Bernstein Medical Center for Hair Restoration

How Many Hair Transplants Will I Need?

Q: How Many Hair Transplants Will I Need? — E.E., New York, N.Y.

A: The first session of a hair transplant should be designed as a stand-alone procedure with the following three goals:

Establishing a permanent frame to the face by creating, or reinforcing, the frontal hairline.
Providing coverage to the thinning, or bald, areas of the scalp with the hair transplant extending at least to the vertex transition point.
Adding sufficient density so that the result will look natural.

Achieving all of these goals will allow the first procedure to stand on its own.

Because of this, many people feel one hair transplant is sufficient.

Reasons for Second Hair Transplant

While the first session of a hair transplant is designed to stand on its own, there are several reasons why one would want a second hair transplant, such as increasing the density in a previously transplanted area; refining the hairline created in the first transplant; focusing on increased crown coverage, when appropriate; or addressing further hair loss that’s occurred after the first transplant.

Because of this last reason, addressing further hair loss, careful patient evaluation and surgical planning is needed to take into account your donor reserve and the likely extent of any future balding in the planning of your first transplant session.

Wait at least 10 to 12 months Before Getting a Second Hair Transplant

If a second transplant is warranted, patients are advised to wait at least 10 to 12 months after the first transplant before considering a second. This is because over the course of the first year, the first transplanted hairs have grown in and the progressive increase in a hair’s diameter, texture and length can markedly change the look of the hair restoration — this may influence the way a patient wants to groom his/her hair, and only after the hair has reached styling length can the patient and physician make the best aesthetic judgments regarding the placement of additional grafts.

For patients having an FUT (strip) procedure, another reason to delay a second hair transplant session for this time period is that scalp laxity will continue to improve making the donor hair easier to harvest.

You can view our Hair Transplant Photos by the number of sessions each patient has had:

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D.

Can A Hair Transplant Completely Replace My Lost Hair?

Q: I have a significant amount of hair loss. Can a hair transplant make me look exactly the way I did before I lost my hair? — V.S., Fairfield, C.T.

A: In most cases, the answer is no. All surgical hair restoration procedures move hair – they cannot create new hair. Specifically, surgical hair transplantation takes existing hair from the donor area (located in the back and on the sides of the scalp) and moves (transplants) them to the part of the scalp that has lost hair. It is usually the case that there is not enough hair in one’s donor area to replace all lost hair. That said, in persons with extensive hair loss, the restoration can often produce a dramatic improvement in one’s appearance.

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D.

If I Was Told That I Am Not A Good Candidate For An FUT Procedure Can I Have FUE?

Q: At one time, I was told my donor area was not sufficient for an FUT hair transplant procedure. Does this also mean I’m not qualified for a FUE procedure either? — K.K., Houston, T.X.

A: Great question. You are not giving me quite enough information to answer your question specifically, so I will answer in more general terms. If your donor hair supply was not good enough to do FUT (i.e. you have too little donor hair and too much bald area to cover) then most likely you will not be a candidate for FUE either, since both procedures require, and use up, donor hair. That said, if don’t need that much donor hair, but the nature of your donor area is such that a linear FUT scar might be visible then FUE might be useful.

An example would be the case in which a person has limited hair loss in the front of his scalp, has relatively low donor density, and wants to keep his hair on the short sides. In this case, FUT would not be appropriate as you might see the line scar, but we might be able to harvest enough hair through FUE to make the procedure cosmetically worthwhile. Remember, with low density neither procedure will yield that much hair to be used in the recipient area.

Another example is an Asian whose hair emerges perpendicular from the scalp so that a line incision is difficult to hide, i.e. the hair will not lie naturally over it. A third example is where the patient’s scalp is very tight. In this case, the donor density might be adequate, but it would just be hard to access it using a strip FUT procedure. In this case, FUE would also be appropriate.

From these situations, one can see that the decision to perform FUE vs FUT, or even a hair transplant at all, can be quite nuanced and requires a careful evaluation by a hair restoration surgeon with expertise in both procedures.

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D.

Will Multiple Hair Transplant Procedures Improve Hair Density?

Q: I was told that I have low hair density in the donor area. Will multiple hair transplant procedures improve the results of my hair restoration? — J.G., Hoboken, NJ

A: Yes, but subsequent procedures would be smaller and there is a point of diminishing returns where additional procedures would yield so little hair that they would not be practical. There is a finite donor supply and once this is tapped, no more hair transplants are possible, regardless if one uses FUT or FUE.

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D.