A stupid question.

[Lostboy]

As a total newbie here I thought I would just jump in and ask. Have there ever been successfull grafts harvested from a cadaver? Are hair grafts subject to the same rules as any other form of transplant?

I have heard they can now harvest hair from other areas of the body.. if that were the case, could they move all the good hair off the back and sides of my head to the top - then fill in those areas with my chest and arm pit hair?? LOL I know that sounds gross but I am serious.

I mean if it's cut short enough who is gonna know?

[clee984]

I think body hair is a different kind of hair, so it would look different, but I'm sure it's been done.

Funnily enough, I read about a guy having a face transplant the other day, and I did think that the same must work for the scalp and hair. The article does say that his "new" beard started to grow. Whether you'd want a dead person's mane on your bonce is a different matter.

[thejack]

I wonder if anyone has had their pubes transplanted for some smart hairline work..

[CIT_Girl]

Conceivably, I would imagine grafts could be used from a cadaver but I don't think it has ever been done and don't know that it would be done since it would require the patient to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life.

Body hair transplantation tends to be quite unpredictable but it will generally take on the characteristics of the recipient area, meaning that, if you were lucky enough to have a good yield with BHT, you could use chest hair, etc. to restore some of the density in the donor area.

thejack, Dr. Cole has actually used pubic hair (or 'pelvic hair' as we call it here ) on patients before. I'm not familiar with the cases, so I can't speak of how the yield was, but I know Dr. Cole would only use it as a last resort. As far as body hair goes, he has had the best success with beard and chest hair.

[RobinSigismondi]

No cadaver....

Dr. McAndrews gets this question alot, along with the question of whether siblings can donate to each other. I double checked with him to be sure nothing has changed. Unfortunately it is like an organ transplant. You would need to take a host of anti-rejection medications and there would be no guarantee. The costs both physically and fiscally far outweigh the benefits.

Body hair transplants are really used as a last resort. The hair will grow as it did on the body. It will have the same texture and grow to a certain length then stop. It is not easily manageable and often gives an unnatural results. Dr. McAndrews recommends that a patient exhaust all other options before considering this, but it can be done in certain circumstances.

[Lostboy]

Bummer, cuz frankly were it not for all the anti-rejection in this prognosis I would so be in. I don't care who it came from - if they arent using it anymore.. *sigh*

Well as far as the body hair thing goes my thoughts were if they were able to move much of the hair that is still healthy and growing well to my dome, and replace the harvest hair with my chest hair - it would be fine! I am pretty hairy! What is the biggest grafting procedure on record?

If the body hair were located at the sides and back - where I can keep it short short anyway.. if it's 1/4 long who is gonna know? What about arm hair?At this point I would with 99% certainty sell a major body organ for the chance to have my own hair physically growing from my head.

I have worn hair systems for years.. I just want to be a real boy again.

Oh - and yeah I read all about that face transplant thing - I was actually reading up looking for any successfull full scalp transplants - FYI that would be negative. They were not even able to successfully re-attach scalps, making this grafting stuff seem an even bigger miracle. So yeah - kissing with someone elses lips would indeed be vey odd, but what a miracle! It has to open so many hopes for those horribly disfigured. Then as you read on - you feel sort of silly and callow for being so obsessed with something like hair

[gillenator]

BH transplant results are very inconsistent and as everyone stated, only as a last resort. Even then, you would want to do small test procedures first before committing to any large numbers.