“Did I lose a graft?” Picture answers common hair transplant question

One of the most common questions patients ask after [tag]hair transplant[/tag] surgery is: “did I lose a graft?” Patients are extra cautious after surgery, and any slight bump of the head or funny-looking graft causes anxiety. This is because the grafts are fragile during the first few days after surgery, and it is possible to “lose” one. Excessive pulling, rubbing, or bumping can dislodge grafts. These few grafts are truly “lost” and won’t grow. But how do you know if you’ve actually lost a graft?

When a graft truly dislodges, you’ll see two things: 1) bleeding, and 2) an intact follicular unit graft — usually laying flat on the scalp near the hole where it was originally placed. I’ve said this on the forums many times in the past, but it’s still a very frequently asked question. Well, they say a “picture is worth a thousand words,” so here is an image showing several truly “lost” grafts. If a patient sees something like this, they probably did lose a graft. If not, they’re probably okay:

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Blake Bloxham – formerly “Future_HT_Doc”

Editorial Assistant and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning

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