Our latest study on body hair transplant involved a bald crown and a small number of grafts from the back, chest, and beard.  We transplanted 137 grafts from the back and 65 were growing at one year for a yield of (47%).  We transplanted 28 from the chest and 24 were growing at one year for a yield of (86%).  Finally, we transplanted 24 from the beard and 15 were growing at one year for a yield of (63%). The cosmetically most significant growth was with beard hair.  The patient was trimming all the body hair grafts to equal the length of hair in other regions.  This study confirms previous studies where we noted that different regions of body hair seem to grow at a higher yield than other regions when transplanted to the same individual in the same region of the balding crown.  The before photos and after photos are depicted in the following photographs.

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Body hair sometimes produces a very significant result, but often times the result is subtle. All individuals should keep this in mind when considering body hair transplants.  We continue to recommend head hair first over body hair whenever possible.

If you transplant gray hairs from the body, will they be the same color on the scalp?

Hairs grafted from one location to another do not change their color. Generally, the amount of pigment remains the same, as well. This means that if your hair is brown, the grafted hairs will produce brown hair. If the grafted hairs are white, they will grow white hairs upon transplantation and regrowth. With age, hairs loose their ability to make pigment. Some hairs loose that ability before other hairs. For instance, hairs on the side of the scalp loose this ability to produce pigment sooner than the hairs on the top of the scalp or the back of the scalp. Some regions of body hair produce white hair sooner than other regions due to the loss of pigment formation capacity.

The cells that produce pigment are called melanocytes. When the ability to produce pigment ceases, the hairs will turn white rather than grey. Therefore, the term grey is really is inaccurate. Actually, true grey hairs are extremely uncommon, but they do occur due to a decrease in the amount of pigment rather than an absence of pigment production.

Hair also tend to maintain the same diameter as the pre-transplanted area. On some occasions the diameter will be slightly greater upon transplantation and other times the diameter will be the same.

I have been recommended 600 to 1000 grafts to the front.  I would like to know what is the highest density and graft count with more aggressive density on the front hairline.  I would like to have the front hairline to be suitable for a 36yo that is not on meds.

You can go with the maximal density, but I’ve seen many patients from physicians who claim to place 70 to 100 grafts per sq cm that are growing 20 grafts per sq cm. One of two things occurred. One is that the patients received 20 grafts per sq cm, which is not likely. The other is that they received 60 to 70 grafts per sq cm and they lost 50 grafts per sq cm because the placed density was much higher than their scalp could tolerate. There are studies out there showing that densities of 40 per sq cm grow only 73%. I like to keep my maximal density between 40 and 50 per sq cm because I have seen consistent growth rates above 90% in my hands. The other problem with poor growth from an attempt to achieve maximal density is that it may poison the scalp for future surgery and nothing may grow subsequently. It is best to stick with a safe density of 45 per sq cm on the hair line and in the rest of the scalp. This seems to work best for my patients. It’s not as if 70 per sq cm will not grow in some patients. The problem is that you cannot tell which patients it will grow in and which patients it will not grow in. The only way to tell is to try it and if it does not work, the patient is in real trouble.
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I am NW VII at 57years, i have had just one strip procedure as usual it was insufficient and I would like to FUE only from my nape to my bald area i am not concerned about my crown and I believe that the total amount should be 6500 FUE to get a conservative nw3. I would like to ask you is this possible?

A NW VII typically looses 70% or more of their original scalp hair. This means that they maintain 30% of their original hair or less. In my opinion, this makes them a poor candidate for hair restoration surgery. The best you can hope for is what some call a frontal forelock that is isolated from the sides of your scalp. In other words, it is hair that sits on top of your head with a bald rim on the sides above the ears before you see hair again.
It does occur in nature, but it is quite uncommon. It can help to frame your face, but you must recognize that it can also look a little unusual to have hair on the top of your head, a bald fringe, and then hair again above the ears.

A typical donor area will have a maximum of 16000 follicular units. I think that a NW VII will have less. Of this donor area, you can expect to remove 50% or a little more in those with outstanding donor area characteristics such as a high density and coarse caliber hair.

In your instance, you can probably expect to remove no more than 5000 grafts in total. Of course, you may be able to move slightly more, but 5000 is a safe number to anticipate. This may leave you looking a little thin on the sides between the top of the head and the fringe of hair that normally remains in the NW VII.
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I am now 19 months post surgery from a body hair transplant with you. I noted significant improvement at the 9 month mark, but minimal since then. Can I expect more growth and more density from the body hair transplant I had with you 19 months ago. I live in Spain.

You have to understand the dynamics. Head hair is 80 to 90% in anagen. Body hair is 40 to 60% in anagen. Therefore, in reality, the best you should see from a head hair transplant is 80 to 90% and the best you should ever see is 40 to 60% from body hair. That does not mean that 10% of head hair and 40 to 60% of body hair died. It means that those percentages should always be resting or in telogen. As one hair cycles out, another cycles in and begins to grow. That’s the dynamics.

I think that most body hair transplant results to date seem to follow scalp hair in terms of growth, though we did recently get a 4 year photo of a patient that certainly seemed much better than his 14 month photo. What this means is that at about 8 to 12 months, the result probably peaked with minimal improvement thereafter.
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