Body Hair Transplant (BHT) education

[Dr A's Clinic]

Body hair to scalp transplants - that's an often debated topic.
Used to be 15 years ago and I find doctors still wondering how and whether to do it.
I will like to share my experiences and the methods used.

Please do let me know your queries.
In 2004 to 2007 was a period of extensive collaboration between doctors of the time.
By collaboration I don't mean we helped each other willingly going out of our way...rather it was a situation where we shared our results and methods openly and regularly on online discussion forums.
There was myself, Drs Woods, Cole and later Umar.
It was a healthy exchange that is missing now.
At the same time, new doctors are not fully informed about benefits of bht and the best way to use these additional donor hair, whether from beard or various body donor regions.
I will share some of my works, results and experiences from 2004 onwards.
I will be glad to hear from you.

Following is a patient i operated in December 2005.

He had a strong family history of hair loss progressing to Norwood 6 level.
It is very important to document the growth of the transplanted body hair as well as the scarring, if any, in the body donor areas.

Not all techniques being used to perform body hair transplants are equal.
Therefore, in my opinion, we should demonstrate the exact growth of the transplanted body hair as well as the appearance of the donor area, with clear pictures and videos.
This may help dispel many myths surrounding Body hair transplants.

Following is a case of a patient who went for a small test session of BHT.

Factor 1 - He is a young patient, desirous of a low flat hairline. However, he has a strong family history of hair loss progressing to NW 6.
Factor 2 - He has good body hair growth.

Factor 1 is against him going for such ambitious HTs.
Factor 2 is his only hope, at present, in case he has extensive hair loss at a future date and runs out of scalp donor.

However, its entirely logical on the patient's part to see the efficacy of BHT firsthand, before proceeding further.
The test session was performed in December 2005.
Chest hair grafts were used. They were transplanted so that the growth should not be confused with scalp hair growth.

The patient did not use any Minoxidil in the body donor area nor the recipient areas after the transplant.
The patient is very satisfied with the growth. He first noticed hair growth in the recipient area as early as the 2-month mark.

The extractions were performed by the expanding needle concept.



Above is a self-explanatory picture

Chest hair were transplanted and grew in the isolated area for easy identification.
The other question was about healing of the donor wounds and the method of extraction.
The grafts were extracted by the FUSE technique using the expanding needle concept (ENC).



This picture shows the extraction wounds, the donor area and the healing.





The patient received 50 grafts.
How many grafts a person would require when using body hair grafts depends on -

1. the # of 1,2 and 3 hair grafts.
2. the calibre of the grafts.
The thicker the calibre and the more the 2/3 hair grafts, the less the total # of grafts required.

Typically, the proposed body donor hair should be atleast 50% as thick as the scalp hair, when transplanting on scalp recipient areas (barring the temples and hairline feathering zones).

Regards,
Dr. Poswal

[Dr. Arvind Poswal]

Dear readers and fellow doctors,
I have recieved many messages from doctors, after this post, who say that they understand the necessity of using body and beard hair to alleviate scalp baldness. But they are unsure about how to get good yield and even whether body hair will grow well on scalp.

Additionally, one is correctly worried about the scarring potential if very refined techniques and instruments are not used.

Therefore, in continuation of sharing my journey in BHT, I am tabulating some cases that show/prove excellent healing in the most exposed donor, i.e., beard donor including the hair on the chin and cheeks if correct methods are used.

Please let me know about your experiences. Doctors may contact me at poswalarvind@yahoo.co.in or whatsapp phone +919818201323 if you wish to further update your skills.

Standardised education and cooperation between veteran doctors is the need of the hour in this field.
Regards,
Dr A

[Dr. Arvind Poswal]

Case 1
This patient required beard redesigning.
This surgery was performed in early 2014.
He did not like the hair too high up on his cheeks. The hair were removed using the FUSE technique and the “expanding needle concept”.
Please note the immaculate healing without any visible scars on the cheeks.

[Dr. Arvind Poswal]

Case 2 -

Perfomed in 2014, this young patient desired a youthful hairline but had a family history of norwood 5 level hairloss.
So, body and beard hair grafts were used alongwith scalp hair, to fill the scalp.
His skin is brown. A question asked is whether there will be visible scarring in colored patients.
Results speak for themselves.

[Pouch]

You have an interesting output on how to resolve the problem of hair loss.

[Pouch]

You have an interesting output on how to resolve the problem of hair loss. Some of my friends suffered at a young age from hair loss. I've heard them having to choose between FUE and FUT procedures to solve their problems. Don't know for sure if they are the best. And if I remember well, they've chosen the FUE procedure at https://www.hairtransplantinstitute.ca/. The hair transplant procedure went very well in their case, and the hair was growing healthier and faster. They were satisfied with the result. From what you have written and the photos you've shown, it seems that the procedure is also a good one.