I Was Told I Needed 5,000 to 12,000 Grafts

Dear Dr,
I have a large patch of baldness and when I discussed with different Drs they said from 5000 to 12000 grafts. How do we know how many follicles are transplanted? Of course it is not possible to count. Is it the area of strip? Then how many units will be there if a 10cm strip with 1.5 mm width contain? Price varies with the number of units, thats why i posed this question. kindly reply

I am very curious which doctors you spoke to, because getting 5,000 to 12,000 grafts from one surgery would be considered impossible. Maybe you are confusing grafts with hairs. One graft can contain 1, 2, or 3 hairs. So 2500 grafts can contain 5000 hairs (for example).

In general, an average Caucasian male with a 2 hairs per square millimeter donor hair density and an average scalp elasticity has about 5,000 to 7,000 grafts to donate in their lifetime (but not at once). You simply cannot harvest 12,000 grafts in one surgery. An average maximum or upper limit of a hair transplant surgery is around 3,000 grafts. I only recall a few patients in my 15 years where I was able to harvest 5,000 grafts in a single surgery, and those patients had abnormally high donor hair densities. There are some doctors who split the grafts into smaller units and this will push up the graft count, not the hair count. I tend to think that the doctors that split grafts are only doing so to charge the patient more (if they charge per graft).

You need to ask your questions to these doctors and have them explain what they are talking about to you in detail. I do not know your hair density or how flexible your scalp is, but if you were to get 12,000 grafts in a single session, you would be alone amongst all patients I have encountered.