Using Body Hair Grafts (Body Hair Transplantation) During First Hair Transplant Surgery?
This question comes from a member of our hair loss social community and discussion forums:
I’m looking to undergo my first hair transplant surgery, and I’m wondering if I can increase the amount of implanted grafts by utilizing body hair grafts or body hair transplantation (BHT)? Will the body hairs match my scalp hair? What type of body hair graft is most commonly used?
Body hair grafts are traditionally reserved for those with depleted donor supply or patients seeking repair procedures. Body hair grafts exhibit a type of “donor dominance,” and will retain the characteristics of the region from where they are extracted. This means chest hair grafts will grow like chest hair on the scalp; leg hair grafts will grow like leg hair on the scalp; et cetera. This obviously creates certain issues with respect to growth cycles and hair characteristics.
Traditionally, beard hair grafts are most similar to scalp hair in characteristic (especially in those with coarse hair) and cycling patterns, and I have seen an increasing number of beard hair grafts mixed with scalp follicular unit grafts cases recently. However, it is important to remember that body hair grafting is a delicate procedure, and you should likely discuss this type of restoration with a hair transplant surgeon who performs a lot of body hair work. However, altogether, I still believe most would recommend normal scalp grafts; especially for your first hair restoration procedure.
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Blake Bloxham – formerly “Future_HT_Doc”
Editorial Assistant and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning
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