Will My Hair Transplant Fall Out? Can My Relative Give Me Their Hair To Transplant On Me?
Hair Transplant Patient Ann
These are two very common questions that patients ask me during their complimentary hair loss consultation. The hair loss consultation is, indeed, the most important visit that a prospective patient will have.
I have been transplanting hair since 1986; recently, one of my first patients came in to visit me—with all of his transplanted hair growing strong!
Back in 1959, the scientific concept of donor dominance was proven. What was shown nearly 55 years ago was that tissue taken from a donor area will maintain its characteristics to where it is surgically transplanted.
In this important experiment, a graft of “hairy” tissue was moved to the bald area of the scalp and a graft of “bald” tissue was moved the hair-bearing scalp. Several weeks passed and what was observed was that the characteristics of the donor graft did not change when they were moved—so, the bald graft stayed bald and the hair-bearing graft stayed hairy when moved.
During consultations not uncommonly, spouses or family members offer their hair to their loved ones. Unfortunately, we cannot transplant hair follicles from one person to another. Human tissue gets rejected when surgically transplanted to others. Think heart or lung transplants. The patients receiving these organs from others must take life-long anti-rejection medications, which are, in themselves, potentially dangerous. That haven been stated, there have been a handful of transplants worldwide between identical twins; however, long-term evaluation of these few patients has not been completed.
If your hair loss is bothering you, we may be able to transplant it—but only from yourself!
