How does a surgeon calculate how many grafts I will require?
The typical Asian donor density is 1.9 hairs/follicular unit. African numbers are lower at 1.7 hairs/follicular unit. Caucasians average 2.2 hairs/follicular unit. These numbers, with all three of these races, reflect a bell curve, and the quoted numbers are the median of the bell curve. I have seen Africans with much higher densities and recently examined an Asian with a donor density of 2.5 hairs/follicular unit (on the extreme right of the bell curve).
When patients receive 5000 grafts in Turkey, are they receiving 5000 grafts or 5000 hairs? Both of these things occur. Donor density after a hair transplant must be good enough not to have a see-through donor area. That see-through concept relates to a longer hair situation, not a close shave of the donor area.
Most providers and consumers think that you have to get your density back to normal. If you pluck every other hair on a person with black hair and white skin on only one side of his scalp, it has been shown that an observer can’t tell the plucked side from the normal density site. So, in a worst color/contrast situation, 50% of your original density is as good as 100% of your original density.
FUE and hair transplantation, in general, are art forms. Just because someone learns the technical aspect of performing an FUE, it doesn’t make that person a quality surgeon unless they understand the nuances integrated into the art form that are discussed above.
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