Fewer than 5% of hair restoration surgeries involve over 4000 grafts [1], so among well-reputed hair clinics, an 8000-graft hair transplant is almost unheard of. That is because most patients have neither advanced enough alopecia to warrant this extraordinary graft volume, nor sufficient healthy hair follicles in their donor area to support it. However, where there’s a will, there is a way, so this kind of surgery is sometimes performed, in rare situations. Find out everything about how, when and why that can happen.
This article answers the most frequent questions about 8000-graft hair transplants. It provides scientific information about the conditions under which such a procedure can be safely performed, the kind of hair loss that might make it necessary and the risks it could involve. You can also find ways to estimate the transplant costs, tips for avoiding red flags in clinics that offer this surgery and alternatives in case this high-volume hair transplant is not right for you.
Key takeaways
An 8000-graft hair transplant is technically possible, but it is very rarely performed safely. That is because most people with alopecia that is advanced enough to require such a massive volume of grafts don’t have that many grafts left in their donor area. Moreover, the surgery would be very long and complex, and it would likely need to be performed over several sessions. Getting an 8000-graft megasession would be quite taxing on the patient, as well as the surgical team performing it.
Most reputable hair transplant clinics do not recommend or perform such high-volume procedures. They can normally obtain good results with fewer grafts or recommend safer, non-surgical methods to disguise extensive alopecia (e.g. hair systems for men).
However, if you can find a good clinic willing and equipped for this, you may be able to get an 8000-graft hair transplant if you are completely bald or close to it. But you will need to use some of your body hair to supplement your graft number (a procedure called combination grafting) [2].
Few studies in the surgical literature report the successful transplantation of 8,000 hair grafts or more, and they all involve a combination of scalp and body hair.
A 2020 study [2] on combination grafting reveals that the surgeons performed an 8000-graft hair transplant on one patient with Norwood stage 7 hair loss. They performed the procedure in 2 consecutive sessions. 5000 of the grafts they used were harvested from the patients’ scalp, the rest from their bodies (mostly their beard and chest). The results appeared to be very good.
Another study [3] details the cases of 3 patients with advanced baldness and other scalp problems (e.g. scarring, previous failed hair transplants) who had over 8000-graft procedures. The first patient had severe scarring on his scalp and got 21.000 body hair grafts and 1000 scalp hair grafts. The second patient received 10.000 body hair grafts to repair a hair transplant that had gone wrong. The final patient, with Nowood stage 6 male pattern baldness, got 21.000 body hair grafts and 6000 scalp hair grafts.
All three procedures were performed during multiple sessions spanning several months. They were all deemed successful and had satisfying results. However, the authors point out that body hair survival rates are smaller than those of scalp hair (only 75-80%, compared to over 90%) [3].
Normally, an 8000-graft hair transplant may be an option for patients who are willing and eligible to opt for body hair transplantation to supplement the number of available grafts. This means they will almost always be men, as beard hair makes up for 73.5% of body hair grafts used, followed by chest (13.3%) and abdomen hair (4.8%) [1]. Moreover, the more healthy hair they have left on their scalp donor area, the better their chances of achieving a natural-looking hair transplant.
Only very extensive alopecia requires an exceptionally high volume of grafts, such as 8000. This would be consistent with Norwood stage 6-7 male pattern baldness. Men with superficial scarring on a large surface of their scalp or who had previous, failed high-volume procedures may also be eligible for it (although hair transplants into scar tissue are not always possible).
Many patients with a severe form of alopecia areata (e.g. alopecia totalis) wonder if they would make good candidates for a hair transplant with a large number of grafts. Unfortunately, in most situations, that is not possible, as this autoimmune condition would also affect the grafted hair.
Harvesting and reimplanting 8000 hair grafts would involve a lengthy procedure, normally spread over multiple sessions. It would require harvesting all the healthy hair that you can spare from the back of your head, as well as some additional grafts from your beard, chest, or other parts of your body. This would likely be achieved through a combination of the two main harvesting procedures, called follicular unit extraction and follicular unit transplantation (to be discussed).
The surgeon would carefully harvest the grafts from the back of your head and your beard and/or a different, hair-covered part of your body. They then process the grafts and insert them into small slits prepared in advance in your transplant area.
Since it’s a very high-volume procedure that would cover most or all of your scalp, the surgeon would need to create very many spaces for the grafts to be inserted. And the transplantation process is quite laborious, as each graft needs to be inserted manually at the right depth, angle and density to ensure a natural-looking effect. Using a combination of scalp and body hair can complicate this process further, as the surgeon needs to blend hairs of different lengths and textures seamlessly.
Most hair transplants are performed either through follicular unit transplantation (FUT) or follicular unit extraction (FUE). FUT involves harvesting a strip of skin approximately 1–1.5 x 15–30 cm in size and 4-5 mm in thickness from the back of your head [4]. The strip is then cut up into grafts. When performing FUE, the surgeon harvests each graft individually from your donor area. While FUT is significantly quicker to perform, it will leave a fine scar on your donor area. FUE is more laborious, but it offers a faster recovery and virtually no scarring.
When it comes to an 8000-graft procedure, a mix of FUE and FUT on the scalp may be your best option to make the most of all the healthy follicles you can spare. Your surgeon would thus harvest a strip of skin just like in FUT surgery, and then collect additional follicles through FUE. If you will be using body hair to supplement your grafts, the harvesting is done exclusively by FUE [5].
While the Wimpole Clinic does not normally perform 8000-graft procedures, here are Dr Dinesh Patel’s recommendations for a 5000-graft hair transplant, applicable to most high-volume surgeries:
For a 5,000-graft hair transplant, I would recommend a combination of FUT and FUE. FUT allows harvesting a large number of grafts—usually around 3,000 to 3,500—in one session, which is great for maximising graft yield. Then, I would use FUE to extract the remaining 1,500 to 2,000 grafts, which helps avoid a second linear scar and preserves the donor area.
This combined approach balances getting the most grafts possible while minimising visible scarring and protecting the donor region. I generally wouldn’t recommend FUE alone for 5,000 grafts unless the patient has an exceptionally dense donor area, because extracting that many grafts with FUE alone can risk thinning out the donor site.
A scalp hair graft can yield between 1-4 individual hairs (though the average is around 2-3). However, most body hair grafts only contain single fibres [5]. This means that the number of hairs you can get from 8000 grafts largely depends on the part of the body where they are sourced:
However, this doesn’t take into account graft survival rates, which differ for different parts of the body. They range from 75% for chest hair to >98% for scalp hair harvested and processed under the right conditions [5]. But beard hair grafts are the most commonly used, and their survival rates are the closest to those of scalp hair (around 95%) [5].
Normally, 8000 grafts should be sufficient to cover your entire scalp and provide you with adequate cosmetic hair density. This means your scalp should no longer be visible through your hair. So if you can secure this high graft volume, you should no longer have any significant bald spots.
However, this largely depends on the part of your body where you sourced your grafts. If most of them are harvested from your chest, arms or legs, where the hair is shorter and softer, and each graft only yields a single fibre, you may still have some thinning areas left.
It is not only that you can use body hair to supplement your available scalp hair grafts, but you will almost certainly have to use them. That is because the average safe donor area of a healthy person’s scalp normally yields approximately 6000 grafts. If you are experiencing advanced androgenetic alopecia or have already had previous surgical hair restorations, your donor area will likely contain significantly fewer. This means supplementation will likely be required to achieve 8000 grafts.
It is generally not a good idea to get such a massive hair restoration surgery. Besides the usual hair transplant risks, high-volume procedures, such as 8000-graft surgeries, have their own potential complications. Here is what you need to be aware of:
In patients with a reasonably healthy scalp, the surgeon could harvest approximately 50% of the hair follicles in their donor area without making it look sparse [5][6]. In fortunate cases, a man with a large donor area may be able to obtain as many as 6500-7500 grafts (though most cannot achieve that many) [5]. However, if the patient is experiencing advanced baldness and their hair density is already lower, extracting that many grafts runs a serious risk of hair transplant overharvesting. This means the back of your head may be left patchy, sparse or with major scarring.
An average patient with advanced baldness can normally obtain between 0 (especially if they had a previous procedure) and 4000 grafts from their scalp [5]. If a clinic promises to get you much more than that, it usually means that your donor area may be left with major cosmetic problems. Or that their surgeons harvest and transplant unhealthy hair follicles from outside the safe donor area, which will later fall out.
Our experienced surgeon, Dr Peter Barron, explains the need to balance the desire to harvest a high number of grafts with the need to maintain adequate donor area density:
Equally, a very important factor to consider is the number of grafts that they may be able to safely extract from the donor area without it looking sparse, and therefore prevent a new area of concern from forming. Sometimes, what a patient may “need” to reconstruct their recipient area to a reasonable extent isn’t actually possible because they don’t have enough hair to extract from the back of their head. I try to explain this in terms of “supply and demand” in which the supply of hairs that can safely be taken from the back of the head can’t fully meet the demand of the area at the recipient area and therefore compromise may have to happen in which the reconstruction is over a limited area, at a reduced density or not going ahead with a procedure at all if it is unlikely to meet their expectations.
Several things can make your hair transplant go wrong when aiming for such a high volume. Here are some of them [5][7]:
While some surgeons claim a mega-session of this volume is possible [8X], it is not normally recommended to get an 8000-graft hair transplant in a single session. The surgery would take very long – 14-16 hours or more. This can have several negative consequences:
Here is how our excellent surgeon, Dr Patel, explains his preference for performing high-volume hair transplants in multiple sessions:
Even when a patient is eligible for a high graft count, I personally prefer to perform the procedure in multiple sessions. This approach allows me to concentrate on one area at a time with precision, reduce surgical stress, and give the patient the best chance of natural-looking, lasting results.
Research shows that only a small proportion of men experience Norwood stage 6-7 male pattern baldness and even fewer do so under the age of 50 (>1% – 10% of all men with this condition, depending on participant age and ethnicity) [9][10]. Moreover, according to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgeons (ISHRS), only 5% of first hair restoration surgeries require a 4000-graft hair transplant or more [1].
So, unless you have very extensive hair loss, you may not need 8000 grafts to obtain adequate scalp coverage. This article about how many hair grafts you might need for a natural-looking result can help you get a better idea of your total graft requirements. However, only a hair transplant surgeon can give you a definitive answer, upon examining and measuring your donor and transplant areas.
It is common for some unethical hair transplant clinics to recommend unnecessarily high-volume procedures, which can result in donor area sparseness. The promise of safely harvesting an unlimited or excessive number of grafts is, in fact, one of many Turkish hair transplant clinic red flags to look out for when getting hair restoration surgery abroad.
The main reason for this shady practice is that the clinics which employ it attract their clients by advertising low costs per graft. So they have to recommend a higher number of grafts than you need to make a good profit. While hair transplant costs in the UK are higher than in Turkey, our research shows that Turkish surgeons recommend, on average, almost double the number of grafts than those in the UK. This means that an 8000-graft surgery performed there may only require 4500-5000 grafts in the UK.
Hair transplants last forever, so you need to be able to fully trust the surgeon performing your procedure. That is why getting a second opinion is crucial whenever you are unsure whether you were recommended the right number of grafts.
All you need to do to obtain one is to book a free hair transplant consultation with one of our world-class surgeons. We take pride in never using any more grafts than absolutely necessary. And we will be happy to provide you with detailed explanations about how we arrived at our graft estimation and what results you can expect. Here is how our dedicated surgeon, Dr Patel, explains his process for deciding to carry out a high-volume hair transplant:
When deciding whether to carry out a high-volume hair transplant in a single session or over multiple sessions, I consider a number of important factors.
First, I look at the condition of the donor area—both its density and overall health—to ensure we can safely extract the required number of grafts without compromising future options.
I also take into account the size and location of the recipient area, as well as the patient’s specific priorities; for example, if the patient is more concerned about the hairline than the crown, I would focus on that area first.
In addition to these technical aspects, I assess the patient’s general health and how well they might tolerate a long procedure. Some individuals may find long sessions physically or emotionally tiring, which can affect their comfort and overall experience.
Another key factor is graft survival—longer procedures can increase the risk of grafts being outside the body for too long, which may impact their viability.
The total costs of a hair restoration surgery depend on many factors, so the best way to obtain an exact quote is to contact your chosen hair transplant clinic. However, here is how you can get a ballpark estimate of what you might expect to pay for an 8000-graft procedure:
In the UK, the average price per hair graft is £3,25. A simple calculation suggests that the hair transplant cost for an 8000-graft procedure should be around £26,000. However, the number of grafts is only one of several factors that determine the total procedure cost.
Here are some of the most important elements that can impact the amount you may have to pay for your 8000-graft hair transplant surgery:
If you don’t have 8000 hair grafts to spare or would rather not take your chances with this procedure, there are some great alternatives you can try:
You may not have enough grafts to cover the entirety of your scalp, but you may have sufficient to create the illusion of coverage. Getting 4000 grafts instead of 8000 may not give your hair a full body and may appear sparse. However, it can still help you look younger and more like the person you were used to seeing in the mirror before your hair fell out.
Getting a smaller hair transplant can provide a solid foundation to work with. You can then use cosmetics (such as hair thickening spray) or procedures such as scalp micropigmentation (to be discussed) to make your grafts appear thicker and denser, creating the illusion of a full head of hair.
Non-surgical hair replacement systems have come a long way from the old-timey wigs or hairpieces. A high-quality hair system made from natural fibres can be virtually indistinguishable from your real hair. And the best part is that you don’t have to remove it at night and reapply it the next day – you can have it fitted and installed once and leave it on for 3-6 months, when it needs to be replaced.
This procedure is basically a hair tattoo for men and women who like to wear their hair short. It involves using a tattoo gun to inject very small drops of pigment into your scalp, in a natural hair growth pattern. This reduces the contrast between the shade of your hair and that of your scalp, creating the illusion of coverage. If you are fully bald, getting this procedure creates the appearance of stubble, as if you have been shaving your head. However, if you have some hair left, you should know that SMP pigments are only available in dark colours, so they are not suitable for blond or red-headed men.
Being bald is all the rage nowadays. Celebrities such as Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham have made this their signature look. And we’ll let you in on a secret: if you’re experiencing male pattern baldness, you are more likely to be able to grow a full, healthy beard (the dihydrotestosterone that makes your hair fall out helps your beard grow). So if you enjoy wearing facial hair, you can shave your head clean and adopt a magnificent bald with a beard look.
If you are experiencing extensive hair loss, it is best to get an expert opinion. Book a free, no-strings-attatched hair transplant consultation with one of our experienced surgeons. They will assess whether you are eligible for a hair transplant and the minimum number of grafts required to achieve your desired results.
One of the main reasons why the Wimpole Clinic has been voted Hair Transplant Clinic of the Year for 4 years running (2021-2024) is our unwavering commitment to patient safety and excellent results. That is why our surgeons always harvest the lowest number of grafts, which allows them to achieve cosmetic density. Their skill and expertise allow them to achieve excellent outcomes using significantly fewer grafts than an inexperienced surgeon might. See our results for yourself in our before-and-after hair transplant gallery.
Find out more about 8000-graft hair transplants by reading through the answers to these frequently asked questions:
If your hair loss is so extensive that you need an 8000-graft hair transplant, it is safe to assume that your donor area alone cannot yield this large amount. However, the best thing you can do is to see a trichologist or a hair transplant surgeon. They can provide a professional assessment of both your donor area and the number of grafts you would need for the procedure.
Yes, if you are experiencing advanced baldness, you may be eligible for an artificial hair transplant, using body-compatible synthetic fibres. However, you should know that a biofibre hair transplant is quite different from using natural hair. Once implanted into your scalp, the fibres remain the same size, and they do not grow back if they are cut or broken. Patients normally shed 15-20% [11] of their artificial hair per year, which means they will need to be topped up every few years. Moreover, 2% of patients need to have their biofibres removed because of infection or their body rejecting them [12].
An 8000-graft hair restoration surgery may take upwards of 14 hours to complete. It can last even longer if many body hair grafts are involved, since they need to be harvested individually and may take longer to reimplant. This is why the procedure is normally spread out into multiple sessions, which can be performed in consecutive days or spaced out months apart to give the scalp a chance to heal in between sessions.
There are no recorded cases in the relevant literature of women getting 8000-graft hair transplants. That is likely for two reasons. On the one hand, even when very advanced, female pattern baldness does not normally require such a large number of grafts for adequate coverage. On the other hand, even if a woman did need 8000 grafts, she would likely be unable to get them, since most of the female body hair is normally short and fine and not a viable option. Pubic and armpit hair could theoretically be used (though the hair texture would have to match that on the scalp), but those areas do not yield very many grafts.
Some patients may be able to cover Norwood stage 6-7 (respectively, Ludwig stage 3) androgenic alopecia with fewer than 8000 grafts. In many cases, a 4500-5000-graft hair transplant would suffice for cosmetic density. However, that depends on many factors, such as their hair texture, colour and thickness, their scalp properties, the surgeon’s skill level, etc.
It should be understood that neither a 5000 nor an 8000-graft hair transplant can restore the full density and youthful appearance your hair used to have before alopecia set in. They can, however, produce good results for patients with realistic expectations. Your hair only needs 50% of its natural, healthy density for adequate scalp coverage, and that can be achieved in many cases for eligible patients.
Wimpole Clinic Services:
Hair Transplants, Beard Transplants & Eyebrow Transplants.
Talk to a specialist
Dr Mir Malkani MBBS, MISHRS, FRCS, aged 59, is a pioneer and leader in the field of FUE Hair Transplants in the UK. He has performed over 7,000 hair transplant procedures in the last 21 years and is an innovator in FUE surgery due to his extensive experience. In-fact, Dr Malkani is one of the first three FUE surgeons in the UK and has developed modern FUE surgery techniques and is registered with the GMC (4702052). He has been performing FUE surgery since January 2008 and for the last five years almost exclusively performs this technique. Dr Malkani takes a keen interest in every patient and their surgery results. He performs surgical aspects himself thereby ensuring a high standard of work and accountability for each individual patient whilst complying with UK Law.
After achieving a Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1997, Dr Malkani had the opportunity to work in a range of specialties in Dublin, London, Sussex and The Midlands. This included Trauma Surgery, General Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Dermatology. Additionally, Dr Malkani has achieved qualifications in General Practice and has been a practising hair transplant Surgeon on a full-time basis since 2004. He worked for the Wimpole Clinic from 2013 to 2016 as a specialist FUE surgeon before setting up his own hair clinic in 2017 which eventually merged with Wimpole Clinic in 2019.
Since 2015 Dr Malkani has become the expert witness for the UK judicial system in order to provide expert medical opinions to the courts for hair transplant medical malpractices in the UK. He has been pivotal in helping the UK courts in improving the quality of hair transplant surgery in the UK and in patients suffering malpractice from poor unregulated work here in the UK. Dr Malkani has performed hair transplant surgery in England, Scotland, Ireland and in Sweden.
Dr Malkani has taken a keen interest in and practised facial aesthetics, body sculpting and hair loss for many years. His surgical qualifications, experience, skills and understanding of facial cosmetology has enabled him to master the most modern and advanced techniques and artistry of FUE hair Surgery. These outstanding skills have helped transform the lives of his male, female and transgender patients. He is one of the few around the world whose transaction rate (damage to grafts during extraction) is extremely low and is under 2%. This ensures a high volume of viable grafts and a good result without compromising the donor area. Dr Malkani is also one of a few surgeons in the UK who can harvest body hair in a hair transplant where there is a depleted donor area.
In 2008, Dr Malkani had the honour to be invited to lecture on The Art and Sciences of Hair Restoration surgery and Hair loss in the annual meeting of the British Association of Cosmetic Doctors at The Royal College of Physicians in London. Dr Malkani has trained others in the specialty of Hair Restoration Surgery in The United Kingdom, Italy and Asia. He has worked on thousands of hair transplant patients over the past 16 years and has kept abreast of constant new developments in the industry.
Membership of professional bodies by Dr Malkani includes full membership of The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery and The British Association of Cosmetic Doctors and British Medical Association. He has been featured by the national press and BBC as one of the key seniors, versatile hair transplant surgeons in the UK.
GMC Registration No: 4702052
