Body Hair Transplantation (BHT), is a hair transplant procedure involving body hairs such as beard and chest hairs transplanted on to the scalp. Body hairs, especially beard hair can be an extra source for donor hair in patients with limited donor availability at the scalp.
It has been shown that beard hair is the best source for body hair transplants due to its biological characteristics of regrowing better, growing much longer and being of much higher caliber compared to other body hairs such as chest, back and leg hair. Chest hair appears to be the second best. Other hairs like back and leg hair could be considered experimental and therefore we don’t recommend using body hairs other than beard and chest hairs in men. One advantage of using body hairs is that it can be a great source for patients who are rich with body hair that are normally unwanted hairs.
Body hairs have a different character compared to scalp hair; their coverage and growth potential is less. There are also technical difficulties in harvesting body hairs, due to skin type and anatomical location. For all these reasons, body hair transplants should be considered only when donor scalp hair is not sufficient. Typical situations when a body hair transplant may be useful are, patients with severe hair loss and multiple previous hair surgeries. Body hairs may be used to increase density at the scalp or to camouflage existing scars.
The most frequent practice at AEK Hair Clinic is to combine scalp FUE with Body Hair Transplant from the beard and/or chest which can be done in two or three consecutive sessions. The beard donor zone heals very well without leaving visually significant scars.