With this patient, as with all of my patients, I go over medical options to prevent future hair loss. I am especially careful with my younger patients, and have them consider treatments that they will be able to use for the long term. More often than not, younger patients may decide to go on one or more treatments to prevent future loss. I made this patient aware that although the results after surgery will be impressive, if over time he continues to lose hair, he will again appear thin in the area that was transplanted not because he lost the transplanted hairs but because he has further thinned and lost the native hairs.
As far as the percentage of growth to be expected at each month interval goes, I inform patients that it is patient dependent. The general rule of thumb that many use tells us that the majority of the growth of the transplant will appear around 12 months. Having said this, on average, 6 months should yield anywhere from 40 - 60% of the final results. Some patients will have final results at 9 months while a few other may have to wait 18 months. If patients are very interested in their growth rate, it is sometimes helpful to determine if their hair normally grows quickly or not. If they tend to have fast growth, then they may also experience their results sooner.
I like to think of hair results consisting of three parts. The first is hair in general. Obviously, the more transplanted hairs that poke out of the scalp the better. Secondly, those hairs need length to make any kind of noticeable difference. Longer hair offer more coverage than shorter hair. Finally, as the new hair grows, its overall diameter increases giving the hair more volume. Together all of these items makes for a final result.