Hair shedding after a hair transplant surgery can be a shock to many. If the implanted hairs fall out after a few weeks, one may think that the hair transplant procedure was ineffective. What some patients are completely unaware about is that such temporary hair loss is completely normal and therefore this is no reason to panic.

Why does hair shedding occur after a hair transplant ?

Hair transplanted follows a certain pattern. It will initially show growth after a hair transplant. However, after about 2-4 weeks, the newly transplanted hairs fall out. Shedding occurs because the hair grafts – regardless of the technique used to transplant them – are briefly cut off from the blood supply, and therefore can’t be provided with nutrients by the body.

This phenomenon is not a reason to panic. The hair follicles continue to remain in the scalp and new hair begins to grow again after about 3 months. Usually, after 8-9 months the patient can enjoy a full head of hair again. The transplanted hairs have the right genetic orientation, so they last a lifetime.

When shedding of transplanted hair occurs after the procedure, most people consider it as “shock loss”. However, this is not quite correct, as the correct term is “shedding”. Shock loss is different and can occur in both the recipient as well as in the donor area (see more on this topic below).

And by the way: hair does not always fall out a few weeks after a hair transplant. In about 5-10% of patients, hair continues to grow as if nothing happened.

Shock loss in the implanted area

The situation is somewhat different if some hair in the recipient area falls out due to density in packing. This occurs when hair grafts are placed in close vicinity to each other. This can traumatize the surrounding tissue to such an extent that the follicles around are compelled to fall out.

Shock loss in the donor area

Shock loss can have various causes:

Higher dose of local anesthesia – Local anesthesia involves injecting saline into the tissue area to slightly elevate the scalp. However, if the excess solution is injected, increased tissue pressure is formed. This prevents the blood supply to connect with the hair roots and as a result, the hair falls out.

Traumatized tissue – In addition to the modern FUE technique, where the grafts are removed one at a time, there is also the FUT technique. Here, a narrow strip of skin is taken from the donor area and the grafts are extracted. This can traumatize the surrounding tissue in the donor area leading to shock loss.

Excess extraction of grafts – Even if the hair in the donor area still grows densely, the number of grafts that can be removed is limited in supply. If the hair transplant surgeon nevertheless removes more than is actually available, shock loss would be consequential.