This 30 year old patient had a great donor and good laxity and coarse dark hair. He was a good candidate for dense packing the frontal 1/3.
Because his hair is so coarse I instructed the technicians to cut down his four hair FU grafts into two hair follicular units, and to keep the three hair FU's to a minimal. With his type of hair, a four hair FU could look pluggy in the front 1/3. If the patient had fine, blond hair, that would be a different story. I have seen many patients with thin blond hair in which their 4 hair FU is about the same density as this patient's 2 hair FU's. In those patients I would want as many three and four hair FU's as possible. I do believe that in most patients when we are planting in the central core area that 3 and 4 hair follicular units are very useful in giving the appearance of density, especially if the patient has fine hair.

This is just an example of how every patient needs to be approached as an individual, and the discussion about whether a doctor 'cuts down grafts' is not so straight forward. When posting I think it is helpful to give as much information as possible such as the patients age, graft and hair count, special instructions given to technicians, and any other special considerations.


I took the strip out in two sections:
Strip #1: 1.6 cm wide x 7 cm long
Strip #2: 1.4 cm wide x 6 cm long

His graft count is as follows:
1 Hair FU: 1018 Hairs: 1018
2 Hair FU: 1448 Hairs: 2896
3 Hair FU: 331 Hairs: 993
4 Hiar FU: 1 Hairs: 4
Total FU: 2798 Total Hairs: 4911

This 30 year old patient had a great donor and good laxity and coarse dark hair. He was a good candidate for dense packing the frontal 1/3.
Because his hair is so coarse I instructed the technicians to cut down his four hair FU grafts into two hair follicular units, and to keep the three hair FU's to a minimal. With his type of hair, a four hair FU could look pluggy in the front 1/3. If the patient had fine, blond hair, that would be a different story. I have seen many patients with thin blond hair in which their 4 hair FU is about the same density as this patient's 2 hair FU's. In those patients I would want as many three and four hair FU's as possible. I do believe that in most patients when we are planting in the central core area that 3 and 4 hair follicular units are very useful in giving the appearance of density, especially if the patient has fine hair.

This is just an example of how every patient needs to be approached as an individual, and the discussion about whether a doctor 'cuts down grafts' is not so straight forward. When posting I think it is helpful to give as much information as possible such as the patients age, graft and hair count, special instructions given to technicians, and any other special considerations.


I took the strip out in two sections:
Strip #1: 1.6 cm wide x 7 cm long
Strip #2: 1.4 cm wide x 6 cm long

His graft count is as follows:
1 Hair FU: 1018 Hairs: 1018
2 Hair FU: 1448 Hairs: 2896
3 Hair FU: 331 Hairs: 993
4 Hiar FU: 1 Hairs: 4
Total FU: 2798 Total Hairs: 4911

Wow, great write-up...this should be extremely dense -- can't wait to see it grown out!

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*A Follicles Dying Wish To Clinics*

1 top-down, 1 portrait, 1 side-shot, 1 hairline....4 photos. No flash.

Follicles have asked for centuries, in ten languages, as many times so as to confuse a mathematician.

Enough is enough! Give me documentation or give me death!

I agree with Thana. I also wish I had his coarse hair.
Nice detailed graft count too
I think all clinics should step up to the plate with this info.
Im seeing more and more clinics provide this lately .
Total transparency is what most of us posters desire ,next to consistent results

Super clean and refined. I really like the hairline design.

Great write up...Just curious, what are the determining factors in using separates trips on a particular patient? Again, the insight is greatly appreciated...

Thank you

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My Hair Loss Website - Hair Transplant with Dr. Ron Shapiro

[QUOTE]Originally posted by M1A1:
Great write up...Just curious, what are the determining factors in using separates trips on a particular patient? Again, the insight is greatly appreciated...

M1A1:
In hair line cases I never want 4 hair follicular unit grafts. If a patient has fine hair, the 3 hair FU are good in the temporal corners and for blending into the existing hair. If a patient has coarse dark hair and light skin I ask the technicians to get as few 3 hair FU units as possible.
If I am doing a hair transplant where I am planting in the central core area and father back in the scalp I usually want the technicians to cut the hair to include as many 3 and 4 hair follicular units as possible. I hope this answers your question.
Dr. Paul

Dr. Paul

Thank you for your clarification.

Best

__________________
My Hair Loss Website - Hair Transplant with Dr. Ron Shapiro