Hair Transplant texture: “Weird” hair texture after hair transplant: Many cosmetic surgeries provide somewhat instant gratification as to the results of the procedure. After a couple weeks of healing, breast augmentation, liposuction, tummy tuck, rhinoplasty, etc display an immediate improvement or change in the recipient’s appearance. With some other types of surgery, the gratification comes a little later and requires patience. Hair transplant is one of those procedures that are worth the wait. A new, full head of hair or advanced hairline will not spring up instantly. In fact, you won’t even see new growth for about four months post-surgery, and the optimal outcome won’t arrive for about 18 months.

On this journey, your scalp and hair grafts will likely go through some weird phases. And though these phases are a perfectly normal part of the process, they can be alarming. If you’ve noticed any of the following happening to you, you’re not alone.

The New Hairs Are Shedding After Hair Transplant

You just got new hairs implanted, you’ve taken every precaution to “tread lightly” with showering, sleeping, avoiding your favorite baseball cap, and so forth. But the new hair is falling out. What did you do wrong? You’ve done nothing wrong. This hair was never meant to stay in place and was only the vessel, so to speak, for transplanting the follicle to a new place. Once the follicle has taken root, the attached hair grafts will shed around the third or fourth week after surgery to make way for new hairs to eventually grow in their place.

Hair Transplant texture: The New Growths Have a Wiry Texture

After about four months have passed, you should finally start to see the new hairs growing in. But the hair transplant texture of the new grafts may sometimes seem like they don’t belong on your head. They might be wiry, coarse, brittle, or even wavy. In any case, they don’t match the surrounding hair. That’s because the follicles have gone through a big change and need time to adjust. It may take two or three growth cycles for the hair to smooth out and resume its normal soft texture. Hence the reason hair grafts are not expected to reach full maturation until 18 months after surgery. In this video, the issue of hair transplant texture is tackeld by Dr U in tis qn a segment:

The Hair Transplant Yielded Growth That Doesn’t Match

Sometimes, in the case of BHT (use of non-head donor hair), the hair may not match exactly with the surrounding scalp hair. It may be a slightly different color, slightly coarser in texture, or grow at a slightly different speed to a different maximum length. This is something you need to be aware of before accepting the use of non-head hair. If your surgeon mentions the use of this non-traditional donor source, it’s usually because there’s no alternative—your scalp donor source is too depleted. A good surgeon, however, will be adept at blending beard or other body hair grafts in such a way that the variations are not noticeable to others.

Watch video on the use o hairpieces after hair transplants and the effect it might have on your grafts