How does the doctor decide where to place the grafts in man with a Class 6 pattern of balding?

Hair distribution reflects judgments made between you and your doctor with your priorities in mind. There are many factors beyond balding patterns that dictate graft placement. These include:

(1) hair thickness,

(2) hair and scalp color,

(3) hair character (wavy or straight),

(4) your styling priorities (these can be put into the patterns of hair distribution created by the surgeon),

(5) available donor supply,

(6) your budget and

(7) your balding pattern.

Many of our patients can’t afford a very large session and have a limited budget.  This is common enough so that I have learned to modify what I do to meet the needs of the patients.  Of course, short term goals and long term goals may differ. The most important part of the transplant is to frame your face when you have frontal balding.  For that reason, I focus on the frontal two inches and if you are willing or desire to part your hair on either the left or the right, I can extend the grafts back to the crown, weighting the grafts to your parted side.  That may not be perfect, but it can produce a full looking head of hair in a person with medium hair thickness and wavy hair.  A good relationship with your doctor is critical because this relationship should be a long term one.

As an example, I pulled up a Class 6 patient who still had a few fine hairs remaining in his crown. When I did the surgery, I used 2,500 grafts and weighted the graft placement to his parted side on the left.  This example shows a reasonable result which can be thickened in a later surgery as his budget allows. He can add Scalp MicroPigmentation under these transplants which can avoid another surgery and get a much fuller look at any time. As it turns out, this 52 year old man was more than happy with this single hair transplant session and did not want another procedure.