Will people know that I had a hair transplant?

DR. TRUE: Most patients considering this procedure would like to be able to have it done, and not have it be evident to people around them that they've had it done. So the question about detectability really has several different aspects to it. One of them is short-term. And if a person is quite bald, and has lost a lot of hair, they should anticipate that they'll have about a two-week period after the treatment, while everything is healing, that if their head is uncovered it will be evident to others around them that something has happened. Generally, for most patients, once they reach that point, then they will be at a point where they're comfortable in public without their head being covered, without it being really evident to people around them that something has happened.

The new hair doesn't really begin to grow for three to four months, and the development of the hair from the transplant really takes several months. And so that whole process is very inconspicuous and often really goes under the radar as far as other people being aware that the person is gradually regaining their hair.

Since it takes many months, up to a year after a transplant, and then incrementally on a month-to-month basis as a person gets back more and more hair, it's so slow and gradual that often people around the person really can't quite put their finger on something that's changed. They will have forgotten by the end of this gradual change that a person used to have less hair. They might make comments like, "You look like you've lost weight," or "Are you working out more?" But it's very unusual that they'll actually put their finger on the fact that a person has more hair.