MisterBreakfast

I'm actually interested to see where these estimates are coming from. I trust them because the folks around here have experience with transplants, but I'm a bit confused. For example, if you got 15000 grafts and you had a 200cm2 (gigantic) spot that was 100% skin bald, that would give you 75 grafts per CM, which is probably more than most people have in their donors from birth.

This is not a complete question. It is like asking "how many buckets does it take to fill up a bathtub"? How big is the bucket? How big is the bathtub? When is the bathtub considered "full" enough? Grafts are follicular units. They are not standardized. Hair is different sizes, and has to cover up scalp that is different color. Heads are different sizes. Person A might have thin 50 micron hair, and require 120 hairs per CM2 to appear dense enough, and have a bald area of 150cm, and average hair per graft of 3 Person B might have 80 micron hair, and require 70 hairs per CM2 to appear dense enough, and have a bald area of 120cm, and average hair per graft of 2. Person A needs 6000 grafts. Person B needs 4200 grafts. Even this is oversimplifying things. Person A might be happy with 6000 grafts, while maybe someone else thinks he looks too thin. Drawing from personal experience, I was perfectly happy with a balding buzzcut for almost 20 years, and I had maybe 30-60 hairs per cm2 during this time. Many people would not agree with how I felt about myself, but hey, it didn't matter. I've also on the other hand see people who have a mop on their head freak out when they have a dime sized bald spot on their crown. What I'm trying to say, is there are a lot of factors to calculate.

It's hard to say. I think you should probably have an in person consulation and ask specifically what your fu density is per cm2, what your hair / graft is in the donor, and what your hair caliber is. Then have your existing hair measured, compare the two and figure out how many grafts you want then. I see some good things, looks like your hair caliber is high. Looks like your hair might curl which is a great quality. FU density maybe looks average to low.

NW3a. It looks like your tuft might be forming an Island, so maybe headed to NW4a. There is also a little thinning in the midscalp (hard to tell for sure since the hair is combed over it). With the miniaturization going on in that front region, I think you are going to lose that hair without medication. Too hard to guess what your current density is, but if I were you, and I couldn't take meds, then I wouldn't touch that region until your hair is gone.

The question needs more information. Ie. How many hairs per graft do you have? Some people have 3-5 hairs per graft, others have 1-2 hairs per graft. This alone could affect results 2-3x. Additionally, what is the diameter of your hair? If you are Asian, and have 120micron hair, that's a very different story than if you are European and have 50 micron hair. This is another 2-3x coverage difference. How many follicles per cm squared are in your donor? Europeans tend to have the most, others usually have less (but benefit from other qualities like hair with larger diameter). Of course there are exceptions to these as well. Another factor is hair texture, this is a little less important, but there is still a big difference between curly hair and straight hair. Head size is another factor that isn't often talked about- but what is the size of the area you are planning for. Let's say you are NW2 - 3 today. What happens if you go to NW6-7 in 20 years? How much scalp would you have to cover? What would you be ok with? Finally, what's the hair - skin contrast? If you are light complected/pale, with dark hair, you will need more hair to cover the same area than if you are dark complected and have the same color hair. Anyway, I don't want split too many hairs, but these are some of the things I think you should add into your equation when you are planning your lifetime hair transplant plan.

Each hair comes from a follicle. Sometimes you can get 5 hairs in a follicular unit tho : ) Check it out:

The problems I've seen are related to punch size. The wholes it punches are gigantic compared to other results I've seen.

I'm seeing a little bit of what might be retrograde alopecia (check with a doc), and a little diffuse thinning in the remaining donor (again check under a trichoscope). Your challenge is that you will likely want a majority of your grafts to be scalp hair, and blend in a little bit of beard hair for a good cosmetic result. I wish you luck my friend. If there's a chance that alternatives like hair systems are an option for you, I'd say to also keep an open mind to that. If you do move forward with HT, please choose a highly skilled surgeon who can make your grafts go the farthest. P.S. I'm also super jealous of your, what looks like amazing facial hair!

Around the back of the head. From the middle part of my temple point to the other. I just measured it sitting down it's actually 48cm. (I know the strips can't be that long, I'm just mentioning it for reference.)

Thanks Melvin! Not planning to have temple work. I think at my age, my temples are more or less at an OK position, and I'd like to avoid the situation where you have to chase them over the years.

I started medication within the last 8 months (dutasteride and minoxidil), but my hair loss stabilized by itself in my late 20s. I'm looking at H&W for my FUT, since they (in my opinion), have the most reliable results for FUT scaring, and have the capacity for larger sessions. FUE wise I have not decided yet. That will likely be a few years from now (depending on how far the FUT can cover grafts wise). I'm hoping to leave my vertex untouched, and get by as a NW3 vertex after FUT. Another reason I consider FUT is i have a gigantic head. Like huge. It's almost 40 cm from temple to temple. I'm hoping to use this to my advantage.

Well, hard to say, you need to plug in your numbers. I picked 25 cm^2 as an average, and 50 fu remaining for FUE as an average. You need to get your own stats measured and then consider it that way. (Also, I feel like "total grafts" is subjective. I've seen people with 6k fue grafts look completely ravaged. Others, not so much. I've seen people who look completely depleted who are completely happy with their results. I will note, 7k seems like you'd have to have an extraordinary donor, but those are just my 2 cents). Obviously speak to your doctor for good advice.

If you run the math, you will get more with FUT. It depends on the area removed via strip. Say your total strip procedures add up to 25 cm2. Most ethical doctors will leave you with at least 50 fu / cm2 if you do FUE, as to not look moth eaten. If you instead did FUT, you get an extra 50* 25, so 1250. Keep in mind, that you will have a small (usually 2-3mm scar with no hair), again assuming you go to a good doctor. Now that oversimplifies a lot of things. You can have more area removed, your FUE surgeon might take more from less safe areas ect ect. But this should give you the general idea of where grafts are "saved". You are basically doing a scalp reduction and increasing total density at the same time with FUT. With FUE, your scalp remains the same size, you just move the hairs around.

Hey folks- I was wondering what you think of my donor. I've had it evaluated, and I have approximately 80-85 FU / cm and about 2.6 hairs per FU, so 200+ hairs per cm2. Statistically, I've seen people with these numbers get incredible results. He also estimated that I need about 5000 grafts (over 2 sessions). (I'd like to do a large FUT first, then save an FUE for later if I need it.) I'm 37 and haven't had additional loss since my mid 20s. I was having my hair looked at by a surgeon, and he said my donor is pretty thick, at least average, but probably above. I can see my back looks pretty thick in these photos, but my sides kinda look average, or maybe thin? I wanted to ask for some input, because I don't know if my skin / hair contrast is throwing me off, or if maybe some of my grey hairs are making it look a little less dense. Hell maybe my hair was a bit dirty in these pics and clumped up. What do you think? I wanted some input to balance out the surgeon since they are all financially motivated at the end of the day. 1st Pic Donor Profile (this is the one I don't think looks as dense) 2nd Pic Donor Back (looks thick enough) 3rd pic Recipient.

Hello everyone : ) First time poster here. I have been considering doing a transplant, and have reached out to 2 doctors (leaning towards H&Wong). I have provided photos for an online evaluation, and was quoted aproximately 3500-4000 grafts (depending on what can be safely harvested from the donor in a single session). I wanted to get other opinions, as I tend to be more conservative. I am 38, my dad is a norwood 2 at 70, and each of my uncles went to about norwood 5. I am currently on Nizoral, dutasteride and minoxidil for about 5 months. I have seen considerable thickening of my existing hair so far and expect those results to continue at least for a few more months, judging by other diffuse thinners. I'm an engineer so I've nerded out about my stats... : P Here they are: I have about 20-40 hairs up top still in about a 120cm2 area of advanced balding (about half of those hairs are terminal, the rest are miniaturized). My donor has between 180-200 hairs per cm, about 75 grafts per cm2, with an average graft size of about 2.6 hairs. Most grafts have 70% 3s, 20% 2s, 5% 1's and 5% 4s/5s. My hair texture is medium, with a diameter of about 65 microns, and is slightly wavy when longer. I also tend to know from looking at the density of my lateral humps when grown out that about 80-90 hairs per CM2 gives "full" looking coverage. As for expectations, I really just want to get decent coverage in the frontal 2/3rds of my head- approximately 90 to 100 cm2. I'd like to keep the natural widows peak I have, and maybe move my hairline to a more mature level (I think it's wierd I still have diffuse hair at my juvinile hairline lol). I don't give a flying hoot if my crown / swirl area is left balding in it's current state... I've always had a double cowlick back there and frankly, I'm happy to not have to deal with that again. I've also been almost exactly this thin since about 25 years old with little change for the past 12 years. I'm ok with still being on the thin side (typical in many transplants I see) and I understand that I have a larger than average area to receive grafts. So what do you all think- are my expectations realistic? Any advice? Anyone think that I should just give up and go bald? Let me know what you think : ) Also... Isn't my loss pattern kinda wierd? Is it norwood 6? Norwood 5a? Something on the diffuse scale? Wtf? haha! And for reference my hair may look slightly thinner than it actually is, it's shaved to a #1.5-3 in most of these photos.