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Follicular unit extraction (FUE) is becoming an increasingly popular hair transplant procedure for men who don’t want a linear strip scar.  However, men with advanced hair loss are quickly learning that the available donor hair supply via FUE is typically less abundant than via follicular unit transplantation (FUT).  Thus, follicular unit extraction enthusiasts are turning to body and beard hair for alternative sources of donor hair to fill remaining balding areas.

The idea of using beard hair as a rich source of donor has enticed members of our community.  Though body hair has been notoriously inconsistent in terms of hair growth yield, beard hair is considered a viable and robust source of donor hair.  However, patients are reluctant to make use of this donor source due to risks of scarring on the face.

To learn about the benefits and risks of using beard hair for transplanting, visit “Beard Hair Transplant – Donor Scarring”.  You are encouraged to offer your input.

Bill Seemiller – aka Falceros
Managing Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the Hair Restoration Forum
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Technorati Tags: hair transplant, hair loss, donor hair, FUE, follicular unit extraction, beard hair, balding, body hair, hair growth, beard hair for transplanting, Bill Seemiller, Falceros

This hair loss question was answered by Dr. Glenn Charles of Florida who is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.  His professional answer is below.

How often do patients ask hair transplant doctor to take hair from the unsafe areas of the sides and back of the head?  Could this hair be susceptible to the effects of DHT (dihydrotestosterone) and use that for the front? Is this common at all? Thanks!

In my experience this is not very common. Most hair restoration patients trust the doctor to only take donor from an area that is most likely permanent. If a patient is already having hair loss or thinning hair and the doctor feels that it is due to male pattern baldness (mpb), it would not make sense to take donor tissue from an area that may be lost later.

Dr. Glenn Charles, D.O.

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Bill Seemiller – aka Falceros
Managing Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the Hair Restoration Forum
Follow our community on Twitter
Watch hair transplant videos on YouTube

Technorati Tags: hair loss, hair transplant, DHT, dihydrotestosterone, hair restoration, thinning hair, male pattern baldness, mpb, Bill Seemiller, Falceros

This hair loss question was answered by Dr. Paul Shapiro of Bloomington, MN who is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians. 

My hair transplant is booked for Dec 14th 2009. I was told not to engage in physical activity for at least 1 month post-op.  Im not sure how to do this.  I work out 4-5x/week. I take about 1 week a year off maximum.  Exercise has been and is a form of stress relief/therapy.  If there are any other exercise fanatics out there how have you dealt with this ?

Wounds heal in three stages:

The first stage is the inflammatory phase. In this phase the wound swells and the ingredients such as white blood cells, clotting factors, and fibrinogen for the adherence of the wound, prepare the wound for healing. This stage peaks at three to five days and the wound is very weak at this point. That is why it is very important to take it easy in the first week after surgical hair restoration if one wants to avoid a wide scar.

The second stage of healing is the collagen phase which starts at about one week after the hair transplant procedure. During this stage the collagen content increases and the wound strengthens. Sutures can be removed during this stage and we remove our sutures at 10 to 14 days.  The second stage of healing last 2 to 4 weeks as the collagen content increases and the wound strengthens.

Our highly popular hair restoration community consists of thousands of hair loss sufferers searching for real hair solutions and dozens of prescreened expert hair loss doctors. See how we recommend hair restoration physicians. Many of these physicians regularly contribute their expert opinions and advice on important issues related to hair loss and restoration.

Below, we’ve compiled some of the most recent and vital input we’ve received from leading physician member of our community and presented them below for your benefit.

Are Hair Transplants Detectable? (Dr. Glenn Charles)

Is FUE the Solution for Young Hair Loss Sufferers? (Dr. Cam Simmons)

Is Donor “Shock Loss” After a Hair Transplant Common? (Dr. William Lindsey)

Who are Optimal Patients for Dense Packing? (Dr. Paul Shapiro)

Bill Seemiller – aka Falceros
Managing Publisher/Editor

Technorati Tags: hair restoration, hair loss, hair solutions, hair loss doctors, Bill Seemiller, Falceros

This hair loss question was answered by Dr. Glenn Charles of Florida who is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.  His professional answer is below.

Is 10 months after the first hair transplant too early for a second one?  Are there any negative things that could occur, if you have your second procedure too early?  Are there any positives in waiting for a year or more to have second procedure?

At 10 months you are probably looking at 80-90% of your hair growth. It really depends on when the hair started growing. If you were getting growth at 3 months, you will be close to a final result at 10 months. If you did not start getting hair regrowth until month 4 or 5 then you may need to wait up to 1 year to get a final result. The concern in transplanting a second procedure too soon is that the doctor may make an incision in the recipient area right on top of a previously placed follicular unit graft that has not yet started growing. It is unlikely that at 10 months that this will occur. One additional benefit of waiting a year or more is that you can make a good decision as to whether you need more grafting in the original transplanted area and if so what areas need more than others.

Dr. Glenn Charles, D.O.

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Bill Seemiller – aka Falceros
Associate Publisher/Editor

This hair loss question was answered by Dr. Glenn Charles of Florida who is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.  His professional answer is below.

My hair transplant scar is on the wider side, 3-4mm and is pretty easy to see unless hair is combed the right way.  The scar did not stretch, and I did not feel any tension after the operation, but the scar is still wide.  When I run my finger over the scar, it feels like the scar is “thinner” that the surrounding skin – like there is a impression or ridge in the middle of the scar.  I am trying to figure out why I got such a poor scar. This was a trichophytic scar from one of the best hair restoration doctors. The only scars I have seen that are worse from a virgin scalp are stretched scars.  Mine was always wide. At first it was red, and then when redness faded, now white. No trichophytic hair growing within.

This is one of the potential downsides of taking donor strips that contain 4500 follicular units. Bigger strips=bigger wounds= more tension=bigger scars. Some hair replacement patients have tighter scalp to begin with. Did your doctor recommend scalp exercises or was a two layer closure used in your procedure to close the donor wound? Scar revisions can be performed at a later time as well as follicular unit extraction (FUE) into scars. I admit I have had hair loss patients who really wanted to get a large number of grafts on the first procedure, and told me they really did not care about the scar in back. Probably because they intended to always keep their hair longer in back. 

Upon completion of hair transplant surgery, hair loss patients are filled with visions of what their new hair will look like after it has grown out. It’s exciting to see all the new hairs in the mirror, but by looking at their wounded scalp, there’s no doubt that it’s going to take time to heal and look normal again.

But how long does the healing period take? How much time must pass before the newly transplanted grafts are safely secured to the scalp without worry of losing them?

Though the above questions have been discussed and answered by veteran patients and leading hair restoration physicians for years, only recently were these concerns addressed scientifically. View the data from Coalition member Dr. Robert Bernstein’s experiment and discuss this important topic with other veteran hair loss forum members by clicking here.

Bill Seemiller – aka Falceros
Associate Publisher/Editor

Technorati Tags: hair transplant, hair loss, transplanted grafts, Dr. Robert Bernstein, hair loss forum

How many follicular unit grafts on average are lost doing the trichophytic closure hair transplant donor closure technique?

This hair loss question was answered by Dr. Cam Simmons of Toronto, Canada, who is one of our recommended hair restoration physicians.

The trichophytic part of the closure should not cause any loss of any grafts.

From the surface downward, the layers of the skin are the epidermis, the dermis, and the fat layer. We are only trimming off the epidermis or surface layer of the skin and the tips of the hairs. The trimmed hairs will keep growing.

We are not affecting the stem cells in the hair follicle bulge area in the dermis layer or the dermal papilla stem cells in the fat layer. The hair follicles will therefore be able to keep producing new hairs every 2 to 6 years for the rest of your life.

Avoiding tension is most important to keep donor scars narrow. First and foremost we have to avoid taking a wider strip than the scalp laxity allows. We can further reduce surface suture tension by using deep dissolving sutures or by undermining the skin edges.

Not doing a trichophytic closure allows me to make the donor strip 1 mm wider than if I do a trichophytic closure and that could yield another 250-300 grafts. Some patients prefer getting more grafts than having a trichophytic closure but most don’t.

This question was posed by a hair loss sufferer seeking hair loss help on our hair restoration forum and answered by Dr. Michael Beehner of Saratoga Springs, NY.  Dr. Beehner is one of our recommended hair restoration physicians. His professional answer is below.

What’s the deal with scalp reductions? I’ve seen that many recommended physicians on the Hair Transplant Network no longer perform them, and I’ve seen elsewhere that they are frowned upon, but why? It makes sense that if you can reduce the bald area that needs to be covered, you can have a better overall result when you/if you decide to have a transplant.  

I performed my last scalp reduction 10 years ago, but did many of them my first 10 years before that. The one writer is correct.  You felt like a miracle man when you held that “before” Polaroid next to the “after” one and proudly gave the patient copies. But a few months later they always stretched back to some extent. Nine years ago I did a study on 11 consecutive scalp reduction patients and found that the stretchback percentage was around 40%. For example, if you removed a 5cm wide area of bald scalp, a few months later the side-to-side measurement would be as if you only removed 3cm instead of 5cm.

There are several other negatives also. While 80% of them had wonderful scars that were virtually impossible to see later on, the other 20% could shine in the night almost and were devilish to camouflage with grafts.

Balding men and women quickly become mesmerized by extremely large hair transplant megasessions sometimes referred to as “ultra” megasessions. Given that the number of surgical procedures is fewer in patients who are candidates for such large sessions, there’s no doubt as to why it’s often the procedure of choice for patients.

And though these large numbers of hairs moved often impress patients, many variables can prevent every patient from becoming a candidate for such a hair restoration procedure. See “When Ultra Hair Transplant Megasessions are and aren’t Appropriate”.

Additionally, it takes more than massive quantities of hair to create a cosmetically pleasing and natural looking hair transplant result. Recently, hair loss forum member “TC17” started a list of important attributes that make a hair transplant successful. Can you add to this list? View this discussion topic to see what others think make surgical hair replacement successful and share your own.

Bill Seemiller – aka Falceros
Associate Publisher/Editor

Technorati Tags: Balding, hair transplant megasessions, hair restoration, hair transplant, hair loss, hair replacement