Body Hair Transplant

A body hair transplant (BHT) is mostly performed among male with no enough hair supply at the donor of the scalp. It supports a regular hair transplant to cover the severe balding area and should not be solely performed on patients with large-scale miniaturizations or extensive baldness.

Successful results from Body hair transplant (BHT) are very rare. BHT can only be performed after evaluating the resources of donor’s hair at the scalp of every patient. The following are the ideal candidates who can go for Body Hair Transplant:

• A patient looking for complete coverage in one sitting
• Individuals with poor scalp donor
• Individuals with previously failed hair transplant with depleted scalp donor
• Individuals with retrograde thinning of scalp donor
• Individuals with old and thick grafts and would like to repair this
• A patient looking for a thicker head of hair with more volume

Body hair transplantation uses an advanced form of follicular unit extraction or FUE in which the BHT harvests donor hairs one by one, in follicular units. Donor hair can be gathered from the areas such as beard, chest, stomach, arms or legs. The hairs are selected and excised using a handheld device that can be manual or powered.

The tiny.8 to 1.2mm incisions are small enough requiring no stitching and heal such that scarring is negligible. Once the follicles are extracted, they are retained carefully in a solution until the time of implantation into the recipient area. Numerous tiny slits are made in the bald area, where these follicles find their new home. Most patients can see the full growth and thickness of the new hair after 18 months of post-surgery.

• To achieve a greater density in patients with weak donor area on the scalp.
• To fill large areas of the bald patch on the head.
• To correct/ repair hair transplant

Body Hair Transplant is effective, when:

• Hair density needs to be increased during transplant
• There aren’t enough grafts available on the scalp
• The bald areas on the scalp are large requiring more grafts
• Some correction or repair has to be done

There are some considerations that patients should be aware of. The differences between the hair in the scalp and body hair before going under the body hair transplant procedure. The most affecting factors for the transplanted hair are colour, thickness and hair structure.

There following are the four major concerns for the patients receiving hair transplants using body hair:

• The difference in the structure of scalp hair and body hair.
• The process of removing body hair
• Incompatibility between scalp hair and body hair.
• Hair death in two or three years following the hair transplant procedure.