Hair Restoration Blog

Where can we take hair for hair transplant other than the back and sides of the scalp?  This is a common question that I am asked on a regular basis.  The answer is “hair can be harvested from almost any part of scalp or body that grows hair and it can be transplanted to any part of the skin.  We have performed hair transplant from many different areas of the body on patients who do not have sufficient donor hair on their scalp for transplantation or in people who had old hair transplant procedures that violated the donor area with multiple punch biopsies and through scarring.

Pubic area is prepped before harvesting hair for hair transplantation into the balding spot of patient

It is important to understand that scalp donor hair is always the best option when it comes to hair quality for the best result in hair transplant surgery.  The scalp hair has a longer growth phase (anagen) that is about 1-6 years and a shorter resting phase (telogen) that lasts around 4-6 weeks.  This makes scalp hair a more economic choice for hair restoration surgery.  When using scalp hair for donor, almost every transplanted hair stays in growth its phase and only a small portion goes into the dormant phase in which hair falls and another hair grows in a few weeks.

Body hair, in general, has a shorter growth phase which could last only about a few months and a longer resting phase.  That is why body hair never grows more than a certain length.  There are some limited studies that show that transplanted body hair can change their innate characteristics and increase its growth phase when transplanted to the scalp, but we still need more research to provide information on the details of the process.

At US Hair Restoration, we have used pubic hair successfully in a patient with great demand due to his fine scalp hair and violated donor hair that could not provide sufficient hair for transplantation into the scalp.  The patient’s hairline has been restored using scalp hair from the occipital area (back) of the head and the balding spot on the crown was reinforced using pubic hair.

So if you are lacking adequate hair on your donor area of the scalp or need a large number of grafts, you may be able to consider other options including pubic hair transplant.  Obviously, the donor quality should be evaluated closely by a good hair transplant doctor to determine the candidacy of the patient for body hair transplant to scalp.  The details and methodology of this process is being published in medical journals.

Tags: anogen, body hair transplant, good hair transplnt doctor, hair growth phase, plug surgery, pubic hair, pubic hair transplant, telogen

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 16th, 2009 at 9:53 am and is filed under complications, hair loss, hair loss innovations, hair loss treatment, hair transplant surgery, high grade baldness, male patterned hairloss, men hair loss, scar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.