Why we quote fewer grafts than the clinic that undercut us
Graft count is the easiest number in this industry to inflate. Here is how donor reserve is actually calculated, and what over-harvesting costs you a decade later.
Reviewed by Dr. Mert Kılıç, Head of Hair Restoration
Graft count is the number every clinic competes on, and it is the easiest number in this industry to inflate. A graft is not a hair: a single follicular unit may carry one, two, three or occasionally four hairs, so two clinics quoting the same graft figure can be proposing very different amounts of hair.
Donor reserve is finite. The safe donor area holds a fixed lifetime supply, and every session spends part of it permanently. Harvesting aggressively in a first procedure can produce an impressive twelve-month photograph and leave a patient without the reserve to address further recession a decade later — which is the point at which most people need it.
Our planning therefore starts from the donor, not from the recipient. We measure density, calibre and laxity, estimate lifetime supply, then design a hairline that the supply can support at every future stage of thinning. Where that means quoting fewer grafts than the clinic that undercut us, we explain why in writing, with the measurements attached.