This man has a heavy distribution of hair on his body. Fortunately, he has no balding at this time. Can this man use all of this hair for hair transplants?
The hair thickness of body hair is about 20-25 microns, while the hair of the scalp ranges from fine (25-45 microns), medium 45-60 (microns), and Coarse (greater than 60 microns), so the value of each hair transplanted (usually a single hair in each graft) is generally poor from a coverage point of view. Worse yet, these body hairs have a long telogen cycle and a relatively short anagen cycle. Let’s assume that the anagen and telogen cycles are equal (reasonable), meaning that 50% of the time, the hairs will have fallen out and not reappear until the anagen cycle kicks in for the duration of the hair cycle. The entire body hair cycle ranges from approximately 6-10 months. So if a surgeon were to transplant 1000 of these very thin 25-micron hairs, then only 500 would appear at any time. Most surgeons charge by the grafts, and as most of these would be single hair grafts, the value of each graft based on the number of grafts growing would be reduced by 50% (based upon the hair cycle) and further reduced when compared to the scalp donor hair because that average # of hairs in the scalp average 2+ hairs each. That would further reduce the value per dollar spent. In addition, the body hair thickness is so ‘fine’ (25 microns) that it would take a lot of these body hairs to significantly impact a hair transplant recipient area. I am NOT a big fan of body hair as a donor source for a hair transplant for the above reasons.
| Comparing scalp and body hair’s value to what you see after transplant grows | Average Caucasian | Man in photo below |
| Hairs per graft | 1 | 2+ |
| Hair thickness | 25 microns | 25-90 microns |
| Avaibility of hair to show(cycle) | 50% of the time | 95%+ |
| Quality of hair | Looks like body hair | Looks like scalp hair |
| Value compared to Scalp Hair | Ranges downward from 25% and less | 100% |
