Pitting After Hair Transplant
Pitting after hair transplant is an uneven or dimpled skin texture caused by excessive channel depth or tissue trauma during implantation. It is mainly a cosmetic issue and may improve over time, though severe cases can persist and require corrective treatment.
Pitting and cobblestoning are opposite errors and are constantly confused. Both come from a graft sitting at the wrong level, but they sit at the wrong level in opposite directions and neither is treated like the other.
| Graft level | Result | How it looks |
|---|---|---|
| Below the skin surface | Pitting | Small depressions; hair emerging from a dimple |
| Flush with the surface | Correct | Hair leaving flat, even skin |
| Above the surface | Cobblestoning | Raised bumps at each graft |
The cause is depth, set at the moment the site was made. A channel cut deeper than the graft lets it sink, and the skin heals over its edges. Nothing in aftercare produces pitting and nothing in aftercare prevents it — by the time the area has healed, the level is already fixed.
It is a texture problem, not a growth problem. Pitted grafts usually grow. The hair simply emerges from a slight hollow, so the surface catches light unevenly and looks uneven when the hair is short or wet. In dense placement it reads as an orange-peel texture rather than as separate dimples.
Correction is limited, so prevention carries the weight. Once healed, options are cosmetic — resurfacing, or camouflage with pigment — and none restores flat skin completely. Calibrating depth against real grafts at the start of the procedure is the only reliable control.
Related terms
For raised grafts, the opposite error, see cobblestoning after a hair transplant. For pigment camouflage of uneven scalp texture, see scalp micropigmentation.
