Body Hair Transplant (BHT)
What is BHT?
Body Hair Transplant (BHT) uses hair from the beard, chest, or back as donor sources when the scalp donor area is insufficient.
Applications
BHT is typically used to add density or repair previous failed transplants. Body hair has different characteristics (curl, growth cycle) than scalp hair.
Pros
- Expands donor pool
- Allows treatment for severe baldness
- Good for filling crown area
Cons
- Different hair texture
- Lower survival rate of grafts
- Slower growth cycle
What Clinics Say About This Procedure
Dr Ilhan Serdaroglu, Istanbul, Turkey
Combined Technique FUE (Body Hair + Scalp Hair Transplant)
In case of large baldness, such as Norwood 5-7, the number of hair follicles available in the donor area (back of the head) is often insufficient to ensure a satisfactory coverage.
The use of facial hair (beard) or body hair (torso, legs) with the FUE technique is commonly practiced to overcome the lack of donor area on the head.
- Beard hair : first choice
- Chest hair : second best choice
- Legs hair : third choice
This technique makes it possible to harvest 1000 - 1200 grafts in one session (sometimes 1500), a very valuable complement to restore advanced baldness.
N.B. Body hair is different from scalp hair :
- it usually consists of single hairs (which means less coverage),
- except beard hair, it is usually finer
- it grows much slower,
- it is curly
- its growth after transplanting is less predictable.
Beard grafts tend to grow thicker and faster, making them useful for midscalp reinforcement and crown filling. Chest hair is softer and blends well in background density.