How Many Grafts Does the Average Patient Have for Hair Transplant Surgery?

How many [tag]follicular unit grafts[/tag] are available for [tag]hair transplant[/tag] surgery over a patient’s lifetime?

This [tag]hair loss[/tag] question was answered on our hair restoration forum by Dr. Paul Shapiro  of Bloomington, MN who is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.   His professional answer is below.

In our experience most [tag]hair replacement[/tag] patients have 6,000 to 8,000 follicular unit grafts that can be safely transplanted over their lifetime.

This brings up the basic question of what we are doing in  [tag]hair transplantation[/tag]. We are redistributing a limited amount of [tag]donor hair[/tag] to a potentially expanding [tag]bald[/tag] or  [tag]thinning hair[/tag]  recipient area.

For the readers of this [tag]hair loss blog[/tag] who are not familiar with the concept of limited donor supply or just want a good review, the Hair Loss Learning Center  has a good animated video called “recreating a full look“. This video reviews the concept of moving a limited amount of donor hair and also has an interactive [tag]hair graft[/tag] calculator to help you approximate the number of grafts you will need.

This [tag]hair transplant video[/tag] can be viewed by clicking the link above and explains well the concept of limited donor.

Paul Shapiro, MD

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Bill
Associate Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network and the Hair Loss Learning Center
View my Hair Loss Weblog