Hair Restoration Blog

Using hair from other parts of the body for transplantation into scalp has been used for many years.  Unfortunately though, the change in the life cycle of body hair from different areas of the body has caused the body hair to stay as the last option for scalp hair restoration.  Body hair has long resting phase and short growth phase which means that most of the transplanted hair will stay in resting phase without having visible hair growth.

Comparison of scalp (left) vs. facial (right) hair: Note the difference in density of hair per surface area and the average number of hair in each follicular unit. Scalp hair is denser with more hair per grafts (over 2hair/graft) while beard hair is less dense with fewer hair per grafts (1-2 hair/graft)

Facial hair such as beard and mustache hair on the other hand has a longer growth phase and shorter resting phase.  That is why men can grow their facial hair to become really long.  Facial hair is also thicker than scalp hair in most people.  Thicker hair could be translated as more bulk of hair after hair transplantation.  Both longer growth phase and thicker hair shafts make beard hair a better option for scalp hair restoration in comparison to body hair transplant from other areas.

There are two problems with with beard hair restoration.  One is that they are very sparse and removing hair only needs to be done through a strip procedure.  The other problem with using facial hair for scalp transplant is that the facial follicular units are having fewer number of hair per unit that means less hair per grafts removed with FUE techniques.

Beard transplants are gaining popularity recently with newer techniques for extraction of hair (FUE) and it can be a great alternative to scalp hair for transplanting to the balding area in people who do not have good quality scalp hair.

Q:

I have heard of FUE transplants with relatively high-quality hair coming from the neck area, and from the beard. It seems like this could dramatically increase the number of grafts available for patients, at least for the hairline and front.  Then, body-hair (chest, back…), which I think are lower quality (but very abundant on me!), could possibly be used for the crown area. I would like to take as few hair from the back of the head as possible, and as much as possible from other areas.
Doctor, what do you think of this plan? Would it be a good strategy to pull from other sources rather then the scalp for donor hairs? What would be the costs involved?

A:

Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) can remove hair from anywhere in the body as long as you are tested positive for FOX for those areas.  Neck hair is not the best option for hair transplantation because those hairs may fall out at higher ages of some patients. We can use body hair for hairline, and front or even the crown, but you may need multiple surgeries to obtain adequate density from those areas with body hair.  As we discussed before, body hair has a long resting phase in relation to its growth phase.  So you will have more follicles in resting phase (telogen phase) that do not have any visible hair in comparison to the ones in growth phase (anagen phase) that provide you with actual hair and give you coverage. We do FUE transplants in our California hair transplant centers on a regular basis.  FUE procedures are more labor intense and more time consuming so the cost of them are almost double in comparison to regular strip hair transplant procedures.

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