Hair Transplant advice needed - how many grafts?

[koops]

Hey guys. Wanted to get a hair transplant sometime in early 2027. Min+Fin over the past 9 months has made my hair much more thick and dense which has been huge but unfortunately it's still recessed at the temples and there doesn't seem to have been much regrowth there. Here are some pictures

How many grafts should I be looking at here? I'm mostly looking for the temples to be improved. The side view is definitely more of my concern here (and as you can see one side is worse than the other). I'll start consulting about it soon but I figured I'd ask you guys for an extimate as well, some clinics are too convervative with guys who don't have severe balding. I should also note I don't have any crown balding, all good there.
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Of course I'd also appreciate any surgeon suggestions too, be they in Turkey or otherwise

Please don't roast my weird forehead shape ok

 

[vermicel]

Based on those pics, I don't think you're a HT candidate. Besides, considering your age (less than 25yo ?) and the fact that you've been on meds for less than a year only, most ethical HT doctors are likely to advise you to wait it out.

That said, you're blessed to live in British Columbia, and one of the very best HT clinics happens to be located in Vancouver : Hasson & Wong. They used to be regarded as possibly the best in the world back in the 2000s and early 2010 with the FUT/strip technique, and were the ones who pushed the boundaries of "megasessions" (>3000 FUs sessions) and "gigasessions" (>5000 FUs sessions). Under pressure from an evolving market that would heavily favor the FUE technique, Dr. Wong progressively adapted to this trend around the mid 2010s. I could be w(r)ong, but I think Dr. Hasson retired somewhere in the late 2010s -early 2020s. Both have probably trained younger doctors to carry on surgeries at their clinic in Vancouver, but I haven't kept myself updated in the past >5 years, so I don't know their names and actual skill level.

Still in Canada, Dr. Nakatsui in Edmonton and Dr. Rahal in Ottawa used to be top picks, and probably still are to this day.
Maybe a new generation of skilled Canadian HT specialists has arisen these past 5 years or so, but I'm not aware of that. Anyway, it takes several years of training & practice to become technically proficient and to gather the right team of assistants, so these new docs would have been at it for a while already.

Getting back to your inquiry : you can guesstimate the number of grafts needed to achieve your goal by drawing the desired hairline and dividing the transplanted area into 1 cm² squares.
The first 0.6 cm behind that desired hairline should be transplanted with single hair grafts at a density of around 50 grafts per cm² (Dr. Nakatsui actually published a seminal study on grafts' survival rates and determined that 50 units/cm² was the optimal choice ; "dense-packing" above that threshold yielded lower survival rates, although it remained technically possible to go up to ~70 units/cm²).
The next 0.4 cm behind that line can be transplanted with 2 hair grafts, at around 40 grafts per cm².
Beyond that first cm, a mix of 2 and 3 hair grafts can be transplanted, at around 30+ grafts per cm².
Of course, these numbers can be adjusted depending on the patient's hair characteristics (caliber, texture, color contrast with the skin), on surrounding hairy areas (for optimal blending), and on how the scalp reacts to graft insertions during surgery (some scalps are easier to work on than others and will allow higher transplanted densities).

 

[Jgns]

while ur focused on the hairline and temple area, hairloss does work like a gradient alot of the time. Pulling ur hairback like that causes an illusion of density in the midscalp. When u bring it down, imagine you transplanated the sides and temple area to a healthy nw1 shape and density, would the middle part be dense enough natively as it is rn? Cause that could really increase the amount of hair grafts you need. My hairline is kinda like urs with like thinner hairs in the nw1 region, personally im getting a forehead reduction to not waste too many grafts on those ares but u prolly dont need it. Anyways hair is fucking law bro

 

[Jgns]

Prolly 2000ish tho

 

[koops]

Based on those pics, I don't think you're a HT candidate. Besides, considering your age (less than 25yo ?) and the fact that you've been on meds for less than a year only, most ethical HT doctors are likely to advise you to wait it out.

That said, you're blessed to live in British Columbia, and one of the very best HT clinics happens to be located in Vancouver : Hasson & Wong. They used to be regarded as possibly the best in the world back in the 2000s and early 2010 with the FUT/strip technique, and were the ones who pushed the boundaries of "megasessions" (>3000 FUs sessions) and "gigasessions" (>5000 FUs sessions). Under pressure from an evolving market that would heavily favor the FUE technique, Dr. Wong progressively adapted to this trend around the mid 2010s. I could be w(r)ong, but I think Dr. Hasson retired somewhere in the late 2010s -early 2020s. Both have probably trained younger doctors to carry on surgeries at their clinic in Vancouver, but I haven't kept myself updated in the past >5 years, so I don't know their names and actual skill level.

Still in Canada, Dr. Nakatsui in Edmonton and Dr. Rahal in Ottawa used to be top picks, and probably still are to this day.
Maybe a new generation of skilled Canadian HT specialists has arisen these past 5 years or so, but I'm not aware of that. Anyway, it takes several years of training & practice to become technically proficient and to gather the right team of assistants, so these new docs would have been at it for a while already.

Getting back to your inquiry : you can guesstimate the number of grafts needed to achieve your goal by drawing the desired hairline and dividing the transplanted area into 1 cm² squares.
The first 0.6 cm behind that desired hairline should be transplanted with single hair grafts at a density of around 50 grafts per cm² (Dr. Nakatsui actually published a seminal study on grafts' survival rates and determined that 50 units/cm² was the optimal choice ; "dense-packing" above that threshold yielded lower survival rates, although it remained technically possible to go up to ~70 units/cm²).
The next 0.4 cm behind that line can be transplanted with 2 hair grafts, at around 40 grafts per cm².
Beyond that first cm, a mix of 2 and 3 hair grafts can be transplanted, at around 30+ grafts per cm².
Of course, these numbers can be adjusted depending on the patient's hair characteristics (caliber, texture, color contrast with the skin), on surrounding hairy areas (for optimal blending), and on how the scalp reacts to graft insertions during surgery (some scalps are easier to work on than others and will allow higher transplanted densities).

As of lately I am now the ripe old age of 26. But it's interesting to hear that there are some really good guys in Vancouver. Of course the downside of that is that cosmetic surgery in Canada is very expensive, but it is still worth looking into. I'm surprised you know so much about Canadian docs though are you also a Leaf? Have you been my countryman this whole time?

I'm wondering why you think I'm not a HT candidate tho

while ur focused on the hairline and temple area, hairloss does work like a gradient alot of the time. Pulling ur hairback like that causes an illusion of density in the midscalp. When u bring it down, imagine you transplanated the sides and temple area to a healthy nw1 shape and density, would the middle part be dense enough natively as it is rn? Cause that could really increase the amount of hair grafts you need. My hairline is kinda like urs with like thinner hairs in the nw1 region, personally im getting a forehead reduction to not waste too many grafts on those ares but u prolly dont need it. Anyways hair is fucking law bro

Good point, I double checked it and thankfully the middle truly is dense enough. And yeah, 2000 grafts seems to be a good amount for more minor cases like mine