A hair graft can be simply defined as a single follicular unit. Each hair graft may contain several hair follicles. The number of hairs in a graft is not fixed but on average it is safe to say that a hair graft generally contains 2 hairs. Given that all hair grafts are unique, there can be groups of hairs from 1 to 6 per graft, and on average one graft contains between 1.8 to 2.2 hairs in average.
During hair transplant surgery, small grafts of skin containing hair follicles are removed from the areas of permanent hair in the back and on the sides of the head, and moved to the areas where balding or thinning occurs. The grafts are placed into openings created in the bald area where hair is desired. The openings can be slits (incisions where tissue is not removed), a punch hole, or laser hole (where recipient tissue is actually removed or destroyed). Both the size of the grafts and the size of the wounds where they are placed have become smaller over the past 40 years. This decrease in size has made the transplants dramatically more natural in appearance.
The way the transplanted hair follicle behaves differs from most other “organ” transplants. When kidney, heart or liver transplants are performed, the person receiving the transplant must remain on powerful immune suppressing medications to prevent rejection, as the organs are generally transplanted from one person to another. Since a hair transplant is an “autograft,” (a transplant from one part of the body to another) there is no rejection and no medications are required.
The number of grafts or hair follicles that are required for successful results in Hair transplant would depend on the area where we are measuring. The area is measured and designed before the starting of the procedure and we will be calculating how much strands are required for this procedure. The natural number of hair according to the natural density, we are going to design and calculate. The front hair for example, will require around 100 grafts. We will need to have high density to give good results. There will be gradually merging the hairline which will give a natural appearance.
The grafts also depend on the number of hairs that can be extracted from the donor area. Donor area is the area from which we have to extract the hair from the back of the head, because these are not influenced by the hormones or genetic factors., which will be permanent when transplanted. So the hairs will continue to grow and it can be cut shorted, trimmed and styled in your own choice.
So once you have done the transplantation, the area, the design will give a natural looking appearance and the area where we are going to transplant, for example, you are going to do the front half and then there is the vertex, which is the middle part of the hair zone, will require 5000 grafts. So the more grafts we add, it is going to give a more natural looking result. So with higher density, it will give best natural looking results. With the best appearance of gaps between the hairs. So this will give a best result.
As a customer one of the most confusing aspects of the hair transplant industry is the idea of paying for a surgery by the number of “grafts” you will receive. Number of grafts doesn’t equal the number of hairs, and sometimes less grafts with a higher number of hairs in them (3-4 hair grafts or multiple follicular units) leads to a denser result.
Comparing one patient’s result to another patient’s result based on the number of
grafts each received isn’t a fair comparison. Patient “A” who received 1,000 grafts could have only received 1,500 hairs, while patient “B” who received 1,000 grafts could have received 3,500 hairs. It’s important to have a clear understanding of the number of hairs each surgeon plans to transplant on you, not just the number of grafts.
Having a realistic hair plan and knowing the right questions to ask will lead to a much higher chance of successful results.