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Hair Transplant Gone Wrong? - Signs, Causes and Solutions

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Medically Reviewed by Dr. Priyanka Sharma
Written by Rajath R Prabhu, last updated on 31 October 2022| min read
Hair Transplant Gone Wrong? - Signs, Causes and Solutions

Quick Summary

A hair transplant is a surgical procedure that involves taking hair follicles from one part of the body and transplanting them to another. While it is usually a safe procedure with remarkable results and success rates, a hair transplant can also go wrong.

There are a number of reasons why a hair transplant can fail, including:

  • Infection
  • Scarring
  • Uneven results
  • Rejection of the transplanted hair

If you are considering getting a hair transplant, it is important to be aware of the risks involved. It is also important to choose a reputable surgeon who has experience performing hair transplants.

Table of Contents

Hair transplant procedures are a sigh of relief for people suffering from hair loss and baldness issues. It is overwhelming for such patients to realise that they do not have to live without hair for long. You must have heard many successful hair transplant stories from friends or relatives or followed the hair transplant journeys of several celebrities. But have you wondered what if a hair transplant goes wrong? While it is usually a safe procedure with remarkable results and success rates, a hair transplant can also go wrong.
So if you are considering getting a hair transplant, it is essential to understand everything about a failed hair transplant beforehand. Continue reading the blog to learn more about the reasons, problems, and solutions for a failed hair transplant.

Can a Hair Transplant go wrong?

A complete hair transplant failure is rare, but a small proportion of the newly transplanted follicles may not take root sometimes. As a result, these follicular units cannot produce new hair growth. However, when a patient does experience a failed hair transplant, it is characterised by an unnatural hairstyle and some scary results. Botched or failed hair transplants can cause several problems, such as scalp infections, scarring, and tissue damage.
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Reasons for a failed Hair Transplant

Various reasons can contribute to a hair transplant going wrong. These include:
  1. Ineligibility for hair transplant: Some of the most important conditions of having a hair transplant include being below 65 years, having a healthy donor area, and not having haemophilia or blood-borne diseases. Overlooking these factors can lead to decreased hair viability and excessive shedding after the procedure. 
  2. Non-realistic expectations: The outcome of a hair transplant depends on your hair’s condition. Having non-realistic expectations can lead to unsatisfactory results. To avoid unsuccessful results, it is important to communicate with your surgeon openly. They can help you understand what to expect from the procedure. 
  3. Inexperienced surgeon: Choosing an inexperienced surgeon and clinic can also result in a failed hair transplant. An inexperienced surgeon may extract the wrong donor grafts or overharvest the area, leading to excessive hair shedding and unsatisfactory results. 
  4. Graft handling problems: Hair follicles or grafts are too delicate and must be handled carefully by the surgery team. If the grafts are not handled properly, they can break or be damaged. Or, if the grafts are left out for too long before implantation, they can dry and die eventually. 
  5. Aftercare negligence: Following the aftercare instructions is crucial to achieving positive hair transplant results. Post-transplant care is important for supporting newly transplanted hair follicles. Negligence in aftercare can cause damage to hair follicles and a failed hair transplant. 
Some other reasons for a failed hair transplant include 
  1. Poor surgical technique 
  2. Errors in anaesthesia 
  3. Use of bad surgical instruments
  4. Offering misleading information to the patients. 
    Therefore, it becomes imperative to choose the right surgeon in a hospital with modern facilities. Additionally, you must follow all pre and post-operative instructions to prevent any complications. 

What can go wrong in a Hair Transplant?

There are usually two kinds of problems, medical and aesthetic, that can happen after a hair transplant. 
  1. Medical Problems: Although a hair transplant is considered a safe and simple procedure, it is still a surgery with certain risks. Though rare, medical issues such as excessive bleeding or fainting can arise during the surgery or develop a few days or weeks after the procedure, such as excessive soreness or infection. 
  2. Aesthetic Problems: A hair transplant can also go wrong if the new hair growth does not meet your desired results or doesn’t blend well with the rest of the hair, giving an unnatural look.

When can a Hair Transplant go wrong?

The following are some common indications of a hair transplant gone wrong that you need to look out for:
  1. Overharvesting: The success or failure of a hair transplant starts before the procedure itself. A surgeon not only requires skill to perform the surgery but also needs to plan how much hair is needed and from where to harvest. While you may experience good hair growth in the balding region with overharvesting, the donor area will be left with bald patches and scars. As the results of overharvesting are permanent, it can make returning to social life more difficult. Furthermore, excessive harvesting can also ruin the chances of having a hair transplant in the future.
  2. Significant Scarring: Experienced hair transplant surgeons use modern technologies to ensure minimal scarring during the procedure. On the other hand, unqualified or less experienced surgeons can leave you with unnecessary scarring in the donor and recipient areas. Unnecessary scarring is more likely to be visible in a Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT) procedure than in a Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) hair transplant.
  3. Scalp Infections: An infection is another sign of a FUT or FUE hair transplant gone wrong. The occurrence of scalp infections happens in less than 1% of surgeries. However, when hygiene and aftercare practices are substandard, infections can occur on the scalp and hair follicles. Symptoms of infections like redness, itchiness, pus, swelling, and abscesses are usually treatable. If left untreated, these symptoms can lead to life-threatening complications like sepsis.
  4. Unnatural Results: The surgeon draws the hairline on the patient’s scalp before the surgery. The shape of the hairline can vary from person to person. Deciding the proportion of the hairline has no fixed method, and an inexperienced surgeon may not be capable of obtaining the appropriate hairline. You may end up with unnatural results due to a poor hairline design (uneven or too straight) or a misdirected angle for hair transplantation. Moreover, poor hair transplant techniques can also contribute to unnatural results, making you even more self-conscious than before.
  5. Poor Hair Growth: Shock loss after surgery is a common process after a hair transplant surgery. Some patients may assume this to be a hair transplant gone wrong. However, this is only temporary, and new hair begins to grow 3 to 4 months after the procedure. If the surgeon does not handle the grafts properly and the hair transplant goes wrong, new hair growth is unlikely to occur. Poor hair growth can also result from not following aftercare instructions during recovery.
  6. Scalp Necrosis and Tissue Damage: Scalp necrosis happens when the blood flow to the skin is cut off, resulting in the death of tissues and the area becoming black. The causes of scalp necrosis include:
    1. A large number of hair follicles implanted at a single time
    2. A large recipient area
    3. Recipient areas placed too close
    4. Deep incisions in donor and recipient areas
    5. Excessive use of epinephrine to stop excessive bleeding
    6. Smoking
    7. Infection
    8. Poor wound management

How often does a Hair Transplant go wrong?

The success rate of a hair transplant is as high as 90 to 95%. Therefore, the chances of a hair transplant going wrong are rare. Thanks to modern technology and experienced surgeons in the field, the failure rate of hair transplants is less than 5%. 
The side effects that may sometime occur after the surgery are usually temporary. However, the probability of hair transplant failure can increase if an unqualified person performs the surgery in an unregistered clinic. Furthermore, it can happen if the patient does not follow the instructions provided by the surgeon.

Can a failed Hair Transplant be fixed?

Fixing a bad hair transplant is a complicated task that requires the expertise of a professional surgeon with a lot of experience and knowledge. While it is possible to reverse or correct a bad hair transplant, it usually depends on the cause and severity of the problem. The methods to fix a bad hair transplant include:
  1. Revision hair transplant surgery: You may need another transplant to fix an uneven hairline. It is also required to hide scars from the previous procedure. However, a revision hair transplant surgery is not always possible. People with advanced hair loss, limited donor supply, and damaged skin structure in the recipient area cannot get a revision hair transplant. 
  2. Scalp micro pigmentation: It is a non-surgical cosmetic treatment for thinning hair. It involves concealing a bad hair transplant with a tattoo-like pattern using an electric tattoo device to create the illusion of fuller hair. The procedure is often used to cover up scars after a hair transplant. 
  3. Camouflage procedure: The technique involves extracting only the unappealing hair grafts and replacing them with more natural-looking ones. This hair transplant repair technique is suitable when the transplant results are not that bad and the grafts to be camouflaged are not too large or close to the hairline. 
  4. Graft excision: Also known as extraction procedure, this technique involves removing large unnatural hair grafts using FUE, breaking them down into smaller individual follicles, and reimplanting them at the right angle. 
  5. Combined repair: It combines camouflage and graft excision methods to reimplant large grafts and use new hair follicles from the donor area. 
  6. Scalp Surgery: Scalp necrosis is an irreversible condition. The only treatment is to remove the dead skin using surgery. 
  7. Medication: The doctor may prescribe antibiotics for a scalp infection and cyst treatment.

How can you avoid a Hair Transplant from going wrong?

To avoid hair transplant from going wrong, here’s what you should do:
  1. Visit a good hair clinic: Before choosing a clinic for hair transplantation, check the clinic’s registration and certification. Select a reputable hair clinic with modern technologies for hair transplant procedures. Furthermore, do not opt for a clinic that offers cheap procedures performed by inexperienced surgeons. 
  2. Choose an experienced surgeon: Apart from choosing the right hair clinic, it is also important to choose a qualified and experienced surgeon. While doing your research, verify the licensure and certification of the surgeon. 
  3. Ask questions: Before undergoing a hair transplant, you should ask questions about your doubts and queries to the surgeon. Ask for genuine before and after photos and testimonials by past clients. Furthermore, ask questions to understand the recovery and aftercare process, the kind of technology used, and their average success rate. 
  4. Follow aftercare instructions: Not following the post-operative guidelines is a common cause of failed hair transplants. Therefore, to avoid a bad hair transplant at the last stage of the process, follow all aftercare instructions provided by your surgeon. Seek professional help if you feel confused at any point.

Takeaway

Many reasons contribute to people having their hair transplants gone wrong. In some cases, the damage can be permanent and irreversible. Therefore, it is extremely important to verify your clinic and surgeon and choose the ones that have experience in providing valid results. Do not become tempted by cheap prices offered by black-market clinics. Instead, choose quality over costs. 
If you are confused about the procedure or choice of hospital, you can consult an expert at HexaHealth. Our team will not only help you choose the right clinic and surgeon with appropriate registrations and certifications but also assist you throughout your hair transplant journey. 

Frequently Asked Questions

 A hair transplant gone wrong can result in several complications like excessive scarring, bald patches, scalp infections, poor hair growth, unnatural results, and tissue damage. If the hair transplant is not successful, it can lead to physical and mental scarring of the patient and a breach of trust.
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A hair transplant is a comparatively safe and simple procedure. It is an effective solution to hair loss. In most cases, the procedure offers positive results helping patients regain self-confidence. However, in rare cases, patients can experience a failed hair transplant for several reasons.
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The correction for a failed hair transplant depends on the cause and intensity of the problem. The corrective measures for failed hair transplants include:
  1. Revision hair transplant
  2. Scalp micro pigmentation
  3. Camouflage method
  4. Graft excision
  5. Combined repair
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When performed by experienced surgeons for patients with good health and by adhering to pre and post-operative guidelines, the failure rate of hair transplants is less than 5%. However, the rate can increase when the surgery is performed by an inexperienced surgeon at an unregistered clinic.
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There are chances of donor rejection when your body receives tissues, organs, or hair follicles from a different person. However, unlike organ transplants, you are your own donor in the case of a hair transplant. Therefore, your body cannot reject a hair transplant. 
 
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Although a hair transplant is a simple procedure that offers remarkable results, not everyone can undergo the procedure. The following patients are not suitable for a hair transplant:
  1. Have no hair from birth
  2. Have serious health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, kidney or liver failure
  3. React to anaesthesia
  4. Have blood-borne diseases
  5. Have haemophilia
  6. Are under 24 years of age
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While hair transplant is considered advantageous for treating hair loss, it also has certain disadvantages, which include:
  1. The complete results of a hair transplant are achieved after almost a year.
  2. An individual who does not have good health cannot qualify for the procedure. 
  3. The results depend on the quality of hair harvested from the donor site. 
  4. The scalp becomes tender for a considerable time after surgery.
  5. There are chances of getting an infection.
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The results become visible six to twelve months after a hair transplant. The transplant is successful when the transplanted hair from the donor area to the recipient site remains healthy. You can know if the hair transplant was successful by noticing the hair growth. 
 
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Surgeries performed by inexperienced surgeons are one of the most common causes of failed hair transplants. Another major cause contributing to failed results is negligence in following aftercare instructions. Some other reasons for a failed hair transplant include overlooking the ineligibility of hair transplants and setting non-realistic expectations. 
 
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While the hair transplant results are considered permanent, the surgeon can remove and reposition the transplanted grafts in some cases. This is usually done to rectify the mistakes in the previous surgery. However, one should know that removing and placing hair follicles in another area can lead to increased and more visible scarring.
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The number of grafts required for a hair transplant varies from person to person, depending on the size of their head and the quality of their donor hair. However, on average, about 4000 to 6000 grafts are needed for a full head hair transplant.
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Yes, the reversal of a hair transplant is possible if you are unhappy with the results. In a reverse hair transplant, your transplanted hair grafts are removed and placed in another area to rectify the mistakes of the previous surgery.
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People usually avoid hair transplants because of the fear of a failed hair transplant and the subsequent complications, some of which are irreversible. However, the procedure can offer promising results by choosing the right surgeon and following all pre and post-operative guidelines.
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Last Updated on: 31 October 2022

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational and learning purposes only. It doesn't cover every medical condition and might not be relevant to your personal situation. This information isn't medical advice, isn't meant for diagnosing any condition, and shouldn't replace talking to a certified medical or healthcare professional.

Reviewer

Dr. Priyanka Sharma

Dr. Priyanka Sharma

MBBS, DNB Plastic Surgery

14 Years Experience

Dr Priyanka Sharma is a well-known Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeon associated with HealthPort Clinic in Delhi. She has 14 years of experience in Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic surgery and worked as an expert Plastic,...View More

Author

Rajath R Prabhu

Rajath R Prabhu

MSc. Clinical Research I PG Diploma in Public Health Services Management

3 Years Experience

His work in medical content writing and proofreading is noteworthy. He has also contributed immensely to public health research and has authored four scientific manuscripts in international journals. He was assoc...View More

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