The adult male scalp has about 100,000 hairs. Each hair grows one half inch a month for an average of 4 years (anagen phase). It then rests for 2 to 4 months and falls out (telogen phase). The cycle is constantly repeated with about 90% of hairs in anagen phase and 10% of hairs in telogen phase at any given time. The average person with a normal scalp loses 50-100 hairs a day. Seventy-five percent of men are quite likely to lose their hair. Over a lifetime, 25% will become significantly bald, 25% will have minimal hair loss, and the remaining 50% will be somewhere in between.

Although most adult women have about 100,000 scalp hairs, a small group has densities as high as 125,000 hairs. These are the young women with thick luxuriant hair, often the envy of their friends. Over a period of time, it’s quite common for these super density patients to gradually drift into the “normal” range. This sometimes prompts a visit to the dermatologist’s office with a complaint of “hair loss.”

Non-scalp hair, on the arms for example, has a much different anagen/telogen cycle than scalp hair. Hairs on the arm have an anagen phase of 2-3 months before shifting to a relatively long telogen phase. That’s why non-scalp hair will not grow to the length of the scalp and beard. The same is true of eyebrows and leg hair.

Contrary to what you might think, scalp hairs do not grow individually. They are distributed in groupings of one, two, three, or four hairs called follicular units, and each hair his its own oil gland. The average number of hairs in each follicular unit can vary between individuals. In old age, the average number of hairs in each follicular unit becomes less and less. Making the situation even more complex, each individual has his or her particular hair shaft diameter, hair color and hair texture! The interplay of all these “normals” is carefully considered when we evaluate patients for hair loss, excess hair, or hair restoration surgery. When we perform hair transplant surgery, each of these follicular units is dissected from one another creating tiny grafts with one, two, or three hairs. The skin between the follicular units is trimmed away so that the graft may be planted into a tiny slit, rather than a punched out hole. The front half-inch of all Hair Loss Center transplants is comprised of only single-haired grafts. This insures undetectable results!