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I fell against an open fire surround when a child. I suffered a bald area 3 inches wide by 2 inches long. 15 years ago I had an expander inserted and about 90 percent of the bald spot was removed. This was okay but now my hair is thinning around the scar area.

I am female over 55 and am very conscious of this as I am very limited in my hairstyles. As the thinning area would hopefully now have enough blood supply from the ajoining hair, would I be able to have transplants inserted into the thinning area?

Also, how do I find a good surgeon in the Northern Ireland area. Thanks

Each case is unique, so there’s no way I could know if you’re a candidate for transplantation without an examination. I could evaluate you, but from Ireland it would be difficult. Look to the ISHRS for doctor recommendations in Ireland.

Dr. Bessam Farjo is one a contributor to this site and is based in the UK, so it may be worth a trip to have him evaluate you.

Can you explain to me what laser-assisted hair transplant surgery is? And why don’t more doctors do this? Advantages/disadvantages?

I read an article on your New Hair site from 1996 - here - that said the lasers weren’t sophisticated enough for this kind of procedure, but that was 15 years ago. What is your opinion now? Thanks

Lasers are wonderful devices, but I would not recommend their use in hair transplant procedures in any manner. When they were used, they produced significant burns adding to complications that rarely occur otherwise.

I’m 26 I had 3 brain surgeries 5 years ago and have a large scar the shape of a horse shoe on the left side of my head. this is causing severe depression. I’d like to know who can I see and what I can do to cover this scar. my hair is no longer thick enough to cover the bald spot and I simply can’t wear a hat all the time. I’m looking for information on doctors in the boca raton area or near palm beach that can help.

thank you so much. this is my prayer to look normal again.

Scars from brain surgeries, as you describe, can be addressed with a hair transplant surgery or with Scalp MicroPigmentation (SMP). Treating brain surgery scars take some experience, as hair that is transplanted into the scar tissue may not fully grow. Be sure that the doctor you see has experience with transplanting into scars.

I would recommend that you not limit yourself to just your immediate area. See as many doctors as possible to get a good idea about what is possible and what the expectations should be. There are many hair transplant surgeons in Florida, and you can find doctors in your area by using the physician search at ISHRS.org. Just be sure to do your research and meet with doctors to form your own opinion on who has the best results.

Dear Dr. Rassman

I hope you can help explain something to me regarding the treatment of hair loss with PRP. I was considering have a treatment of PRP + Acell but then read that one of the growth factors in PRP is TGF-B1 which has been claimed to be something that actually causes hair follicle death. Could you please explain to me how this growth factor supposedly helps when introduced to the scalp in PRP treatments? Is it somehow changed? or do the doctors using PRP not see it as harmful?

Thank you in advance for you answer and insight.

Regards

The use of platelet-rich plasma therapy (PRP) is a good way for a doctor to make money and probably not harm his patient. It’s the buzz du jour and is an excuse for some doctors to sell something extra. I’ve yet to see any satisfactory study that shows using PRP in a hair transplant has any value.

The NY Times wrote about PRP earlier this year — Does Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy Really Work?.

hello mr Rassman long time reader here, you doing a great job here i must add. my question today is regarding my Diffuse Unpatterned Alopecia (DUPA). i’ve had dupa since the age of 17 im now 24 and i still have a decent amount of coverage.

i was thinking about a possible body hair transplant in the future and was wondering if hairs in the beard, pubic area and chest are viable as im looking for the fullest coverage. i for one don’t care about growing this hair out i would plan on keeping it very short shaved. as i am still 24 and still going through changes in terms of body hair i want to wait till im in my 30’s so i have more hair to harvest

what do you think of my chances in terms of having a transplant like this? would i need to take meds after this to maintain the new hair? is the hair permanent? thank you for your time

Body hair may or may not be permanent. I have never done a complete body hair transplant for a DUPA patient so I can not talk with experience under my belt. I suspect you can find someone willing to experiment on you to achieve the goal you defined above, but it would not be my recommendation.

Do you have any knowledge or opinion about prosthetic follicles? I was imagining a tiny hypo- or non-allergenic device of plastic, silicone, etc that could even eject broken hairs and be reloaded. If they can replace heart valves and if they can make silicon wafers with microscopic transistors, artificial follicles hardly seems unfeasible. I googled my idea and actually found something:

A hair prosthesis consisting of allogeneic hair and polypropylene mimicking follicular units: long-term result and histocompatibility in rabbits

This sounds wonderful for balding or bald rabbits. There’s still a lot that needs to be done before it is shown to be safe for humans.

There is reasonable experience in artificial hairs and the history is not pretty, with infections that really mess up the scalp. I have personally seen the results of artificial hair over the years and have removed them in patients I’ve seen, but the problems never seem to clear. They look good when they are initially done, but hopefully people will live long enough to regret the decision to do this.

Dr. Rassman,

In many of your posts regarding body hair transplant, I see that you tend to discourage the use of body hair for transplants. Some of the reasons include the fact that body hair is curly and does not grow long enough. I am a black person who grows a short Afro. I have a bald spot of the right front side of my scalp which I have managed to concealed with my own pubic hair. It just so happens that my pubic hair is just as curly and has the same texture as my scalp hair. So what I do from time to time, is cut my public hair, wash it thoroughly and then get it entangled with my scalp hair in the balding area. The entangling is due to the curliness of the hair and it holds even in the wind.

So far no one seems to notice. In fact, when I first saw a hair loss doctor, he was amazed at how well I concealed my hair loss.

In any case, I think transplanting hair from the pubic area for African Americans may be a viable option since both the pubic and scalp hair in African Americans is curly and perhaps has the same texture in most African American(as is my case). In any, what is your take on this issue.

I have done a few pubic hair to scalp transplants and they work very well. I recall one African American fellow in particular and a few Caucasian patients that had this done over the past many years. The FUE technique may have a good role here.

I have also seen another person who used pubic hair to entangle with their afro to add bulk with the same observations you demonstrate. It’s certainly not for everybody, and I still say scalp hair works best.

This is the article about the face transplant patient: Face transplant patient ready to go home

From the pictures in the article, the picture on the left shows his mid-scalp area has no hair at all due to his injury, and the after picture shows him with ample amount of hair in the mid-scalp area. The article points out, ‘even the hair on Wiens’ head, from the mid-scalp area, is part of the donor skin (the hair on the back of Wiens’ head is his own).’

Is there a possibility scalp transplants will be available in the near future?

I’ve received more than a few emails about this case where people have excitedly pointed out that this patient also received hair. Yes, full face transplants are possible thanks in part to some amazing surgeons, and yes, it’s possible to have part of the donor scalp and hair survive during this type of procedure. But surgery like this not practical or safe for someone that just has genetic hair loss and wants a head of full head of hair from a donor.

The key issue preventing person-to-person hair (and scalp) transplants is with the anti-rejection medication he must take. For the face transplant patient the risk is worth the reward, but for someone that wants to have hair harvested from someone else, the side effect risks from these immunosuppressive drugs are quite serious. The risks include massive infections and even cancer.

However, let’s look at this from a realistic point of view. Who would even volunteer for a scalp transplant just to treat genetic balding? Keep in mind that the scalp has to come from someone… and that someone is likely a cadaver.

If pubic hair is transplanted on the scalp will it grow due to the fact the nourishment and exposure will become different. Does apocrine gland still remain active when transplanted on head? A doctor in Delhi does carry out such procedure FUE technique and is affordable. However I still want to have all the facts..If any one has done then it will be good?

If pubic hair were transplanted to the head, it would grow and be very curly. I actually performed a pubic hair transplant to a patient. The pubic hair was mixed in with scalp hair and placed into the crown in a person who had a very limited donor area. It worked well. I have also done beard hair to the scalp that has worked well, particularly when mixed with regular scalp donor hair. These are rare and special circumstances, though. Many doctors are transplanting body hair from the abdomen, chest, and back with mixed results.

But while these procedures are technically possible, surgery on your body should NOT be driven by costs. If there is good donor hair from the scalp that is available (as it most probably is), this should be the first source… not the pubic area. The hair that is transplanted will usually retain its original characteristics so pubic hair on the scalp will be very curly, underarm hair will bring with it an odor from the accompanying apocrine glands, and body hair will usually be characteristically fine and not grow out to be very long. One of your goals should be to have the results look as natural as possible, and body hair transplants (BHT) make that difficult.

Remember, any decision you make will be with you for the rest of your life, so be careful what you choose.

Hi Dr. Rassman, In a recent article i found that it is actually possible to transplant the follicle’s dermal sheath cells from one person to another which can lead to new hair growth.

To view the full article please check the below link and let me know you thoughts about this: ScienceNetLinks

Thanks!! appreciate the work you are doing!!

We know that the body will reject hair transplanted from one person to another, but the very reputable Dr. Angela Christiano is quoted in this article and her experimental technique shows feasibility (I did not verify her work for this review).

So to answer your question, in research this is possible, but real world applications aren’t quite there. It’s early experimentation with the bigger picture being focused on generating joint cartilage for arthritis patients.