Dense Packing During A Hair Transplant: What Should You Do?

Dr. Anil Shah and Dr. Benjamin Paul discuss common questions that are asked regarding hair restoration treatments and procedures. They dive deep into the topic of dense packing during a hair transplant. Click on the video below to hear the discussion.

Dr. Shah:

Sometimes patients will ask about intensely packing the hair. They'll say, can you densely packed my hair? I want to have as many here as you can per square cm. What are some of the drawbacks and some of the pros of doing that? And do you think you'll get every one of those fears growing if you put them so close together?

Dr. Ben Paul:

There are clearly aesthetic improvements. If you can get a density where you don't see as much scalp, but there's no way that a hair transplant can be packed as dense as natural childhood hair, like a teenage hair is going to grow because each one of these follicles, these seeds has a volume and the scalp has to accept that volume. If you overly dense pack, you're going to get a lot of scar tissue, which is going to make future transplants challenging, and you can disrupt blood supply and get a horrible complication called necrosis, which I've happily never seen in real life, in my own hands. I saw it through an email from a patient who went abroad to Turkey and wanted help. And I asked the patient to see, to speak with their surgeon about it because I don't know what happened during their operation.

Dr. Shah:

Yeah, I think the same thing with densely packing. It's one of those things that what patients don't realize the name of the procedure is “hair transplantation.” What you're literally doing is taking a hair organ and transplanting to another area. So, to give each hair a proper opportunity to survive, you have to have enough blood supply. And I don't think you can properly nourish 50 grafts per square cm. It's just not possible. So that's why I think in some cases it's better to give them a result. And then if you have to, you can always add more hairs later depending on how densely they want their hair packed. And depending on their other hair loss. So that's kind of one of the things we talked to our patients in advance.

Dr. Ben Paul

I completely agree. And I think that I tell each patient, like, I'm not trying to make it look like you didn't have hair loss. I'm just helping you look your best now and age in a way that looks sort of appropriate and natural appearing. And so it's a mindset shift. And once you're dealing with hair loss, it's no longer about perfect. It's about beautiful camouflage.

To hear this whole interview, check out our podcast, “MASTERS OF BEAUTY” available on Apple Podcast, I Heart Radio, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts!