How many hair grafts you can extract from a beard

[baldozer]

If you have a decently thick beard, how many grafts could be extracted form it (to transplant on head) approximately, without visibly thinning out the beard. And would it cause the skin under the jaw to sag or any other side effects?

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

The number of grafts that can be obtained from a patients beard area totally depend on the original density. However, it may cause a thinning effect if the beard was allowed to grow out. I doubt any skin sagging would occur but depending on skin color there could be tiny white dot scars where the FUE grafts were taken from.

[ejj]

I agree it all depends on your donor density , i have had 3000 with no visible marks or scarring , with a good even extraction pattern that has left no noticible thinning of my beard , im planning on using another 3 - 4 thousand to finish my repair

hope this helps

ejj

[baldozer]

I agree it all depends on your donor density , i have had 3000 with no visible marks or scarring , with a good even extraction pattern that has left no noticible thinning of my beard , im planning on using another 3 - 4 thousand to finish my repair

hope this helps

ejj

Have you posted pictures somewhere? And you said you had 3000 hairs taken from the beard and also planning 3000 more, really? Didn't know there were that much hair in a beard !

[northeastguy]

@ EJJ..... has the extractions caused any change to your skin at all? Is the area of extraction still look as smooth as it did prior to any FUE? I think some of use who may be dabbing into the beard for donor supply fear the outcome might be similar to someone who's skin looks like they dealt with bad acne as a teen.

Dr Charles.... any experience with this?

[gillenator]

ejj, you must have one thick beard! Never heard of such high density in facial hair before. Congrats.

I had one guy email me last year that did a session of beard donor. He is Italian decent and he told me that when he went to the Jersey Shore on vacation, he had noticable dotting on his cheeks and chin and under his chin. The darker he tanned, the more noticable they became.

So he said it looks like he will have to wear facial hair in the summer to disguise them. He's said he's hoping to be clean shaven by the holidays but I have yet to hear back from him.

He also had no idea what size punches were used to extract his beard hair but he did tell me that his facial hair is very coarse.

[northeastguy]

ejj, you must have one thick beard! Never heard of such high density in facial hair before. Congrats.

I had one guy email me last year that did a session of beard donor. He is Italian decent and he told me that when he went to the Jersey Shore on vacation, he had noticable dotting on his cheeks and chin and under his chin. The darker he tanned, the more noticable they became.

So he said it looks like he will have to wear facial hair in the summer to disguise them. He's said he's hoping to be clean shaven by the holidays but I have yet to hear back from him.

He also had no idea what size punches were used to extract his beard hair but he did tell me that his facial hair is very coarse.

Great info Gillanator.....This is exactly one of my concerns. since the scar tissue created by the FUE's or any scar for that matter doesn't contain melanin, they're obviously not going to tan. I doubt his condition improved. Good info...
It's funny, we worry about getting dotting from FUE on our scalps yet most of us still keep our hair just long enough to hide it, yet we have no problem having these potential problems on our face for all to see.

[ejj]

many thanks Gillenator , yes i have a great dense beard , without it i would of been scuppered ! i think i can get another 5 k grafts out of it if needed , im hopeful i wont need that many though

I have no change to the skin texture , no pits or marks , and my face tans without any white dots from the extractions , i agree punch size plays an important role .8mm used on me , i have heard darker skins are more prone to white dotting , i would start with a few from under the chin and assess the results to be on the safe side

Baldozer here is my thread i will get some pictures up soon , got my third beard procedure in May

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=6533

Thanks
ejj

[baldozer]

I agree it all depends on your donor density , i have had 3000 with no visible marks or scarring , with a good even extraction pattern that has left no noticible thinning of my beard , im planning on using another 3 - 4 thousand to finish my repair

hope this helps

ejj

So you already had 3000 beard hair and planning to have 3000 more, that is 6000 overall. Would you have any beard left after that, or is a dense beard so much thicker that you would still have a decent beard left? And do your beard hair transplanted on head, merge with your head hair, or one can easily differentiate them?

[35YrsAfter]

The number of grafts that can be obtained from a patients beard area totally depend on the original density. However, it may cause a thinning effect if the beard was allowed to grow out. I doubt any skin sagging would occur but depending on skin color there could be tiny white dot scars where the FUE grafts were taken from.

When doctors first began doing beard hair, some were extracting grafts from areas above the jaw line. We had a patient in last month who had one of those early surgeries by another doctor. The doctor who did the surgery has an excellent reputation but for whatever reason his patient experienced a problem with healing. I looked at his posts in another forum from a few years back and there were lingering visible signs of extraction. Fortunately a few years later when I met him at our office, the signs of extraction resolved to where I couldn't see any extraction sites.

Dr. Cole takes beard hair from below the jaw line. Dr. Cole has taken 750 beard hair grafts from the right and left side below my jaw line. A month after extractions were done on my left side, I showed the area to a visiting hair restoration doctor. He looked at the area with magnifying loupes and could not see any evidence of hair follicle extraction. From what I have seen personally, the beard area heals remarkably well. I remember years ago when I had 4mm open donor extractions by one of the original doll-hair transplant pioneers. My scalp donor looked like hell after surgery. I expressed my concern to the doctor and he told me that the extraction sites would shrink up and disappear. Well they didn't. I have a great deal of hypopigmented scars on the back and sides of my head. My personal experience with beard hair extractions is that they did shrink up and disappear. Because of this type of healing, patients who have had a great deal of extractions have commented to Dr. Cole and his technicians that beard extractions have resulted in drawing previously "sagging" areas tighter thereby reducing the appearance of sagging jowls.

-35YrsAfter works at Dr. Cole's office

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

Interesting comments. To have 6000 FU's removed from a beard area the patient has to have really good density to begin with.

[northeastguy]

Beard hair has become the savior to so many of us who are repair patients. Ejj and Topcat are two great examples. Without this option, our chances of even a slight improvement would be hopeless. Exhaust scalp hair as a number one donor then use beard as a filler... so often results are more than acceptable. With The number of beard grafts available to so many, it completely changes both the game plan and outcome.

[ITNEVERRAINS]

Cole told me on Friday he could get 3k to 5k from me from beard, which is what I'm planning on using in scars early next year.

For fun he pulled two out my beard and put it in scar, I must say on Monday it looks no worse than razor burn.

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

That's great that some patients will have another option to do some fill in or repair using beard hairs.

[ITNEVERRAINS]

It certainly has legit potential, but it is still BHT. If the two we planted from my beard to scar take, I'll take the next logical step of a couple hundred. If that works, game on.