Ok, I just want to get this straight. I’ve been reading about Dr. Umar using body hair to transplant from the head. I’m curious why this is not more popular. It seems great. There is a lot more hair to spare, plus in the case of people with too much back hair for example, it can be mutually beneficial to the donor and receiver site. Is there some disadvantage then? Does it grow like head hair or continue looking like armpit hair growing out of the head? Anybody know more about this?
» Ok, I just want to get this straight. I’ve been reading about Dr. Umar
» using body hair to transplant from the head. I’m curious why this is not
» more popular. It seems great. There is a lot more hair to spare, plus in
» the case of people with too much back hair for example, it can be mutually
» beneficial to the donor and receiver site. Is there some disadvantage then?
» Does it grow like head hair or continue looking like armpit hair growing
» out of the head? Anybody know more about this?
As a BHT patient, I will share my observations and personal experience. I was messed up badly by the Bosley Medical Group in California back in the late 70’s. I was destined to be a Norwood 6 and they punch grafted too high leaving 4mm punch scars. As one gets older it’s common for hair in the donor area to thin. The so called permanent hair they transplanted on the top of my head thinned as well as the sides. The thinning on top was in a way beneficial because plug grafts make for a really poor looking hairline. This thinning actually improved the appearance of the top of my head. The sides were a different story. The shotgun scars became visible, so I always wore a hat in public.
I learned about Dr. Cole’s work with body hair and set up an appointment for a consultation. I was surprised to discover that his office is within walking distance of my home.
Body hair was presented to me as a last resort. During the consultation, the disadvantages were explained to me, which commonly bottom line to:
It can take quite a bit more grafts with body hair than with scalp hair to get a cosmetically acceptable result. In my opinion, BHT patients fall into several basic categories:
Patients on whom doctors can densly place grafts.
Patients who must be grafted at low density in order to get acceptable growth.
Patients who have a lot of body hair.
patients who have sparse body hair.
I have lots of dense body hair, but needed to be grafted using the low density placement.
DJ for example has very sparse body hair, but could be grafted more densely like scalp hair.
In some cases like mine, the body hair has a coarser texture than the existing scalp hair. In order to create a natural appearance, the grafting needs to be blended into the existing scalp hair.
This is a mistake some doctors are making when they graft body hair. There was a repair patient’s results that were recently posted who got excellent growth, but some folks in the forum were commenting that it looked like crap. It certainly was not an end of the world situation for this patient. Some folks including some doctors get excited about growth and neglect the artistic aspect of the art of hair transplantation… That is properly blending the body hair into the existing scalp hair.
Here is an example of what I mean. Lets say you have a taupe metallic factory paint job on your car. Someone smashes your door in and they replace the door skin and repaint the door only. If the painter does that, the color will NEVER match. Out in the sunlight the color difference will stick out like a sore thumb. How do you get around that? There is only one way. You paint the door first making sure that you have full coverage. You remove the masking from the fender and quarter panel and perpare the existing finish with rubbing compound and wax and grease remover. You tack off the surface and “feather” the color onto the fender and quarter panel. Once you have eliminated the color difference, you spray a gradual build of clear to provide the gloss.
The reason people are critical of many of the body hair results posted is because the hairlines aren’t refined and the body hair is not gradually blended into the existing scalp hair. This creates a contrast situation similar to the car door repair where the door isn’t blended onto the fender and quarter panel.
Men commonly have slightly thinner calibre hair on top than on the sides. When a doctor slaps coarse body hair/beard hair on top of a patient’s head, the contrast announces to the world that something is not right. Body hair must be carefully blended, and it can be even if the texture is different.
Let me give you an example:
When I was in my 20’s, I painted cars for a living. There were 2 shades of blue used on the 71 Mustangs at that time that were nearly identical. We had a new painter that misread the color code and sprayed the door on a Mustang repair job the similar but brighter blue. When he pulled off the masking paper. The door jumped out at you and slapped you in the face, because of the color difference. Instead of re-ordering the correct color, the painter blended the wrong color down the whole side of the car. The color change was so gradual over this distance that when he was finished, the color difference was not noticable. This painter was a Schllock, but when it comes to last resort hair repair, often body hair is all there is to work with. In that case The doctor must take advantage of all skills and methods, including some blending illusion.
Hi Bucket,
I’m still amazed (two years later) how well my leg hair “blends” or “feathers” my old 1990s HT hairline.
I agree that BHT must be performed with a keen artistic approach.
Perhaps more so than traditional HTs.
With just over 1000 leg hair grafts, Dr. U. made the difference between my HT looking like “something is a little off” and “YOU HAD A HT?!?”.
It’s a smile maker for sure.
"Is there some disadvantage then? "
Well, it take more grafts than head hair to achieve coverage.
BH doesn’t tend to grow as long as peoples’ head-hair.
Very few clinics (I’ve only had personal experience with one) can get good (if any) yield.
Head hair donor is still King but body hair can be a valuable tool for advanced NW patients, repair patients, temple reconstruction, hairline refinement and “filler”.
Beard hair transplanted into strip scars seems like the “magic bullet” for repair (if one has good beard hair donor).
In the right hands, BHT can be a godsend to many patients.
Including myself.
Ciao.
WOW. Your line looks absolutely amazing. I want to go to Dr. Umar and just say “give me exactly that.”
I am in a similar situation where I have already had a HT (in Jan and Dec. of 07), and it looks pretty good. I guess I could live with it, it’s by no means a huge pink elephant. But, to somebody that looks really hard, it could be seen as slightly pluggy. I think if I were to get something around what you got, it would totally top it off. Would you mind telling me how much it cost you, 1000 grafts for a BHT?
thanks, Bucket
» Hi Bucket,
»
» I’m still amazed (two years later) how well my leg hair “blends” or
» “feathers” my old 1990s HT hairline.
»
» I agree that BHT must be performed with a keen artistic approach.
» Perhaps more so than traditional HTs.
»
» With just over 1000 leg hair grafts, Dr. U. made the difference between my
» HT looking like “something is a little off” and “YOU HAD A HT?!?”.
»
» It’s a smile maker for sure.
»
» "Is there some disadvantage then? "
»
» Well, it take more grafts than head hair to achieve coverage.
» BH doesn’t tend to grow as long as peoples’ head-hair.
» Very few clinics (I’ve only had personal experience with one) can get good
» (if any) yield.
»
» Head hair donor is still King but body hair can be a valuable tool for
» advanced NW patients, repair patients, temple reconstruction, hairline
» refinement and “filler”.
»
» Beard hair transplanted into strip scars seems like the “magic bullet” for
» repair (if one has good beard hair donor).
»
» In the right hands, BHT can be a godsend to many patients.
»
» Including myself.
»
» http://youtube.com/watch?v=n_8uYbMTa4I
»
» Ciao.
Check with his clinic but I think his BHT prices are:
$5.00 per graft with use of full face pix/video (this is what I did).
$6.00 per graft with use of blocked face pix/video.
$7.00 per graft no use of photos/video.
But again, please check with the clinic.
Thanks for the kind words.
I’m a happy camper.
Ciao.