Shaft,
Hey, you're welcome! In the 25 years that I have followed this industry, I only heard of no growth (failure) maybe a dozen times. Let me explain further before I freak you and others out.
There were several reasons for the cases I have heard about. Probably half of these patients simply were not candidates for hair transplant surgery meaning they had prior and/or existing medical conditions affecting the re-growth i.e. lupus, deficiencies in their auto-immune systems, malfunctioning thyroid, etc. I remember one young man (19 yrs old) who had folliculitis and his doctor still took his money and did a procedure on him! :freaked2: IMO, that was criminal, no doubt about it. Any responsible physician/clinic will absolutely insist on obtaining the patients' complete medical history including current conditions and meds. They will also want your PCPs information, etc. The doctor should go over the complete history with the patient and then "clear" that patient IF they have candicacy for the procedure.
Still I remember another man in his thirties who came for f/u appointments and even at his 9 month f/u, still no growth. His medical history was reviewed and cleared prior to surgery. I remember this patient had an extreme amount of stress in his life and ultimately this high stress level held his follicules in the telogen dormant phase. The doctor told him that was very probable as to why his hair transplant did not grow in like it should have. A few months later he wrote to the doctor and out of nowhere, BOOM his hair started coming in. He was elated to say the least. What changed? He made some changes that reduced the stress, and he no longer had the indigestive problems and lack of sleep either.
In all honesty about three of these cases were men where they lost their transplanted hair. In other words they did a hair transplant and at sometime anywhere from 10 to 20 years after quit growing. But they were also losing hair all through their scalp, not just the transplanted hair so I find that interesting.
Considering the fact that I have dealt with well over 10,000 patients over the years, do the math and one can conclude it is almost non-existent. The key word is "almost". Whenever a patient would ask me your same question, I would look them straight in the eye and tell them yes there is a remote chance the hair transplant won't grow, HOWEVER the odds are so strong in your favor it is highly unlikely. But is there a "chance" as small as it is? Yes there is and that's part of the risk of going forward with a procedure. Every patient needs to recognize this remote possibility even though they demonstrate great candidacy for the procedure. Take care.
