Diagnosis: 3,500 Grafts on Patient of Indian Descent

This patient is a male in his mid-30’s who presented with classic Norwood VI level hair loss. Like many advanced Norwood patients, he wanted to restore as much as possible in one sitting. Preferably, he wanted to achieve coverage from “front to back.” Typically, we advise patients against this. High Norwood Class patients are best served by undergoing two FUT mega-sessions of around 2,500 – 3,000 grafts: one to restore the frontal half first, and a second to restore the “back” half at a later date. However, this patient had very favorable hair and skin characteristics; he had thick, dark, dense donor hair and tan skin-tones. This meant his hair would provide good coverage and the low color contrast between his skin-tone and hair-tone would create the appearance of thicker hair – even with a medium density pass. So, we believed an “as much as possible” or “AMAP” FUT mega-session would allow us to achieve his goals. We ended up removing 3,500 grafts in one sitting and did a strategic pass with slightly lower than average density. We still weighted the frontal half more than the back, but “spread” the grafts for more coverage versus density in general. The patient returned 12 months later, happy to report that the plan worked. He now had coverage from the front to the mid-crown and a truly transformed appearance.