampoo them like as usual.

Hair transplant is an amazing procedure that allows you to regrow hair in the areas that have permanently lost their ability to grow hair. You should not worry about the length of the hairs because the transplanted follicles hair would follow same growth pattern and same size as the rest of your hairs do.