Body hair for transplant? Which type is best?*

[ukcali]

Dr Cole,

One last quick question. Obviously as you've said if your experience you find bht very hit or miss but I was just wondering what about nape hair (the hair on the back of your neck)? Is that just like body hair or is it more like scalp hair and therefore something that cold be used?

Thanks again

[John P. Cole, MD]

You know some are worried about my admonitions about other physicians, but I also point the finger at myself. I'm the guy who listened to the great body hair results that Dr. Woods was having and decided to try them. Granted, my first few cases were great successes, but I subsequently had some cases with poor growth. Who is to blame for these cases of poor growth? I have to blame myself. So....I warn all people and physicians about large cases of body hair.

There was a study done by Tommie Hwang around 2004 where he moved leg hair to the scalp and it grew longer than leg hair. Then he moved it from the scalp to the back of his hand and it behaved like body hair and grew shorter. Then he moved it to the nape of the neck and it grew like body hair. Nape of the neck or the stuff your barber shaves is body hair. It behaves like body hair meaning sometimes it grows and sometimes it does not grow at all. This has been my experience with hair from the nape of the neck. I've seen some very poor results from nape of the neck hair. I wish it were better, but it is not.

What one must be careful of with body hair is that you can poison the scalp and nothing grows well when you do very high body hair densities. I guess it's an autoimmune reaction, but sometimes it happens. I did a low density session on a guy and it grew well. Then he had another doctor do a larger session with high density and it did not grow. It also shocked out alot of what I had gotten to grow. Then he came back to me and I had trouble getting anything to grow after that. Don't be aggressive with body hair. I wish I had better news about body hair, but it is just the most frustrating source of transplant hair.

[35YrsAfter]

I participated in one of Dr. Cole's body hair studies. The study was to determine the optimal body hair density during graft placement. Leg hair was used. It grew well for a while and faded over time. On the other hand, (not literally) I had chest and stomach hair placed that continues to grow well to this day. I remember the square of dense packed leg hair. Not a single hair grew when the grafts were placed too close together. The less dense areas of leg hair grew, but as I mentioned, the hairs faded over 6 years. I can still see them but they provide cosmetically insignificant coverage. Beard hair is a different story. We had a patient yesterday who told me that it seemed to take forever (over a year for him) for his beard grafts to grow, but to date, they are proving the best coverage yet. My 750 beard grafts are growing after 6 months and look natural because of the low density placement.

35YrsAfter also posts as CITNews and works at Dr. Cole's office
Cole Hair Transplant - Atlanta Clinic
Toll Free 1-800-368-4247
Phone 678-566-1011

[baldozer]

I participated in one of Dr. Cole's body hair studies. The study was to determine the optimal body hair density during graft placement. Leg hair was used. It grew well for a while and faded over time. On the other hand, (not literally) I had chest and stomach hair placed that continues to grow well to this day. I remember the square of dense packed leg hair. Not a single hair grew when the grafts were placed too close together. The less dense areas of leg hair grew, but as I mentioned, the hairs faded over 6 years. I can still see them but they provide cosmetically insignificant coverage. Beard hair is a different story. We had a patient yesterday who told me that it seemed to take forever (over a year for him) for his beard grafts to grow, but to date, they are proving the best coverage yet. My 750 beard grafts are growing after 6 months and look natural because of the low density placement.

35YrsAfter also posts as CITNews and works at Dr. Cole's office
Cole Hair Transplant
1070 Powers Place
Alpharetta, Georgia 30009
Phone 678-566-1011
Please feel free to call or email me with any questions.

Do you have pictures showing those 750 beard hair, or pictures of any other patient with beard hair transplant?

[35YrsAfter]

Do you have pictures showing those 750 beard hair, or pictures of any other patient with beard hair transplant?

We have a patient who had 2,700 beard hair grafts placed all over his head along with scalp hair grafts. He was a repair patient and needed hair from every available source. His hair appears uniformly curly and looks natural. We use beard hair only as filler to increase coverage. In the case where the beard hair caliber is twice that of scalp hair, it provides 4x the coverage. There is usually curl there as well that helps. Beard hair is always blended with scalp hair. When done properly, it looks natural. If one tries to cover a Norwood 6 head with only beard hair, the result will be odd and unnatural. As far as my own result, It has just started growing. It often begins growing much curlier and later straightens out a bit. I'm one of those guys who had scalp hair transplants years ago. As my scalp donor area thinned with age my grafts thinned. Most everything on the top is now chest and stomach hair. I was a difficult case and still a work in progress.

When a patient returns who has had beard hair blended with his scalp hair, I will part his hair and take a photo.

On our You Tube Channel (forhair) our repair patient progress photo is included in our video illustrating disadvantages of strip surgery.

35YrsAfter also posts as CITNews and works at Dr. Cole's office

[ukcali]

You know some are worried about my admonitions about other physicians, but I also point the finger at myself. I'm the guy who listened to the great body hair results that Dr. Woods was having and decided to try them. Granted, my first few cases were great successes, but I subsequently had some cases with poor growth. Who is to blame for these cases of poor growth? I have to blame myself. So....I warn all people and physicians about large cases of body hair.

There was a study done by Tommie Hwang around 2004 where he moved leg hair to the scalp and it grew longer than leg hair. Then he moved it from the scalp to the back of his hand and it behaved like body hair and grew shorter. Then he moved it to the nape of the neck and it grew like body hair. Nape of the neck or the stuff your barber shaves is body hair. It behaves like body hair meaning sometimes it grows and sometimes it does not grow at all. This has been my experience with hair from the nape of the neck. I've seen some very poor results from nape of the neck hair. I wish it were better, but it is not.

What one must be careful of with body hair is that you can poison the scalp and nothing grows well when you do very high body hair densities. I guess it's an autoimmune reaction, but sometimes it happens. I did a low density session on a guy and it grew well. Then he had another doctor do a larger session with high density and it did not grow. It also shocked out alot of what I had gotten to grow. Then he came back to me and I had trouble getting anything to grow after that. Don't be aggressive with body hair. I wish I had better news about body hair, but it is just the most frustrating source of transplant hair.

Thanks again Dr Cole. As I'd said before I just wanted to see how feasible body hair was as a future option. I have wanted to look into having that laser hair removal done in a few areas at some point soon, so just wanted to make sure I wasn't away to destroy a potential future donor area!

Thanks again for your help it really is appreciated!

[John P. Cole, MD]

Here is an interesting finding with body hair. Some people grow back hair better than chest hair, some chest better, some leg hair better, and some abdominal hair better. Nape of the neck never did well for me. Then there is cosmetic benefit. Don't expect leg hair to grow as long as scalp hair. At best it will double in length. Back hair is often fine and even though the yield might be good, you may not be able to see it across the room. There are no certainties with this sort of body hair. Axilla (underarm) hair and pubic hair are very difficult to remove so i quit trying. Then there is beard hair. It works well and it is visible though often too coarse and curly.

I think if you are looking a laser hair removal, first consider how much hair loss you anticipate. If you are moving to a NW 6 or better, you might want to avoid removing these. If you are going to a NW 3, I'd have no problem with you doing laser hair removal.

I would avoid doing laser hair removal on the beard if you can help it because this is the best source outside of scalp hair.

[ukcali]

The human body never stops amazing me. They way how one thing works for one person and the total opposite works for another etc.


if I'm being realistic my father is probably a NW 5 or 6, and I appear to be following the same pattern. I was on minoxidil foam for about a year but didn't notice any use and stopped using it a few months ago. I have (after a long time debating it in my own head) started taking propecia about a month & 1/2 ago so obviously way too early to see if it's working.


In regards to laser, I would be looking at doing my hands, shoulders/back and ideally my chest. Although since reading this I guess I'll have to leave my chest alone. I also wouldn't be touching my beard area. That sound ok?

[didi]

Dr Cole

Beard and chest hairs go grey faster than head hair,
looking at my dad, he is 60 and his beard and chest hairs are white whereas back of his head is sill black...you see the problem if you do bht

What is the best way to get rid of them once it starts happening on your head (assuming you had an bht)

Can you do reverse FUE targeting grey bht? laser is out I suppose
Do you have patients asking for bht removal

[topcat]

Here is a current picture of a tanned chest donor area, can you find any white dots.

[topcat]

Approximately 900 fue taken from a very small area over 3 procedures as evidenced by the missing hair on as it now appears on a tanned face 8 months post op. I would say by just using my own judgment and eyes the yield was 100%

[John P. Cole, MD]

Ucali, sometimes back hair works out well. So can the hair off your fingers. I bet most of the time these areas will not work well so a laser of these areas is probably fine.

Yes, beard can turn white early on. This can be an issue for some though I think most would prefer to have hair even if it is white. One has to take into account personal differences, Didi. Yes, any graft can be subsequently removed if you don't like it. No, I've not had anyone ask to have the hair removed, yet.

Beard grows fast like scalp hair. Chest does not grow as fast as scalp hair. If you cut the hair on the scalp short after a transplant expect the scalp hair to grow faster than the body hair. The exception appears to be beard hair. I have everyone wet shave the body hair 3 days in advance. The exception is beard hair where i ask them to wet shave one day in advance. This helps me locate anagen hairs or actively growing hairs. Almost all beard hairs are in anagen, by the way.

[didi]

Ucali, sometimes back hair works out well. So can the hair off your fingers. I bet most of the time these areas will not work well so a laser of these areas is probably fine.

Yes, beard can turn white early on. This can be an issue for some though I think most would prefer to have hair even if it is white. One has to take into account personal differences, Didi. Yes, any graft can be subsequently removed if you don't like it. No, I've not had anyone ask to have the hair removed, yet.

Beard grows fast like scalp hair. Chest does not grow as fast as scalp hair. If you cut the hair on the scalp short after a transplant expect the scalp hair to grow faster than the body hair. The exception appears to be beard hair. I have everyone wet shave the body hair 3 days in advance. The exception is beard hair where i ask them to wet shave one day in advance. This helps me locate anagen hairs or actively growing hairs. Almost all beard hairs are in anagen, by the way.

Dr Cole


When are you planning to visit dr Nigam in Mumbai?
we don't need exact dates

no pressure but better to act sooner , dr Nigam is waiting for you

[Winston]

Dr Cole


When are you planning to visit dr Nigam in Mumbai?
we don't need exact dates

no pressure but better to act sooner , dr Nigam is waiting for you

Please keep this thread on topic.
Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

[wylie]

I said I was going to post some pictures of what 5000 beard hair grafts (plus around 1000 scalp and 500 nape) look like on a repair patient, so here ya go: