How many grafts would it take to give my crown the illusion of coverage?

[jc636]

How many grafts would it take to give my crown the illusion of coverage? 

 

Edited September 30, 2020 by jc636

[makehairgreatagain]

Mine was similar to yours. I had 2000 grafts. Beware that the crown is called the black hole for a reason because you can always be adding more grafts. You want to make sure you go to a surgeon who does excellent crown specific work and have realistic expectations on what can be achieved 

[ciaus]

How old are you and have you tried to stabilize your crown loss with finasteride? Like @makehairgreatagain said its a potential blackhole, using up alot of your grafts in the long run if you keep losing.

[jc636]

5 hours ago, makehairgreatagain said:

Mine was similar to yours. I had 2000 grafts. Beware that the crown is called the black hole for a reason because you can always be adding more grafts. You want to make sure you go to a surgeon who does excellent crown specific work and have realistic expectations on what can be achieved 

That’s a lot more than I expected. The area is only a 20 square cm patch with some hair maybe 25% density left from normal. It appears a lot worse because of the contrast with the rest of my hair which is very dense. I was told it takes 50 follicular units to give the appearance of density.
20 x 50 = 1,000 grafts

Am I missing something here?

There is also some hair still there albeit a thin layer (maybe 25 fu’s)
I’m coming up with much less than 2k grafts.

Edited October 1, 2020 by jc636

[jc636]

28 minutes ago, ciaus said:

How old are you and have you tried to stabilize your crown loss with finasteride? Like @makehairgreatagain said its a potential blackhole, using up alot of your grafts in the long run if you keep losing.

The loss is stabilized for many years already. I’ve already decided I’m getting surgery and am aware of the risks I’m just playing around with some numbers and wanted to get some other input. 👍🏽

[jc636]

@makehairgreatagain You said you had 2k. Was this purely crown or did some of the grafts go elsewhere?

[makehairgreatagain]

Have you received any information back on graft estimates. You posted that one picture, so that's what I'm going off of.

[jc636]

7 minutes ago, makehairgreatagain said:

Have you received any information back on graft estimates. You posted that one picture, so that's what I'm going off of.

I posted a second photo in my first response to you to compare and contrast. It is more zoomed in with better resolution of the existing hair.

Edited September 30, 2020 by jc636

[makehairgreatagain]

All went into the crown

[asterix0]

@jc636 There are some doctor's who produce great crown results with relatively few number of grafts. See the work of Dr.Konior and Dr.Maras from this forum. I also think you should fine with 1000-1500. Usually the area of thinning, when you shave your head, is revealed to be larger than anticipated. This is why the graft estimates are usually higher. 

[Melvin- Admin]

The crown can easily take 2,000-3,000 grafts, depending on the size.  

[jc636]

1 hour ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

The crown can easily take 2,000-3,000 grafts, depending on the size.  

What about the size you can see in my photos? It’s about a 20 sq cm area.

[Melvin- Admin]

1 minute ago, jc636 said:

What about the size you can see in my photos? It’s about a 20 sq cm area.

Are you sure thats 20 cm2? That looks a lot larger to me.

[jc636]

25 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Are you sure thats 20 cm2? That looks a lot larger to me.

I’ve roughly outlined the approximate area in which I’m looking for coverage. If you look at the patch of loss you will see that the edges fade from 100% density and gets thinner the more towards the center you go. Normal density is approx 100 fu’s per cm. When hair dips below 50 fu’s per cm is when it is noticeable. Using this, a surgeon would start to fill the area starting at the point where the density is below 50 fu’s to create a natural seamless pattern and the illusion of coverage. That is why I don’t draw the line at the point where it starts to get only slightly thin, instead i draw it where it becomes drastically thin which is the approximate area where a surgeon would start to place grafts. Of course more grafts could be placed there, but if it is the illusion of coverage the goal, then shouldn’t the least amount of grafts be used for the sake of donor mgmt?

Edited September 30, 2020 by jc636

[Curious25]

I don't think many top surgeons would aim to fill your crown region with a density of 50FU/cm2 - its too much, and frankly an unnecessary amount to achieve the illusion of density. Native density is also very rarely 100FU/cm2 - 70FU/cm2-80FU/cm2 tends to be the average scalp density for white caucasian men. 

Anyway, going off your picture I think you could definitely get a nice result that you would be satisfied with using around about 1000 grafts, it all depends on what your groupings are like and your hair calibre - these two factors go a long way in determining graft count. A high HGI will stand you well, as crown transplantations usually consist of only multi hair grafts. 

Two doctors who stand out massively for me with regards to being crown restoration wizards are Dr Konior and Dr Wong - with the former seemingly able to work magic using alot fewer grafts than most. 

[jc636]

3 hours ago, Curious25 said:

I don't think many top surgeons would aim to fill your crown region with a density of 50FU/cm2 - its too much, and frankly an unnecessary amount to achieve the illusion of density. Native density is also very rarely 100FU/cm2 - 70FU/cm2-80FU/cm2 tends to be the average scalp density for white caucasian men. 

Anyway, going off your picture I think you could definitely get a nice result that you would be satisfied with using around about 1000 grafts, it all depends on what your groupings are like and your hair calibre - these two factors go a long way in determining graft count. A high HGI will stand you well, as crown transplantations usually consist of only multi hair grafts. 

Two doctors who stand out massively for me with regards to being crown restoration wizards are Dr Konior and Dr Wong - with the former seemingly able to work magic using alot fewer grafts than most. 

Doctor Wong is actually my top choice being as I am on the west coast. 

Edited October 1, 2020 by jc636