There are some people who are interested in doing a hair transplant and who want to fill a large area. The larger the area you want to cover, the more grafts (groups of hair follicles) that need to be transplanted.
There are specific reasons why we choose to do two hair transplants instead of one when a large area is to be covered.
Those who want to cover a larger area with just one hair transplant may need to have two procedures instead of one.
When we need to cover an area that requires us to transplant more than 3500-4000 grafts, we usually do two operations.
The reason why we divide a hair transplant into two procedures is due to two factors. One reason why we do not transplant many grafts in one procedure is because the survival rate of the hair follicle groups decreases.
This is because the hair follicle groups can only survive for a limited time outside the body. If a procedure takes too long, there is a risk that the hair follicles will die, leading to a less successful result.
The dead hair follicles cannot produce hair and therefore you will not get a result with as high a density. That’s why we do two procedures if many grafts are to be transplanted. to increase the likelihood that any grafts we transplant will survive.
The second reason is that there is a risk of so-called over harvesting. This means that more grafts are taken from the donation area, usually from the neck, than can actually be harvested.
The result of over harvesting is that the donation area looks thin-haired. Picking many grafts in one procedure increases the risk of picking too many. Instead, we choose to split a large hair transplant into two procedures.
After the first procedure, it is easier to see how the donor area is healing and therefore how many grafts can be harvested in a second procedure to keep it looking good.
