Unlimited hair transplants. Reality or myth?

One of the questions I am often asked is how much is an unlimited hair transplant? Since this question is asked quite often, I will try to answer it in detail in this article.

I must state unequivocally that there is no unlimited hair transplantation, it is not even possible. What do we mean by unlimited? Everyone, every individual has a certain area of hair loss and also a certain donor area, which is the back of the head, the nape of the neck. If the patient's area of hair loss is large and 5000-6000 hair follicles, grafts (hair) are needed to cover this area, we can remove only 3000 grafts from the donor area. So this time I have a question. Can we talk about unlimited hair transplants here?

Unlimited hair transplant means that any number of hair transplants can be performed on the patient's hair loss area. This is impossible scientifically and within the framework of what I explained above. That is, the number of hair and grafts to be removed from the donor area is limited. Then another question arises. Why was the concept of "unlimited hair transplantation" created?

The answer is simple. This is a confidential marketing, advertising product. It is an advertising item created by hair transplant clinics to attract more patients and I must reiterate that unlimited hair transplant is a myth, baseless and impossible to achieve.

Dear reader, everyone has a certain number of hairs (grafts) that can be removed from the nape of the neck. During the operation, we remove the graft from the patient's donor area to the maximum possible site and transfer it to the hair transplant area. Depending on the patients, this is sometimes done in 1 session and sometimes in 2 sessions. If we observe that the patient's donor area is weak, and the area of hair loss is large, that is, it is not possible to close the area of hair loss in 2 sessions, then we do not recommend hair transplantation to the patient. Because both the removed grafts will not cover the area of hair loss, and the hair taken from the donor area will lead to thinning of that area. Why thinning? Remember that the hair removed from the donor area does not regenerate. For this reason, in hair transplantation operations, we remove the grafts with a special methodology, in a zig-zag shape, so that the nape area does not lose its appearance.

Dr. Araz Amirov

Member of the International Association of Dermatologists