Does Transplanted Hair Turn Gray?

If you want a hair transplant, the end goal is to defeat your hair loss and have a healthy head of colorful, thick hair. But what happens after? What happens as you get older and how will your transplanted hair change?

This is something that is often overlooked but it’s important to think about as for all intents and purposes, hair transplants are permanent. One of the main questions arising from this is, does transplanted hair go gray? I look at this below and other topics relating to the aging process of your hair.

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Do Hair Transplants Turn Gray

Simply put, yes. If your hair eventually turns gray then so will your transplanted hair. Imagine if this wasn’t the case and you had random patches of your original hair color when the rest of your hair was gray!

The transplanted hair is normal – there is nothing different about it – it’s just been moved from one part of your scalp to another. As a result, it behaves exactly like natural hair does which includes the aging process.

If you’re destined to have gray hair then your transplanted hair will turn gray also. There is no way to stop this as it’s something we are all naturally subject to as we get older – it’s just how hair works regardless of whether it’s in its original position or transplanted.

How Else Can Transplanted Hair Change?

Aside from turning gray, your transplanted hair is also subject to other phenomena associated with aging. It goes through the standard hair growth cycle which includes growing, falling out, and being replaced with new hairs.

As you get older, this growth cycle shortens which means that the hair becomes finer and shorter. So together with graying, your transplanted hair may also naturally get thinner over time – this isn’t the same as hair loss, but just the natural aging process.

This process is different for everyone and some people have thick and colorful hair into their later years whereas others can turn gray much younger.

Will it Stay Gray Permanently?

Yes! Your hair color derives from pigment cells within the individual follicles. As we get older, the follicles lose the ability to produce pigment which is why our hair “turns” gray (it doesn’t turn gray really, it grows gray).

Once this process has happened it is rarely reverted. There is the odd occasion where graying can occur due to stress, and this can be reversed somewhat if stress levels are reduced, but 99% of the time, gray hair naturally stays gray.

How to Avoid Gray Hair After a Transplant?

If you are undertaking a procedure such as a FUE hair transplant in Turkey you may be worried that your hair can turn gray as a result of the surgery. This isn’t possible.

Hair should never go gray as a direct result of hair transplant surgery – this just isn’t how hair works and if your transplanted hair was black before the surgery, it should be black after the surgery unless something went catastrophically wrong!

In the long term after surgery, there isn’t anything you can naturally do to prevent your hair from turning gray. This is something we have to live with and it’s a part of growing older.

If you are graying prematurely then the great news is, is that you can dye your transplanted hair. You won’t be able to do this immediately as the transplanted hair doesn’t really start to grow until 6 months after. However, once your transplanted hair is settled and grown, you can dye it to get rid of those pesky grays!

I also advise trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, reduce stress, and look after your hair. Things like smoking and excessive stress can contribute to the onset of gray hair so it’s in your interest to look after yourself to get the best results from your surgery.

Can Gray Hair be Transplanted?

You may not know that gray hair can also be transplanted! There are plenty of cases where people experience graying prematurely and have hair loss. In these instances, the gray hair is perfectly fine to be transplanted – it’s just normal hair that has lost its pigmentation.

Transplanted Hair is Subject to the Standard Ageing Process

If you were expecting your transplanted hair to remain its youthful color forever then I have to disappoint you. All hair on your scalp whether it is transplanted or not is subject to the standard aging process.

This means that over time, your hair strands will become thinner and lose their pigment which is the reason for graying. You can of course change this by dying your hair, but there is no natural way to stop your transplanted hair from graying.