Are Hair Transplants Permanent?

Possibly the most common question we get relating to hair transplants is their permanence. Many people simply don’t understand how hair transplants work, and what they mean for the long-term outlook of your hair.

We understand that this is an incredibly important question – hair transplants have a cost, and there is a lot of stress and upheaval involved. As a result, you don’t want to undergo the surgery only to realize that you will need future surgeries in 10 years!

Below, we put to bed any uncertainties you may have and explain the long-term prognosis of hair transplants.

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Essentially, Yes – The Transplanted Hair Retains its Genetic Programming

The simple fact is, is that unless some issue or other occurrence happens, your hair transplant will last forever. Hair transplants are permanent.

This is because surgeries like FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) and DHI (Direct Hair Implantation) physically transplant your own hair to the hair loss site. As a result, providing the transplanted hair is healthy and not subject to any hair loss, it will act just like normal hair would.

The caveat is that the transplanted hair has to be healthy in the first place. If a surgeon transplanted hairs from a balding part of your scalp, for example, they would most likely fall out as they are already genetically coded with your hair loss issues.

This is why the selection process for the donor area is incredibly important. Hair transplant surgeons should only extract hair from healthy parts of your scalp that aren’t showing signs of hair loss.

In short, the quality and longevity of your hair transplant is dictated by the quality of your hair together with the factors we discuss below.

Your transplant hair will naturally age

While hair transplants are permanent, you have to understand that the transplanted hairs are still subject to natural aging.

Just like your other hair, the transplanted hairs will change color, turn grey, and get thinner as you get older. But they won’t fall out, which is the most important part. If you look at a hair transplant Turkey before and after photo 20 years part, for example, you would still see the improved hairline, the hair simply might look a little greyer!

Factors to Improve Hair Transplant Success

So, hopefully, you feel more confident now and can see that a hair transplant is a permanent solution.

However, you must understand that you have to put in some effort too to get the best results and make sure your hair transplant lasts. Below, we discuss the different factors that can affect hair transplant success.

Aftercare and recovery

The best hair transplant surgeons will devise a recovery plan for you including a schedule of what you can and can’t do. This could involve best practices for washing your hair, and potentially some aftercare medication to help the transplanted hair.

You MUST follow this recovery plan perfectly! These plans are created for a reason – to give your hair the best chance to take root, flourish, and grow. If you ignore these plans and don’t take your aftercare and recovery serious you could end up wasting your time and money.

Read Next: What Factors Affect the Cost of Hair Restoration Procedures?

Lifestyle changes

To recover quicker, make sure your hair transplant takes and flourishes, you need to be prepared to make some short-term sacrifices.

Smoking and alcohol consumption can severely damage the health of your transplanted hair and can even cause it to fall out. You should ideally stop smoking and drinking months before your surgery so the transplanted hair is healthy and not impeded.

While you can start smoking and drinking after your surgery eventually, now could be the time to consider a permanent lifestyle change to go with your permanent hair transplant.

Donor hair selection

I mentioned above the importance of the hair selection process. This is vital for the success and longevity of your hair transplant.

The transplanted hair must be taken from a healthy part of your scalp that has no visible hair loss. This is why it is a better idea to wait for a hair transplant until you can see physical signs of receding hair or balding.

The surgeon will easily be able to select the optimum donor sites when they can clearly see where you have hair loss issues.

Chosen Surgery

Lastly, different procedures have different success rates just like any normal medical surgery. For example, heart transplant survival rates globally are around 90%. You can see some of the average success rates for the most popular hair transplant surgeries below:

FUT (Follicular Unit Transplantation): 90%+
FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction): 95%+
DHI (Direct Hair Implantation): 95%+

As you can see, the success rate is pretty high with the newer FUE and DHI techniques boasting the best success rates available. Your surgeon will help you choose the right surgery depending on your hair loss and the end results you want.

Hair Transplants are the Best Permanent Hair loss Solution

There are many other effective treatments such as medication and scalp therapies, but hair transplants are the only permanent solution where replenishment or some other recurring treatment is needed.

Once you have had your hair transplant and gone through the recovery period, that’s it! No more surgeries, no more pain – just a scalp full of healthy hair. Obviously, there are external factors that can cause future hair loss, and your transplanted hair will age as you get older. But, for all intents and purposes, hair transplants are permanent.