Body hair transplants do work?

[John P. Cole, MD]

As I stated, many patients are happy with their results. Sometimes these results are quite good and sometimes they are not, but it is always good when a patient is happy with their results. Sometimes patients are not happy with really good results or the best that we can expect given the circumstances. Sub-optimal donor areas are never going to produce the greatest results no matter how consistent the result is with the procedure that was done with the donor area available.

Regarding your estimation about who does the top repair work, I'd say that you have narrowed your playing field far more than what is available. Patient bias is expected, however. Taking such bias to extreme degrees is impertinent and vexing.

[gillenator]

The thing about all of this is that beard hair and BH are mostly used in repair situations and/or in cases where the individual's donor is depleted. Never as a primary donor source.

That being said and understood by most, what is not understood very well is the psyche of the repair patient. One of the things that I have observed over the years is the fact that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". What one repair patient may see as outstanding results, the other is never going to be satisfied. These are obviously at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Many repair patients have lower expectations resulting from the past disappointments in scarring and less than desirable results. They don't want to be sold anything including BH. They just want improvement in order to "move on with their lives". Some are most desperate than others. Some are more realistic and are aware of their limitations after their donor reserves are depleted. Still others are unrealistic and will try anything. Sometimes the scarring can be improved, sometimes not. Some have more available donor, some have next to none unless you go to BH. It's complex and every repair case is different. I always encourage repair patients to consider both sides before defining their goals and expectations.

Some are absolutely thrilled with a more aesthetically pleasing hairline when you or I would never accept it. But then again you and I did not have to live with others staring at our past pluggy hairline for years.

It's a similar psyche to someone who has lived without any hairline for years. Many of them are ecstatic to have a frame again and are happy with that. But if you already have a considerable volume of native hair and suddenly you see the recession and thinning of your hairline, it becomes a crisis and the expectations are high, and sometimes unreasonable.

Give someone who is dying of thirst in the desert a glass of water and he will be forever grateful to you. He may view it as saving his life. Give someone else the same glass of water who just came out of the pool, and they might just throw it back at you.

[John P. Cole, MD]

Well stated, Gilli. One concern I have is underestimating the capacity of others to achieve a similar level of nirvana in the hands of good physicians. While all cannot pull off a repair case, many can.