How Many FUE Grafts Would I Need to Restore my Hairline? (PHOTO)

You need to first have an exam to make sure how extensive your hair loss may be. It doesn't matter if your grandfather never lost hair.  It is about what you have.   A doctor also needs to understand what you mean by "what you lost".  How much lower do you want the hair line?FUE is just a method of harvesting grafts.  FUE is a great surgery but most people who want the FUE is mislead into thinking it is the best surgery.  Many doctors push FUE or Neograft or ARTAS claiming "no scar" or "minimally invasive". Many doctors dissuade patients from strip surgery asking "why would you want a big scar".I was an engineer working with Dr. Rassman in 1998 (before I became a doctor) . My work involved a concept of a robot which would use a special optical sighting system to align the hairs for an automated FUE. This work became U.S. Patent 6572625 that we licensed to the ARTAS robot. Similar technology from our U.S. Patents are used in the NeoGraft. I perform FUE in my practice with my hybrid FUE instruments, ARTAS, or even NeoGraft. My point is that I am very familiar with the FUE, ARTAS, NeoGraft, and all forms of harvesting hair follicles.Your focus of surgery should be on RESULTS. Not how a doctor takes out the grafts. From a donor scarring perspective, you keep your hair very LONG so scarring from both surgery should not be an issue. But you may STILL SEE the FUE scars at that length on some occasion. Thousands of white dots.Just remember a 4000 graft FUE scar is like having a collective open wound hole the size of a baseball on the back of the head. There is nothing minimally invasive about that. I also perform Scalp MicroPigmentation (SMP) and fix horrible FUE scars routinely. These is nothing "scarless" about FUE. I have performed surgery on Dr. Rassman and his family members using the strip technique. The linear scar on Dr. Rassman is a pencil thin line you probably will have a hard time finding. The point is, a strip surgery scar is not as terrible as the Internet makes it out to be. Both FUE and Strip surgeries has its place. Don't be caught up in marketing and doctors who try to sell you one type surgery.The focus should be on Results. A bad hair transplant result from FUE or Strip is like Herpes. You'll carry it with you for life (with either thousands of dots or a line).

To get the maximum density, the grafts estimation is 1800-2000 grafts.
it depends of how much lower it will go.

The fact that your temple peaks have been stable for the past 10 years is a good sign, and if you're using prevention medications (Propecia and Rogaine), your future loss could be really slow. Besides your grandfather, I'd want to know about other family (father, uncles, brothers, etc.) to see if anyone had significant hair loss at an earlier age than your grandfather. That person would be the worst case scenario you would want to keep in mind in planning the first procedure.
Your hairline cold benefit from 1300-1500 grafts very nicely while maintaining a mature adult male look. The sides of your forehead (the temporal peaks) appear to have started receding a bit also, and I discuss this with patients as well. In your case, these areas might need 600-800 grafts. If the hairline is made strong, but the side borders of the forehead remain very wide, the overall results can still look very unbalanced. This can be done all in one session or planned as part of a 2nd procedure depending on what you would like.
Hope that helps!

The number of grafts would depend on multiple factors, not just the area affected by hair loss. However, it is possible to get a very general and rough estimate by identifying your Norwood stage (you can find illustrates charts on Google by searching for “Hamilton Norwood scale”) and multiplying that number by a factor of 1000. But realistically, other individual considerations would need to be taken into account. For example, this would include the hair to skin color contrast, as well as the texture and thickness of your hair. For these reasons, my practice at the Dr.U Hair and Skin Clinics in Los Angeles has developed a free hair transplant graft calculator which can provide and realistic estimations with the input of these types of variables. I’ve provided the link below so that you can get a more accurate ballpark idea of the graft count you would likely need to restore your hairline. 

It depends on whether you are lowering the hairline or just filling in the receding areas only. It would be between 1200-1500 grafts. It's difficult to see in photos so I suggest in person consultations.Patients who are young should start maintaining current hairs which includes:
Medical therapy- the use of Nutrafol and possibly Finasteride should be contemplated.  Topical such as Minoxidil should also be considered to help maintain.Regenerative techniques- The use of growth factors including PRP can be used to help encourage hair growth and halt miniaturization of hair.Laser light therapy- Laser caps have been shown in some studies to help decrease hair loss and in some cases help prevent further hair loss.UPDATE ANSWER    Tweet

I feel that you could fill the corners with a density to match the mid-section with 2000 grafts. I would also go through the mid-section and place grafts where there is room. It is possible that even more could be placed, but from the pictures provided, I think 2000 would give you a dense packed natural result.

Dear DaveKS25Thanks for the question. After a proper hair consultation , any hair surgeon will advice you to keep on with Propecia for a year and then it would be good to consider a hair transplant surgery. As far as I can see even there are some new hair coming up in the area in which you request surgery. I wish you all the best.

Hello, Thank you for your question and posting your photos. 1.500-2.000 grafts will be enough and satisfy your needs.

An exam is almost always needed to make an accurate determination of graft counts for any hair transplant procedure. The discussion needs to center around previous hair loss, family history, and goals of any hair restoration treatment. A close exam of the scalp at both the recipient area and donor area is also needed. At that point, a detailed discussion regarding the required number of grafts can move forward. Most patients are going to need a minimum of 500 grafts to address the frontal hairline, and many will need more than 1000 grafts to gain significant density.
All the best,

Based on the photos, I would recommend a minimum of 1500 grafts.  The follicles must be blended into denser regions to combat further thinning.  I do not think you need over 2,000 grafts to accomplish this goal. However, I'd like to know your specific expectations to be sure we're on the same page.