As a rule, hair transplants are performed by harvesting hair from an area of the scalp which is yet unaffected by hair loss or where hair is still plentiful. These hair follicles are then transplanted to the recipient area, where the hair is receding or thinning. Some patients, however, don’t have enough hair or enough healthy hair follicles that could be used for the transplant procedure, and thus are unable to qualify for such a procedure or the procedure ends up being ineffective in their case. This is not the case anymore, since hair surgeons have developed a new technique that uses a mix of head hair and hair from other parts of the body, especially patients’ chest hair.
When you do not have enough hair for transplant
Each year, hair transplants restore the the confidence and change the appearance of thousands of men and women. Now many more can have this procedure, and those who were deemed unsuitable to undergo hair transplant before can now have a chance to regain their hair’s former density.
Chest hair is of course different from head hair. It’s more wiry, it’s thicker and stronger, and it’s also curly. Performing a hair transplant using only chest hair would result in a very unnatural look. Chest hair or other body hair is used in Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) only to obtain a higher density level and improve the overall appearance of the patient’s hair.
As a result, in each case the patients must be able to donate some hair from the back of their head, hair that can be combined with chest hair or other body hair before being transplanted in the areas where hair is thinning or receding.
Body hair transplant to head – BHT
Hair transplant that combines head hair with body hair follows the same procedure as Follicular Unit Extraction. First, the patient’s chest hair is shaved and individual follicular units are harvested. These chest hairs are transplanted to the balding area together with hair follicles harvested from the back of the patient’s head.
An FUE procedure can take up a lot of time, and depending on the number of hairs that require transplanting, one sitting may not be enough to finish the entire transplant, thus, patients may go through several procedures.
How much does BHT cost compared to regular FUE?
In terms of procedure costs, the price for an FUE procedure that uses chest hair in combination with head hair can be twice as expensive as a regular FUE procedure. Following the treatment, patients can go home immediately, but for a period of one week, they are advised to avoid sport activities or rigorous exercise. Some redness and slight swelling may appear in both the donor site and recipient site. The redness and swelling will subside, and any scarring will heal.
After the BHT procedure, patients will experience some shedding, which means that superficial hair follicles will fall out. The roots will embed and settle, and hair growth resumes. The shedding period and the number of hairs that fall out will be different in the case of each patient.
To sum it up, you have options to get body hair transplant to head – in each case you should consult a spacialist to find out whether you are a suitable candidate for BHT. Reagrding the price you should know that this type of procedure costs double as much, usually. One more fact to recall – BHT works only in combination with hair transplanted from the back of your head.
