Aproximately how many grafts will I need? (Photo)

Dear Luiswww,Thank you for writing in with your question. One of the things to keep in mind when looking to restore your hair is that there are non-surgical options to address hair loss, that generally work best to actually regrow hair in areas that are lost in young men like yourself. It may be worth spending 12 months using these therapies prior to a hair restoration. Things like low level laser therapy (LLLT), platelet-rich plasma with ACell (PRP with ACell) and finasteride can be effective in both slowing the rate of hair loss, and in some cases, especially in patients under the age of about 35, the miniaturization process that results from male pattern hair loss can appear to be reversed, and the hair can literally grow back and become thicker.That being said, it when approaching hair loss in a man your age, prevention must be a part of the picture. Hair loss is like tooth decay in that it’s progressive. A hair restoration surgery will fill in lost areas, but does nothing to prevent the further recession and hair loss in the future. It would not make sense to undergo a hair restoration surgery and not think about slowing down or halting the progression of the hair loss, or else you’re setting yourself up for many more surgeries in your lifetime than is needed. You’re only 25, and you have decades of living to enjoy, and decades of hair loss to endure. Today I performed a surgery on a person who has had 6 previous surgeries. That’s a lot of hair restoration surgery. Hair is a finite resource; you’re born with roughly 100,000 hair follicles, and like fingers, you’re not going to grow any more. Any regrowth that appears to take place with conservative, non-surgical measures is really just a rejuvenation of the existing hair follicles on your scalp. The non-surgical treatments are not as important for older patients. For instance, if you were 65 years old with this same hair loss pattern, then the emphasis on prevention would not be as important, as typically there are not decades and decades of life left to live, and so it is relatively less important. Your youth dictates an increased importance on engaging with one or more therapies to slow down the progression of hair loss. Keep in mind that there is no cure for hair loss, and so using more than one therapy to try to slow the loss is indicated, as the different therapies work by different mechanisms, and they are complementary to each other. In terms of your original question about the number of grafts, that would depend on how much you’d like to lower your hairline in the areas of loss, which would require a virtual or in-person consultation with an expert. Somewhere in the range of 600 to 1200 grafts is indicated, in my opinion. I hope this information is helpful to you.

How many grafts you may need depends on YOUR goals.  You need an examination by a doctor for a clear diagnosis or understanding of possible future hair loss.  You also need to have a clear goal of how low and how dense you want your hair to look like.  What does a straight hair line mean? These are the basic information you and your doctor need to figure out if your goals are achievable.  You can get an estimate based on the aforementioned factors.

 If I were you I would wait a few years before starting. In the past 35 years I've seen many patients like you who have had grafts placed only to end up with not enough hair to finish the job. See a very experienced surgeon and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different ways of fixing your problem besides hair transplants.