Hair Transplant | Can a Hair Transplant Be Done In Several Stages?

Can a Hair Transplant Be Done In Several Stages?

Hello, I have been losing my hair since I was seventeen years old and have always wanted to do something about it. I just saw an commercial for the hair transplant process by Bosley so I went on line to do some research and found your organization. I am glad that an organization like this exists. Anyway, now that I have been balding for almost ten years I think it’s time that I have a hair transplant. Is it possible to do it in stages since I don’t have access to more than about $5000 dollars or so per year of disposable income? And how many hair grafts will it take to give me a full hair line and some hair behind it since I’m pretty bald right now. Thank you for your time.

It is absolutely acceptable to have hair transplantation performed in stages. In fact, for men with more advanced hair loss, that is the way it had always been approached up until the last 5 years. Many hair transplant clinics try to urge their patients to move as much hair in a single setting as possible, but unless that is what the patient desires, that may be more for the clinic’s benefit. The advantages to moving as much as possible in one hair transplant include the obvious fact that you might achieve your goals quicker and you don’t have to deal with the postoperative appearance additional times. However, there are certainly advantages to smaller cases. For one thing, if for some reason you are not pleased with your surgeon or your transplant, you can go to a different clinic for your next procedure. Also, there is less risk of postoperative shock loss affecting any existing hair within the recipient area. Additionally, it is extremely important to remember that each patientonly has a finite amount of donor hair available. If too much of this donor hair is utilized in the first session and you continue to bald in new areas, you may have less hair available to fill in these new areas of hair loss as they develop. Finally, you could end up saving yourself a great deal of money. In my experience, many men who had planned to come in for multiple sessions find that they are perfectly happy with the way their hair looks after the first session. In general, although these men do not typically have high density results, they do have a great deal of extra volume and have reframed the upper portion of their face and discover that this is enough to make them happy.

The number of follicular units you could have transplanted for $5,000 will obviously vary with different clinics. Shopping around can frequently lead to significant savings, but I would suggest that you utilize websites like the IAHRS to make sure that you find a quality clinic. It is difficult to know how many follicular units it would take to give you a full hairline. Variables include the extent of your balding and the caliber and curl of your hair. A good guess might be 2000 grafts. In general, this would allow
the surgeon to create a mature hairline and place hair throughout the frontal scalp. Certainly the results would not be high-density but they would be aesthetically very helpful.

Below are several before and after photos of patients with advanced hair loss after approximately 2000 follicular units.

Blaine Lehr, MD
Member, International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons

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