Minimum amount of grafts for a reasonable result in a scale 7 of baldness? (Photos)

Dear Phillipe d,
Thank you for posting this question. You appear to be a class 6. Furst, you need to understand that you’re never going to have a full head of hair again. The goal for you would be to frame your face with hair, but that can be very challenging in cases like this where the majority of hair has been lost. Hair restoration surgery is merely a redistribution of what hair remains. You’d need to have the bridge, frontal forelock and hairline areas of your scalp addressed. The hair needs to look as if it’s always been there, and not like a person put it back and so in cases where so much has been lost, it’s 100% on the surgeon’s artistic skill, as that will be the primary determinant in the cosmetic results you can expect. In my opinion the ARTAS system offers higher quality grafts. As far as the number of grafts, that would depend on the size of your head and the density of hair in your donor area, but in reality, we’d need to harvest as many grafts as we can safely, as the more we have, the more realistic the final result tends to be in cases like yours.
I hope this information is helpful to you.
Kind Regards,
Ken Anderson, MD, FISHRS

Norwood 6 and 7 solutions


  Patients with the majority of the hair without hair except for the donor area.  Solutions to this problem often involve the following factors:
-Shiny baldness vs miniaturized hairs- shiny bald patients with complete hair loss are often harder to transplant since regenerative techniques will have little impact in hair regrowth
-Hair design options- patients often want to have some semblance of a hair line which must be conservatively drawn, especially in a class 6/7 patient.  Higher than normal hairlines are better than no hairline at all!!
-Body hair option- The use of body hair can help add hair to the top of the head and crown area and provide some coverage.  Body hair extraction requires a specialized technique to ensure graft viability and has a lower take than typical donor site hair.
-FUE vs strip- Will some will advocate the strip obtaining more hairs, the strip will limit your hair style which is often times very short or shaved.  For this reason, the strip procedure does not play a role in Norwood 6 and 7’s in my practice.
-SMP- SMP can help fortify the appearance of hair and create an illusion of density.  Proper SMP can add the appearance of 3 to 4k in hairs.
-Regenerative techniques- Preservation and regrowth of miniaturized hairs can decrease the number of grafts and allow surgeons to do more with less.  


  Patients with appropriate expectations will benefit from this procedure in establishing a hairline and hair coverage and some flexibility in hair options.  Best Dr. Anil Shah

Photos cannot assess if you would be a candidate for surgery.  Usually this involves seeing a doctor in person as it depends on your goals and expectations.  You may be happy with 1000 grafts with a very thin coverage on your hairline while others may not be happy even with 8000 grafts.

The Class 6 or 7 pattern of balding is a real challenge for a hair transplant. You must assume that you will have a Class 7 pattern even if it is not classically there now. The average Caucasian has 3600 graft FUE graft limit and 7400 graft strip limit. The average Asian (Japanese, Chinese. Korean, Indian and many people from the middle east) has 2880 FUE graft and 6080 strip graft limits for hair transplants without depleting the donor area to the point that it becomes bald. If a person has fine hair, then these numbers will drop by up to 50%.  These grafts have to be used wisely so you and your doctor need to discuss realistic expectations for the use of these grafts. That means that your doctor must be experienced, artistic and a good communicator to get you what you want/need.