combining BHT and FUT

[dakota3]

What are peoples thought on combining BHT and FUT? I guess what I mean is say you have 6000 grafts available from strip and are a NW6... What if you do about 5000 to the frontal 2/3 and spread the 1000 left over the crown area and mixed in body hair. Has anyone had this done? And if so how did it turn out?

[dakota3]

What are peoples thought on combining BHT and FUT? I guess what I mean is say you have 6000 grafts available from strip and are a NW6... What if you do about 5000 to the frontal 2/3 and spread the 1000 left over the crown area and mixed in body hair. Has anyone had this done? And if so how did it turn out?

[the B spot]

Dakota--good question.

 

We have not seen the true results of scalp/bht mixed b/c there is almost always a question of what is scalp donor and what is not.

 

Given that almost every BHT result we have seen can be quantified using just the scalp donor data, it becomes even more of a mystery.

 

I happen to know a couple of guys who had extensive BHT done--- 7-8K grafts and guess what?

They never grew. In fact,one of the doctors who sold them this procedure blamed it on the patient and would offer no additional work nor refund b/c the patient "knew the risks"

 

Additionally, there have been patients presented online with growth who have privately reported that there was initial growth during the first 6-8months, then the hair started disappearing, never to return.

 

The 2 biggest hurdles are handling of the grafts, b/c the grafts are often very small and fragile....and no one can predict the growing and resting phases of bht, with the exception of beard hair.

 

To be fair, I believe there has been some small success in a minimum amount of patients----and a major breakthrough is occuring with the use of beard hair, but again, I think bht is oversold to under-educated sufferers who are looking for something, anything to help them over baldness.

 

In your case, do a 1000 grafts to see what happens--probably cost you 5K+ but at least you will know how to plan for your future--perhaps do 100 beard hair grafts to see how that works.

 

Anyway, this is my personal opinion based on quite a bit of contact with patients and people who have performed this surgery. I am sure there will be others who disagree.

 

Take Care,

Jason

[Bill - Seemiller]

dakota,

 

I too have been a BHT skeptic, and truth be told, and FUE skeptic since both are often hyped and the benefits oversold.

 

But a few elite surgeons have been very honest about what to expect from these types of surgeries and in the right patients and in the right hands, have proven to be successful (at least FUE). BHT hasn't shown a lot of consistency to date however, a few physicians who have been working with BHT on a regular basis appear to be having some nice success with it.

 

In my opinion however, it's probably better to use up all your scalp hair before diving into body hair since the consistency rate is higher.

 

You can find examples of FUE / BHT on this forum recently posted by Dr. Umar who appears to be very honest and realistic about what to expect. See Pat's Visit to Dr. Umar.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[Pat - Community Publisher]

As B Spot pointed out, the issue of the future growing cycles of body hair when transplanted to the head is a major concern. My understanding is that body hair when transplanted to the head continues to be characteristically dormant much more of the time than native scalp hair.

 

Dr. Umar has been up front about this and tells his patients that more body hair is needed to produce the fullness one can get from scalp hair. He also likes to mix scalp and beard hair with body hair, with the body hair acting more as filler hair.

 

Perhaps Dr. Umar could share his expertise and experience on this issue. I'll drop him an email and ask him to reply.

 

Best wishes, Pat

[Arrie]

If BHT is proven to grow "if"... I would continue to get strip surgeries and get bht into the donor scars, considering my body hair is just about as fine in texture as my scalp hair, It doesn't sound bad in theory....

[Bill - Seemiller]

Arrie,

 

I'm sure Dr. Umar who is a BHT specialist will address this, but it appears that only certain patients are really candidates for BHT, and even then, there are a number of things to consider including faster body hair growth cycles than normal scalp hair, surigcal risks, etc.

 

So I think it's probably fair to say that BHT can be effective in certain types of patients, but like anything else, there are risks to be considered.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[Dr. Sanusi Umar]

Originally posted by dakota3:

What are peoples thought on combining BHT and FUT? I guess what I mean is say you have 6000 grafts available from strip and are a NW6... What if you do about 5000 to the frontal 2/3 and spread the 1000 left over the crown area and mixed in body hair. Has anyone had this done? And if so how did it turn out?

 

 

 

Dakota,

 

Your plan sounds plausible. I do not perform FUT (Strip) and would be unable to give you a first hand account of this approach. However, it is a possibility. If you are committed to strip surgery, you may want to also look into FUE of the scalp donor areas after the strip route is exhausted before resorting to non head hair. That again would maximize the coverage you would get given the increased input from head grafts you get by so doing. Also, the more head hair you throw into the midst of body hair, the more blending you get as the additional head hair adds to the camouflage of the body hair. In general the approach I would favor is as follows:

 

In patients who for any reason are likely to resort to BHT as part of their hair restoration plan my advice is often to start mixing up the hairs earlier in the journey. You want to avoid distinct populations of hair types in different aspects of the head, thus avoiding the appearance of an unnatural mosaic. Mixing up the hairs from different sources throughout offers the best blend and most natural outlook. The nuanced approach is to vary the mixture to favor head hair in the front and non head hair as you go towards the crown. It serves a strategic purpose to use of longer hair in the middle of the crown. Regardless the transition in mixing ratios should be gradual to avoid the creation of unnatural boundaries in the head.

 

All said, please check to see if your body or beard hair is suitable for BHT, before basing aspects of your hair restoration around it. I would be glad to look at photos of hair bearing areas of your body to offer an opinion with regards to that. Not all body hair is suitable for transplantation. Unfortunately not every one is endowed with the right kind of hair for the purpose of BHT.

 

 

 

Finally, circumstances can result in the loss of even transplanted head hair and I have seen this phenomenon in some patients that have presented to me for work after having had surgery elsewhere involving head hair only. It would have been far fetched to cast doubts at head hair HT as a result of such an observation rather than finding out the cause of it. Several years ago some purveyors of BHT refused to acknowledge the possible deleterious effect of DHT inhibitors on BHT perhaps out of ignorance, perhaps out of fear of loss of potential clientele or something else; I wrote an article addressing this possibility and advised all my potential patients of this possibility. DHT inhibitors could hamper BHT growth and can potentially lead to the loss of BHT grafts that do take. Additionally, the use of body hair that is destined to fall for BHT could lead to failed growth or loss of grafts that do take...

[dakota3]

Dr. Umar,

 

Thanks for the reply! This was just a general question I had concerning this matter. Im not considering doing this type of procedure yet. From numerous consultations I've had it "appears" I still have plenty of donar hair left. I can appreciate that you would consider blending body hair w/ head hair as early as possible, but I've heard stories of BHT growing for a couple of years and then falling out, and I'm not willing to take that chance as of yet.

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

That last sentence in Dr Umar post should scare anyone who is considering bht and has been trying to keep the hair he may still have with fin or dut.

Maybe thats why some people bht fell out and never retuned. It was destroyed by use of DHT inhibitors .

[Bill - Seemiller]

Dr. Umar,

 

Great reply. I can see that you are a realist when dealing with body hair and recognize and inform your patients of all risks and limitations before proceeding with surgery.

 

In looking at my own body hair characteristics, from a non-doctor opinion, I would venture to say my chest hair is optimal whereas the majority of my arm hair is not.

 

It's interesting that DHT inhibitors like Propecia and possibly negatively impact body hair transplant growth. I have heard that Propecia can potentially minimize body hair, so perhaps this is why?

 

Great post Dr. Umar. I appreciate it.

 

Bill