How much hair do I need?

[unknownaccount]

Hello everyone, Please see the attached picture and suggest how many grafts do I need in order to cover up the bald scalp. I am pretty new to this and not sure how to go about this procedure. Any doctor recommendation will be very helpful as well. I've been to Dr Shapiro in Miami and didn't have best of experience, he was so keen to book me right there and then without giving me anytime to research. I read bad reviews about him and decided not to call him back again.

[BadBeat]

Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 3500-4000 would give you decent coverage.

[NEWHAIRPLEASE]

I would say at least 4000-5000 grafts for good coverage..pretty extensive hair loss.

[Spanker]

4 to 5 thousand. Keep doing research, it is worth its weight in gold. Where are you located?

[hairthere]

You were wise to avoid Shapiro. The problem with your hairloss pattern is that you can fill in the bald areas but if your existent hairline erodes it might not look so hot. So, really careful planning needs to be done in your case. I agree that at least 4-5k is needed, perhaps even more if you're going to build a back-up wall if that hairline does go.

[richie48]

Like hairthere and the others have said it really does depend on you personal goals , just strengthening the front will be less grafts than full coverage , the average guy will have upto 7000 grafts in his donor supply only .

 

Mate from your pic I would say you are hending towards being a norwood 5 or even a norwood 6 and this is an estimate for full coverage , a very rough guild to how many grafts is to look at what nowood scale you are and multiply the scale number by a thousand ......

 

norwood 5 = 5000 grafts

norwood 6 = 6000 grafts

norwood 7 = 7000 grafts

 

Another way is to roughly measure the bald area in square cms for example your pic looks like 15cms x10 cm = 150 cm2 , you will need atleast , and this is the absolute minimum of grafts to provide cover , 40 grafts per cm2 ...

 

150cm2 x 40 grafts per cm2 = 6000 ....... 6000 grafts to cover the whole area .

 

Ofcourse you need to measure the area of baldness more accuratly than me guessing from you picture , but atleast you now know how to work how many grafts you will need to provide full coverage

 

Hope this helps

richie

Edited November 25, 2011 by richie48

[Shadow of the EMpire State]

Mate from your pic I would say you are hending towards being a norwood 5 or even a norwood 6 and this is an estimate for full coverage , a very rough guild to how many grafts is to look at what nowood scale you are and multiply the scale number by a thousand ......

 

norwood 5 = 8000 grafts

norwood 6 = 10000 grafts

norwood 7 = 15000 grafts

 

 

 

Fixed it for you.

[Shadow of the EMpire State]

Mate from your pic I would say you are hending towards being a norwood 5 or even a norwood 6 and this is an estimate for full coverage , a very rough guild to how many grafts is to look at what nowood scale you are and multiply the scale number by a thousand ......

 

norwood 5 = 8000 grafts

norwood 6 = 10000 grafts

norwood 7 = 15000 grafts

 

 

 

Fixed it for you.

[BaldWhisky]

Shadow of...

He does say that he is a NW5-6 and need at least 6,000 grafts.

A normal assumption is that you need at least 1,000 grafts per NW class so nothing wrong with what he says.

 

If you mean what I think you mean, it think it should be specified that you refer to the grafts needed for a FULL coverage not to scare of anyone.

 

So at NW5 people in general need 5-8,000 grafts depending of how thick hairs are and how full the coverage you are looking for.

NW6 needs 6-8,000 grafts

NW7 needs 7-15,000 grafts as a rough guide.

[unknownaccount]

Thanks for the great input guys, I was wondering if for my first procedure I can only take care of frontal part to give more weight and do another session later on or use Rogaine for the crown part and see how far it fill the crown. I live in Miami, what are your suggestions and what is the average cost per graft in this area?

[Cant decide]

Average cost is about $4 per graft. Do not let location deter you from choosing a doc that is a good fit for you. I suggest you meet with a couple and see what they recommend. Looking at your pics, I personally would suggest hitting the mid and front with 3000 now and not touching the crown. See how that turns out and then hit the crown with some modest coverage conserving donor in case your hairline falls out.

 

Good luck.

[Shampoo]

Are you on Propecia?

 

If not I'd suggest getting on it without delay to preserve that hairline.

 

I would say your loss pattern is less common, but if you can hold on to your hairline I would think you could get a great look with a hair transplant. My quess if you hold on to the hairline you'd be pretty happy with 4000-5000 grafts.

[Janna]

Looking at your pics, I personally would suggest hitting the mid and front with 3000 now and not touching the crown. See how that turns out and then hit the crown with some modest coverage conserving donor in case your hairline falls out.

 

Good luck.

 

I think this is a prudent recommendation. Many doctors are going to be hesitant to put a large number of grafts to address the top and crown. Frontal half is generally the priority. Then again, some patients have majority of loss to the crown so there are exceptions.

[socbook1DB5]

Realistically I would say 2 HT's with the max size strip moving 6,000-7,000 hairs per session. I brought up my hairline about 1/8" and filled in my receding sides and that was a 6,000 hair session.