Why your transplanted hair fell out
Shedding at week four is the expected course, not the surgery failing. Here is what is actually happening.
Written and clinically reviewed by Dr. G. Revanth, MBBS DDVL DNB · August 2026 · 2 min read
Transplanted hair sheds between week three and week six in almost everybody. The shaft falls out; the follicle beneath the skin is unharmed and enters a resting phase before producing a new one. Growth restarts around month five. Shedding is the expected course, not a complication.
What is actually happening
A hair follicle cycles between a growth phase, a transitional phase and a resting phase. Moving a follicle from one part of the scalp to another interrupts its blood supply for a period of hours, and the follicle responds the way follicles respond to any significant stress: it drops the shaft it was growing and resets to the resting phase.
The visible hair falls. The machinery stays. Several weeks later the follicle re-enters the growth phase and starts a new shaft, which is the hair you keep.
Two kinds of shedding, and the difference matters
| Transplant shedding | Shock loss | |
|---|---|---|
| What sheds | The transplanted hairs | Native hair around the grafts |
| When | Week 3–6 | Week 2–8 |
| How common | Almost universal | Common, especially in women |
| Does it regrow? | Yes, from month 5 | Usually, over 3–6 months |
| Permanent? | No | Rarely — mainly where hair was already miniaturising |
Why it feels worse than it is
Because it looks exactly like failure. You paid for hair, you saw hair, and now the hair is in your hands. Without knowing the sequence in advance, the only available interpretation is that something went wrong.
Every follicle that sheds is still there, resting. Knowing that before it happens is the difference between a difficult month and a frightening one.
When shedding is genuinely a concern
- ✕Shedding that continues to accelerate beyond month four
- ✕New shedding in areas that were never operated on
- ✕A tender, hot, enlarging lump at a graft site
- ✕Any of the red flags listed in the aftercare protocol
What to do while it happens
- ✓Continue the medical protocol exactly as prescribed. This is where compliance decides outcomes.
- ✓Photograph fortnightly under the same light. Memory becomes unreliable in this window.
- ✓Attend the week-four call and the month-three call. Both are booked before surgery, deliberately.
- ✓Change nothing else. Adding three new products at once means you learn nothing from any of them.
The complete phase-by-phase sequence is in the aftercare guide, and the visual month-by-month is on the first year page.