BHT

[pikehunter]

I had never heard of Body Hair Transplantation until I saw some info. posted on this site about it. Does anyone know where to find the most truthful, up-to-date info. on this development and where this currently stands as a possible solution?

 

[CCS]

They say the scars are not noticeable, but I doubt it. Why don't they show close up after shots 3 months post op? Every Doctor shows them from 10 feet away.

Body hair is not nearly as corse as head hair, so you need 3 in one hole just to have the density of a single. It can cost a lot of money. Very labor intensive. But if you don't have enough donor hair, which a lot of NW5's don't, it is an option. Maybe sunless tan will hide the scars?

Once your body hair is transplanted to the head, the growth cycle lengthens, so they will grow longer on their own, maybe 2 inches. Minoxidil will increase that. But spironolactone would probably shorten them, so you could not use spironolactone on your other hairs if you have body hair there.

I'd get it done, but I don't have the money, and don't believe any of the claims that I won't be speckled with scars afterwards.

I have a 1/4 inch linear scar on the back of my head, but I guess my hair sticks to it or something. I have to reall hunt and then loosen the hair to find it. Pretty well hidden.

When hair cloning comes out in maybe 3 years, it will cost less than BHT, so I think you should save moeny for that. Until then use sunless tanning on your scalp so the thinning is less obvious. And use thickening shampoo. If that is not enough, there are other concealers, but they have downsides.

 

[hairwegoagain]

Am I the only one who thinks BHT is disgusting?

Best,

Hairwegoagain

 

[pikehunter]

Thank you for the reply. Can you explain why there are 'speckled' scars with BHT but not with regular hair transplant (Bosley/MHR)? Is the speckeled scarring a possibility when cloning comes out?

 

[CCS]

When you cut a cylinder of skin out of your skin, it will probably fill in with scar tissue. I don't know how noticeable, but the fact they don't give close up 3 month after pics, but do take them from 10 feet away, and take only the post op pics from 1 foot away, should tell you that they don't want you to see something in the 3 month after pics. I'm sure that FUE is a bit worse since the cylinders are bigger, but they should be hidden by the hair. If you just have a small area to fill, like a little in the temple, FUE is good. If a large area, a strip procedure has the same size scar regardless of how much you can take out, and some docs can leave it thin if you keep the tension off it by keeping your head back for 3 months. But if you have a huge area to cover, like NW5 or 6, then BHT may be your only option. I doubt the speckles look horrible. But once you are in bed a woman might notice you have off color dots all over your body. Can't look worse than freckles, and people won't see them until they are up close, like 3 feet maybe. Head hair is what will get you the women. Once you clothes are off and they see the dots, at least you made it to first base.

 

[worriedmale]

I had never heard of Body Hair Transplantation until I saw some info. posted on this site about it. Does anyone know where to find the most truthful, up-to-date info. on this development and where this currently stands as a possible solution?

yeh im in the same boat as you. i was interested in BHT. theres some information on wikpedia regarding that. I serached this forum regarding BHT'S and found some links to sites that do it. im not sure about the scarring though.

Dr woods who was the first to come out with the fue technique made the discovery. because only with the fue technique can body hair be transplanted to the scalp i think.

this is his website

http://www.thewoodstechnique.com/defaul ... y=&Search=

also check out dr arvind. he has done some BHT'S and also has alot of pics of other surgeons who have done BHT'S.

http://www.hairsite8.com/htdocs/arvind/main.htm

 

[Guest]

BHT technology is still in its infancy. Results vary quite a bit between patients, so the jury is still out.

If you are using Bosley/MHR as a point of comparison, then you have not done enough research, no offense. Stay away from the hair mills. :freaked2:

 

[Guest]

Stay away from Dr Gillen as well. He uses a rusty nail to cut out the strip from the back of the head.

Regards,
JayMan

:hairy:

No seriously though, all the results that I have seen from BHT have looked rather pathetic. I've seen guys with thousands of BHT grafts that didn't even go up a full grade on the Norwood scale.

 

[Guest]

Jayman, then you obviously have not seen enough. There are in fact some good results, they just vary patient to patient.

And don't worry about anyone else, I am saving the rusty nail for you! :lol:

 

[Guest]

Care to show us some good BHT results? I'm talking an improvement of 2 grades on the Norwood scale or greater. Not FUE+BHT or strip+BHT. BHT only.

As for me, I am diffuse in the front so a transplant may very well make me worse off than I was pre-transplant.

 

[Guest]

Take a look at Heli-boy on Hairsite. His results are awesome. His head donor was shot from many previous procedures. There's a Dr. Umar patient on this forum, Taz who had 5316 FUE/BHT and 4,000 of the grafts were BHT, so 75% of his procedure was BHT. The pics he posted Dec 29th show alot of growth for such a short time post-op. There are others on Hairsite and HLH, and I do agree with you that there are not many that are 100% BHT, but I have never been an advocate of doing 100% BHT either. And I can't wait to see Taz' yield as time passes.

There is a 100% BHT posted on Hairsite just today who was a class 6-7 with no hair on top whatsoever. There's a post-op pic after one single pass of BHT. I am impressed. Look for yourself.

 

[Guest]

is it true that the hair won't grow longer than 2 inches since that's the maximum length it grows on the body? if so, that would suck since i like to wear my hair at least 4 inches.

p.s. gillenator- i just looked at the guy you are describing. his story can be found here:

http://www.hairsite4.com/dc/dcboard.php ... &mode=full

that's the guy right? i heard cole say between 21500 and 27000 grafts to cover his entire head. those are Body hair grafts though right? I mean if someone had unlimited scalp donor density(impossible but let's just say it), how many scalp grafts do you think it would take to equal the body hair grafts? Would it be like 8000 instead of 21,000? thanks.

I am wondering because I'm between an NW1.5 and NW2 diffuse and I've heard estimates ranging from 2000 to 3000 donor grafts necessary to filll me back in. I don't understand this though. If I had to guess, I'd say I've lost 10000 of my ~100000 hairs, mostly in the front. So does it make sense that I'd need 3000 grafts to give me the appearance of full density?

 

[Guest]

Yeah, that's the one Jayman. If there is 27,000 BH estimated, I normally divide that by 2.3 which would equal roughly 11,739 scalp grafts on average. The 27,000 estimate are no doubt single hair grafts which is typical for BH.

The other consideration is where the BH would be extracted because different BH donor locations can vary in the degree of hair caliper, and caliper covers better than quantity in itself.

I would wait if you're a diffused thinner since your hairloss is not substantial. You could risk permanent shock in the recipient area. Otherwise approach it with smaller sessions, and employ the other measures to help minimize the effects of shock.

 

[Guest]

Forgot something. We never need the original density levels in the recipient area to gain the "illusion of coverage". Most only need half of original density to look restored.

Also, when hair begins losing caliper due to DHT, we know the hairs are getting thinner in diameter before they perish. Yet in hair transplants, we are replacing half of those dying hairs with terminal hair, which will cover much better than the diffused hair.

Most guys don't see their scalp until they get under 50% of original density as they progress with male pattern baldness.

 

[Guest]

I guess I should try minoxidil in a few months to see if it might help with the diffusion in front. What's your experience with that, gillenator?

If that guy has 271 square centimeters of area to fill then I'd estimate that I have about 60-70 square centimeters of area to fill. The difference is that my area is spread across the whole NW5 area, in patches. I don't have any real bald spots, just a moderate thinness in front where I can tell where I'm missing about a third of my hairs there.

I do have very high sides though and my sides and back are thick as hell because I'm on Avodart and I'm only 22. So I might have 8000+ grafts available to a doctor. If HM doesn't come out for awhile, I might be comfortable having him take out 3000 or so to bring me back to a full NW1 with a juvenile hairline.

 

[LookingGood!]

reference is made to BH pics on Hairsite.

Yeah there are many pics of BHT but using pics as an example is not substantial to review any hair transplant especially a BHT. They look a helleva alot different in person. BHT is crap shoot option for pts who have exhausted their donor supply or are in need of a repair.

 

[IBM]

Putting body hair on your scalp? That's horrible.

 

[LookingGood!]

some people dont have many options!

 

[Guest]

lookinggood,

what do you think of my situation illustrated above?

I am wondering because I'm between an NW1.5 and NW2 diffuse and I've heard estimates ranging from 2000 to 3000 donor grafts necessary to filll me back in. I don't understand this though. If I had to guess, I'd say I've lost 10000 of my ~100000 hairs, mostly in the front. So does it make sense that I'd need 3000 grafts to give me the appearance of full density?

I guess I should try minoxidil in a few months to see if it might help with the diffusion in front. What's your experience with that, gillenator?

If that guy has 271 square centimeters of area to fill then I'd estimate that I have about 60-70 square centimeters of area to fill. The difference is that my area is spread across the whole NW5 area, in patches. I don't have any real bald spots, just a moderate thinness in front where I can tell where I'm missing about a third of my hairs there.

I do have very high sides of hair on my head though and my sides and back are thick as hell because I'm on Avodart and I'm only 22. So I might have 8000+ grafts available to a doctor. If HM doesn't come out for awhile, I might be comfortable having him take out 3000 or so to bring me back to a full NW1 with a juvenile hairline.

Here's a pic of my situation as of last year:

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/273/hairloss006ka6.jpg

Do you think 3000-3500 grafts would fill me back to a full head of hair?

 

[Guest]

Jayman,

Yep, I used minoxidil in the frontal zone for two months post-op and no question it helped to get some single hairs jumped started. I think I would have gone a bit longer applying it in the front except that I started growing hair on my upper cheecks and my eye brow hair got alot more coarse and started growing in length. Right now I am applying it strictly in the bridge and crown. The new Rogaine foam product is pricey but nice to use and no propolene glycol.

Listen, I just looked at your pic with the diffused thinning. It's really not that bad yet. Are you wearing some gel? If you are, it's going to show more scalp.

Here's the tough choice for you. At 22, you're way too young for a hair transplant, IMO. However, if you do wait it out, the progressive nature of the diffused thinning pattern menas you will gradually lose hair shaft diameter over time. If you're on finasteride, it will slow it down, but it won't stop it.

In my overall experience, the weaker the natural hair becomes, the more volatile it is to shock. The more diffused it becomes, the more chance for permanent shockloss.

So the question then becomes, "Do I start replacing what I know I am destined to lose in smaller procedures now, OR do I wait it out until my natural hair becomes so diffused until I am getting little to no visual coverage?

Even if you choose to start replacing in smaller sessions, you still have a ways to go before you should be getting in the chair because of the amount of existing hair you have right now. I am not you so that's easy for me to say I know, but that's just my own opinion. STAY ON THE MEDS.