Question:

How much hair can you get from one donor strip if the strip is of standard quality for a hair transplant? After the transplant, do I need to take hair loss medication to maintain it? Also, what is the success rate of using body hair for implanting?

Answer:

How much hair can be harvested in a single hair restoration procedure depends on your natural hair density and the length and the width of the strip able to be harvested.

The width of the strip harvested will depend on your scalp elasticity along with any staffing limitations or limitations in experience, skill, or the doctor’s hair transplant philosophy and comfort level.

The length of the strip harvested will depend on your current hair loss and risk of future balding, your hair restoration goals/needs, and the doctor’s hair transplant philosophy and comfort level.

Hair transplant clinics who regularly perform larger densely packed sessions of ultra refined follicular unit hair transplantation typically harvest anywhere from 2500-4000 grafts on average when appropriate for the patient. Doctors may be able to harvest even more in patients with exceptional donor hair density and scalp laxity.

Hair transplant procedure should only take one day, though some do it in two. It is a good idea to take at least a week off from work to allow yourself to heal.

Medical hair loss treatments are not required to keep or maintain transplanted hair. However, they typically complement a hair transplant by slowing down or stopping the progression of male pattern baldness minimizing the need for subsequent sessions.

Body hair transplants are performed, but to date, appear to be inconsistent. In my opinion, it is better to deplete your scalp donor hair before considering using body hair.

In my opinion, consult with a few first-rate hair transplant surgeons of your choice and let them evaluate your scalp to determine how much they estimate your available donor supply to be.

Bill (Falceros) - Associate Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q & A Blog.
To share ideas with other hair loss sufferers visit our Hair Restoration Discussion Forum.