I Want To Get a Hair Transplant of 500 Grafts, But Everyone Seems To Want To Oversell Me

I Want To Get a Hair Transplant of 500 Grafts, But Everyone Seems To Want To Oversell Me!

Written by Mark McKenzie, MD on June 27, 2008

I have thin hair on the top and require only about 400-500 grafts to thicken it up to my satisfaction. The problem is every hair transplant center I have had a consultation with say they don’t do anything less than a $4000 dollar procedure. Is there anywhere I can get what I want? It seems everyone wants to oversell me! - John
- - - - - - - - - -

Hi John
Thank you for your question.
You feel that you need “only about 400-500 grafts to thicken your hair up to your satisfaction.”
Assuming that you are talking about follicular units, this number of grafts would equal approximately 900-1100 hairs. To put this in perspective, this amount of hair is approximately 1% of the total amount of hair that you had on your head when you were a teenager. If these grafts were transplanted at a density of 50 FUs per square cm they would only cover 20 square cm which is equivalent to a circle with a diameter of 5 cm or 2 inches. If they were transplanted at a lower density of 25 FUs per square cm they would cover 40 square cm which is equivalent to a circle with a diameter of 7.2 cm or 2.8 inches.

It is important to know what your goals are as far as hair transplantation is concerned & to know what you are getting for your hard-earned money. Expectations must be realistic & people may claim that they’ll be satisfied with lower densities or lower areas of coverage, only to find that after their hair has grown in they are not happy. At the consultation, ask to see photos of patients with “full density” & lesser densities in order to get an idea of what is appropriate for your own situation. Remember that male pattern baldness progressive and that you will likely need more sessions in the future, so this has to be accounted for in your budgeting process.

Mark McKenzie, MD
Member, International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons
Member, American Hair Loss Association