[quote][postedby]Originally Posted by cal[/postedby]
HT grafts can indeed thin over time. But I’m not satisfied that this isn’t due to explainable factors.
Donor-area thinning from older age is a much bigger factor than the HT world wants to admit because of its implications for that procedure. If it thins when it’s in the original location then it’s sure going to thin in the transplanted location too.
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I had transplants in the early 1980s. I continued to lose hair to this day, but for many years the robustness of the hair that continued growing remained almost as good as when I had my transplants.
Then around 1997 I noticed the hair all over my head was getting finer and the few follicles that were still growing hair in-between the transplanted plugs, were falling out. I also noticed that my donor area was becoming see-through in spots.
Fortunately Propecia came out the following year, and it pretty much reversed the see-through in my donor area.
It also actually visibly regrew hair: the bald spot in the back of my head (I didn’t put any grafts there) grew hair near the perimeter of the bald spot, in places shrinking the bald spot by as much as a half inch.
I continue on DHT inhibitors to this day (been on Avodart for several years now).
HOWEVER, starting about 3 years ago I noticed that the hairs on my head were getting finer.
But the hairs that were transplanted were getting finest of all.
That would seem strange, because the hair in the donor area though fine, is not as fine as the hair that was transplanted.
Some of the transplanted hairs are so fine they remind me of the strands of a cobweb.
Since the transplanted hairs are much weaker and finer than the hair remaining in the donor area, what’s going on can’t simply be mpb or senescent alopecia (if there’s even a difference between those two).
I suspect two possibilities.
One would be minoxidil fatigue. I’ve been using rogaine since it came out. Possibly after all these years of rogaine reducing the time follicles can spend in the resting phase, those follicles are played out (maybe stopping the rogaine and letting them take a good nap would restore them?).
The other possibility, is that the productive lifespan of transplanted follicles is reduced from the trauma of being transplanted.
That latter may be explained by my theory that follicles are pre-programmed to grow hair a fixed number of times.
And since some of those times are used up when the follicles are transplanted (from shock fall out–both when a follicle is transplaned and later when additional follicles are transplanted next to formerly transplanted follicles).
So the above could explain why my transplanted follicles are growing weaker hair than the hair on the back and sides of my head.