Hair Transplants

Q: Dr. Eppley, This is a strange question but is it possible to get donor grafts from the part of the head that isn’t considered a donor area? I know your average person has around 8K hair grafts available from the DONOR area, but if someone wanted to access the grafts from the other areas, would this be technically possible?  

Say there was a person that wanted a significant beard transplant and this person was much taller than the vast majority of people. They would prefer to take grafts from the non donor areas of their head because they are much taller than everyone around them, they would like to be able to conceal their scar or FUE procedure more effectively since very few people would see the top of their heads. They understand that FUT and FUE procedures nowadays can go undetected with good scar rejuvenation but still they would rather have the scars placed in a more undetectable area. They completely understand that non donor areas are labeled such because there is the risk that they will dissipate with progressive male hair pattern baldness and they are completely aware of this risk because they are already on balding medications such as finasteride and have no significant history of baldness in the family.

Would a situation like this be reason enough to oblige to their request of taking hairs from where they want:non donor area on top of head? or is there some physical reason why something like this may not be possible.

A: The simple answer to your question is that there is not a technical reason that the harvest site for hair transplants can not be taken from anywhere on the head. The reason the back of the head is used is two-fold; that is where most of the available hair is and it is hair that is theoretically programmed to last a lifetime for many men.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana