How many donor nape hair grafts does a person have on average?

[NegativeNorwood]

Nape hairs are very fine and reportedly the best option for temples, eyebrows and to add naturalness to the hairline.

I've seen many discussions about donor areas in general, but haven't seen yet someone specifically talking about the number of grafts that can be harvested from the Nape and Preauricular area (NPA)

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by NegativeNorwood

[NegativeNorwood]

Let's say you want temple and hairline reconstruction that takes 700 grafts (a large number of them from the nape) and 500 grafts for an eyebrow transplant (all of them from the nape), making it a total of 1200 grafts. Is that reasonable or would it have high chances of overharvesting the NPA donor area?

Edited February 5, 2023 by NegativeNorwood

[A_4_Archan]

30 minutes ago, NegativeNorwood said:

Let's say you want temple and hairline reconstruction that takes 700 grafts (a large number of them from the nape) and 500 grafts for an eyebrow transplant (all of them from the nape), making it a total of 1200 grafts. Is that reasonable or would it have high chances of overharvesting the NPA donor area?

From my understanding i guess npa donor area or safe donor area both vary from person to person and it would be tough to give a specific figure for availability of grafts ..still thr r surgeons here who can tell ths thngs briefly as they are well experienced to get an idea from.

[NegativeNorwood]

13 minutes ago, Archan said:

From my understanding i guess npa donor area or safe donor area both vary from person to person and it would be tough to give a specific figure for availability of grafts ..still thr r surgeons here who can tell ths thngs briefly as they are well experienced to get an idea from.

 

Agree with you. But is far less talked than the whole donor in general. There are many posts that say things like "a person has 6000 grafts on average" despite being dependent on the individual, but haven't read none about the nape area in specific.

Edited February 5, 2023 by NegativeNorwood

[A_4_Archan]

3 minutes ago, NegativeNorwood said:

 

Agree with you. But is far less talked than the whole donor in general. There are many posts that say things like "average person has 6000 grafts on average" despite being dependent on the individual, but haven't read none about the nape area in specific.

Yeh true..never heard of ths specific thng abt the avg quality of grafts in tht area...

[DrMunibAhmad]

Depends if the patient has (signs of) retrograde alopecia. If this is the case, there are no safe hairs to harvest from the nape area. The area is default. 
 

If the area is good, then still there is less then 30% singles in this area (in most cases). 
 

You need to count the area and the grafts density and buildup and measure it for your case specific. 

Edited February 5, 2023 by DrMunibAhmad

[Mike10]

Anybody knows if nape hair permanent? Is it DHT resistant?

[Al - Moderator]

17 hours ago, Mike10 said:

Anybody knows if nape hair permanent? Is it DHT resistant?

 

Retrograde alopecia (hair loss in the nape area and spreading upwards) is common. It's not a safe area. It could be safe in some people as not everyone will lose hair in the nape, but until you start losing hair there, you don't know if it will happen on you or not. If you are losing hair upwards past the bottom of your ear level than that is retrograde thinning. I personally lost almost all of my hair more than halfway up my ears.

 

[Rafael Manelli]

I wouldn't bother with it. The risk of thinning in the nape is too high. 

Never extract from the border of the donor if you want them to stick around. Those are front line soldiers. You can take them off the front line but they'll die as if they're still on it. 

Sorry for not answering your question directly, but I couldn't give you much more than a guess as it varies person to person. Maybe 500.

If you're going to use nape hairs for the hairline, make sure it's the final hairline. Don't come back the next year thinking you're going to lower it, because then you've wasted those nape hairs. They're no longer at the front, so you've basically just spent hundreds of the skinniest singles, the lowest impact grafts available for density, where they're not even best utilised. They go at the very front of the hairline (or the front of the temple points) or they go nowhere. 

But personally I wouldn't bother with them at all. Regular singles work well enough and are more durable. 

If you could get 1000 ultra fine nape hairs ultra densely packed at the very front you could have this God tier hairline though... 

[NegativeNorwood]

13 minutes ago, Rafael Manelli said:

I wouldn't bother with it. The risk of thinning in the nape is too high. 

Never extract from the border of the donor if you want them to stick around. Those are front line soldiers. You can take them off the front line but they'll die as if they're still on it. 

Sorry for not answering your question directly, but I couldn't give you much more than a guess as it varies person to person. Maybe 500.

If you're going to use nape hairs for the hairline, make sure it's the final hairline. Don't come back the next year thinking you're going to lower it, because then you've wasted those nape hairs. They're no longer at the front, so you've basically just spent hundreds of the skinniest singles, the lowest impact grafts available for density, where they're not even best utilised. They go at the very front of the hairline (or the front of the temple points) or they go nowhere. 

But personally I wouldn't bother with them at all. Regular singles work well enough and are more durable. 

If you could get 1000 ultra fine nape hairs ultra densely packed at the very front you could have this God tier hairline though... 

 

Thanks for the detailed answer man.

Hairline height already is on point, just want to fill in the corners a little bit, build new temples and have stronger eyebrows (in case oral minoxidil and finasteride combined with microneedling don't make them grow as much as I want).

To give a better visual idea, I want to go from this:

To something like this (ignore the hair color difference):

 

Basically, gain much better facial framing.

[Rafael Manelli]

Your hair texture and calibre are already great for temples and corners I reckon, you don't need nape to get the result you're looking for and it is more risky. 

That guy you posted, I don't know if he's a model or an actor or whatever but I'd wager his hair is coarser than yours, ergo you'd be able to get something similar without even needing extra fine hair (if your hair is already fine) 

Nape could work if it's stable though. 

[Hairy Henderson]

If nape is so risky, why do so many elite surgeons use them in the hairline?

[NegativeNorwood]

4 hours ago, Rafael Manelli said:

Your hair texture and calibre are already great for temples and corners I reckon, you don't need nape to get the result you're looking for and it is more risky. 

That guy you posted, I don't know if he's a model or an actor or whatever but I'd wager his hair is coarser than yours, ergo you'd be able to get something similar without even needing extra fine hair (if your hair is already fine) 

Nape could work if it's stable though. 

 

Yes he seems to have thicker, coarser hair than me. I use him as an example because I really like his hairline.

While what you say is very compelling and sounds very good, nape hair still seems like the very best option because it is very fine and matches the natural temple hair the best AFAIK. 

In fact, when you buzzcut temples (lower than number 3/shorter than 1 cm lenght) you barely see anything due to how thin the native hair is. I know this because @DrMunibAhmad kindly explained it to me, that if I go for a temple transplant, I should know that it won't look 100% natural with the hair cut shorter than 1cm/number 3 buzzcut.

[Rafael Manelli]

1 hour ago, Calihome1 said:

If nape is so risky, why do so many elite surgeons use them in the hairline?

They're either in over their head or they've carefully scanned the nape for shrinking and decided to take the risk. 

[Hairy Henderson]

8 hours ago, Rafael Manelli said:

They're either in over their head or they've carefully scanned the nape for shrinking and decided to take the risk. 

Kinda doesn’t make sense.  If they’re elite the first point doesn’t make sense.  Regarding the second point I don’t usually see that comment from posters that had a recent HT where it was disclosed to them from the surgeon.

 

 

 So I don’t know…..

[Rafael Manelli]

8 minutes ago, Calihome1 said:

Kinda doesn’t make sense.  If they’re elite the first point doesn’t make sense.  Regarding the second point I don’t usually see that comment from posters that had a recent HT where it was disclosed to them from the surgeon.

 

 

 So I don’t know…..

Even top surgeons make mistakes.

Do you have a better theory? 

[Hairy Henderson]

Just now, Rafael Manelli said:

Even top surgeons make mistakes.

Do you have a better theory? 

Nope.  Information gathering and simply asking questions

[Rafael Manelli]

Fair enough

Nape hairs can look good, so sometimes people want to chase perfection and maybe the doctor wants to show off their skills. They can definitely work for the right patient. 

[Hairy Henderson]

8 minutes ago, Rafael Manelli said:

Fair enough

Nape hairs can look good, so sometimes people want to chase perfection and maybe the doctor wants to show off their skills. They can definitely work for the right patient. 

I’m looking to lower the hairline, build temples and corners with nape  which is why I was interested in this thread.

[Al - Moderator]

On 2/7/2023 at 10:53 AM, Calihome1 said:

If nape is so risky, why do so many elite surgeons use them in the hairline?

 

Because some patients want to get fine hairs in the hairline to get a more natural look. You can't do it using thick hairs. You can usually either use arm hair, leg hair, or nape hair. Nape hair probably grows better than leg or arm hair. The few times I've seen Drs mention that they did this, they said it may not last, but the worst thing is even if it all falls out over the years you still have the hair line you had without the nape hairs.

 

EDIT: I'll add that if a Dr sees that you have no signs of retrograde baldness at the time, it may make sense to try it. I doubt any decent Drs would use nape hair if there is obvious signs of thinning there.

Edited February 11, 2023 by BeHappy

[Dr. Guncel Ozturk]

The Nape Preauricular area is known for having fine and delicate hairs, which are ideal for transplanting to the temples, eyebrows, and hairline. These grafts add much of naturalness and provide you more organic appearance.

It depends on several factors, but a surgeon can harvest between 500 to 2,000 grafts (at most for advanced cases, I would not recommend) from NPA. If you are asking for it, here are 3 disadvantages of NPA donors you should know before getting them:

• The hair in NPA will be finer and lighter in color than your hair in other areas so it makes it less suitable for you if you have darker/coarser hair.
• The NPA is relatively small in donor area, and it may not be possible to harvest enough grafts to achieve your desired result, especially if you have extensive loss.
• Harvesting grafts from the NPA is more time-consuming process than harvesting from other donor areas. Also has a longer healing time.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Dr. Guncel Ozturk

[NegativeNorwood]

3 hours ago, Dr. Guncel Ozturk said:

The Nape Preauricular area is known for having fine and delicate hairs, which are ideal for transplanting to the temples, eyebrows, and hairline. These grafts add much of naturalness and provide you more organic appearance.

It depends on several factors, but a surgeon can harvest between 500 to 2,000 grafts (at most for advanced cases, I would not recommend) from NPA. If you are asking for it, here are 3 disadvantages of NPA donors you should know before getting them:

• The hair in NPA will be finer and lighter in color than your hair in other areas so it makes it less suitable for you if you have darker/coarser hair.
• The NPA is relatively small in donor area, and it may not be possible to harvest enough grafts to achieve your desired result, especially if you have extensive loss.
• Harvesting grafts from the NPA is more time-consuming process than harvesting from other donor areas. Also has a longer healing time.

 

Thanks for the detailed answer, it's really appreciated.

[Hairy Henderson]

7 hours ago, Dr. Guncel Ozturk said:

The Nape Preauricular area is known for having fine and delicate hairs, which are ideal for transplanting to the temples, eyebrows, and hairline. These grafts add much of naturalness and provide you more organic appearance.

It depends on several factors, but a surgeon can harvest between 500 to 2,000 grafts (at most for advanced cases, I would not recommend) from NPA. If you are asking for it, here are 3 disadvantages of NPA donors you should know before getting them:

• The hair in NPA will be finer and lighter in color than your hair in other areas so it makes it less suitable for you if you have darker/coarser hair.
• The NPA is relatively small in donor area, and it may not be possible to harvest enough grafts to achieve your desired result, especially if you have extensive loss.
• Harvesting grafts from the NPA is more time-consuming process than harvesting from other donor areas. Also has a longer healing time.

Can you comment on their longevity?  Others have stated that they are the first to fall out.  Is this true?

[Dr. Guncel Ozturk]

12 hours ago, Calihome1 said:

Can you comment on their longevity?  Others have stated that they are the first to fall out.  Is this true?

It is difficult to make a generalization about the longevity of NPA as donor hair. Depends on various factors: genetics, hair characteristics, lifestyle habits, etc... Yes, some studies shown Nape hair is more prone to falling out, however, it is not a universal phenomenon, many patients have reported good results with Nape hair as donor hair. Additionally, the technique used to extract and transplant Nape hair can also impact its survival. Each patient's case should be evaluated individually. I would recommend getting personalized evaluation your concerns and goals.