Can over 6,000 Grafts Be Extracted from the Donor Region of African Americans or is It Much Lower?

6000 grafts can be harvested if you have the donor hair density.  As always, it depends on the exam.  If you have a high donor hair density, it is possible.  African Americans have slightly less donor density than Caucasian males.  6000 may be around the limit.  However, from personal experience we've done more.

This depends on the hair texture (tightness of curl), size of the donor area, the density of the donor hair, and the technique used. Follicular unit extraction (FUE), in the hands of an advanced practitioner, is able to harvest hair outside the traditional donor zone, thus widening the pool of prospective donor follicles. Additionally, if you are a candidate, FUE hair transplant using uGraft makes body hair a viable donor source, creating a yet greater pool from which to harvest. However, most African American patients must first undergo a trial procedure to determine whether their transection rate is acceptable for large-scale transplant.

Harvesting 6000 grafts is quite possible to in most people, regardless of ethnicity.  Of course, this would require two or more strip procedures as practically speaking, 3000 grafts alone is close to the upper limits (for most people).

Your scalp naturally would need to be evaluated in order to get an approximation of the number of donor hairs available for transplanting. 

Several instruments are available which may predict the density and ultimately the available donor hairs as well as ways to approximate the elasticity of your scalp, however, most experienced transplant surgeons will be able to tell you just by "eyeballing" your donor area.

 

The number of grafts for hairtransplants is much lower. Because of low density as well most of our patients prefer the Fleming-Mayer Flap.

Race is not an issue.  Typically, 3000-3500 grafts is the most you can remove from an individual in one session if they have fairly dense donor hair.  But in some individuals 3000 hair grafts could be 6000-9000 hairs.  A typical patient has 2000 grafts...impossible to do 6000 grafts. 

6000 grafts can not be safely extracted from a person with African hair as the donor density in Africans is usually 40% less than Caucasians. 

 

6000 would be a stretch for both Caucasions and Afro-Americans. Most patients are likely to have 3000- 5000 available donor hairs.

 

The number of grafts taken from any scalp regardless of ethnicity will depend on the size of the donor area, the size of the grafts, and the density of the hair. Most African-American men do not have great hair density which will limit the number of grafts and compromise the result; therefore, they select the Fleming/MayerFlap procedure.

If the concern is male pattern baldness, 6000 grafts taken over a lifetime might seem the limit.  So much depends on the hair quality, the balding  pattern , and expectations. If you are expectting a full thick head of closely cropped hair, no technique will be satisfactory.