FUE from Scalp or Body 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.
Video on Body and Pubic Hair Transplant
