If one is totally bald and there is enough donor hair, could one expect to see at best 30 percent coverage on the top of their head with a hair transplant? Thanks.

Answer:

A patient's hair transplant result will depend on a patient’s balding area to cover, their available donor hair supply, placement, and hair characteristics. If we are talking strictly about numbers, under the best circumstances, a class 5A on the Norwood scale of hair loss could probably only achieve 40% full restoration if the grafts are evenly distributed. This is where placement and hair characteristics become extremely important in achieving the densest and most natural looking results. Since the hairline and frontal core is seen most often by other people, hair restoration physicians typically place more hair in the frontal region and then taper density off as they go back toward the crown. Though the crown typically results in looking thinner, a light covering of hair typically looks a lot better than a bald spot. Additionally, “shingling” (a process by which hairs are placed like shingles rather than in straight rows) is often utilized in order to maximize the appearance of hair density. Thus, many hair transplant patients can portray the illusion of a full head of hair from the front since density is maximized in those areas without totally sacrificing at least some coverage in the crown.

Bill Seemiller (Falceros) - Associate Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q & A Blog.
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