Q: If a person is graying on the top and sides and you do a hair transplant from the back, will the top look darker after the hair restoration? — W.C., Houston, TX

A: The hair is taken from the back and sides of the scalp and the follicular units, once dissected from the donor strip, are randomly inserted into the recipient area. That way, the color of the harvested hair will be mixed and will match perfectly.

Usually, people’s hair is lighter on the top because of the sun, so when you move the hair from the back and sides to the top, it will actually lighten to match the surrounding hair, if it didn’t match already.

For further reading on how your hair performs after a transplant, visit the Growth After Hair Transplant topic.