Body to Scalp: Evolving Trends in Body Hair Transplantation

Follicular unit extraction (FUE) is becoming an increasingly popular method for hair restoration. As FUE leaves behind no linear scars, it is more suitable to harvest from various body areas including beard, chest, and extremities in hirsute individuals. Body hair characteristics such as thickness, length, and hair cycle may not completely match to that of the scalp hair. The techniques of harvesting body hairs are more time consuming, requiring higher degree of skill than regular scalp FUE. Body hair transplantation can be successfully used either alone or in combination with scalp hair in advanced grades of baldness, for improving the cosmetic appearance of hairlines and in scarring alopecia when there is paucity of donor scalp hair. Harvesting of body hairs opens up a new viable donor source for hair restoration surgeons, especially in cases of advanced Norwood grades five and above of androgenetic alopecia.