Frankly speaking, the word “final” here can be somewhat misleading because it can mean “final development”. And by “development”, we mean how the hair continues to grow in very elusive ways after most of the growth has kicked in. Please allow us to explain below.

After undergoing a hair transplant, the grafts are forced to go through a certain period where they require to adjust. Hair cycle has two main phases – Anagen a.k.a. the growing phase and Telogen a.k.a. the dormant phase. When hair grows, it keeps growing continuously for 2-6 years. Once this Anagen phase reaches its end life, the hair moves into the Telogen phase. Think of it as the “Recharge Phase”. During this 3-6 months period, the hair shaft not only stops growing but it actually falls out. This fall out happens at the end of the Telogen phase due to the new hair regrowing in the old hair’s place and thereby pushing the old hair out.

For no real reason, having a hair transplant actually triggers the Telogen phase of a hair cycle. This is why with virtually every hair transplant procedure, the hairs will fall out in about 1 month time post surgery. This is perfectly normal and is also known as the “ugly duckling phase”. Think of it this way – before you take 15 steps forward with your new hair, you start by taking 2 steps backward!

Thereon, the hairs usually stay dormant for 3-4 months and for some patients they will sprout earlier and an unfortunate few, they will sprout later. The latter is a very small percentage of patients. Once the hair starts to sprout, there is no magic that it will come back all at once. There will be some areas that come in sooner than others so in the beginning the new growth may appear somewhat patchy. All this is normal phase of regrowing.

Usually at about the 6 month milestone, a healthy percentage of hairs come out. We estimate this to be about 50-60% but this is very subjective. By 10-12 months is when most of the grafts should have come through and with a decent amount of length of at least 1 inch or more for most of them.

The debate now moves to anything past the 12 month mark. I have recently read that results take at least 18 months to come to affect. This is not an accurate statement. True, hair characteristics will continue to improve beyond 12 months but the full growth should have been realized by 1 year milestone. Very small and subtle changes continue to take place for months but they are so subtle it takes months just to see the change.

The bottom line is that we don’t think that it will take 18 months or longer just to see the change you are looking for. Changes start from month 6 and in less than a year, you will welcome the biggest change you deserve. The time afterward is for the very subtle changes that will continue to improve your head and overall appearance.