Body Hair Transplant, how much can be transplanted?

[valmont]

while listening to the answer of Dr. Charles, he mentionned that excessive FUE transplantation can result in a "moth eaten" look in the back which makes sens. http://hairloss.iahrs.org/author/gcharles/


I m quite a hairy guy i.e. chest, stomach, shoulders, and thankfully only a bit on the back. can I transplant a considerable amount of hair from this area into my head? that'll save on the waxing!

thank you in advance.

[uselessgomez]

I think with the exception of Dr. Umar who does a ton of repair work, a lot of doctors seem to be a little standoffish about using body hair. I have never had a transplant at all, but I read a lot because I'm thinking of getting one. I've read that it's fairly inconsistent with regard to yield and transection. Harvesting body hair is more difficult and requires special tools.

I wouldn't even consider using body hair for donor unless it's a last measure. It's too dicey and probably going to be vastly more expensive no matter who's doing the surgery.

With the "moth eaten" donor area look from FUE harvesting, I think it has a lot to do with the surgeon's technique, extraction pattern, diameter of the extraction punch, and the patient's physiology. I think that along with the number of grafts harvested are what influences how the donor area will look.

My understanding is that FUE is better used for smaller procedures and concealing scars. You don't get as much bang for your buck as you do with strip, and if you have an advanced stage of hairloss, FUE is not as cost effective and may have disappointing yields and donor area with littles white spots with no hair.

It all kinda depends on what you need I guess. I have medium wavy hair, so if a doctor told me that I need more than 2000 grafts strip is probably the way to go. Less than that, I could probably still do FUE.

Just my 2 cents.

[valmont]

My understanding is that FUE is better used for smaller procedures and concealing scars. You don't get as much bang for your buck as you do with strip, and if you have an advanced stage of hairloss, FUE is not as cost effective and may have disappointing yields and donor area with littles white spots with no hair.

why is that so?

check out this video regarding misconceptions about FUE

http://hairloss.iahrs.org/hair-transplant/misconceptions-about-fue/

perhaps, Bodyhair can be used on smaller areas on the head just to give extra coverage.

[uselessgomez]

But even Dr. Cole says on his site that body hair yields are not reliable and should be used only as a last resort. If you're not donor-depleted, why spend the money on bht if it might not grow?

[valmont]

perhaps, but the video I posted related to the FUE vs Strip debate.

[CIT_Girl]

uselessgomez, you took the words right out of my mouth about body hair! Although we've seen some remarkable results, the yield is just unfortunately not very consistent and we therefore have to discourage individuals from using body hair as anything but a last result. I will say that, out of the different types of body hair, we’ve definitely seen some of the best yields with beard hair- so if you're intent on doing BHT, I'd suggest that route.

At our office, all BHT patients must first undergo a small test procedure prior to scheduling larger sessions. This is for the patient’s own best interest- to see what sort of yield and results they might achieve, and to determine whether they would be satisfied with a larger procedure. Never let a physician talk you into a larger procedure without a test because there are no guarantees and no physician can make body hair work for all cases. I'd also never advise using body hair on the hair line as body hair will almost always be courser and look unnatural there.

[gallovolador]

I will tell my experience with BHT. I was a NW V, i went for a FUE of 3100 grafts nine months ago and a small test of 25 grafts BHT. The outcome of the FUE was satisfactory till now with an acceptable rate of growth but unfortunnaly the BHT test result is completely null, no growth at all. The Body hairs were taken from the chest, i have a lot of body hairs and very strong but even like this it didnt work at all. Im wondering what it would have been the result if the hairs were taken from the beard, i have also noticed that in the exact points were the body hairs were extracted are new body hairs which makes me think that these were not extracted properly, i remember that the doctor took a long time to extract each body hair.
Anyhow i consider that they were professional because the result of the FUE is good and because they also advised me that BHT rarely works and they made this test for me because i insisted and they didnt charge me for this. This limits may possibilities for further surgeries which i really need to solve the problem completely, i think i only have around 1500 grafts more from standard donnor area via FUE and probably i will ask for a test with BHT from beard. Im also considering those who claim being experts in BHT: some specialized doctors like Dr. Umar or Dr. Arwind, i have also seen a good case of Dr. Bisanga with BHT, probably they are better prepared to make this kind of hair transplant due to their larger experience in this field or probably they just sell smoke or probably depends more on each patience...
I hope this may help and sorry for my english but its not my native language.
Best regrowth to everyone.

[drybone]

I have a question regarding body hair transplant.

What if I got like 60,000 body hairs on my back and chest? Or even something like 30,000 ? They are all straight . They aint pubie curlie .

Cant I not get all 30,000 FUE body hairs dumped behind my new hairline to give me virtually the same amount of hair I had when I was 18? Thats a lot of hair.

How much would something like this cost ?

[35YrsAfter]

I have a question regarding body hair transplant.

What if I got like 60,000 body hairs on my back and chest? Or even something like 30,000 ? They are all straight . They aint pubie curlie .

Cant I not get all 30,000 FUE body hairs dumped behind my new hairline to give me virtually the same amount of hair I had when I was 18? Thats a lot of hair.

How much would something like this cost ?

Dr. Cole is seeing the best yield of non-scalp hair using first, beard hair and second, chest hair. It's always a good idea to do a test procedure of between 100 and 500 grafts because success with body hair varies quite a bit between patients.

In another thread on the Bald Truth Forum, a person posted on the futility of treating a Norwood 6 and 7. I met a patient of Dr. Cole's several years ago who posted in the forums as "Juiceman" who was determined not to be bald. He felt there was a possibility because of his family's hair loss trend that he could end up a Norwood 7. He just kept fighting back over the years and had several procedures. He had work done by Dr. Wong, Dr. Woods and Dr. Cole. All very fine work. I met him and examined the work at Dr. Cole's office and although he didn't have a teenage head of hair, he had an age appropriate head of hair that was reasonably dense and overall, he looked great.

That said regarding the higher Norwood range, not all patients can achieve what Juiceman did because of a wide range of factors.

I recommend you do a consult in order to arrive at a realistic expectation taking into consideration cost/donor supply.

I suggest you do a test area to evaluate coverage. This will help you establish reasonable expectations for a larger session.

- 35YrsAfter works at Dr. Cole's office

[gillenator]

But even Dr. Cole says on his site that body hair yields are not reliable and should be used only as a last resort. If you're not donor-depleted, why spend the money on bht if it might not grow?

Good point!

[gillenator]

Here's the deal. To date, there is still very little clinical evidence (documented and published) that BH is a reliable donor source. Not to say that anyone within this thread topic has implied such. Obviously with more research and trials, that may change in the future. But ask yourself how many FUE surgeons would guarantee the regrowth in this present day?

What clinical substantiation there is available, the BH taken from other regions of the head (beard), and then the chest have the best regrowth results IMHO. There are a few cases of using hair from the back and legs whereby some level of regrowth was noted. But even in some of those cases, once the hair shed, the next growth cycle was inconsistent at best. This includes hair taken from the arms/legs/under arms. The corresponding yields or lack of them are all a part of the ongoing research. And to my knowledge, only a handful of docs are seriously doing further research and trials concerning the differences of BH as compared to scalp growth cycles, textures, regrowth in scar tissue (repair), and the like.

And another point is that the regrowth texture and characteristics of BH can be quite different from the texture it had before it was harvested. In other words, moving BH from the back to the scalp does not mean that the regrowth characteristics will look the same and grow as long in length.

That is another critical concern that potential BH patients have. How long in length will the BH regrow? To date, the results across the board are anything but consistent.

And these are just some of the concerns and reasons that justify approaching BHTs as a last resort and to make test sessions beforehand mandatory.

I think the median price for BHT grafts are at about $14.00 US per BH graft. Some docs charge as high as $18.00 US per BH graft. You do the math.

[drybone]

Ok. That about sums it up thanks fellahs.

14 bucks per graft makes the decision easy. No way.

My theory was that I wanted to get rid of my back and chest hair so why not kill two birds with one stone and just plant it into my head for more density?

Perhaps one day a doctor will be able to put me out and take all 30,000 grafts and do the procedure with 80% success rate. I would pay $50,000 for that.

I think the doc can do two or three days work for 50 grand .

Until then, I will just use my scalp donor hair as needed. I really do think one day the body hair will be almost a cure for baldness for most men.

[Lounk61]

Bht

I'm with you on the use of body hair. Would love for it to work. I've been checking into it and had consults with a few HT docs and the the info I get is conflicting. One doc says he uses only chest hair because beard hair is too coarse. Another 2 docs say they won't use body or beard hair. 2 other docs said they would do a large session on me of 7,500-10,000 beard and body hair transplants on my NW 6 head and that would do it. Just had my 3rd ht about 3 weeks ago and the doc agreed to try some beard hair and took about 20 from near my sideburns as a test to see how it grows. Says the follicles came out well and were straight and looked good so we'll see. If it grows in ok we'll do more and maybe try some chest hair to see how that grows. Being cautious. I'll post more down the road when I get some results.

[topcat]

Drybone I have had both beard and chest hairs extracted. My growth has been excellent and as far as any visible scarring I have none. I have plenty of pictures posted on my “Follow My Major Repair” thread. Always best to start out with a very small session at first.

[Lounk61]

bht

Hey topcat. Was the chest hair removal painful? Which gave you better results, the beard or chest hair? Thanks.