June 11 2007, 2:31 pm PT | Posted in: Hair Transplantation + Other
I saw the previous comment about obtaining hair follicles from a donor (another person than yourself) transplanted to the patient. I’ve looked on the internet and did a search for “immunoprivileged follicle” and found dozens of articles that suggest that the follicle of the hair seems to fall in the category.They’d even claim that it is also trans-gender: www.nature.com/nature/journal/v402/n6757/full/402033a0.html
and the Journal of Investigative Dermatology Symposium: www.nature.com/jidsp/journal/v8/n2/full/5640115a.htmlDoes this mean that it is possible,after all, to obtain hair follicles from a donor? Thanks!
It may be possible, but for all practicality, not probable. Even with the best case scenario, where would you get the donor hair? Could this give a new meaning to selling your hair for money?
Generally hair transplantation from one person to another carries the same risk as organ (liver, heart, kidney) transplants. There is a risk of rejection and failure and life long anti-rejection medication. You may accept the risk of rejection when faced with threatening situations such as heart/ liver/ kidney failure, but most people spending thousands of dollars for a cosmetic (hair transplant) procedure may not accept the failure risk. One might think that hair from a newborn baby might be immunoprivileged (it seems to work for a heart transplant), but again, who would endorse such a donor?



