How Many Donor Grafts Does an Average Person Have?

Dear Dr. Rassman,

I have been researching Male Pattern Baldness and Hairloss for about 7 years.I am 28 and a Norwood 4. My question concerns how much donor supply the average person has over their lifetime to transplant to balding areas.

I know that currently some clinics have performed, 6,000 and 7,000 strip/graft procedures in a session and that even more has been transplanted over several sessions. How much donor hair does the average person have ? It would seem that the average would have to be well over 10,000 and close to 12,000.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.

The answer to this question relates to a few things:

1. Your donor density (average is 2 hairs/mm2)
2. The laxity of your scalp (looser scalps should supply more donor hair)
3. The balding pattern (Class 7 patients lose up to 70% of all of their hair so if this is a possible balding pattern then 1/3rd of the remaining hair number may be the maximum donor supply available to you over your lifetime)

The degree of scarring and how your body handles the movement of large amounts of donor hair may be the determining factor on your overall supply. Generally, a person may easily get 5-7,000 grafts (10,000-14,000 hairs) and that number can be pushed upward with good healing, minimal scarring, return of scalp laxity and good donor densities. On the high end, I have transplanted up to 25,000 hairs in some people (10,000+ grafts) with unusually good healing and a good scalp laxity.

Patient ZU is in his mid 60’s and had multiple procedures totalling 6,036 follicular unit grafts transplanted. The “after” photo on the right shows the results after only 6,036 grafts, but he actually had another procedure after this, bringing the total up to 8,300. Once I have photos of the results of his last procedure, I’ll post them. In the meantime, please see the photos below and click them to see full size.