• Welcome to Hair loss Experiences hair loss forum.

    Free impartial hair loss advice, hair transplant advice, hair loss medications and hair loss news.
    You can contact us directly at [email protected] if you experience any problems.

Body Chest Hairs for use in FUE hair restoration

Dr. Josephitis

Dr. Josephitis

Valued member
FUE has come a long way over the years. It has enabled many patients who would otherwise not have had a hair transplant procedure the ability to get one. It allows patients who wish to shave their hair shorter the freedom to do that. FUE is not without limitations though. FUE in general may not yield as many total grafts in a patient €™s lifetime. The average patient can yield somewhere between 4000 and 8000 usable grafts over a number of procedures.

Beard and body hair FUE has been available for a number of years. There is much debate as to how effective and useful this type of hair is. At Shapiro Medical Group, we have been doing FUE for a number of years and getting great success with our patients. Over the years, some have asked to try beard and body hair to add extra grafts. There is currently much debate amongst surgeons as to the usefulness of beard and body hair. Unfortunately, there are not any good studies comparing scalp and body hair FUE. We have been doing beard FUE on a regular basis for over a year with good results. We typically add beard for patients with a limited donor supply that still need to add extra density.

Beard has been commonly accepted as a useful addition to the scalp hair with FUE. The yield is relatively good. Chest and back hair are other area of body hair that have been tried in the past. These areas of donor are less useful for a couple of reasons. First of all, most people don €™t usually have a strong, robust amount of this type of hair. Also, because of the fine nature of the hair, the yield (how much hair actually survives.

With beard and body hair the area that the grafts are placed is also important. Because the characteristics of body hair is typically different than scalp hair, the body hair grafts have to be in less obvious area of the recipient scalp. We typically mix the body hair with the scalp hair so that the hair is helpful with density, but not very noticeable.

The patient presented here was limited on scalp donor hair and desired for us to use chest hair. Thankfully, he had excellent, coarse chest hair. Also, the chest hair also contained a number of 2-haired grafts which is unusual in body hair.



chest%20gross%20view.jpg




A close up of the area show a number of 2 €“haired grafts. Also from the picture of the individual grafts you can see the grafts are coarse and strong.



chest%20close%20up.jpg



chest%20grafts.jpg





Because of the fine and fragile nature of the chest hair grafts we used implanters to place the grafts. This way, we could minimize the handling of the grafts.



implanter%202.jpg



As I mentioned before, it is important to put the body hair in a useful but inconspicuous area of the scalp. The chest hairs were mixed with scalp and placed in the posterior of the recipient area.


top%20view.jpg



Just like in the scalp, the tiny incisions of FUE heal very rapidly. Here is a photo of 3 days post op.

3%20day%20post%20op.jpg



As we did with this patient, with extra care in the handling of the fragile body hair FUE, there may be extra donor reserve for other patients.
We will update you on this patient.

 
bullitnut

bullitnut

4 awesome repairs with SMG
Great post Dr Josephitis, the healing on the patient at 3 days is incredible, how long typically would grafts taken from the beard area take to heal?
Thanks for sharing, I look forward to following this case.

 
Dr. Josephitis

Dr. Josephitis

Valued member
Grafts from the beard area (under the chin) also heal very rapidly. From my experience, the skin under the beard looks very much like the photo of the chest here.

The beard hairs then undergo a resting phase just like the scalp hairs do before they grow.

Chest hairs may be slightly different in how quickly they start growing. The growing cycle of chest hair is much shorter than beard or scalp.

We will just have to wait and see for this patient.
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Nice post explaining the benefits of using body hair. As I`ve had beard hair extracted from under the chin (by yourself, thank you Dr. Josephitis) I can confirm the healing is fast and extraction sites near impossible to see. Chest hair I`ve yet to try (hint hint).
How do you find the angles when planting body hair with the implanter pen?
 
Dr. Josephitis

Dr. Josephitis

Valued member
There are a couple of ways to use the implanter pen when placing grafts. One way is to load grafts into an implanter with a sharp tip. When the implanter is introduced into the scalp, an incision site is made and the graft is placed at the same time. Another way is to make incision sites in the traditional way using a needle or blade. Then the grafs are inserted into the openings using an implanter that has a dull tip.

We use implanters with dull tips. This way, we can follow the angle and direction as we have been doing all along with custom made blades. Then we can carefully insert the grafts using the dull implanter pen.
 
Westcoaster

Westcoaster

member
Dr. Josephitis. Will you carry out a study anytime in the near future documenting survival rates of body hair transplanted to the scalp?

This patient's chest extraction sites have healed real quick, apart from the yellowish color and odd tiny spot of blood one would never know anything had been done. Why is it hair extracted from beard and chest heal quicker with less scarring than scalp extractions?

An interesting factor I've read numerous times is body hair taking on the same characteristics as the surrounding scalp hair. Have you witnessed these grafts, over time begin to grow longer to match the scalp hair?

I`m fascinated by the brain, its capability to change and reprogram itself, adapting to new scenarios. I believe this is what happens with these hairs. I could go into this much deeper but it would take away from the topic.

Thanks for posting this great topic. Progress updates on the patient and a potential study are more than welcome.



 
Dr. Josephitis

Dr. Josephitis

Valued member
I agree. A study would be an excellent way to demonstrate the survival of body hair vs. scalp hair. With the ever increasing number of patients requesting body hair FUE in our clinic, we may be in the position to do that soon.

Yes, you are right about the transplanted grafts taking on some of the characteristics of the surrounding hair into which it is transplanted. I have see this clinically. It is often only subtle changes that are noted. Just like you said, the beard hair may become softer and grow a little longer than usual. The hairs themselves still remain different than the scalp hair. This is an interesting phenomenon.
 
Westcoaster

Westcoaster

member
This phenomenon is certainly worth more insight. I'm going to pose some questions on an a site I frequent to see if my theory on the brain has some merit.
 
bullitnut

bullitnut

4 awesome repairs with SMG
Dr. Josephitis wrote:
Grafts from the beard area (under the chin) also heal very rapidly. From my experience, the skin under the beard looks very much like the photo of the chest here.

The beard hairs then undergo a resting phase just like the scalp hairs do before they grow.

Chest hairs may be slightly different in how quickly they start growing. The growing cycle of chest hair is much shorter than beard or scalp.

We will just have to wait and see for this patient.
Thank you for the explanation Dr Josephitis.... I'm glad you posted about this patient...... this is a very interesting thread and I appreciate your involvement and participation.
 
S

Shaun

valued member
Hello Dr. Josephitis. I have an abundance of body hair that resembles a Gorilla. Initially I looked into having it lasered out to get rid of it. I prefer a smooth look for my body but not my head. I'm wondering, what would be the number of chest hairs you'd be comfortable transplanting to the scalp? My hair has thinned over the last decade, I would benefit from 2000 grafts to add density to my frontal two thirds. I was thinking 1000 grafts from my donor zone and 1000 from my chest. Would this be an option you'd consider? My chest hair is thick and robust with very curl to it.
 
Top