The changes in hair growth pattern after autologous hair transplantation.

[BACKGROUND] Recently donor dominance has been emphasized in autologous hair transplantation while the influence of the recipient site has been considered negligible. In fact, there have been few studies that show this.

[OBJECTIVE] This study was performed to examine the influence of the recipient site on transplanted hairs. A clinical study of 19 leprosy patients was performed. These patients had received single hair transplantation due to madarosis and were admitted to The Leprosy Mission, Jesus Hospital, Taegu, Korea, or had visited its outpatient clinic.

[METHODS] In this study, the rate of growth, thickness of shaft, and graying rate between the transplanted eyebrow hair in the recipient site and scalp hair near the donor site were compared to observe the changes in the growth pattern of the hairs after transplantation.

[RESULTS] For most of the patients, the growth rate and graying rate of transplanted hairs were lower than those of hairs in the donor site.

[CONCLUSION] It seems that the recipient site may have an influence on the transplanted hairs. Further studies are needed, including clinical, histopathologic, and molecular biological methods.