I wanted to educate some new posters on what some surgeons and patients on other sites say about "dense packing"-- yes, many patients are able to get more FU's per sq cm than others due to virgin scalp and thicker donor.
However, when you here of a doctor or clinic speaking of 55-60 FU sq cm being transplanted, you might want to understand the that much dense packing per sq cm is probably only in the mid scalp, frontal zone, or hairline because there is NOT enough donor in a person to get complete 100% coverage at 60 FU sq sm. The reason: most people with virgin scalps have approx. 6,000 FU to transplant via strip (maybe a few more with extra FUE)-- the average scalp size of hairline, frontal zone, and mid scalp is roughly 100 sq cm-- DO THE MATH, if a clinic is saying they get up to 60 FU sq-- it isnt the entire scalp because it would take 6,000 FU for just 100 cm of bald scalp to cover --then you wouldnt have any hair in you back donor???
Just something to put into prespective when you read websites, info from docs/clinics/and patients. When this high of FU per sq is mentioned it is usually only on a certain area of the scalp--- Usually the frontal zone is less, then frontal core and tuff is more with mid scalp. The crown areas varies from enter to outer circle . So dont be fulled when you hear these High FU per sq cm number because one just doesnt have enough donor.
THe BEST SUrgeons in the world will inform you of this also.
Plus you only need around 35 FU per sq to give an illusion of FULL DENSITY.

Just an FYI for educational purposes.

I agree, dense packing has to be limited to small areas like the hairline.

In some cases, if you have a large balding area (or if your hair loss continues to progress to a high level) then dense packing could (theoretically) even be counter-productive... because dense packing uses up a lot of grafts that you may need elsewhere. For example, you probably wouldn't want to have a situation where you have a dense packed hairline, but then come up short in the vertex or the crown.

Bottom line is to spend your 'donor bank' wisely, and plan for your future needs. Dense packing is nice, but make sure you are being sensible with your donor supply.

I would agree that one must be careful with
dense packing and squandering grafts early in
the process.I'm starting to see an attitude
amongst patients that they can get dense packing
because they believe Fue and Body Hair Trans
will cover up any areas they can't cover when
they are "stripped out".Seems a bit premature
for people to believe that.
Otoh,i think the term "appearance of fullness"
is ht marketing hype.So I believe one should come to the realization that Ht Density isn't full head of hair density in appearance.Not
by a longshot.Your bound to be awfully disappointed with your procedure if that is
your expectation.

Great point Arfy. Plus any good surgeon will tell you that even with 30-40% hairloss, the hair still looks dense-- it doesnt start looking bald or thin until around 60%. So if you can HT around 30-35 FU cm sq, you will have an good apperance of hair.
Like you said, why waste more FU when the apperance isnt as great as the result?

Arfy, nice to see you post agian and add your insight.

Guys,

All of you are right on target! And I do believe that the proliferation of dense packing hype is more marketing driven than clinical based.

I have always encouraged patients to initially approach up to 50% density levels for adequate coverage. It is very rare that someone would need more to produce this "illusion" of coverage.

Why over commit when the first pass has not even grown out and matured? Density can always be added to in a subsequent procedure.

Can too much trauma to the scalp affect yield? YOU BET IT CAN! That's why I am not a big advocate of megasessions.

Interesting and timely topic. I recently had a phone consultation with Matt at Shapiro Medical and he told me 2000 grafts in the frontal third of my scalp should produce anywhere from 35-45 FU sq cm. He said this would be a good result and scalp would not be visible. I was little disappointed at the time with such a "low" density yield. Perhaps 35-45 is a good starting point and I should wait and see if more density is necessary.

DanDare,

35-40 fu sq sm will give a full look. An average guy usually has lost 40-50% of his orginal hair before you can tell he/she is loosing hair. If you looked at pics of someone with 10 FU more per sq cm than another-- you could not tell the difference with a Great Surgeon--- Which in my opinion, Dr. Shapiro is one of the best. The reason, the great ones create a natural hairline of 1 FU grafts and transitional zone of 1-2 hair FU grafts, then frontal core would have around 2-3 hair FU--going back with my hair FU's. So you can see, the natural effect that can be created with 35 FU per sq cm! That leaves you more donor for later on if you need it, like in the crown or vertical sides, ect.
Best of luck and Personally I think you picked one of the Best with Shapiro especially for hairline work-- good luck.

Smoothy is right on target as usual!!!

Thanks for the info Smoothy. I really like Doc Shapiro's work. Very natural looking.