Dr. Cole's Comments

 
The objectives are possible depending on the head donor hair. It is hard to see the density in a photo or to perceive the quality of the hair (fine Vs. coarse). It is always difficult to quote a count to a person with this degree of hair loss. In the past I simply discouraged the individual to have a hair transplant. With the advent of body hair and FUE, it may be possible to achieve unbelievable results in individuals with this advanced degree of loss.

I expect you to begin loosing some hair in the donor area when you enter your 50s. This means that some of the hair you transplant to the top will later on fall out. Hair loss is a life time process. Just because you are 40 and a NW 7 does not mean that you will not have additional loss later on. This may necessitate future work.

Returning you to a class 3 is a good plan. It may or may not be possible. Certainly, it will require some body hair most likely.

I suspect you will do at least 2 sessions and each session can be several days long. The frontal area is much easier to accomplish in one session. Any time we work in the back, more than one session is more likely. I suspect that you will want a high class 3 hair line. This certainly can be done.

Cost can be significant. I would start you with somewhere in the 4000 to 5000 graft range in a single session that would consist of some body hair and mostly scalp hair. We charge 8.00 per graft for scalp and 12.00 per graft for body hair. We still do not know if all the body hair will grow or whether you can expect only 50%. Probably it will all grow, but it will take 2 to 3 years for all of it to come in. Best of luck.

This is a very complex case due to the advanced degree of loss. You have lost well over 70% of your scalp hair and scalp follicular units. This means you have lost 25,000 to 28,000 follicular units. Typically we tell patients that they may need up to 50% of the lost units to have the illusion of fullness. Therefore an equivalent of 12,500 to 14,000 follicular units should give you a really good result. The problem is that you do not have that many unless you can resort to body hair. This is why I tended to tell a class 7 it simply was not possible. It may be possible with body hair though.

Still early in the game to make rapid judgements about body hair in my opinion. Of course if you only want to be a class 3v, we may be able to do this much easier.

Dr. Cole
www.forhair.com
800 368 4247