How many grafts

Depends on the situation. Personally I had great results from 1000 grafts, but it was only to add density on an already solid base.

1,200 grafts would only be appropriate if you were treating limited hair loss, building a hairline, or augmenting prior hair transplant work. I agree that, if a person has moderate to advanced loss, it is appropriate to do at least 2,000 grafts.

7,000 FU grafts in the donor bank? Yeah, that is about right. Some gifted patients have more, and some patients have NONE.

Michaellovesnyc, I feel the same as you do. A few years back I went to a doctor whose consultant recommended for me 800 grafts. I thought at the time I was getting the real deal, but I didn't know. I really needed 3500 and eventually ended up going to a doctor a few years later that had proven results doing larger sessions. To me that's the way to go whenever possible. There is definitely pros and cons to both sides but I still lean toward the big session theories.

From what I've seen, it appears that the average donor supply holds anywhere from 5000-7000 donor grafts utilizing the strip method alone. Some patients will fall below the average while others above. I have been one of the lucky few that has hit over 7000 grafts. Some have even hit as high as just over 10,000 which is an extreme case! Adding FUE into the equation, I'd say another 2000-3000 grafts may be able to be extracted without the moth eaten effect.

Falc

If you're gonna cut your head wide open and spend several months looking bad during recovery, then you might as well get as much as you can out of each pass.

I haven't had a strip HT myself, but I get the feeling that it becomes a balance between money versus the severity of the overall surgery/swelling/recovery experience.

Getting 1200 probably isn't worth a strip surgery IMHO, but at the same time some of these H&W 5000-graft-jobs seem like they'd be pretty grueling even if you can afford it.

And not everyone should have too much hair moved all at once anyway just because of unknown future loss. With lifetime donor hair being a major limitation, some of the HT process usually needs to be spread out over a few years even if the money & surgery wasn't a factor. 3K is decent, but you definitely wouldn't wanna do a 6000-graft session all implanted into the frontal third of your head when you're 26yo. That's a bad risk no matter how much cost & surgery you could theoretically tolerate at the time.


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Along the same lines, I recommend reading:

How many grafts will I need for a hair transplant? (BLOG)

How many grafts are available for a hair transplant? (BLOG)

Cheers,

Falc

I agree with trying to limit surgeries however, sometimes being conservative is not bad as my result has turned out spectacular. Here are some situations

1 - limited Money ( an obvious one)
2 - Cannot shave head or afford shockloss
3 - Have not stabilized hairloss or do not plan to
4 - Patient doesn't need more grafts