Veterans - Confused on the Numbers

[Guest dude1]

I've got a question that has bothered me and I'm not sure if it's been discussed on this forum:

 

If a non-balding person has approx 100,000 hairs on this head and 50 percent of that is the point at which balding is undetectable, now can the HT surgeon achieve the appearance of normal density with, say, 10,000 hairs (which seems to be the norm for numbers of hairs available in the donor area). I'm talking about strictly covering only the front and mid-scalp parts of the head.

Can I get anything approaching the 'appearance' of normal density with these numbers?

 

I must be missing something. Can you guys clarify this issue? Thanks for your help.

[Guest dude1]

I've got a question that has bothered me and I'm not sure if it's been discussed on this forum:

 

If a non-balding person has approx 100,000 hairs on this head and 50 percent of that is the point at which balding is undetectable, now can the HT surgeon achieve the appearance of normal density with, say, 10,000 hairs (which seems to be the norm for numbers of hairs available in the donor area). I'm talking about strictly covering only the front and mid-scalp parts of the head.

Can I get anything approaching the 'appearance' of normal density with these numbers?

 

I must be missing something. Can you guys clarify this issue? Thanks for your help.

[Guest]

Dude 1,

 

We're talking 10,000 grafts which may include up to 5 or 6 hairs each. Not just 10,000 singular hairs.

[Guest dude1]

Ahhh. That makes more sense. Thanks.

[Mr T]

Dude1/Dorian,

 

Hopefully the grafts don't contain 5-6 hairs each. If they have 5-6 or more hairs, then they likely have multiple follicular units in the grafts and those are mini/micro-grafts... not what you want if you want a state of the art HT. If they have 1-4 hairs in each graft, then they are likely single follicular units... which is what you want.

 

Mr. T

[Joe Transplant]

That doesn't seem right, first of all a graft with 5-6 hairs would be a pretty big plug. Also, I think you're right when you said 10,000 hairs. You can achieve a pretty good density with 5,000 graft containing and average of 2 hairs/graft. This all depends on the size of the balding pattern.

 

You may have 100,000 hairs on your head, but only a portion of that will thin out to less than 50%, usually the hairline, top and crown. Hopefully I can explain this correctly; When it is said that you start noticing baldness after losing 50%, it's not the entire head we're talking about, it's only a certain area. My numbers aren't accurate, I'm just using them to make a point. If your balding area is just the crown, then we're only talking about 2000-3000 HAIRS leaving approx. 97,000 in the other areas. If it's the entire top, then we're talking 25,000 HAIRS leaving 75,000 on the sides and back. If you harvest 6,000 GRAFTS totalling 12,000 HAIRS from the remaining 75,000, then you can get close to 50% density on top.

 

I don't know if this makes sense, sometimes getting info from my brain to print just doesn't translate well. If it doesn't, hopefully someone can clarify.

[Guest dude1]

Joe

 

Thanks for your explanation. This seems more in line with what I've read somewhere previously. It's not 10,000 grafts but hairs we're talking about. My balding area is a NW 6 but I've commited myself to covering the top with only a light covering in the crown area. I've only had a small area of dense packing and the remainder will be covered gradually as needed. I just want to make sure I don't end up with just a thin coverage. I guess a lot also depends on how long we grow our hair, how we style it, caliber of hair, etc etc. Right now I'm waiting for my HT from the summer (#2) to grow in and that will make I figure approx 6,000 hairs. At that rate I may be half way there (I hope