In my research in hair transplantation, I keep hearing about people talking about how many follicular unit grafts they have received.  But how many hairs are in a hair graft?

This is a great question and one not often asked enough!

In a hair transplant, follicular unit grafts are hair groups that occur naturally in the scalp.  Each follicular unit grafts contains hair in groups of 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s.  The average number of hairs in a follicular unit graft is different for every hair transplant patient however, overall it is said to be around 2.2 hairs per follicular unit graft. 

Personally I think it is beneficial when a hair restoration physician provides detailed hair counts with hair count breakdowns so that the hair transplant patient truly understands what they are receiving.

As an example, a hair transplant patient that received 4000 follicular unit grafts but only 7000 hairs may have a similar result as a hair transplant patient that received 3000 follicular unit grafts with 6900 hairs.  Though hair transplant patient one has a far greater number of follicular unit grafts, the hair count is pretty similar.

Of course, the number of transplanted hairs is not the only thing that establishes an illusion of density.  There are a number of other variables such as hair characteristics, proper placement of the hair grafts, hair coverage verses hair density, and of course the selection of a quality hair transplant physician. 

Keep in mind also that not every hair transplant patient will need the same number of follicular unit grafts to achieve their hair restoration goals. 

See also:

How Many Hairs Will I Need For a Hair Transplant?

Are Higher Hair Densities Always Superior?

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

This question was posed by a hair loss sufferer on our hair restoration forum and answered by Dr. Michael Beehner of Saratoga Springs, NY who is one of our recommended hair restoration physicians. His professional answer is below.

This is a common problem for young men, who want to have all of their hair restored. I think your hair transplant doctor was very wise in telling you what he did. You have no idea (nor does anyone else, including the hair transplant doctor) how bald you may become some day. And if you start filling in the crown/vertex as part of the initial plan on a man in his 20’s, and male pattern baldness (MPB) progresses and logarithmically enlarges, as it almost always does, and the project in that area can’t be completed, you will have a huge bald halo around a patch of transplanted hair and will look very abnormal, and there won’t be any donor hair left to fill in the halo.

By the time a man gets into his later 30’s the hair transplant surgeon gets a much better sense of where a patient is going to end up with regards to the eventual expansion of the crown and also the amount of “safe” donor hair that is remaining and then he can make a much more accurate determination as to whether he has a good safe margin of donor hair reserves to do everything that you want.

The unfortunate truth, despite some of the wonderful medicines we have available now, is that male pattern baldness is a progressive condition. Propecia (finasteride) et al only stall the balding process; they don’t arrest it. You only have to look around you at all the 60 and 70 year old men to see where things can end up. Each one of them was 29 once. Picture what there head would look like if a hair restoration surgeon at that time tried to fill in all of the bald area.

It takes courage for a hair surgeon to turn down a request like the one you made. You will thank him some day. The problem is that, if you keep looking around, you will probably find a hair surgeron who WILL fill it in and do your future a disservice. I have seen ten or so men over the years who had exactly that done at some time 10-15 years earlier and their head looked like a dead animal died in the middle of their head. They always asked me to remove all of the hair grafts, no easy task. I hope you accept his advice.

Mike Beehner, M.D.

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

For regular readers of this blog, I have disappointing news. The Diabetes Blog is now retired. That means that, while it will still be available for reading and searching, new posts will not be added. Our Cardio and Cancer blogs are also being retired, which I mention here because some readers bookmarked more than one of the Life Sciences group.

The choice to stop publishing these three blogs is a business decision, and has nothing whatsoever to do with their quality. I am, and everyone here is, deeply grateful to the bloggers whose dedication to these sites gave so much information and inspiration to thousands of people. These three blogs are among the longest-running properties in our network, and it is sad to let them go.

Thank you to our many readers for visiting us, and sharing in the community here.

Brad Hill
Programming Director, Weblogs / AOL

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