Hair Restoration Blog

Q:

Hi Dr.Mohebi,

I am wondering if the chest hair be transfer to the head?

Yours,

Name

A:

Good question and the answer is yes. Some people with limited scalp hair can be good candidates for body hair transplants. This is how it works:

Body hair can be harvested and used for hair transplants in people who have both good course body hair and are severely depleted of scalp donor hair (hair on the sides and back of the head). Body hair should not regularly be used as an alternative to scalp hair for hair transplants. This is because body hair has a short growth cycle in comparison to scalp hair, which makes body hair less desirable than scalp hair for a hair transplant.

Each scalp hair grows between 1 to 6 years and then goes to its resting phase for 4 to 6 weeks in which the hair follicle falls out before the start of another growth cycle. Body hair on the other hand has a different growth cycle, which consists of much shorter growth phase and a longer resting phase. In other words, many body hair follicles that you transplant stay in resting phase most of their lives and only a fraction of them grow and are visible at any given period of time. So you are transplanting hair follicles knowing that not many of them could be seen at any given period of time.

Having said that body hair transplants are OK for people who have no alternative ie. bad donor hair density or quality.

The Cost of hair transplant surgery was brought up many times on my last radio show on the professional hour of Radio KIRN. Yes, there exists a wide range of prices for hair transplants in different hair transplant clinics and for different hair transplant surgeons. The reason is simple: There are so many different techniques of hair transplantation and a wide range of services and standards in the way those techniques are being implemented.   Every body looks for affordable hair transplant surgery. Let us discuss some facts.

I recently had to interview some hair transplant technicians who had many years of experience with other hair transplant clinics for an opening at US Hair Restoration in Encino. The result of our interview with those technicians was an eye opening experience. Some of these technicians were stuck in the stone age of hair transplant techniques. You think in the era of evidence based medicine, all doctors follow the available guidelines and standards, published in scientific peer reviewed journals. I was terrified by hearing how archaic some hair transplant clinics procedures are.

Many hair transplant clinics still have not started using microscopes for harvesting grafts (hair follicles) or in some cases, the use of microscope is voluntary for hair transplant technicians. Some hair transplant clinics do not keep hair follicles moist while being prepared, which leaves hair follicles prone to denaturation and death. And some still use mini-grafts (big patchy transplants that usually leave the patient with a patchy spotted pattern) instead of follicular unit transplants, which consist of meticulously excising single hair units and artistically placing them one by one. In one clinic technicians harvest hair grafts using scissors instead of a knife or flat blades. You can imagine what kinds of grafts are being harvested using those techniques and what the rate of survivability is among hair follicles.

OK, how much does a hair transplant cost. How can I find an affordable follicular unit hair transplant.  The clinics that are offering follicular unit transplants exclusively are usually charging $3 to $10 per graft. Remember this is the rate for a follicular unit transplant, which is not the only technique used in hair transplant clinics, but is the most cutting edge and natural looking. Overall, the hair transplant field is buyers beware market and you need to educate yourself on the methods of procedures and the kind of hair transplant clinics you are thinking about having your procedure with. Make sure you are evaluated by a physician who can answer all your technical questions, and not a sales person. The Internet is full of informative websites that could be used to increase your level of knowledge before your procedure.

Question:

I am a 40 year old man. I had a hair transplant 15 days ago and have my sutured removed 5 days ago. I am generally very active, but my doctor said that I can not exercise intensively for first 3 months after surgery. When do you usually say is safe to resume heavy exercise.

Thanks A lot!!

Answer:

Dealing with daily activity and sports after hair transplant surgery is a concern for many patients who are physically active and want to get back to their normal routine as soon as possible. There are two areas of concern after a hair transplant surgery. First, you may lose newly implanted grafts when doing contact exercise like wrestling. This can only be problematic within the first 4 days after surgery. Research has shown that after this period the hair graft is completely healed and infused in surrounding skin. Usually even pulling the hair after this period of time doesn’t have an adverse effect. The follicle stays in place and is capable of making a new mature hair.

The second concern is with the donor area, which is primarily closed by sutures or staples. Using Laxometer can help up to close donor wound with not much tension on the wound edges. The healing of the donor incision follows the general wound healing rules. The process of healing starts from the moment the wound is closed. The wound heals primarily within a few days from the time of hair transplant and any vigorous activity should be avoided within the first two weeks. After two weeks, the wound is practically healed, but the strength of this newly healed wound is nowhere close to normal skin. The wound needs a few months to get back to its final strength. However, regular aerobic exercise is not contraindicated even the day after surgery.The activities that you should be avoiding are: Anything that increases the tension between the edges of the healingwound in the donor area, such as weight lifting and other exercises which involve intense bending of the neck. You should wait at least 6 months for this type of exercise in order to prevent opening of the wound or widening of the final scar.

US Hair Restoration

Hi everyone,

I am asked many questions on hair loss and cosmetic procedures and how to improve them. I have also been interviewed about daily medical intervention for diagnosis and treatment of balding. I thought, it would be helpful to put together all the Questions and Answers in one blog so everyone can search through the questions to acquire a better understanding about hair loss and possible treatments.

US Hair Restoration
you can also find a vast amount of information on hair loss, hair transplant and other hair restoration treatments on ushairrestoration.com.

I try to put questions in the same format that they are received and I don’t ignore any new questions, unless the questions or comments are placed to promote a product or insult people.

I try to answer your questions on a daily basis, but if you don’t see the answer to your question it is because it has already asked or I need just a bit more time to do my research to give you the most updated information. I look forward to receiving good questions from you and I also look forward to creating an interactive society here at info.ushairrestoration.com.

Thank You,

Parsa Mohebi, M.D.