Category: Hair Transplantation

Dr Rassman

In contrast to transplants using scalp donor hair, I appreciate that the probability of technical and cosmetic success with body hair and other nonhead hair transplants for severe cases of baldness remains unclear. Today I read an article in a well-regarded journal that describes 3 patients who had a significant cosmetic need resulting from poor previous surgical procedures and exhausted scalp donor supply (Umar S. Ann Plast Surg. 2011 May 2. [Epub ahead of print]). The article appears online in this month’s journal before its appearance in print and can be accessed here.

The outcomes with nonhead hair appear to be excellent. Given the varied and anecdotal results with BHT (and nonhead hair, in general) infrequently reported (in blogs) by different patients and physicians (1) do you see a role for nonhead hair in individuals who are in situations similar to that described by Umar?, and (2) wouldn’t it be of great value for those who perform nonhead hair transplants to pool their experiences and data to potentially better understand (and publish in a peer-reviewed journal) those patient or physician factors, or both, that may contribute to and predict good outcomes?

I have seen some good results reported from body hair transplants (BHT) so there may be instances where it could be an option, but I don’t generally recommend it due to the variability in texture and growth cycle. I’ve previously written about using scalp and body hair together in transplantation, and remain neutral. My opinion continues to be that body hair should only be used when you run out of donor hair from the scalp, but having said that, I would consider it as one of the last options.

With respect to pooling the experiences and data for a better understanding, I believe it is a great idea. In practice, I don’t know how the accumulation of data from all the body hair patients and their surgeons would be delineated. By that I mean that most surgeons wouldn’t want to publish or admit to bad outcomes, nor would certain patients want to participate in the study. My point is that it stands risk of a skewed study… but perhaps I am just a skeptic.

Have you performed multiple Hair Transplants on one person only to discover that the person might somehow not be suitable for further Hair Transplants because the grafts didn’t grow in from either operation.

No. I have seen men that lost hair following transplants (shock loss), but it was likely their native hair that fell out. This is a real problem in young men, especially if they did not take Propecia before surgery.

I have also seen men with DUPA (diffuse unpatterned alopecia) who have had failed transplants as well. Patients with DUPA are not candidates for hair transplant surgery. Hair transplant failures are most often the result of poor techniques and quality control of the process by the doctor and his staff.

My opinion is that it wouldn’t be that bad to use body hair especially if one wanted to keep a short cropped look. This way, if one ever wanted or needed to shave their head, there would not be any scar.

Plus, I have so much body hair, it would be a blessing to remove it and use it on my head!

Well, I believe I have answered this many times. Body hair transplants are not considered the gold standard in hair transplant surgery. It generally does not grow the same or have the same texture. I realize that there are doctors who perform body hair transplantation (BHT) surgery, but if I were you, I would ask to meet many patients before I would go forward.

Plus, if you wanted to add hair to your scalp… why would you want to shave your head at some point? If hair is important enough to you that you’d want to go through surgery to get it back, I don’t think I understand why you’d want to have it gone.

Hello Doctor

a very well known doctor claims that he was able to harvest 7600 grafts from a patients beard and transplanted it to its scalp. Now is that possible?

I have done several beard to hair transplants and they are relatively easy, but I really don’t know if the beard contains 7600 movable grafts. Is it possible? I suppose. Some people may have very high density hair in their beard.

I’m looking for a hair transplant surgeon who does both harvesting and transplanting. I don’t want a doctor who harvests only and lets technicians do the transplanting, as happened in my wife’s case.

In the United States, virtually all hair transplant surgery is done with a doctor and his staff of technicians. The doctor harvests the donor hair grafts and makes the recipient sites. The technicians process the donor grafts (under a microscope) and feeds it into the recipient sites that that doctor has premade. Without this teamwork the entire surgery would be too cumbersome for one doctor to accomplish. There is a misconception that the technicians are controlling where the hairs are implanted, but the direction, the angle, and the distribution of hair is predetermined by the doctor.

In short, the planning is more important than the execution and to succeed you need great teamwork. Thus, the consumers (patients) should be aware that when they choose a hair transplant doctor, they should also ask about the staff/technician and the overall reputation of the clinic (not only the doctor).

Here are some past articles that might be of interest to you, related to technicians in hair restoration surgery:

• NHI Surgical Team
• Doctors vs Technicians — Who Does More in the Hair Transplant Procedure?
• Selecting a Hair Transplant Doctor
• Hair Transplant Done By the Doctor or the Technicians?

Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):