Is Body hair a viable option for repair

[nile]

I have been reading a lot about bodyhair being used for hair restoration recently.

Is it a viable option?

Which body hair are best for use in transplanting? Or are all of them going to give similar results?

I am hoping bh will provide me chance to repair my hair transplant. All inputs would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[nile]

I have been reading a lot about bodyhair being used for hair restoration recently.

Is it a viable option?

Which body hair are best for use in transplanting? Or are all of them going to give similar results?

I am hoping bh will provide me chance to repair my hair transplant. All inputs would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[gillenator]

Hi Nile,

 

Welcome to the HTN forum! Yes BH is a viable option for repair work if you lack the scalp donor.

 

Most HT surgeons who do BHTs prefer to utilize the chest area for donor due to a number of factors. Most of the initial emperical (clinically documented) research has been from chest extractions implanted to the scalp. Alot of patients have most of their body hair established in the chest area making it a useful donor reserve. The chest may have potentially more double FUs compared to primarily single FUs on the legs, arms etc. The chest hair may be more coarse in characteristics to the scalp.

 

An assessment from an experienced FUE/FIT/FUSE surgeon would be best to evaluate your potential BH donor areas. There are not many surgeons in this arena and their BH graft prices have alot of disparity between them. I have seen BH grafts as high as $12 to $14 US in North America and as low as $3.50 US in India. Only a handful of them have posted examples of their work so scrutinize accordingly!

[EastCoast]

Gillinator,

 

Why the mark-up for chest hair compared to scalp?

[nile]

Gillenator,

Could you give me a link/web address to the doctors performing bodyhair transplants.

I could not find.

[gillenator]

Eastcoast,

 

About a year or so ago I was told by several North American HT surgeons who do BHTs that the extractions from the body go much slower than the scalp due to the angulations of body hair FUs. I was informed that they can take as much as three-fold the amount of time to perform. That was one year to eighteen months ago. I would think that some of them would be a little more proficient with the added experience but their prices have not gone down. The North American doctors may have higher clinical related expenses like insurance and wages as well.

 

Still when you compare the great quality that can be acheived for as low as $3.50 US per BH graft, that's a no brainer. But one has to travel to places like India which I feel is well worth it to get the quality and a good price.

 

Nile,

 

Since one of the best BHT surgeons is one of my contributing doctors, I do not advertise any of his links on these forums. I can in place give you my opinion on who I would personally consider for BHT procedures. Dr. AP, Dr. Ray Woods, Dr. Angela Campbell, Dr. Robert Jones, Dr. Allan Feller, Dr. Paul Rose. You can do a search on any of them for their information and corresponding websites. I hope this is helpful to you as I do not want to violate any of the forum rules. Best wishes!

[nile]

Thanks Gil,

I know it would be much easier if one just got the web address. But I think I will just do a search on the names of the doctors.

 

BTW, do you think or have you heard from anyone that leg or armpit hair will end up looking the same as the chest hair

[gillenator]

You are welcome Nile. It is rather interesting that you asked about the armpit as a donor area because I just counseled a patient who wants to consider it as a possible donor source.

 

Most armpit hair is coarser and can be even more coarse than the chest. It also tends to have a "kink" characteristic for many people that may not be like the charateristics of the chest hair and especially unlike the leg hair. So it probably would be best utilized for repair in scars and/or lightly blending in low visual impact areas.

 

The emperical data is mostly based on chest-to-scalp although you too have probably heard of the few cases of leg, back, and yes even armpit regions. The problem for many is waiting on enough results to either support or negate the notion of utilizing these other regions of potential donor. There just have not been enough of those cases done with documented results good or unfavorable. So my opinion is to approach it with a small test session first before making any serious commitment to a larger procedure. Some doctors may want to confine their extractions only to the chest or back for the reasons I have stated.

 

I am not that big of a proponent for leg and arm donor for three reasons. First, leg hair typically does not have the caliper of other regions. Second, you get pratically all single FUs and considering the BH graft prices, you get less bang for your buck. Thirdly, I personally would favor extractions into my body tissue in locations where there are less nerves and less moving joints.

 

Good luck with your search!

[nile]

I am sorry to be bothering u so many times but the idea of armpit hair and leg hair is intruiging me no end.

There must be very few armpit hair to begin with, 200-300 maybe. I agree most are coarse and as i look at them closely most seem to be 2 hair ones too. Since no one (not me at least) would mind loosing them, I think u are right. They should go to the scar repair.

But i disagree on the leg hair part. I spent a good half an hour looking at my thigh hair. Most- at least 50% are 2 hair per place.

And what about the pubic hair. They grow fast, are coarse- do they too go into the scar.

 

(I would even use the hair on my fingers if they all will add up to hiding my plugs).

Can I post my picture so that you get an idea and maybe advise me better?

[gillenator]

Nile,

 

It sounds like you are a very hairy patient and I am not trying to be funny. Glad to hear of the better quality hair on the thighs, which is an exception to most people. It sounds like you have alot of body hair to work with but I want to caution you about something.

 

Body hair donor has always been proposed as a back-up donor supply for repair in scars, and light blending as mentioned before. If too much is used and if the body hair is visually different in charateristics than the scalp including the existing plugs, it may tend to stand out like a sore thumb. That is why you want to move into that arena with test sessions, allowing the full maturation to take place. No sense in getting too agressive too early and then regretting the full aesthetic result. Our pubic hair is definitely out of the question due to it's curl charateristics unless you have identical scalp hair charateristics. Pubic hair for scar repair? I do not see why not but I doubt that you will find a HT surgeon who has done it before. Your thigh hair sounds like a winner.

 

We may be getting the "cart ahead of the horse" as I wanted to ask you if you ever had or considered having the larger plugs thinned out with FUSE/FUE/FIT extractions, and then having the FUs extracted from the plugs re-implanted in the recipient areas. If you have a wider color contrast, this step would normally precede the adding of body hair to the recipient area, especially considering the frontal hairline. It would also make the most productive use of the FUs within each plug which is scalp hair (same charateristics).

 

By all means post your pics if you like, especially the troubled areas you are concerned with (plugs), etc.

 

Lastly, I have heard from a few BH patients that once the hair grows to maturity, it started to curl acutely, even more so than when it was established in it's original region of body. I have also heard from more than a few HT patients over the years that the transplanted hair taken from the scalp also grew out with a crimped or wavier charateristic. My own transplanted hair in my front forelock grew out with a definite wave that my natural hair never had in the front. It was not a pronounced wave but actually produced a visual of more volume than what is actually there. So for me it was a plus. But if some of the body hair regions produced more of a kinky charateristic, one may end up dissatisfied with the visual result.

 

By the way, my transplanted hair continues to produce this wave and I have had many haircuts since my last procedure so it is without a doubt a permanent effect. So the moral of the story for BH is be very careful on selection of donor regions to help ensure what grows in looks acceptable and does not cause "eye drift". Definitely something to think about.

[nile]

By the way, my transplanted hair continues to produce this wave and I have had many haircuts since my last procedure so it is without a doubt a permanent effect. So the moral of the story for BH is be very careful on selection of donor regions to help ensure what grows in looks acceptable and does not cause "eye drift". Definitely something to think about.

Hey Gil,

Did not understand this part. Did u have bht and they grew out wavy or did your head hair grafts grow out wavy.

[gillenator]

Nile,

 

All three of my HT procedures had the donor taken from my scalp, all strip, one remaining scar. So it was my scalp donor that produced this wavy effect. Dr. Rose informed me that donor from that region (behind the head) can take on those types of characteristics especially when the hair grows longer. That reminded me of the days when I was a hippie in the 70's, and I had very long hair which did have a wave to it. I currently wear the length on top of my head at about three to four inches. I keep the back and sides to about one inch or so.

[nile]

Hi people!

Any replies.

I did research the forums and even I think DHI seems to be more of a marketing ploy than anything else.

Have looked up some doctor's sites and will be looking up the remaining ones soon.

[nile]

So finally I have some consensus among the doctors.

Most say that my grafts should be excised.

Most also say that bh can be used but with caution as it is still early days.

One, Dr.AP, advised to have bh and head hair placed in alternate sites except for the hairline.

I think I like the idea of getting bh and head FUs in alternate sites. That way I can play safe and if possible get the body hair growing too.

 

Any veiws?

[carl kolchak]

Be careful when reading on HLH.

 

The shill volume is cranked to 11 over there.

 

 

That being said,I really think it comes down

to sheer quantity of grafts once you have

located a quality ht surgeon.Unfortunately

quality Ht surgeons are in very short supply,

so that is why sites specialising in ht are

so frequented compared to say dentistry sites where there is at least a certain standard of care.

 

So,your interest in Body Hair Transplants

is well placed,as i think the more grafts you

receive, the better your result will be.

I'm still awaiting more developments in

the Body Hair trans field myself.I'm concerned

about yield and such.But i have come to the

realisation that 6,000 or so grafts from

my donor area will not give me the look/result

i want.Not even close.

 

regards carl

[nile]

I agree carl,

when will these ht docs learn not to tell us the bare minimum we should aim for.

They should be telling us the max we can get(body hair or whatever).

And then let us decide.

[carl kolchak]

Yeah i have corresponded with a number of

people with similar gripes about being misled

in terms of the results one can expect from

2-3,000 grafts.I'm not sure the term Lowballing

would be an accurate description,but more

like a lack of communication on just what

one can expect from 2-3k grafts.One guy

initially thought that most of his grafts had

failed to grow,but when he looked closer realised that it was just his expectations were way too high for the number of grafts moved.

 

regards, Carl

[gillenator]

Nile,

 

The excision of some FUs within the plugs combined with adding hair both from the body and scalp sounds like the most viable approach for you.

 

I cannot speak for DHI however I am somewhat perplexed whenever I hear of these "extremely" high graft quotes. 90,000 grafts?! If the average graft carried 2 hairs, that's 180,000 hairs, and if the average was 1.5 hairs, that's still 135,000 hairs. The average head without hairloss numbers an average of about 100,000 hairs. Be careful of going for too much density because no one can replicate mother nature's density, and even if it could be done as some claim, it may start to look like a hair system. What about the yield from procedures that number that high?

 

Some good points by Carl. Remember guys, it is not graft count in itself that is the determining factor of coverage. It is caliper more than anything. 2-3k grafts of coarse hair will cover much better than 2-3k of fine hair. Wave, color contrast, etc all play an important role in the illusion of coverage.

[HairBeThere]

nile,

do you have any photo's you could share?

We would really like to give you a solid honest opinion!

[nile]

Hairbethere,

How do you guys post pics. I have seen many people doing it in their post but cant seem to do it myself.

[HairBeThere]

nile, you have to upload them to the web. This site offers a photo album, but I prefer www.photobucket.com

 

It will give you the HTML code to cut and past into your post, then it will appear. It's pretty simple.

 

Hope that helps.

[nile]

Thanks Hair be there.

Will try today.

[nile]

Trying to post a picture.

hope it comes on ok

[nile]

It did.

See my hair loss has since progressed and I have to resort to some very artistic hair styles when I cant wear a cap.

I will post some more pictures now that I have got the hang of it.

Today I also received advise from one of the doctors that I could try to fue out some hair from each graft so the bunches look less obvious.

Now that is also a thought which never occured to me before.

If I just thin out the plugs they may not look so bad and I may not go for a big transplant at all.

What do you say?

[nile]

SOLID HONEST OPINION??????