Body Hair Transplants Are They Worth It? Dr. Pradeep Sethi Answers

[Al - Moderator]

On 12/15/2021 at 12:12 PM, SLA said:

So if someone said to me, given your scalp donor resources, you can have this result or be bald, I would choose this result, which others may choose otherwise.

 

 

 

If guys like this would dye their hair it would look so much better. It would all blend together better.

 

[Curious25]

3 hours ago, BeHappy said:

 

Me? I didn't post anything on this thread until now. I also had almost 6000 BHT grafts with about half taken from my chest and half from my beard. I'm a big believer in using body hair grafts in the original plan for men heading towards extensive hair loss rather than using it as a last resort.

 

Totally apologise - it was meant to be for @Sean

[gillenator]

7 hours ago, Fego said:

According to the interview with Dr patric mwamba; he said the  transplanted body hair  after some years will be adapted to scalp environment which means it will have the same texture characteristics as the scalp hair. But I know the body hairs like chest and leg have a very short anagen phase compared to scalp.  Are the anagen phase  of the transplanted body hair like chest and leg will become close to the anagen phase of scalp hair after some years also?

Based on theory or empirical clinical verification?…and if it has clinical substantiation, where is it?…where is it published?…there is “nothing” submitted to the ISHRS, nor any papers submitted to any other medical journal or publication on earth!…this is the type of unfounded claim that really pisses me off!…Why?

Because there are many repair patients and/or potential patients who really are not candidates for HT surgery because they lack adequate scalp donor along with advanced MPB, and will jump head first into this, spending endless amounts of money only to find out that their mega BH sessions were nothing more than failure!

Yes, there are some exceptions such as BeHappy…but guys, let’s be honest and ethical here, they are far and few between…I believe everything BeHappy has stated because he has a proven track record of honesty and someone who is genuine…and yes I also agree that there are more smaller BS cases that have helped some individuals BUT they are such a small representation of such absurd claims that lead the populous astray.

So, although BH presents an alternative for some unique situations, it is still highly unpredictable regarding yields, longevity, compatibility, and the like.

Lastly, from the BH cases I have observed over the years, “beard donor” appears to be the most promising donor source…otherwise anything harvested below the neck and down is a “crap shoot”…a roll of the dice.

[Melvin- Admin]

8 hours ago, BeHappy said:

 

I just had another session of beard grafts taken. I took some pictures the night before the surgery to see how my beard looked. This is after almost 2400 grafts have already been taken from my beard and I can still grow a full beard if I wanted to without anyone knowing.

 

 

 

 

I don’t see any scars remarkable 

[Al - Moderator]

14 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

I don’t see any scars remarkable 

If you look very close you can see a bunch of very tiny white dots scattered all over, but it's so minor that it hasn't bothered me. It takes a while to get to that point, though. It clears up a lot within the first week or two after the surgery, but then I have a slight lingering redness and reddish dots that really takes a few months to totally fade and clear up. But after about 2 weeks you really can't tell unless you know I had it done or you are looking at my neck close up. That's how it's been for me. I'm sure others will heal differently.

[Al - Moderator]

17 hours ago, gillenator said:

Based on theory or empirical clinical verification?…and if it has clinical substantiation, where is it?…where is it published?…there is “nothing” submitted to the ISHRS, nor any papers submitted to any other medical journal or publication on earth!…this is the type of unfounded claim that really pisses me off!…Why?

Because there are many repair patients and/or potential patients who really are not candidates for HT surgery because they lack adequate scalp donor along with advanced MPB, and will jump head first into this, spending endless amounts of money only to find out that their mega BH sessions were nothing more than failure!

Yes, there are some exceptions such as BeHappy…but guys, let’s be honest and ethical here, they are far and few between…I believe everything BeHappy has stated because he has a proven track record of honesty and someone who is genuine…and yes I also agree that there are more smaller BS cases that have helped some individuals BUT they are such a small representation of such absurd claims that lead the populous astray.

So, although BH presents an alternative for some unique situations, it is still highly unpredictable regarding yields, longevity, compatibility, and the like.

Lastly, from the BH cases I have observed over the years, “beard donor” appears to be the most promising donor source…otherwise anything harvested below the neck and down is a “crap shoot”…a roll of the dice.

 

If I had plenty of scalp hair to get a great hair transplant using just scalp hair then I might think the same way you do, but that's not the situation I and some others are in. A few years ago I was thinking that if the current technology was available way back when I started having hair transplants, what would be the best way to do it knowing how my hair loss progressed. Short term, FUE would be great. I'd get a great look and it would all be scalp hair and be soft and match the rest of my head. That's great. But that hair would all fall out in the longer term. Beard hair would still be growing strong 30, 40, 50 years later, so long term it would have been much better and cheaper to use the beard hair from the beginning rather than have to go back and redo the entire transplant using beard hair anyway. Even if it didn't match perfectly with the rest of my scalp hair and even if the yield was a bit lower it would still have been the better option long term. To me the best yield is the hair that's still growing years later. That's much better than any transplanted hair that had a 100% yield, but was completely gone later. The long term yield with that is 0. Even 50% yield from beard hair would be better. It's all in how you look at it. Most people look short term.

 

[gillenator]

You completely missed my point…possibly the difference is what you feel is best for “your” situation while I am willing to point out unfounded claims that deceive the masses.

I made it clear that individuals like yourself have limited donor sources and not many options but that’s clearly not the case for the majority of individuals who suffer from MPB.

Most individuals would not choose to use beard donor for 2 obvious reasons: they have enough scalp donor to accomplish their goals and their BH is incompatible and unreliable…Yet if you prefer beard donor for its longevity characteristics and the like, KUDOS!

And for most individuals, their scalp donor “does” last over the long term…my first HT was over 25 years ago and still growing fine.

But I am not discounting what you feel is best for you, nor am I conveying some debate against the use of BH…it has it’s place.

What I am clearly saying is that it is a sham for some individuals to make such unfounded, unproven, unethical claims regarding BH that deceive many people with MPB, including countless newbies.

This is not an issue of “how I feel”….it’s an issue of making unfounded claims that deceive the masses!

[bald-and-bearded]

I remember Dr Mwamba said the problem of different growth cycles of body hair can be solved by shaving the area (like chest) ahead of the surgery so that the follicles just growing out are in the right phase for extraction. That sounds logical. Both he and Dr Umar claim to have high survival rates of using non-beard body hair as donor.

But the other problems of them being kinky and short still hold and so one would have to adopt a short haircut.

[Melvin- Admin]

Patient selection is crucial, Dr. Bisanga said many poor candidates have poor body hair quality to begin with, anagen phases that are short. For example, if you shave once per week, you’re not a good candidate. If you have a 5 o clock shadow at 2, then you’re a good candidate 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CXoq33GP9Ca/?utm_medium=copy_link

[Ganderson]

@BeHappy Do you have any issues when (or if) you shave with a razor? Or are the scars similarly very hard to notice even with a clean shave? Any issues going into the sun and tanning? I'm a few shades darker than you, and my transplant recommendations for my desires has been focused primarily on beard and body as a donor source....

[Gatsby]

@Melvin- Moderator will you be doing this interview with Dr Pradeep prior to your surgery or when you are there?

[Al - Moderator]

6 hours ago, Ganderson said:

@BeHappy Do you have any issues when (or if) you shave with a razor? Or are the scars similarly very hard to notice even with a clean shave? Any issues going into the sun and tanning? I'm a few shades darker than you, and my transplant recommendations for my desires has been focused primarily on beard and body as a donor source....

 

I usually shave every day. I only have issues in the first few months after extracting the grafts due to lingering redness and I think even that would be much better if I didn't shave daily in the first month or two. After that nobody can tell. Even my family hasn't noticed. They only found out I was doing repair hair transplants because they noticed my hair on top was growing in thicker. Here is a picture I posted some time back.

 

 

 

 

 

[SLA]

17 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Patient selection is crucial, Dr. Bisanga said many poor candidates have poor body hair quality to begin with, anagen phases that are short. For example, if you shave once per week, you’re not a good candidate. If you have a 5 o clock shadow at 2, then you’re a good candidate 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CXoq33GP9Ca/?utm_medium=copy_link

...I would add that based upon my research, somewhere in between what @Melvin- Moderatorsaid could also work. If you have a 5 o clock shadow at 2pm after shaving the night before, then you might be like that guy Rahul, the Eugenix patient in which they harvested something like 10k grafts from the beard alone.

I have heard Eugenix say on several occasions that 'most' men can harvest 3-4k grafts from the beard in a lifetime.

I had an in person consult with Dr. Bisanga last month in which he looked at my beard, which had not been shaven for a week, and said 'you have a good beard'. He did not ask me if this was from 1 day of growth. I am not a particularly hairy guy and I could probably get a way without shaving for 1 day. I asked him how much could be extracted from the beard and he said that he has done 4-5k before to which I assumed he thought my beard might have been able to handle that over the course of a lifetime. 

[SLA]

1 hour ago, BeHappy said:

I usually shave every day. I only have issues in the first few months after extracting the grafts due to lingering redness and I think even that would be much better if I didn't shave daily in the first month or two. After that nobody can tell. Even my family hasn't noticed. They only found out I was doing repair hair transplants because they noticed my hair on top was growing in thicker. Here is a picture I posted some time back.

Looks great @BeHappy- How many grafts have you had extracted from your beard over the course of all of your surgeries? Can you still grow a beard? Do you have any grafts remaining to extract from the beard?

[Al - Moderator]

55 minutes ago, SLA said:

Looks great @BeHappy- How many grafts have you had extracted from your beard over the course of all of your surgeries? Can you still grow a beard? Do you have any grafts remaining to extract from the beard?

 

 I decided to start my own topic. You can follow it from the link below. There's not much there right now, but over the next few days I will post a lot of pictures from after the surgery and then more going forward.

 

 

[Al - Moderator]

On 12/18/2021 at 10:46 AM, gillenator said:

Most individuals would not choose to use beard donor for 2 obvious reasons: they have enough scalp donor to accomplish their goals and their BH is incompatible and unreliable…Yet if you prefer beard donor for its longevity characteristics and the like, KUDOS!

And for most individuals, their scalp donor “does” last over the long term…my first HT was over 25 years ago and still growing fine.

 

Yeah we don't really disagree all that much. Personal experiences has a way of making people a bit biased and that's with everything in life. I agree that some people arent good candidates for BHT. What is needed is a good beard that grows quickly and preferrably not so curly. The better it matches your scalp hair then the better it's going to be. if you want to use chest hair you need chest hair that also grows long and straight. Not very many men have that, so I do think chest hair is not going to work all that well for most guys. I agree with you that if you don't need beard hair and it's not likely that you will need it in the next 20 years or more then don't use it. However, I do think for those men who are headed for NW 6 or higher it is better to integrate beard hair into the plan from the beginning, provided they have the proper quality beard hair to be useful.

[Melvin- Admin]

3 hours ago, BeHappy said:

 

I usually shave every day. I only have issues in the first few months after extracting the grafts due to lingering redness and I think even that would be much better if I didn't shave daily in the first month or two. After that nobody can tell. Even my family hasn't noticed. They only found out I was doing repair hair transplants because they noticed my hair on top was growing in thicker. Here is a picture I posted some time back.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m in disbelief, I don’t see any visible scars wth 🤯

[Melvin- Admin]

6 hours ago, Gatsby said:

@Melvin- Moderator will you be doing this interview with Dr Pradeep prior to your surgery or when you are there?

Oh yea were gonna be filming a lot, I’ll probably have my surgery done live on Instagram. First ever live surgery from the publisher. 

[gillenator]

13 hours ago, BeHappy said:

 

Yeah we don't really disagree all that much. Personal experiences has a way of making people a bit biased and that's with everything in life. I agree that some people arent good candidates for BHT. What is needed is a good beard that grows quickly and preferrably not so curly. The better it matches your scalp hair then the better it's going to be. if you want to use chest hair you need chest hair that also grows long and straight. Not very many men have that, so I do think chest hair is not going to work all that well for most guys. I agree with you that if you don't need beard hair and it's not likely that you will need it in the next 20 years or more then don't use it. However, I do think for those men who are headed for NW 6 or higher it is better to integrate beard hair into the plan from the beginning, provided they have the proper quality beard hair to be useful.

I completely agree...personal experiences do have a way of shaping our views and opinions....with me it's been more like I get alot of guys referred to me, many who are repair cases or guys who rushed into HTs when they were young and wanted the instant fix...many would give their right arm if they could have a do over and I really truly feel for them.

I can't tell you how many hundreds upon hundreds of pics that guys have sent me over the past 4 decades or so and that's had and continues to have a huge influence on my opinions...and if I had a nickel for every guy who had a failed BH procedure regarding regrowth and/or visual horrors...well, enough said.

Wish there were more guys who had nice results like you my friend...either way, I wish you nothing but the best and much happiness BeHappy!

[Gatsby]

I've seen a few cases of body hair transplants and I was in communication with a guy on YouTube who had a body hair transplant to his scalp and it looked very bad. By bad I just mean very sparse and even when he kept it short the hair just didn't behave the way scalp hair that short does. He had many body graft surgeries. It could be down to the fact that the surgeon was unskilled in this area and the yield was just low every time? One important thing to remember is the different anagen phases. Scalp hair stays in this phase from anywhere from 2-8 years, beard hair 2 months - 1 year and body hair 1-6 months. At any stage in the cycle you could have a real mismatch of growth and appearance regardless of how many grafts you've had transplanted. This is why I am keen for Melvin to ask Dr Pradeep does recipient dominance exist and if so to what extent? I have heard so many differing stories on just this one subject over the years.

[SLA]

In my consultation with Dr. Arika last year, my understanding was that she did NOT feel that beard hair over time behaves like scalp hair.

In Melvin’s webinar with Dr. Mwamba, he DOES believe in recipient dominance.

[Fego]

7 hours ago, Gatsby said:

I've seen a few cases of body hair transplants and I was in communication with a guy on YouTube who had a body hair transplant to his scalp and it looked very bad. By bad I just mean very sparse and even when he kept it short the hair just didn't behave the way scalp hair that short does. He had many body graft surgeries. It could be down to the fact that the surgeon was unskilled in this area and the yield was just low every time? One important thing to remember is the different anagen phases. Scalp hair stays in this phase from anywhere from 2-8 years, beard hair 2 months - 1 year and body hair 1-6 months. At any stage in the cycle you could have a real mismatch of growth and appearance regardless of how many grafts you've had transplanted. This is why I am keen for Melvin to ask Dr Pradeep does recipient dominance exist and if so to what extent? I have heard so many differing stories on just this one subject over the years.

I wish if Melvin can do interview with  Dr Umar in us about all our concerns of bht. He done a lot of bhts  using different body sources so he is the best one who can answer based on the real cases he had. 

[bald-and-bearded]

On 12/20/2021 at 2:05 AM, Melvin- Moderator said:

If you have a 5 o clock shadow at 2, then you’re a good candidate

I saw the video but didn't understand this. What does 5 o clock shadow mean? At 2 means at guard 2 cut?

[JDEE0]

6 minutes ago, bald-and-bearded said:

I saw the video but didn't understand this. What does 5 o clock shadow mean? At 2 means at guard 2 cut?

5 O'clock shadow is just a saying in English speaking countries that refers to facial stubble/hair that grows out over the course of a single day. You shave in the morning and then by 5pm you have a shadow of stubble on your face, hence the name. Melvin meant at 2pm when he said 'at 2'.

[bald-and-bearded]

32 minutes ago, JDEE0 said:

5 O'clock shadow is just a saying in English speaking countries that refers to facial stubble/hair that grows out over the course of a single day. You shave in the morning and then by 5pm you have a shadow of stubble on your face, hence the name. Melvin meant at 2pm when he said 'at 2'.

Gotcha. Isn't it a better test to just let the body hair grow out for as long as it can and then look at how dense it looks over a long period of time. Because at the end of the day (figure of speech, not literally 😄 ) that represents how it would look on the scalp (provided the hair grafts chosen for transplantation were in the right phase at the time of extraction).

The problem with the 5 O'clock at 2 test is that some people grow body hair very slowly. So they may not have a stubble by 2pm but their hair could still be anagen phase dominant, multi-follicle and thick.