Many hair transplant clinics will base their pricing structure on how many grafts you will need to complete the procedure. This is a pretty basic pricing structure that is mostly uniform throughout the hair transplant industry. Some clinics will offer a discounted rate for the first 1,000 grafts then hike their price per graft up after 1,000. It is rare that a reputable hair transplant clinic will be able to give you a set-in-stone price on your hair transplant without getting an examination by one of their doctors first. So, if you are just looking in the mirror and guessing that you need a 3500 grafts hair transplant and want a solid figure in order to shop around, you are going to have some trouble.
Consultations Are the Best Way to Determine if You Need a 3500 Grafts Hair Transplant
Being able to just eyeball your bald spot and guess how many grafts you are going to need is a bit more complicated than just firing off a random estimation. Doing that is a good way to end up with a very unpleasant surprise when you do finally get that quote, after your consultation. A 3500 grafts hair transplant isn’t going to be cheap, and if you end up needing even more than 3500, you may even be looking at a second procedure to get all the grafts implanted.
Another factor that will affect just how many hair grafts you will need to get that look of a full head of thick, flowing hair is whether you are undergoing an FUE hair restoration or a FUT procedure. In the hair transplant industry, there is a great deal of debate on which of the techniques is best overall, and on if the hair follicle survivability is greater with the FUT method or the FUE technique.
Before we get into that, let’s take a look at the most common scale used to determine male pattern baldness, the Norwood Scale. Getting a good idea of how this scale works will be your first step in being able to determine if you are really going to need that 3500 grafts hair transplant, or if perhaps you might be able to skate by with fewer grafts to get the look you are after.
The Norwood Scale for Male Pattern Baldness
The Norwood scale, also known as the Hamilton-Norwood Scale was first introduced by James Hamilton back in the 1950s and was later updated by O’Tar Norwood in the 1970s. (Gupta & Mysore, 2016). The Norwood scale is only used to evaluate male pattern baldness as there are other scales for women, as well as other forms of hair loss.
Stage 1 of the Norwood scale is when there is no significant hair loss or recession of the hairline at all. Next, Stage 2 happens when there is just a slight recession, but only around the hairline. Stage 3 is when the hairline becomes significantly recessed at both temples, which then makes the hairline look like an M, U, or V shape. Additionally, Stage 3 also refers to a “vertex” classification of the stage, which means that the top of the scalp (vertex) is showing signs of hair loss.
Both stages 4 & 5 happen when the hair loss is more severe than in stage 3. There’s also the option of none, or very thinning hair on the vertex, but there is still a band of hair between the two areas of hair loss. Stage 6 is when the balding areas at the temples join the balding area of the vertex, with the band of hair across the top of the head being gone, or very thin and sparse. Stage 7 of the Norwood scale is the most severe stage and happens when the only hair on the head is a thin band going around the sides of the head.
What Stage of the Norwood Scale is Treatable by 3500 Grafts Hair Transplant?
A 3500 grafts hair transplant sounds like quite a bit of hair for a normal transplant. Considering that a normal hair graft generally contains two individual hairs, then 3500 hair grafts will be around 7000 hairs! That’s a lot, right? Unfortunately, not really.
Hair loss normally requires around 3,000 to 4,000 hair grafts just to treat a Norwood scale 3 and grade 3 vertex, and right around 3500 to 4500 grafts to treat a grade 4. Now this is not a set-in-stone, absolute number. A lot of factors will come into play when determining these results. Things like the quality of hair at the specified donor area for one. If your donor hair is super thick and healthy, then it will take fewer grafts to give your scalp the appearance of a full hair of hair. If your donor hair itself is thin and dying, it will take a great deal of more hair transplanted to get that same look.
One of the most important factors when it comes to the outcome of any hair transplant, be it a FUT or FUE procedure, is the skill and experience of the surgeon performing the surgery. Regardless of if you are at Norwood scale 5, or even stage 6 level of hair loss, or even if the only donor hair you have is thin and unhealthy, in the hands of an expert hair restoration specialist, some pretty miraculous results can occur. If you put your trust in an inexperienced surgeon with your hair transplant, the entire procedure could end up just being a giant waste of time, pain, and money.
Hair Graft Survival Using FUE and FUT
Every single hair transplant surgery is different. The types of hair and even the different progressions of hair loss are all unique. The ultimate goal of both the Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) and the Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) hair transplant methods is the same. To provide a natural-looking and dense coverage of hair, while taking care of the donor area as much as possible. The two procedures differ in how the hair follicles are extracted from the donor area, as in the FUT method, whole strips of hair-bearing tissue are removed, while with the FUE technique, individual hair follicles are extracted.
The FUT method has been around much longer than FUE. In the beginning days of the FUE hair transplant, the results of FUE were not as good as FUT with respect to density and coverage. This was mostly due to the inexperience the doctors had with the process in the beginning. The FUE method requires a great deal of skill in order to extract the tiny hair follicles in a way that the hair will survive and stay healthy. Many felt FUE grafts were more “fragile” than FUT grafts due to these various traumas and, therefore, possessed a greater risk of poor survival. (Beehner, 1999).
As the FUE technique evolved and matured, and as the FUE surgeons became more adept at the process, the survival rates of the hair follicles slowly became greater. However, the controversy persists to this day. Which method has the greatest hair graft survival rates, FUE or FUT? Most of the studies into this question have been small, only working with a few hundred grafts at a time. Hair grafts in studies like these are generally all handled very carefully and do not accurately reflect how they are handed during a 3500 grafts hair transplant.
FUE & FUT Study Information
One particular study consisted of three male patients all classified on the Norwood scale as stage 5 or greater, and none had any kind of prior hair restoration procedures. The right half of each patient’s scalp was delegated for FUT grafts, and the left side was delegated for an FUE transplant. There were two doctors who participated in the study, one had 15+ years of FUT procedures and the other had 8+ years’ experience in FUE transplants.
The results of this experiment were both surprising and underwhelming. For all practical purposes, both the FUT and FUE were equal in all the parameters, with FUE seeming to only have a small edge with respect to graft and yield counts. What the study did uncover is when there is a large number of hair grafts that do not survive transplantation, it is mostly due to how the graft is extracted, processed, and implanted. So, the whole study uncovered what was already pretty much common knowledge. The success of your hair transplant is largely dependent on the skill and experience of the doctor performing the procedure.
3500 Grafts Hair Transplant at Best Hair LA
After the results of this study were published in 2018, a great many hair transplant surgeons jacked up their prices claiming the increase was a reflection of their skill and experience and therefore, a reflection of the success rate of their hair transplants. Now, you might want to sit down for this one and brace yourself, doctors tend to have large egos. Yes, that’s right, surprise, surprise. I’m sure that you can see the issue here when it comes to hair transplant pricing structures.
Here at Best Hair LA, we know that we can set our prices for our 3500 grafts hair transplants according to the skill and experience of our hair restoration specialists. However, we have stepped outside of the norm and have revolutionized the hair transplant pricing structure. We set our FUT and FUE hair transplant prices so that everyone can afford them, while still providing the most experienced and skilled hair transplant surgeons to perform the surgeries.
For 16 years we have been helping people get that full head of hair that they deserve so that they can look and feel their very best. Having hair is not just a self-confidence issue, although how you feel about yourself is very important, but it’s understood that how you look will influence how other people will treat you. Our doctors will sit down with you, for free, and discuss exactly what you expect from your hair transplant, as well as give you a thorough examination. This will allow us to advise you and what kind of hair restoration service would be best for you and your needs.
Don’t wait, call us today to set up your free consultation with one of our hair restoration specialists.
SUFFERING FROM HAIR LOSS?
Best Hair Transplant is the best place to schedule your hair transplant in Los Angeles. We’ve helped both men and women regrow their lost hair. But don’t take our word for it. We suggest learning as much as possible about hair restoration. Do so prior to making a decision on how to address your hair loss. Not every procedure is right for everyone.
At Best Hair Transplant, we’re proud of our results and happy to provide hair restoration services. Additionally, we’re proud to make hair transplants affordable and help you save money on a variety of hair transplants. To ensure your ease of mind, you can view our customer recommendations HERE. Furthermore, you can also see our Google reviews and Yelp reviews. We can’t wait to help you start restoring your lost hair.
YOUR HAIR RESTORATION SOLUTION
Best Hair Transplant
1970 S. Prospect Ave., Suite 2
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(213) 403-0455
References
- Beehner, M. (1999). A comparison of hair growth between follicular unit grafts trimmed “skinny” vs. “chubby.”. Hair Transplant Forum Int’l
- Gupta, M., & Mysore, V. (2016). Classifications of Patterned Hair Loss: A Review. Journal of Cutaneous and Aesthetic Surgery
