Body Hair Transplantation

Body Hair Transplant is appropriate to a patient who carries a reasonable amount of thick body hairs. Hair restoration from the body is one best solution when there is less number of hairs on the donor area of scalp wit advanced grades of baldness.

What is Body Hair Transplant?

The healthy hair from one’s own body is extracted and implanted in the scalp bald area to cover it completely in advanced grades of baldness.

For a person with grade-VII baldness and with average donor area some additional grafts are required to cover the total baldness. The number of grafts obtained varies with density. App.3000-5000 grafts can be extracted on an average for a person with good body hair from upper chest, upper back, arms, legs, axilla and pubic region.

By the experimental studies, the hair from the chest wall, legs, arms, axilla and pubic region are extracted and implanted on the bald area was shown re growth but the quality, texture and cyclic fall of the hair different from that of the scalp hair. FUE is the only technique for extraction of body hair transplantation except axilla where we can do FUE method.

How is Body Hair Transplantation Procedure done?

The body hair extraction is done by FUE technique exclusively. We use motorized punches for extraction of the grafts. The Size of the punch varies with the quality and type of graft.

Generally, body hair grafts contain single hair or two hairs as unit at various depths in the dermis. So, we use 0.75-1.1 mm size punches for extraction. After healing they leave tiny pinhead scars which are negligible without any altered pigmentation.

This is done under local tumescent anesthesia for chest wall in which patient is completely awake. Duration of extraction for the body hair is slower than the scalp with high operator fatigue and smaller yield. The implantation is done with stick and place technique so that it can be done more aesthetically and gives pleasing look. It heals with no scar in 3-4 days. These extracted grafts are kept in a suitable preservative solution till the implantation.

Body Hair Transplantation Indications

It can be combined with scalp donor hair to increase the density in bald area.
To camouflage linear FUT donor area scalp.
In cicatricial alopecia where extensive scarring with low donor area from the scalp.
This fine caliber body hair can be utilized for the frontal hair lines and temple area restoration.

Quality of Body Hair:

Coming to chest wall hair it is thin, silky, curly and grows shorter length compared to beard and scalp. So, it can be added to increase the scalp coverage just below the hairlines and in the central part of the scalp. Lifecycle is also shorter compared to the scalp hair.

In case of arms and legs hair the availability is generally low because of sparse density the quality of hair is also very thin and grows much short length. Lifecycle is also very short.

Experimentally it is proved that compared to arms and legs hair beard and chest wall hair is most suitable addition to scalp hair.

TDI(Torso Donor Index):

TDI<4 is unsuitable for BHT
TDI 5-7 is suitable.
More than 8 is very good

LIMITATIONS:

Availability of number of grafts depends on density of the body hair in the chest wall and rest of the areas. The more thicker the more can be extracted. Approximately the density of 30-40 grafts per sq.cm can be considered as a good density in case of chest wall.

Quality of hair must be good.(The hair in the growth phase are most suitable)
The types of grafts are mostly singles and some doubles are also available.
More number of sessions may be required as extraction takes longer time due to different directions of hair growth and located at different depths in the skin.
Sometimes the donor hair quality is very weak and this mismatches with the body hair texture.
The thin caliber body hair suitable for frontal hairline and temple regions.
These transplanted body hair grows shorter lengths than scalp hair, so better to opt for shorter hair styles to produce better cosmetic result.
Always transplant a mixture of hair from different body sites along with scalp hair to create a more natural look

If you’ve any Questions about procedure before Hair Transplant visit Pre – operative Questions

Advantages:

Definitely gives good coverage for advanced grades of baldness.
Cosmetically gives thick look when combined with scalp donor hair.
Patient’s desires can be reached.

You can calculate the no. of graft need for your scalp with Graft Calculator a unique tool from Radiance. This tool is free and will answer your questions about the grafts.

Have a question about Hair transplantation schedule an appointment with us.

Postoperative Care for Body Hair Transplantation

No hospital admission or bed rest
Gentle shampooing must be done for 3-4 weeks
Avoid direct sunlight, rainwater and dust exposure for 1 month
Avoid exercise like GYM for 1 month
The donor area [chest wall] is cleaned and antiseptic ointment is applied daily for 7 days over the extracted area.
Generally the punch extraction sites heals in 72 hrs without any scarring and altered pigmentation

Cost : Cost of the Body hair transplant surgery is determined by the number of grafts needed ; which differs from person to person depending upon the grade of baldness.

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