Full shave is not always required

For minor treatments, up to around 700-1500 grafts, it is sufficient to shave off a small strip in the donor area. If your hair is long enough, it will not be noticeable as you can see from the photo. The longer your hair in the donor area, the more grafts can be transplanted without having to shave it off completely.

Multiple minor treatments for large numbers
You can split major treatments up into several minor ones.
Example:
If you were advised to have 3000 grafts transplanted for an optimum result, you can have 3 smaller treatments of 1000 grafts carried out, with 6 months between each treatment.