Grafts and Follicular Units vs Coverage

Grafts or follicular units (FU) should be the same thing when discussed in a hair transplant, an FU is the natural group of hairs in the donor and the graft is the extracted natural group of hairs, anything from 1 to 4 hairs together.

These should be extracted, be it FUT or FUE as they are in the donor, not transected or split to make up more “grafts”. The hair count is a very important aspect to a HT, 4000 grafts means very little unless you know how many hairs, could be 4000 or maybe close to 10,000 hairs and that will obviously give a huge difference to a result. The FU are distributed in a educated pattern over the recipient, not just randomly but in certain areas; the single hair FU are always used in the immediate front of your hair line, slightly feathered placement so not a flat straight line but one that looks slightly uneven and natural. The number of singles required can be around 600 FU/grafts to make a hair line just 2-3mm depth because they have to be placed at around 60-70 FU per cm2 otherwise the result will look thin and pluggy. Behind the hair line the larger hair groups are used to increase the density, 2,3, and 4 hair FU are distributed in specific areas to ensure the result is not thin or see through. The density placed per cm2 is less than the hair line, and can range from maybe 30 to 50 FU cm2 dependent on hair calibre and number of hairs in each unit. Although the placed density drops you will achieve more thickness than the hair line because more hairs are being placed.

The crown works differently to the mid and front of your scalp, the placement of the hair moving almost in concentric cycles does not allow for so much coverage or thickness being achieved per FU/graft, the crown is notorious for requiring a good 30% per surface area to cover with the same thickness than the mid and frontal areas. This is why many doctor’s are reluctant to treat crowns, partly because the artistic design is hard and many cannot do and secondly because unless your donor supply is very good you may use a large part of your reserve on a relatively small area and not be able to effectively treat your long term hair loss properly. A crown of 60 cm2, a very low placed density of 20 FU cm2 will require around 1200 grafts, this would cover but not look thick in anyway, 40 FU cm2 placed density 2400 would be able to give you more like a normal looking coverage and density. The frontal area of 72, forget the immediate hair line of singles for a moment, this will need a density between 35-50 FU dependent on the number of hairs per FU, so could require 3000 or so plus the singles for the hair line will take the area close to 3500 to 4000 grafts. The above is only a calculation and HT is never as simple as that, many variables, but it is obviously an indication, around 6000 grafts would give you a coverage as a NW5 with a thinner density look on the crown than the frontal and mid sections. Obviously other aspects like hair line position will play a large part, the more aggressive you go the less coverage you will achieve and crown cover may not be possible.