The #1 problem in HT & how to avoid it

Hair Transplant
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1

Dear readers,
A brief recoup of the current problems in hair transplant in 2022.

The #1 problem that people face during consultation is when they ask “how many grafts do I need?”
That opens the doorway for marketing consultants and unscrupulous folk.

When you ask this question, the reply should ideally be “you have lost X number of nature given hair grafts and we can extract Y number of grafts from your donor”

This is the ONE honest answer you will not get at unscrupulous places.
Why?!
Because, during the pandemic, there has been a mushrooming of new "hair transplant clinics ".

Most of them have very rudimentary, if any, training.
Medical colleges don’t teach top quality hair transplant either. Otherwise, you could go to the professor in the nearest medical College. So, just being a dermatologist or plastic surgeon is not enough.
Most of the times, doctors attend a video lecture on YouTube or a 2-4 day workshop (as if they were learning vasectomy), before offering hair transplant to people.

When these doctors offer hair transplant, they don’t have the experience or skill set to perform large sessions.

So, you as a patient will receive many justifications from them on how they will cover the entire Norwood 6 area of baldness with 4000-5000 grafts.

I am seeing many such cases in past 2 years.

Solution: 1. Don’t ask how many grafts you need?! (For that I will give a simple formula by which you can calculate for yourself).
Ask “how many grafts can you extract and transplant?”

That will help you differentiate the capable clinics/practitioners. It goes without saying that you are to check their results to verify their statements.

  1. Even before you consult anyone, you should have a good, honest idea about how many grafts have been lost.
    A. For this a simple calculation is - the entire scalp has, on average, 40,000 grafts. Just see your head and tell what %age of hair you have lost : 10%, 25%, 50% etc.(goes without saying - please be honest to yourself).

A Norwood 5 person has lost atleast 50% of the hair. A Norwood 6 person has lost 60%+ nature given grafts.
50% of 40,000 is 20,000.
Most people don’t have that many grafts but this easily let’s you know the numbers comparison.

If you want to understand this GRAFT ESTIMATES and DENSE PACKING in more detail, I have written and provided an ebook on Kindle (currently available for free reading)
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B079JSS4D8/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_3M6AV7G35S9JTVESTWR2

In case of any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Regards,
Dr A

2

@Dr_Arvind I think my main concern is not how many grafts can be extracted from my donor but how many grafts can I afford given the budget I have.

3

Myhair1,
I understand your view. That would be the criteria once you filter out the unscrupulous clinics.
We can’t make it simpler to understand.
Your head and face have value. Please don’t spoil them due to a lack of research.
Regards,
Dr A

4

@Dr_Arvind your logic is right but in reality if someone lost 20,000 hairs, it does not require 20,000 hairs to restore a cosmetically significant improvement. Many doctors rely on artistic skills and strategic placement of individual grafts to achieve the illusion of density without having to replace lost hair graft for graft.

5

Yes. But there is a limit. One can aim for 50,% replacement. It is possible.
But offering 4000 grafts only to w Norwood 6 as their requirement is wrong.