i was curious how noticeable the scars from a body hairtransplant were? i'm 25 with diffused thinning all across the crown. i've been on proscar and minox for 18 months, but only seems to retain and not grow any hair. i have really thick and long chest hairs, and was thinking of getting them transplanted to the crown area. if i always have to keep my hair short, that's fine. just so there's hair! my only concern is that the scars that will be left behind will be very noticable? i've only seen pics of directly afterwards of the scars left on the body, and have never seen pics of a couple months after the surgery to see how the scars heal. can anyone fill me in?

I've had some body hair transplanted, but it was only a few weeks ago and I can't give you a definitive answer about the healing. However I can give a couple of comments...

One issue for the noticeability of scarring is what type of complexion you have. The scars may blend in better depending on how well you heal in general, and how fair your skin is. Also, how much body hair you have is also an issue. If you have a lot of body hair, then any remaining hair will help conceal the scarring that is left behind. If you have ultra smooth skin and not a lot of chest hair to harvest, your situation is different than a guy who looks like a grizzly bear.

However, I am more concerned with why you would consider using body hair first, and I also have to wonder if a hair transplant is really the best decision for you at this point in time (?)

Most people feel that body hair is a second-best source of donor hair, that is really best reserved for the veteran patients who have already depleted their scalp donor supply. If you are a potential first-time patient, then I wonder if starting with body hair is a good move. While there is plenty of evidence to suggest that body hair can be useful, it is still a relatively new and experimental process. In other words, I wouldn't necessarily start with body hair as a first choice.

Secondly, guys with diffuse thinning need to be careful of shock loss. This is when the surgery causes your remaining natural hair to accelerate it's cycle and be lost... sometimes permanently. There is quite a bit that is not understood about shock loss. It is not a problem for every patient, but if you still have a good amount of remaining hair, especially if you are transplanting into diffuse areas, you need to weigh the risk of shock loss into your decision making. The worst case scenario is to end up with LESS hair after your hair transplant. It is preferrable to graft into a well defined balding area, rather than an area of diffuse thinning.

Also, transplanting the crown first can be problematic, and in some cases doctors prefer not to start with the crown. The crown uses up a lot of grafts, and conventional thinking is that the front needs to be nailed down first, before spending grafts on areas considered less critical like the crown.

You don't sound like an ideal candidate to begin with, and your intention to start (?) with body hair may not be well-advised. I'm not sure, but you may be better off biding your time, sticking with your current regimine, and possibly adding some concealors to your arsenal.

I would suggest discussing these issues with an experienced FUE practictioner, in person if possible.

AMS99: Id have to agree with arfy on that with many explanation points! If you go in and start an HT with the crown, future thinning (and there will be future thinning) will create a "halo" of baldness around the transplanted hair. I got some good use out of Toppik and Couvre. I posted some pics on it. Heres the link:

http://hair-restoration-info.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=5696015661&f=1466060861&m=295101003

Besides Toppik and Couvre, there is Dermatch available. Ive never used it, personally, but i hear its a great product too. Practice makes perfect with this stuff, but it can work wonders.

haha, scratch that AMS99. I just looked through that post and saw that you had already seen it.

ha and oh yeah, socialdrinker, i did see the amazing results you get with concealors. i get decent results with toppik, but i'm sure like everyone on this board, i'd rather have real hair than to have to conceal it. and since that option might be open to me while i'm still in my 20s, it has me thinking about actually doing it. anyway, congrats on the hair transplant! hope it works out great for you.

Ams....dont hold your breath on HM....EVEN if they could clone the follicle....how do you suppose theyre going to get it to grow in the right direction and angle??...they can't...the "seedlings" would be implanted, then grow whichever direction they pleased..

Also, when you plant these follicle clones, do you think that the seedlings are smart enough to know that you don't want double or triples at the front of your hairline?...pretty unlikely..

Is it possible for a NW6 or NW7 to get good coverage without using body hair? If you are going to progress to that stage, you might as well look into it.

Even if body hair doesn't grow as long as regular scalp hair, used with regular scalp hair, it would be good to add filler to the crown. I can't imagine using it for the hairline, though.

Being a NW6/NW7, I'm always looking for info on using body hair. I am certain I have enough hair left to get a decent hairline back to my mid scalp, but there's no way I have enough to cover the entire crown. It's just too much ground to cover.

But factoring in 3k - 5k body hair fu's, that would probably be enough to get full coverage with decent density. What more can you ask for?

Of course, the costs of body hair transplants would have to come down or I'll have to save a lot more money.

Thank god I have hairy legs!

Just out of curiosity, what is the cost of body hair transplants? Where are suitable donor sites? Ive heard about the chest and legs.

Haha, I have about 6 backhairs (Im NOT a hairy guy) that Ill give up for free!

Socialdrinker, I've read that Woods in Australia charges $14 US per body hair graft.

If you need 3,000, you can see how much that would cost.

It is very expensive, but if you are progressing to a NW6 or NW7, I don't see how you can get full coverage without using body hair.

<sigh> I guess I'll start saving.

i'm still interested in seeing the results from body hair. i've only seen one photo so far of one of woods clients, and it doesn't look very pretty. of course, the guy had a few botched jobs, and didn't have any scalp hair to help cover the body hair.

I really believe that due to the different texture that body hair would have, the crown would be the only viable place to put it. Doesnt it seem a little coarse to put at the hairline?

Dr. Woods charges less for every additional procedure, and it is a per-session charge (not per graft). The reason is that some guys are easier to harvest than other guys, when it comes to FUE. Basically, you are paying for an entire day of the doctor's time. It is admittedly expensive, more expensive than getting a transplant at a clinic that relies on technicians.

Woods and Campbell told me that chest is usually the preferred area to harvest body hairs, followed by the back. I was told by Woods that legs are generally not preferred as a source of body hair, because of the nature of the skin tissue of the legas making harvesting difficult. (Other doctors may feel differently).

socialdrinker: I don't know about most people, but the hair on my chest and legs is the same diameter, roughly, as the hair on my head. It doesn't have the nice color, or grow as long, but I'm 30 and starting to turn white anyway. So, I'd just dye it. I think body hair, assuming there aren't too many problems with transection (or whatever they call it when the follicle is damaged), would be a great way for an NW6 or NW7 to add density to the crown. Save the good hair for the front and use head hair sparingly in the crown.

The costs for FUE body hair average about $10 per graft. So, if you need 3k grafts, thats $30k. An expensive proposition. But, if you've got the money, and you want the hair, I suppose you'll do it.

I read somewhere that some doctor had gotten the time that it takes to harvest a body hair graft down to about 15 seconds. Even if a doctor (or technician) could harvest 3 grafts per minute, it would still take over 16 hours to harvest 3000 grafts.

I don't know why techs couldn't be trained to harvest body hair. It's not as important as scalp hair. That would be one tedious job, though. But even if the clinic paid the tech $1 per graft, the tech could make over $100 per hour. Pretty good pay.

On another board, there is a guy, a NW6.5 or NW7, who went to Greece to get a scalp and body hair FUE. That guy was the posterboy for male pattern baldness. All together he got about 8000 grafts, 3000 body hair and the rest scalp hair. He's only 4 months out, so not much results yet. Should be interesting.

Would love to see how that turned out.