I have always considered a hair transplant at some point in the future. I really wanted to do as much as possible on my own before getting a consultation, ie. roughly how many grafts I need, and most importantly what results can I expect.
I decided to measure my density in various areas, my hair is a few inches long so I know roughly what thickness the various parts of my head are. I started out with the front part, the well known 'island' at the front section. I placed four dots with a pen to make a cm square, and took hold of the hairs within that box then cut the hairs off. My thought was to count all hairs, divide by 2 and get an approximate graft/cm density.
I wasn't surprised, 89 hairs were counted. It doesn't LOOK very thin, it looks like normal hair, but certainly FEELS thin.
Then I took some hair from the back near my neck using a mirror drawing the box, I erred on the side of caution to ensure an underestimate rather than an overestimate.
It looked like a lot of hair, I imagined probably 250 hairs, as I got to 200, I thought it would be quite odd having 300...but the hairs never seemed to disappear, it was fairly meticulous and took me around 30 mins to complete, but in the end, I counted 542 hairs. :shock:
I was quite stunned at that. I thought surely not. In a way I was depressed because I assumed from the front, I've lost 462 hairs, in another way I was happy because my donor area was ample to say the least. Then I started researching hair density more, and found that the neck area, frontal hairline and temple parts are generally varying in density than the rest of the head. I further took two more samples, one from the side, and one from the top nearer the crown, but not at the crown. The side just above the ear, had 232 hairs, and the top near the crown had 292 hairs.
It's quite clear then that (at least for my head) that density varies greatly even in areas where there is no male pattern baldness (side and back).
If I achieve side hair density all over then that would be great. One weakness in my analysis is that I don't know the ratio of 1:2:3:4 hair grafts, so I cannot say how many grafts I'll need, but if we are to assume 1graft=2hairs then 80 grafts/sqcm minimum for my results. 100 grafts/sqcm would be ideal. Another weakness although not overall that significant are the hairs in telogen phase. But that will always be the case, and all hairs will never at all times be growing.
It's quite enlightening seeing exactly how many hairs make up the thickness you want. If I wanted perfect results I'd need 200 grafts/sqcm!! A talented surgeon among the best could achieve half that. But then, native density is rarely that thick in the areas requiring work (frontal third).
I'm going to get my nephew when no one's looking, and take a sample from his hairline, I want to know roughly my original hairline density! :crazy: If 89 hairs in front is 'now' then 45 grafts is no where near satisfactory for me. Side hair is nice, it's thick enough and mouldable into many styles, that was 232 hairs, or around 115 grafts. I wonder how many doctors could achieve that. I was starting to think my expectations were unrealistic, which was quite funny considering I've read so much about hair transplants that I knew what I was talking about. It dawned on me a hair transplant may not be the panacea I was hoping for, even at a NW3.
I decided to measure my density in various areas, my hair is a few inches long so I know roughly what thickness the various parts of my head are. I started out with the front part, the well known 'island' at the front section. I placed four dots with a pen to make a cm square, and took hold of the hairs within that box then cut the hairs off. My thought was to count all hairs, divide by 2 and get an approximate graft/cm density.
I wasn't surprised, 89 hairs were counted. It doesn't LOOK very thin, it looks like normal hair, but certainly FEELS thin.
Then I took some hair from the back near my neck using a mirror drawing the box, I erred on the side of caution to ensure an underestimate rather than an overestimate.
It looked like a lot of hair, I imagined probably 250 hairs, as I got to 200, I thought it would be quite odd having 300...but the hairs never seemed to disappear, it was fairly meticulous and took me around 30 mins to complete, but in the end, I counted 542 hairs. :shock:
I was quite stunned at that. I thought surely not. In a way I was depressed because I assumed from the front, I've lost 462 hairs, in another way I was happy because my donor area was ample to say the least. Then I started researching hair density more, and found that the neck area, frontal hairline and temple parts are generally varying in density than the rest of the head. I further took two more samples, one from the side, and one from the top nearer the crown, but not at the crown. The side just above the ear, had 232 hairs, and the top near the crown had 292 hairs.
It's quite clear then that (at least for my head) that density varies greatly even in areas where there is no male pattern baldness (side and back).
If I achieve side hair density all over then that would be great. One weakness in my analysis is that I don't know the ratio of 1:2:3:4 hair grafts, so I cannot say how many grafts I'll need, but if we are to assume 1graft=2hairs then 80 grafts/sqcm minimum for my results. 100 grafts/sqcm would be ideal. Another weakness although not overall that significant are the hairs in telogen phase. But that will always be the case, and all hairs will never at all times be growing.
It's quite enlightening seeing exactly how many hairs make up the thickness you want. If I wanted perfect results I'd need 200 grafts/sqcm!! A talented surgeon among the best could achieve half that. But then, native density is rarely that thick in the areas requiring work (frontal third).
I'm going to get my nephew when no one's looking, and take a sample from his hairline, I want to know roughly my original hairline density! :crazy: If 89 hairs in front is 'now' then 45 grafts is no where near satisfactory for me. Side hair is nice, it's thick enough and mouldable into many styles, that was 232 hairs, or around 115 grafts. I wonder how many doctors could achieve that. I was starting to think my expectations were unrealistic, which was quite funny considering I've read so much about hair transplants that I knew what I was talking about. It dawned on me a hair transplant may not be the panacea I was hoping for, even at a NW3.
