Your donor area is a finite resource. Understanding its capacity is crucial for making smart decisions about hair transplantation—both for your first procedure and any potential future sessions.
Protecting Your Donor
- Choose FUE over FUT for less visible scarring and flexibility
- Work with surgeons who respect extraction limits (no more than 30-40% depletion)
- Consider body hair (beard, chest) as supplemental donor for later procedures
- Maintain remaining native hair with finasteride/minoxidil to reduce future graft needs
Long-Term Planning
The best transplant surgeons think decades ahead. If you're 25 and a Norwood 3, you might progress to Norwood 5 or 6. Designing a hairline and using grafts with that trajectory in mind prevents the "island" effect where transplanted hair looks isolated as native hair continues to thin.
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