Wed 21 Feb 2007
Can you transplant hair that’s not from your own head and put it in
your balding areas?
If people could donate their hair follicles to another person for a hair transplant I can just imagine the strange scenarios that would come about. But unfortunately (or fortunately) only hair from an identical twin could be successfully transplanted without being rejected. But since hair loss is genetic I can’t imagine the identical twin would want to give up their hair.
I use to tease my younger brother who has ridiculously thick hair that he should donate some for my next hair transplant. But he was never willing. Eventually he found out that this would not work and I was no longer able to tease him about it. What a shame.
Pat – Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q & A Blog. To share ideas with other hair loss sufferers visit our Hair Restoration Discussion Forum.
Technorati Tags: balding, hair transplant, hair loss
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July 16th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Just want to correct what you are saying about hair transplanting from another person. The people do not have to be identical twins or even related to one another. I have been told by a retiring hair transplant expert who tried some of these surgeries that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Just as there was a learning curve for transfusing blood, there are things not understood about why hair can be transplanted sometimes from an unrelated donor, and sometimes can’t even be transplanted between identical twins (possibly with the twins the bald brother had an infection that caused his original hair loss, after transplantation from his brother, his head swelled up and rejected the new hair).
I have also been told that hair transplanting between people was made illegal in the United States several years ago — so doctors no longer try it.
July 19th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Marion,
Thanks for your comment. But like an organ transplant, without anit-rejection medication, hair follicles transplanted from one person to another will certainly be rejected. It would be interesting to learn more about this specific doctor’s research and to see if his research contradicts what dozens of leading hair transplant surgeons have said regarding this topic.
Best wishes,
Bill
Associate Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q&A Blog
September 9th, 2010 at 5:33 am
I heard about a doctor who is doing transplanting with artifical hear
November 3rd, 2010 at 2:01 am
If blood transfusions from one person to another can be done without anti-rejection drugs, I don’t see why hair can’t be transplanted. I presume it would be very easy to tell if one person’s hair can be transplanted to another person’s scalp without rejection. Just take hair (even from a recently dead young corpse) and transplant some of it to one’s arm. If the hair continues to grow on the arm, it can probably be transplanted eventually to the scalp. In the future, one might be able to try several potential donors on their arm first, until they find a donor they don’t reject.
February 6th, 2011 at 6:40 am
According to the link below it might be possible in the future?
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/sci_update.php?DocID=26
Dr. Amanda Reynolds keeps a close eye on her husband’s hair. Which is quite easy, because it’s growing on her forearm.
She and her husband are researchers at the University of Durham in the U.K. Along with Columbia University dermatologist Angela Christiano, they’ve developed a new hair transplant technique.
Dr. Christiano says you can’t transplant whole hair follicles from person to person. That’s because the immune system rejects them. But her team discovered you can transplant the follicle’s dermal sheath cells. These cells seem to be protected from the immune system.
March 1st, 2011 at 8:50 am
Hi marion landan,
Can you please give me the contact details of that doctor?
Regards
Kislay
April 15th, 2011 at 4:24 am
Sir/madam, now I am 21 year old..i didnt get hair completely since
my birth(i.e., i lost hair completly when i was 7 months old)…I think
I met doctor(my parents told) when I was 7 months old,he said that
hair will grew slowly…but I ddnt get till now..and also I ddnt meet
any doctor… is it possible to know that I have hair follicles alive
or not in my skin of head…does any hair oils help me to grew hair…
April 19th, 2011 at 1:51 am
Kumar,
If I understand you correctly, you lost all of your hair when you were 7 months old and it has never regrown. What you describe may be a form of balding known as Alopecia Totalis. This condition is believed to be an autoimmune disorder resulting in loss of all head hair. In other words, your own body’s immune system may be attacking your hair follicles.
Hair oils will not regrow your hair. I recommend consulting with a dermatologist specializing in hair loss. Only when you have a definite diagnosis can you begin to seek treatment.
Best of luck!
David (TakingThePlunge)