Body hair transplant in Turkey means that hairs from the body of a patient are transplanted into the scalp in order to restore their hair. It is more frequent in male patients and is mostly used when the donor area (situated at the back of the head) is poor.

If you are interested in a hair transplant, our surgeons in Istanbul invite you to our hair transplant clinic in order to establish if you are a good candidate for a body hair transplant.

Quick Facts
When is a body hair transplant needed?	When beard or chest hair cannot be used.
Donor area	Back, arms, legs, abdomen in most cases.
The technique used for the transplant	FUE, as it allows for precision and natural-looking results.
Candidate evaluation	Following an initial evaluation performed at our clinic.
Factors that influence the number of grafts	The extension of hair loss and the qualify of the body hairs, according to the available donor areas.
Hair growth after transplant	Patients should expect growth within the first 3 weeks, followed by a period of shedding, and the  regrowth of the new hair.
Treating physician	One of our experienced hair transplant doctors, and their nurses and assistants.
Location of the hair transplant surgery	At our hair clinic in Turkey.
Outpatient regime	Yes
Estimated procedure duration	Around 5 hours for the FUE procedure (more in some cases).
Estimated recovery period	Usually around 3 days before resuming the regular activities and physical training (as applicable).
Estimated body hair transplant cost in Turkey	Prices can start at EUR 2.5 per graft; our doctor will be able to estimate the needed number of grafts after an initial consult.
Follow-up check-up in Turkey	Yes, as scheduled by our hair transplant doctor.
Accommodation in Turkey included	Not ordinarily; please reach out to our team for personalized packages.
Recommendations for travel to Turkey	We recommend traveling to Turkey in spring or autumn to enjoy the lower temperatures.

 

When can a body hair transplant be considered?

Before being scheduled for a hair transplant operation in our clinic in Istanbul, all patients must undergo a consult during which the medical history, the condition and the possibility of being subject to the procedure are verified. In special cases, where the patient lacks sufficient hair in the donor area, the body hair transplant will be recommended, however, it is good to know that our doctors can perform a set of tests in order to determine if the body hairs will match the hair on the scalp of the patient.

Our surgeons in Turkey treat body hair transplants with a lot of care in order for the patients to obtain the natural look they deserve.

The following factors are considered when deciding that a patient is a good candidate for a body hair transplant in our clinic in Turkey:
 

1. the density of the hair follicles which can be transplanted is a good one (it is good for the hair density to be greater than 20 follicles per cm², approximately half of the density of the hair density in the occipital area);
2. the hair follicles on the body must match the ones of the recipient area (same inclination, length, etc.);
3. the texture of the follicles to be transplanted must also be similar to the existing hairs on the scalp of the patient;
4. the doctor will perform a test in order to see how the transplanted body hair looks like and if the patient could agree with the results;
5. the most common sources for body hair transplants are the beard, the eyebrows, and the temples;
6. most of the time, hair follicles in the anagen phase are used in body hair transplants.

In our hair transplant clinic in Turkey, our surgeons use the latest techniques for all types of hair transplants, including those implying using various parts of the body as donor areas. If you are interested in a body hair transplant in Turkey, our doctors can discuss this option with you anytime.
 

Body hair transplant in Turkey is achieved using the latest Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) method and with highly advanced medical instruments. It implies the extraction of hair follicles with precise punches and transplanting them into the hair thinning areas.

Generally, the area where the body hair is extracted from is the one under the chin (the beard) because the beard hair is the only one with a quick growth rate which matches one of the scalp hair.

However, depending on the patient’s type of scalp hair, body hair transplant in Turkey can imply transplanting hairs from other areas of the body as well, such as shoulders, chest, stomach, arms, and legs. The available data indicates that hair from the chest is a suitable option if discussing hair exclusively from the body (compared to that from the legs or arms). Chest hair tends to have a better growth rate compared to hair from other sources and it can grow longer. Moreover, this type of body hair had the lowest transection rate (the accidental cutting of the hair bulb).
 

Once the decision for a body hair transplant has been made, the patient should know that the doctors must consider the characteristics of the hairs on the donor area, as these hairs must meet certain requirements.

As mentioned above, the hair follicles must be in their anagen phase when transplanted, however, most of the body hairs (between 30% and 85%) is in the telogen phase, therefore the less hair in telogen phase the better chances for a candidate to undergo a body hair transplant in our clinic in Turkey.

Most of the times, the hair transplanted from the body tends to grow curly, however, with suitable grooming, patients should be able to ensure the similarity with the scalp hairs.

In order to ensure the success of a body hair transplant, our surgeons in Turkey will usually recommend additional treatments that stimulate hair growth, such as low-laser therapy.

An advantage of body hairs transplanted onto the scalp is that they grow single which can provide for better results than in the case of hairs transplanted from other areas of the scalp.
 

A hair transplant using body hair does not imply specific procedures, however, there is one certain technique that is recommended, this is the Follicular Unit Extraction or FUE. This is also the procedure used by our hair transplant doctors in Istanbul when performing body hair transplants.

The FUE procedure allows the surgeon to collect individual hair follicles and thus determine their viability and if they match with the surrounding hairs on the recipient area.

The FUE technique is also more precise than the Follicular Unit Transplantation and allows more natural-looking results once the transplanted hair starts to grow.

The length of the hair after transplant can differ from one case to another, however, there is evidence to sustain the fact that the hairs seem to grow longer on the scalp, as opposed to the area from which they were transplanted. This is due to a phenomenon called recipient influence, where the dermis (the layer beneath the epidermis, the thickest layer of skin that is composed of elastic and fibrous tissue) has, to some extent, an influence over the growth pattern of the new hairs. This means that the hair transplanted from the chest, for example, would grow to be longer and thicker than it was in the initial area.

We invite you to watch a video about this type of transplant:



In summary, here are the general steps for patients for whom a body hair transplant is an option:

1. schedule an initial meeting and evaluation: discussing the procedure in detail with our doctor is important, especially since each patient is different and so is the quality of the hair from the possible donor areas from the body;
2. investigations: if the doctor decides that body hair transplant is an option he will also schedule a set of investigations (blood tests and others, if needed) in order to determine if the patient can undergo the procedure;
3. test session: in some cases, a decision can be made to perform a test session; this means that the same FUE technique is used but only on a small section in order to see if, after a few months, the growth rate is a satisfactory one;
4. final sessions: if the growth is a good one, the doctor will schedule the main session, which will include the procedure performed under anesthesia;
5. recovery: the healing of the donor and the transplant area will take approximately 2 days;
6. growth phase: the grafts will start growing and a period of hair fall is normal; after approximately 8 months, the patient will be able to enjoy the complete, satisfactory results.

 
The doctor will decide how many grafts are needed for a satisfactory transplant result and, as a consequence, may use more than one donor area. For example, hair from the chest can be used for the vertex area of the scalp and hair from the arms, of suitable, for the parietal area).
 
Patients should note that the results of the hair transplant will be visible immediately after the procedure, however, it is normal for part of the transplanted hairs to fall off after a certain time, leaving room for new and healthy ones to grow. These will be the final hairs that are taken into consideration when referring to the final, satisfactory results (or the before and after pictures).
 

For a long period of time, a large percentage of patients were denied a hair transplant because of their severe baldness which affected the donor areas of the scalp. With body hair transplant in Turkey, this issue isis not necessarily a problem, as a team of experienced hair transplant doctors can choose to extract hair follicles from the chest, for example.

The most important benefits of transplanting body hair into the scalp are as follows:

•   It can be achieved on patients suffering from severe baldness (including the ones who suffer from advanced androgenetic alopecia also known as male-pattern baldness or broad scarring from previous surgeries or accidents);
•    It can be successfully used for patients who necessitate eyebrow transplants;
•    It does not imply utilizing staples, sutures or stitches;
•    It produces minimal scarring;
•    It is minimally invasive;
•    The recovery time is quick with donor area scabbing generally healing in a maximum of one week.

A body hair transplant may not be needed for all patients, however, it can be a solution in most cases. Depending on the harvest area and the number of harvested grafts, the final hair transplant Turkey cost will be different. Typically, the costs are higher if the patient requires a large number of grafts, however, they also depend on the chosen transplant method.
 

The ideal candidates for a Turkey body hair transplant are patients whose body hair is very similar to the hair from the recipient site.

Or, a good candidate for such a hair restoration procedure can be someone who does not have enough hair on the scalp on the harvesting areas. 

Sometimes, patients prefer body hair over scalp hair. In these cases, a trial of body hair could be effectuated in order to analyze the appearance and the growth of the grafts.

If the eyebrows or temple points need hair restoration, certain sources of body hair might be better than others, due to the fact that the source can resemble more to the recipient area.

When selecting different types of body hair restoration, it is advisable to choose beard hair if consistent outcomes, in terms of yield, are the main objectives.

When attempting to match a hair with a certain hair type on the body, the hair transplant surgeon in Istanbul might sacrifice yield to improve the cosmetic match. 

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of undergoing this procedure only when performed by an experienced doctor who has adequate technique. This is because body hairs are shorter and thinner, therefore experience and technique are two very important factors which, arguably, not any hair transplant surgeon possesses, especially those who are not accustomed to this procedure, such as our own specialists.
 

The FUE method is minimally invasive and there is no scarring, unlike other techniques. The extraction sites heal within approximately two days and immediately after the procedure the patient will only observe small, red dots from where the hairs were extracted. These heal as any small puncture would and any pain that may appear after the effects of the anesthesia have passed can be controlled with over-the-counter medication, such as the painkillers used by the individual habitually. Swelling is possible immediately after the procedure, however, your doctor will indicate how to treat it if it appears.
 
Washing the transplanted area is prohibited immediately after surgery, however, the patient may start to wash gently after a few days, or as indicated.

After a body hair transplant, in the first couple of weeks after the surgery, patients should avoid doing any intense physical activities.

As previously mentioned, they could also experience a period named “shedding” when the superficial follicles fall from the scalp. However, new ones will start growing in their place shortly, so that the outcome will soon be visible. 

The doctor will provide patients with detailed information about the recovery phase and will schedule a follow-up visit, usually after two days, to check on the recipient and the donor areas.
 
In some cases, namely for patients with extensive hair loss or baldness, the doctor may decide to perform a set of follow-up procedures. These can include lower-complexity ones, such as micro-grafts, in order to touch upon the density of targeted areas. While this is not always the case, the doctor may discuss this with you should you feel that the final results, months after the body hair transplant, can be improved.
 

Body hair transplant research

Body hair transplant is a rather new procedure which has appeared as a consequence of offering solution for patients with not enough donor area hairs. For this purpose, there have been many studies related to body hair transplants completed in Turkey and in other countries around the world.

One of the most conclusive body hair transplant studies was published by Academic Oup based on the Aesthetic Surgery Journal in 2016 which reveals the following:
 

• the study was completed on 122 patients between 2005 and 2011;
• the average time between the surgery and the responses of 79 of the patients was 2,9 years;
• the patients were happy with the results, rating the hair transplant 7.8 from healing, growth and satisfaction points of view;
• the average number of grafts which can be transplanted during an operation ranges between 1,500 and 1,800.

If you suffer from extensive hair loss, there is still hope for you due to the development of body hair transplants. With experience in artfully and delicately performing numerous successful body hair transplants, our hair transplant physicians in Turkey are looking forward to hearing from you. If you would like to schedule such a procedure with our clinic and to find out the body hair transplant cost in Turkey, please contact us. Our specialists can also help you if you are interested in scalp micropigmentation or in FUE scar repair.