Graft counts are not a menu — they are the arithmetic of donor supply against the area you want covered.
Norwood 2 (temple recession): 1,500–2,200 grafts. Norwood 3: 2,000–3,000. Norwood 4 with crown involvement: 3,000–4,000. Norwood 5–6: 4,000–5,000, often across two sessions. These are starting points, not promises.
A dense donor area may yield 6,000 grafts over a lifetime; a sparse one 3,000. Spending them all on the hairline at 28 leaves nothing for the crown at 45 — planning across decades is the difference between a good result and a permanent problem.
45–50 grafts/cm² looks dense from conversational distance. Trying to hit 70/cm² across a large area exhausts the donor for one impressive photograph and no reserve. We plan coverage first, density second.
Send two photos — top-down and front — and we mark the recipient area, estimate donor yield and give you a graft number with the reasoning. If two clinics quote wildly different numbers, ask both for that reasoning.
Almost never safely. Sessions above 4,500 risk graft survival and donor depletion; two staged sessions give better long-term results.