BODY HAIR TRANSPLANT

The main difference between body hair transplantation via FUE and FUE is that the follicular units to be grafted are extracted from different parts of the body and not from the scalp.

The main differences between hair and body hair are:

a) The orientation of the follicular units

b) The type of the surrounding skin

c) The depth of the follicle below the dermis

1. d) The thickness and the fact that very often the hair is curled

There are three major problems to which we must pay attention when performing a body hair transplant via FUE (BHT).

BODY HAIR TRANSPLANT – Factors to be considered

The factors to consider when you have to program a Body Hair Transplant are:

• The process of follicular unit extraction
• Systematic extraction can be performed in the chest through the use of a 8 mm punch with which you can get hundreds of follicular body hair units a day.
• The life cycle of body hair.

This photo shows the process of grafting in the chest using a 0.75mm punch in a position that allows extraction of hundreds of body hairs in a day.

There are no complete studies to date about the life cycle of body hair. Some studies have shown that body hair have a very short anagen growth phase and a very long telogen resting phase.

This means that body hair grafted in the scalp grows for a period of 6 months reaching a lenght of up to 5 cm and once it reaches this length then enter the resting phase for some years.

In Body Hair Transplant when the hair is transferred from the body to the scalp this may cause a significant delay in growth, due to the extended duration of the telogen phase of the hair follicles.

BODY HAIR TRANSPLANT – Compatibility of body hair

The compatibility of body hair and hair is very important especially pertining to factors such as color and texture. If for example, if the body hair of a patient is curly and his scalp hair is straight, body hair transplantation will be particularly difficult.

Body hair normally grows up to 5 cm then the potential patient must be aware of the fact that his hair will remain at that maximum length.

It is preferable to consider that body hair transplantation as a solution to help increase the density of a hair transplant in those cases where the donor area of the scalp is poor.

Body Hair Transplant, as well as hair transplant taken from the scalp, tend to give better growth of hair at lower densities in some people. I believe that patients should first try to use the donor area of the scalp to the fullest and consider body hair transplant as a last resource, but for some people body hairs are the only option.

You need to think about body hair transplant as a solution to help increase the density of a hair transplantation when there is not sufficient transplant donor hair in the scalp.

Many times it is a good idea to do a little test case, using between 50 and 500 follicular units of body hair, to see what growth rate the patient will have before venturing into a BHT megasession. The transplanted hairs tend to produce barely perceptible results in some subjects. There will be those who will be very impressed with this result and those who will not be impressed. There are therefore several good reasons to opt for a small BHT test before thinking in this solution for an intervention of greater reach:

– In Body Hair Transplant (BHT), the results obtained from other patients may not represent the standard results obtainable. The conclusions of a small test can offer the patient who will undergo the same guidelines on possible outcomes of a body hair transplant when performed by the same doctor who has conducted the test using the same protocol that is used for bigger sessions.

– The Body Hair Transplant (BHT) test on specific areas is particularly important, especially for those areas of the body where post extraction healing could be difficult. The BHT test should therefore include those areas of the body that may heal in a worse way (as for example the center of the chest). It is always prudent to carry out a test with a few extractions in dangerous areas to avoid being left with many keloid scars due to the test.

Please read the website of Dr. Umar for further details: http://www.dermhairclinic.com/