Today I’m tackling the topic of shock loss: what is it and what can be done to minimize the risk. I discuss why it’s important to choose a skilled doctor, who uses proper instruments, and proven techniques to help reduce the risk of shock loss.

Video Transcription

Hi. My name’s Tara, and I’m a patient advisor at Rahal. A common question I get from patients is: What is shock loss, and what steps can be taken to reduce the risk of shock loss?

Shock loss is hair loss that occurs after your transplant. Shock loss occurs when existing hairs are disrupted or shocked during the implantation process. This can result in the temporary or permanent loss of these hairs.

Shock loss most often affects the miniaturized hairs on your scalp. Miniaturized hairs are those hairs that are at the end of their lifespan due to genetic loss. These are hairs that you’re going to lose anyway. Miniaturized hairs are much more susceptible to shock loss versus the strong terminal hairs on your scalp. Terminal hairs are those that you’re going to maintain for life. If any terminal hairs are lost due to shock loss, they’ll most often return between three to six months after a procedure.

It’s uncommon that patients that have had a previous procedure will lose any prior transplanted hairs. If any previously transplanted hairs are lost, they almost always return.

Shock loss can also occur through the process of transection, which is the damaging or cutting across of follicles during the implantation process.

So, the million dollar question is: How can we reduce the risk of shock loss? There are several controllable factors that can help reduce the risk. The first would be medication.

One medication that’s been shown to be very effective at combating genetic hair loss is finasteride, which is commonly known as Propecia or Proscar. Finasteride can be very effective at slowing down hair loss and sometimes even reversing that miniaturization process, taking miniaturized hairs back to healthy follicles. Talk to your doctor if you’re considering taking finasteride.

The second controllable factor is to increase the density in recipient area. If your recipient area or the area that’s being transplanted into contains a lot of those miniaturized hairs that are going to be lost anyhow, the doctor can be sure to increase the density in this area to an appropriate level, meaning that more follicles will be implanted to offset any of those miniaturized hairs that are going to be lost anyway.

The third factor is magnification. If we think back to the process of transection, which is the damaging of follicles during the implantation process, increasing magnification can help eliminate transection. This here is a tool used by physicians at Rahal to help increase magnification 15 times and eliminate transection.

The good news is that if shock loss does occur, it’s a temporary issue for most patients that will resolve itself within a few months after the procedure. It’s important to choose a skilled doctor who uses proper instruments and proven techniques to help reduce the risk of shock loss and eliminate transection.

Now, I understand shock loss is a bit of a technical issue, so if you have any other questions, always feel free to contact us at Rahal. We’re here to help. Thanks for watching.