If I Want Dense Packing, Is There Any Benefit to Several Surgeries vs One Large Surgery?

I had about 1200 grafts transplanted into my frontal third (an area i roughly estimate to be 10 square inches, which i figure the amount of hair transplanted to be about 20% of the original density).

My question regards dense packing. I’m looking to get 800 more grafts transplanted there, but the thing is i still have a considerable amount of native (miniaturized) hairs in the area. I realize I’m running the risk of damaging the native hairs but do I run as high of a risk involving the growth of the new grafts in two surgeries compared to one?

To sum all of that up, is there any benefit of having several surgeries instead of one large one in regards to the growth of grafts in dense packing?

If you have significant miniaturization in an area that you’re looking to have transplanted, you do run the risk of surgical shock loss occurring that could wipe those hairs out. Finasteride may protect you from shock loss, but you should discuss this with your surgeon. You don’t want to end up having a hair restoration surgery that causes hair loss.

As for the transplanting question — I generally will perform the largest surgery reasonable to minimize the number of surgeries. Dense packing, something I originated in 1993, may not result in growth as well as traditional grafting spacing.

Although it has not been my experience, reports by doctors in our field with side-by-side comparisons on volunteer patient have shown a lesser growth rate when grafts are packed at greater than 60 grafts per square cm. This should also be discussed with your surgeon.