Neck Hair Transplant for Refined Hair Line
Q:
I read that some clinic’s use hair from the nap of the neck to help create a more natural hairline. Is this a technique that you practice or something you think is not necessary?
A:
The neck hair is not permanent in many people. This means it too can be susceptible to the adverse effects of DHT as a person goes through the process of balding by aging.
We do not use neck hair nor do we recommend it for hair transplants. If hair transplantation is done with the right design and standard techniques, it should not be detectable any way. It is not necessary to take hair from the areas with thinner hair to achieve a natural looking hairline.
Facial to Scalp Hair Transplant
Using hair from other parts of the body for transplantation into scalp has been used for many years. Unfortunately though, the change in the life cycle of body hair from different areas of the body has caused the body hair to stay as the last option for scalp hair restoration. Body hair has long resting phase and short growth phase which means that most of the transplanted hair will stay in resting phase without having visible hair growth.

Facial hair such as beard and mustache hair on the other hand has a longer growth phase and shorter resting phase. That is why men can grow their facial hair to become really long. Facial hair is also thicker than scalp hair in most people. Thicker hair could be translated as more bulk of hair after hair transplantation. Both longer growth phase and thicker hair shafts make beard hair a better option for scalp hair restoration in comparison to body hair transplant from other areas.
There are two problems with with beard hair restoration. One is that they are very sparse and removing hair only needs to be done through a strip procedure. The other problem with using facial hair for scalp transplant is that the facial follicular units are having fewer number of hair per unit that means less hair per grafts removed with FUE techniques.
Beard transplants are gaining popularity recently with newer techniques for extraction of hair (FUE) and it can be a great alternative to scalp hair for transplanting to the balding area in people who do not have good quality scalp hair.
Diffuse Hair Loss and Body Hair Transplant
Q:
I am a 23 year old medical student with about 4 years of hair loss history. I have diffuse thinning with very aggressive frontal hairline loss. I would be looking to do 2-3 procedures at 2000 grafts each FUE style from my beard and chest area. But my body hair and beard hair seem to be just fine. I have had all of my bloodwork done to rule out any systemic problems thats causing this odd pattern diffuse hairloss (autoimmune alopecia is also ruled out by 3 dermatologists).
A:
Before proceeding with a hair restoration surgery, we have to properly determine your type of hair loss and candidacy for a hair transplant based on your history and diffuse hair loss. Many people who have diffuse hair loss including the hair on the sides and back of their scalp may have a condition called Diffuse Unpatterned Alopecia (DUPA). This condition can be mistaken with hair loss as a result of other systemic medical conditions like iron deficiency or possibly due to thyroid or other hormonal imbalances. Body hair transplants through FUE harvesting techniques can be considered for those patients who do not have the option of scalp to scalp hair transplant, but it certainly comes as the last option considering the very short growth phase in hair cycle for body hair as opposed to scalp hair. Beard hair may be a better option in some patients, but all individual options need to be considered after a complete evaluation of patient’s supply and demand of hair.
* More information on body hair transplants and its results in contrast to that of scalp hair transplants, please visit our hair restoration blog.
FUE Transplant from Body or Beard
Q:
My hair loss is ruining both my life and my family’s lives. I go to the XXX school of medicine in XXX and would be flying over to get the procedure done. I wanted to see if we could discuss a large FUE treatment from my body and beard area for transplantation into the balding areas of the scalp to end my hair loss for good.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Cheers
A:
As I have previously stated before here in my blog, body hair can be considered as an alternative method for hair restoration as long as you, the patient, understands that the end result is not going to be comparable with a scalp hair transplant due to smaller final length of hair and short growth phase (Anagen) as opposed to long resting phase (Telogen) that are characteristics of body hair. In other words, you may only see a portion of transplanted hair follicles in growth phase while the remainder stay in resting phase without maintaining a visible hair shaft.
Beard hair transplantation could also be another option, which is typically closer to scalp hair in many patients and has a longer growth phase (which is why it grows to become longer in comparison to body hair). However, any of these options have their own pros and cons and patients should be evaluated for each treatment plan based on their needs and only after a complete evaluation by a hair transplant surgeon is performed.
Facial Hair Transplant
Q:
I am a 27 yr old male and have very low growth facial hair in the mustache area. Please advise, are hair transplants for mustaches possible? How many grafts are needed? What is the going cost of a hair transplant like this? What about time taken for growth?
A:
People may have facial hair loss due to: scaring and other scar conditions, or they may just not have the ability to grow their mustache or beard genetically. In most cases, facial hair can be successfully restored with a hair transplant using scalp hair through follicular unit transplantation. Beard hair can also be used for transplantation into the mustache area if there is a mismatch between the thickness of scalp and beard hair shafts. In this process, we use either strip follicular unit transplants or FUE (Follicular Unit Extractions) to harvest hair for mustache hair restoration. If we have to remove hair from the beard area, FUE is usually preferred to avoid scarring on the hair growing area of the face. The number of needed grafts is determined by the width of the upper lip as well as the shape that looks appropriate and proportional with the other facial features. The cost of facial hair transplantation for mustaches and beards generally follows the same per graft cost as scalp hair transplantation. As for the final outcome, results of a mustache hair transplant can be seen as early as 4-6 months following the hair transplant and may continue improving during the first year after that.
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
Follicular Unit Extraction – FUE
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) – Advantages or disadvantages
My patients always ask about advantages and disadvantages of Follicular Unit Extraction so I thought this topic makes a good post for the blog. Before going over these points I have to say, although we at Parsa Mohebi Hair Restoration offer the most advanced techniques of FUE nationwide, most of our patients are still being transplanted by strip technique and I don’t recommend FUE to everyone and select my FUE patients very meticulously. Here are the main reasons why we do recommend FUE to some people and not to everyone.
Advantages
- FUE does not leave a linear scar, which is great for those who want to wear their hair very short on the back or the ones who may need to shave their head in the future (like actors).
- FUE has a more comfortable healing process with decreased healing time.
- No restrictions in physical activities for those who want to do strenuous exercise right after FUE procedure.
- FUE is a viable alternative for those who have tight scalp that makes strip surgery risky or impossible.
- Follicular unit extraction makes it possible to harvest hair from body, beard or almost everywhere else.
- FUE is very useful when we need limited number of grafts like for restoration of eyebrow hair.
Disadvantages
- The biggest disadvantage of follicular unit extraction is that the maximum follicular unit graft yield is lower than when it is done with strip technique due to higher rate of follicular transection compared to the strip technique.
- Although linear scar is not present after FUE, small punctuate scars will be there that may make future FUE hair transplant surgeries more difficult or impossible.
- Not everyone is a candidate for FUE and patients need to be tested with FOX before proceeding with the surgery.
- FUE procedure takes much longer to perform compared with strip FUT procedure.
- FUE is more laborious thus it cost more compared with strip technique hair transplants.
- In FUE, we have more chance of burying grafts that increases the risk of having folliculitis (tiny inflamed cysts under the skin) on the donor area.
Body Hair Transplant
Q:
Hi Dr.Mohebi,
I am wondering if the chest hair be transfer to the head?
Yours,
Name
A:
Good question and the answer is yes. Some people with limited scalp hair can be good candidates for body hair transplants. This is how it works:
Body hair can be harvested and used for hair transplants in people who have both good course body hair and are severely depleted of scalp donor hair (hair on the sides and back of the head). Body hair should not regularly be used as an alternative to scalp hair for hair transplants. This is because body hair has a short growth cycle in comparison to scalp hair, which makes body hair less desirable than scalp hair for a hair transplant.
Each scalp hair grows between 1 to 6 years and then goes to its resting phase for 4 to 6 weeks in which the hair follicle falls out before the start of another growth cycle. Body hair on the other hand has a different growth cycle, which consists of much shorter growth phase and a longer resting phase. In other words, many body hair follicles that you transplant stay in resting phase most of their lives and only a fraction of them grow and are visible at any given period of time. So you are transplanting hair follicles knowing that not many of them could be seen at any given period of time.
Having said that body hair transplants are OK for people who have no alternative ie. bad donor hair density or quality.