Hair Transplant Success Rate: What the Studies Show
Written by Michael Seutin,
founder — former nurse, researching transplant pricing.
Published · every medical statement links to its source.
There is no single hair transplant success rate. The NHS calls the procedure generally safe, with a small risk that the transplant will not take and the hair falls out[1]. Small single-centre studies report around 90% of grafts surviving at a year or more[2][3], but they measure different things in selected patients, and a study that asked patients themselves found much worse results[4].
What the studies found
Each of these is one centre's patients, measured its own way:
- 158 men who had FUE at one hospital in Xi'an, China, 2016 to 2020, at Norwood stages II to V and without major illness: the authors report more than 90% of follicles surviving at 1 to 2 years. 151 of the 158 were satisfied or very satisfied; 7 needed a second procedure because density was too low[2].
- 11 men in a 2001 study at a Korean university hospital, with grafts counted in small tattooed test areas: about half of the transplanted hairs fell out in the first month, and survival by hair count was 92.0% at 6 months and 90.4% at 12 months[3].
- 73 men treated at an Indian teaching hospital, 2010 to 2014, most by strip surgery: asked afterwards, 44 (60.27%) said less than half of their transplanted hair had grown, and 20 (27.4%) less than a quarter. These are the patients' own estimates, and only 73 of the 197 men treated could be traced[4].
- 2,896 patients in one surgeon's own record in India, 2009 to 2020: 26 were unhappy with the result because their untransplanted hair kept falling, and 5 had partial loss of implanted hair[5].
Different techniques, different patients, different definitions of success. None of these is a number you can hold one clinic to.
Why transplants fail
- Damage to the grafts during dissection or placement, or grafts drying out[6], and long times outside the body[5].
- Your own health. Heavy smoking, diabetes and sun damage to the scalp can reduce growth[6].
- Poor donor hair, such as fine vellus hair, which should be identified before surgery[6].
- Grafts taken from the wrong place. Hair taken from areas prone to future loss can thin or bald later in its new position[7][5].
- Your own hair keeps falling. A 2021 review says the more common reason density drops after a transplant is the loss of existing, untransplanted hair, which a transplant does not protect[5]; the NHS says your hair might continue to thin around the transplant[1].
- The wrong diagnosis. The NHS says a hair transplant suits permanent baldness that runs in families, not types such as alopecia areata[1]. The ISHRS says only the surgeon should rule out hair diseases that could affect growth and lead to failure[8].
Failed, or just early?
Shedding is part of the process. The NHS says the transplanted hair will often fall out after a few weeks and later grow back, new hair usually appears after about 4 months, and the full result should be seen after 10 to 18 months[1]. In the 2001 study, about half the transplanted hairs fell out in the first month, yet 92% were surviving at 6 months[3]. The ISHRS says hairs grow about 1 cm a month, and the full result often takes a year or more[9]. Judge it before then and you are judging it unfinished.
Second sessions
In the ISHRS's 2022 survey of its members, 68% reported performing an average of one procedure per patient in 2021 to reach the desired result, against estimated averages of 3.4 procedures in 2019 and 5 in 2016[10]. In the Chinese FUE series, 7 of 158 men had a second procedure[2]. The NHS says a large area may need 2 or more sessions on different days[1].
What to ask before you book
The NHS suggests asking the surgeon how many hair transplants they have performed, how many had complications, what follow-up to expect if things go wrong, and what their patient satisfaction rates are[1]. A surgeon who answers with numbers from their own patients is telling you more than any published average.
Clinics that name the surgeon who operates
Of the 36 clinics we track, 33 name the surgeon who operates on their own website. We read each clinic's own site by hand and record what it says. This counts the clinics that name someone; it is not a verdict on the rest.
A few of them, lowest listed price first:
Had a hair transplant? Report how it went
Every clinic profile in our directory has a report form. It asks what you were quoted, what you actually paid, how many grafts you had, and who did the work: the named surgeon, a technician, or both. That is the record no clinic publishes about itself.
- A person reads every report before it appears, so nothing goes live straight away.
- Your email is optional and never published. We may write once to confirm a detail before marking a report as from a verified patient.
- A first name or a handle is enough. There is no account to create.
What grafts cost where clinics publish a rate
Only 2 of the clinics we track publish a per-graft rate on their own site, too few for a middle band, and they run from $1.90 to $3.92 per graft. Read from our directory each time this page loads. We never divide a package price into a per-graft rate to fill the gap.
Sources
Primary sources only: the NHS, the FCDO, the ISHRS and peer-reviewed papers on PubMed and PubMed Central. Each was opened and read on the date shown.
- Hair transplant — NHS. Read 2026-10-23.
- Using the follicular unit extraction technique in treatment of male androgenetic alopecia (Wang et al., BMC Surg, 2024) — PubMed Central. Read 2026-10-23.
- Evaluation of survival rate after follicular unit transplantation using the KNU implanter (Lee et al., Dermatol Surg, 2001) — PubMed. Read 2026-10-23.
- Complications of hair restoration surgery: a retrospective analysis (Loganathan et al., Int J Trichology, 2014) — PubMed Central. Read 2026-10-23.
- Complications of Hair Transplant Procedures: Causes and Management (Garg & Garg, Indian J Plast Surg, 2021) — PubMed Central. Read 2026-10-23.
- Complications in Hair Transplantation (Kerure & Patwardhan, J Cutan Aesthet Surg, 2018) — PubMed Central. Read 2026-10-23.
- Side-effects from follicular unit extraction in hair transplantation (Avram et al., J Cutan Aesthet Surg, 2014) — PubMed Central. Read 2026-10-23.
- World Hair Transplant Repair Day Shines Light on Proliferation, Dangers of Black-Market Hair Transplant Clinics Worldwide (29 October 2025) — ISHRS. Read 2026-10-23.
- FUE Hair Transplant: Benefits, Process & Recovery — ISHRS. Read 2026-10-23.
- Down to One Hair Transplantation Procedure From 3.4 to Achieve Desired Result: ISHRS 2022 Practice Census (22 April 2022) — ISHRS. Read 2026-10-23.
Read next
← The full hair transplant recovery timeline, day by day to month 12
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Questions, answered
There is no single figure. Small single-centre studies report around 90% of grafts surviving at a year or more, but in selected patients, and one study that asked patients found much worse. The NHS says there is a small risk the transplant will not take.
Published reviews name damage to grafts during surgery, grafts drying out, smoking, diabetes, poor donor hair, grafts taken from areas that later bald, and the continued loss of untransplanted hair around the grafts.
Not before about a year. The NHS says the transplanted hair often falls out after a few weeks, new hair usually appears after about 4 months, and the full result should be seen after 10 to 18 months.