Are Eyebrow Hair Transplants Permanent?

Q: Dr. Eppley,  Can you answer a few questions about eyebrow transplants? I hardly have any right now since they fell out when I was 21 due to taking birth control pill. They never came back.  Does the transplant last forever or do you have to keep having the transplant? Are the eyebrow hairs normal looking? How is the procedure done?

A:  Eyebrow hair transplants are like any other form of hair transplantation. The goal is to create living hair that is permanent. How much of the hair transplant survives is likely what you are referring to as ‘having to keep having the transplant’.  Normally 100% of the hair transplant does not survive so an additional procedure may be needed to fill in any areas in which the grafts have not taken. Once a hair has taken, it will be permanent because the bulb or follicle has taken. Technically, hair transplantation is about tranferring the hair follicle (the growing portion of the hair) and the actual hair is nothing more than a handle to manipulate and carry the follicle to the recipient site. Once the hair has taken, it will grow faster than normal eyebrow hairs and will require more frequent trimming.

Eyebrow hair transplantation can be done under local or IV sedation anesthesia. The donor site is the scalp, usually taken from the finer hairs behind the ear. It requires at least 50 to 75 hairs per eyebrow or a total of 150 to 200 hairs for both eyebrows.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana