Hair Transplants

Minimal Shock Loss

Hair shock or anagen effluvium is a term used to describe the loss of preexisting hair that occurs during and after the hair transplant surgery. The loss of hair occurs in the recipient area and is confined to the grafted area. In general, hair shock loss can reduce the preexisting density around 5% but as much as 15% with regular dense pack follicular unit grafting.

The amount of preexisting hair that will be permanently lost depends on two main factors , hair miniaturization, and transection (cutting across) of hair during implantation. If the hair had undergone miniaturization to the extent that it would only survive another 6 months regardless of surgery, it will probably not survive the shock cycle. If incorrectly made incisions had transected (cut across) neighboring preexisting hair, the hair follicle may have been killed and will not regrow.

Lateral Slits Minimize Shock Loss

Hair shock usually results from trauma of incisions made in the skin close to preexisting hair. Lateral Slit Technique minimizes trauma to the recipient area, thus dramatically reducing incidents of hair shock. In addition to trauma caused by recipient site creation another cause of shock loss is the repeated manipulation and tugging on preexisting hair in order to expose surrounding bald scalp and to assess the angle of the hair shaft with regard to the scalp. This angle must be exactly copied when making the recipient site incision. This cause of hair shock can be virtually eliminated by having the hair on the scalp approximately 1/2 cm long so that the surrounding scalp can be visualized without moving the adjacent hair, and the hair angle can be copied with precision. At our clinic we encourage our patients to allow us to trim their hair. This will make the first 2-3 weeks post transplant difficult to conceal but will otherwise be of significant benefit to the patient (and surgical team).

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Hair Transplants