Graft

A graft is a single [follicular unit](/glossary/follicular-unit) once it has been removed from the donor area, ready to be planted. Grafts are the unit transplants are counted and priced in.

Where you'll meet it

In every quote. Price per graft multiplied by graft count is how nearly every clinic in the world bills, and the graft count is the number that most separates one plan from another.

How many hairs is a graft?

One to four, averaging somewhere around two. A graft is one follicular unit, so a 2,500-graft case moves something like 5,000 to 6,000 hairs depending on your own mix of singles, doubles and triples. If a clinic quotes in hairs rather than grafts, the number roughly doubles for the same work.

How many grafts does each area take?

Roughly, and with wide variation between heads: a hairline alone is often 800 to 1,200, a hairline and frontal third commonly 2,000 to 2,500, both temples 400 to 800, and a crown 2,000 to 3,500 that can still look thin under overhead light. Against a lifetime donor supply of roughly 6,000 to 8,000, you can see why the order matters.

How is a graft priced?

Per graft, almost everywhere. In the US that is typically somewhere around $4 to $8 per graft, a little less in the UK, and a third to a half of that in the main overseas destinations, which often quote flat packages instead. Cost and funding has the fuller picture.

Because the total is a rate times a count the clinic chose, two quotes for the same head are often not comparable. A higher total can mean a dearer clinic or a more generous plan with your donor supply. Ask for both numbers separately, and ask how the count was arrived at.

Do all grafts grow?

No, and nobody can promise they will. Most grafts in a well-run operation survive, but some are lost to transection, to sitting too long outside the body, to drying out or to rough handling during placement. You only find out at around twelve months, and a clinic's policy on poor growth is worth getting in writing before you pay.

Why are grafts worth more than their price?

Because they come out of a finite donor area and do not regenerate. Every one spent at the crown at thirty is one unavailable at the hairline at fifty, and no amount of money buys more of them.

That is why it is worth asking how a generous graft count fits your lifetime plan, especially a quote of 5,000 in one session. Why quotes never match goes through what the spread between clinics actually tells you.

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