how many hair transplants can I have it's common for people to think that surgical hair transplants
are the best treatment for hair loss although hair transplant surgery can be very effective
many people are frustrated with the limited coverage they have
after they've undergone this type of procedure naturally people with hair loss will ask
how many times the surgery can be performed to get to the results they want I'll discuss
what hair transplant surgery is as well as non-surgical alternatives for hair loss treatment
I'm Dr Amiya Prasad I'm a Diplomate of the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery
and Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic and reconstructive surgeon
I've been in practice in New York City and Long Ssland for more than 25 years I performed
hair transplant surgery throughout my career for many years I was frustrated with the
challenges of hair transplant results because of variability in hair graft survival in 2011
I used a material called extracellular matrix by ACell to help improve hair graft survival
what I discovered after about a year is that native thinning hair that wasn't transplanted
had increased in number and had grown even thicker over several years I developed this
initial discovery into a system of a non-surgical standalone treatment for
male and female pattern hair loss which we call TrichoStem Hair Regeneration since 2011
we've treated hundreds of patients every year from around the world the success of our system
inspired us to open a standalone treatment center for hair loss in Northern Virginia
if you're considering the option of multiple hair transplant surgeries you should be aware
that there is a very limited number of hair grafts available for transplantation whether you undergo
follicular unit extraction or FUE where hair grafts are harvested from a wide
area in the back and sides of your head or a follicular unit transplant aka FUT where a strip
of hair-bearing skin is harvested from the back of the scalp the number of grafts are limited
hair follicles don't regenerate once extracted so they are valuable and irreplaceable
which is why graft survival in hair transplants is so important depending on a person's hair density
the safe number of grafts that can be harvested in each hair transplant surgery ranges from
fifteen hundred to about four thousand grafts the number of transplantable hairs goes down
with each subsequent transplant no matter which technique is used each hair transplant surgery
will yield fewer grafts than the preceding surgery so although you can have more than one transplant
procedure it's the number of hair grafts available that sets a hard limit with transplant surgery
generally there is a mismatch between the surface area that needs coverage
and the number of hairs that can be transplanted it's understood that when you recognize
hair loss you've already lost half your hair this is of course more higher number for people
with advanced hair loss hair transplants are also limited by graft density which is often why
multiple transplants are needed to approximate natural hair density natural hair density is about
50 to 100 hairs per square centimeter scalp but skin integrity and scalp blood supply
typically limits about 20 grafts per square centimeter of scalp exceeding this number
can damage the skin resulting in loss of grafts or exceeding the number of grafts
that the scalp blood supply can support which ultimately results in the grafts just dying
the most common limitation of hair transplant surgery even with multiple transplant procedures
is that surgery does not treat ongoing hair loss hair transplantation is just moving hair
from one part of the scalp to another part of the scalp while progressive hair thinning continues
this is why in some men who have had hair transplant surgery years ago
will appear to have highly visible grafts often referred to as hair plugs
this phenomena can occur even sooner in younger men with aggressive pattern hair loss in their 20s
where hair transplant surgery cannot keep up with the rapid rate of hair loss
in the end the transplanted hair can look sparse and unnatural even after multiple hair
transplant surgeries I take a different approach to help my patients with hair loss
whether you're experiencing thinning hair or you've had previous hair transplant
our approach focuses on treating progressive hair loss by optimizing your existing hair
without surgery for male and female pattern hair loss our TrichoStem Hair Regeneration system has
been used to help people reactivate and grow hair that is in a prolonged resting stage
and thicken existing hair that's been thinning one advantage to this approach
is that your native hair has a much higher density than a transplant could ever achieve
thereby you're avoiding any of the undesirable results commonly seen after transplant surgery
we typically perform one to two trans treatment sessions about 18 months apart
and our patients can have results which exceed not one but two hair transplant surgeries
since 2011 we've observed the results of our treatments generally lasting three to five
years and longer with over 99 of our patients seeing an increase in their scalp coverage
patients who've had previous hair transplants also benefit from TrichoStem Hair Regeneration
it appears that previously transplanted hairs may remain viable but does not
grow as it once did this means that the density from hair that from previous hair transplants
often decreases over time a lot of our patients are delighted after they undergo TrichoStem
Hair Regeneration and see regrowth of their previously transplanted hairs
we see a lot of people who have had hair transplant surgery within the first three months
afterwards we have observed that TrichoStem Hair Regeneration treatment can help enhance the yield
of the transplanted hair enhance the healing of the donor area as well as optimize your existing
native hair for a better overall scalp coverage some of our patients with more advanced hair
loss can benefit from hair transplant surgery in addition to TrichoStem Hair Regeneration
in this situation the TrichoStem Hair Regeneration treatment is performed first to optimize
scalp coverage or maximize it with your existing native hair after this a surgical hair transplant
can be performed more strategically understanding that there is a limited number of grafts available
until 2011 surgical hair transplant surgery was my approach that i used to help people with hair loss
that is until there was no more hair for transplantation left
after developing the TrichoStem Hair Regeneration system we've established a highly effective
non-surgical alternative to help people avoid multiple hair transplants as the one and only way
to address their hair loss I hope you found this information helpful thank you for your question