How Many FUE Grafts Would I Need to Restore my Hairline?
I lost the hair around my peaks in my early twenties (I'm thirty now).
It hasn't worsened much since then.
The miniaturized hairs have been like that for years.
My hairline looks nearly identical to the hairline my grandfather had through most of
his adult life, until he lost it all in his seventies.
So, I suspect I should be able to keep what I have.
However, I'd like to restore what I've lost.
Approximately, how many FUE grafts would I need to do that?
Thank you.
Thank you for your question!
You've noticed a progression of hair loss along your hairline into your 30 which again,
you think started in your 20s and you've looked into your family history and expect that there's
probably a slow progression based other family members.
So your question is, how many grafts will you need?
Well, I think another level of this question should be is what will happen should your
hairline continue to recede even if the grafts are placed.
This is a very common issue in hair restoration surgery in that, you may try to get a large
number of grafts.
In our practice, we basically do an average of anywhere between 1500 to 2000 hairs in
a session and these are all dependent on the donor density in terms of how many hairs per
square centimeter there is in the strip.
Now, even if you're doing follicular unit extractions or FEUs, well, it still means
that you still need to get a certain number of hairs.
So even if you're doing punches and removing those individual hairs which are supposedly
scarless which we know in our practice, you see we had a lot of patients who had FUEs
done elsewhere who had a lot of scars.
Regardless, there is a critical number you need.
Now, in order to reach that number, whether you have an FUE transplant or FUT transplant,
you still need a number of hairs removed.
Now, that is fine as long as you don't progress.
Unfortunately, for most men, progression of hair loss is inevitable especially if they're
not using any medical therapy such as the use of finasteride to reduce DHT.
So I'm going to introduce to a concept that we do in our practice.
Being a hair restoration specialist for over 10 years and being a leader in the field of
regenerative medicine as it applies to hair restoration, I can certainly speak for a lot
of authority in this matter.
The past several years, I have actually quantified and developed a method of preventing the progression
of hair loss as well as reversing the thinning of hair using a material called extracellular
matrix.
Now, this extracellular matrix is based on a wound healing concept and serendipitously
it was figured out that some critical elements of hair loss which is progression of thinning
seem to be reversed.
And from studies that were based from University of Pennsylvania as well as Yale University,
I essentially have theorized that what we are doing is restoring the progenitor cells
which make the hair and are noted to be absent in the hair or should I say in the scalp of
balding men and as well as the activation the dermal papilla which signals the bud area
of the hair follicle to begin with this hair growth cycle.
It's all about cells and signals and this is very leading edge stuff because it's been
developed in the laboratory side.
And in the past 3-4 years, whether it's in Yale University, Pennsylvania, University
of Tokyo.
Essentially, our hair regeneration system, we inject this extracellular matrix with platelet-rich
plasma as well as other enhancing elements and literally reverse the thinning of the
hair.
So many of our patients who are, quote thinning and receding, as you are, will very often
choose the injection .First, see how the results are and then at about a year, we strategically
decide how to fill in some are which could be salvaged by the injection.
I'd like to explain to my patients this way: You have a limited bank and you want to spend
the currency wisely.
So looking at the back of the scalp and looking at the density, we don't want to throw all
the hairs and to one are and then allow receding of the hair and then make those grafts look
very obvious.
I'm sure you've seen people who you look at and go home and say "Oh my God how bad are
those plugs."
Well, it's usually intentionally bad.
It so happens they had hair grafts at a certain point where they have existing hair but eventually
the hair grafts stayed in place but the hair receded and thinned down.
So my suggestion to you prior committing to do a surgery is learning more about hair regeneration
and consider this as an option in your strategy since you already anticipate maybe having
a very slow progression.
You might be able to restore a lot of those thinning hairs before you move forward to
surgery and you may also be comfortable enough that you won't consider having surgery.
So I realized I've added something new to the concepts of your learning about in terms
of surgery but I think hair regeneration is very key element to treating hair loss so
I hope that was helpful and thank you for your question.