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Patients satisfied with results of body hair transplantation to treat baldness

Body hair from the beard, trunk and extremities can be transplanted by follicular unit extraction to improve scalp and nonscalp hairlines in patients, according to study results published in Aesthetic Surgery Journal.

According to Sanusi Umar, MD, potential candidates for body hair transplantation, especially those seeking to address balding scalps, are patients who lack sufficient head donor hair. Umar recommends finer and shorter leg hairs for restoring or repairing the hairline and temple areas, while the coarseness of beard hair aids in imparting density or repairing the lines of surgical scars.

Umar conducted a study of 122 male patients who underwent body hair transplant to treat baldness. The mean patient age was 42.7 years (range, 24-66 years). A survey was emailed to the patients between June 2011 and June 2012 to evaluate donor healing, recipient growth and overall satisfaction with results.

Seventy-nine patients returned the survey, though response rates for individual questions varied. Results showed general satisfaction with average scores of no less than 7.8 on a Likert-like scale of zero to 10.

Patients who assessed the healing of their donor areas (n = 74) responded with a mean score of 8.6 ± 1.63. Patients who assessed transplanted hair growth (n = 79) responded with a mean score of 8.2 ± 1.71. Patients who assessed overall satisfaction with surgical outcomes (n = 77) responded with a mean score of 8.3 ± 1.71.

There were no complications encountered with any patients.

“Because transplanted body hair (with the exception of beard hair) does not grow as long as head hair, hair is routinely maintained short after the procedure for the best cosmetic results,” Umar wrote. “In addition to maintaining hair short to optimize cosmetic results of [body hair transplantation] by [follicular unit extraction], hair dyes can be used to produce a more even coloring at the recipient site.” – by Talitha Bennett

Disclosure: Umar reports he has a U.S. patent for the UGraft and UPunch technologies (Pro-Dex, Irvine, Cali.).