Beard Hair Transplant

Hair loss is more commonly seen on the scalp. It becomes more evident when it occurs on the face as it becomes more visible. This may be patchy hair loss to near total hair loss Facial hairs i.e. beard and moustache are often seen as mark of manliness so the facial hair loss may result in low self esteem.

We all know that beard and moustache generally starts growing after puberty and this growth continues till late thirties. Some persons may register no growth of beard and moustache hair while some may have thin hair growth. This can be due to genetics of the patient or may be due to some hormonal problem. There may be number of causes but more common ones are: Trauma, Surgical scars, Radiation, Chemotherapy, Trichotillomania. It can also occur in persons who tie there beard tightly, thereby causing traction alopecia.

One should also keep in mind that density of hair is different in different areas of the face and it is maximum in the central part of the chin. The density and the growth of beard hair also depend on the ethnicity of the person. There may be less dense growth in oriental group and growth may be denser in Caucasians.

Uses of Beard Hair Transplants
These procedures ranges from filling the small gaps or thinning areas to full moustache or beard hair transplant and also used to conceal the facial scars.

• Who are the candidates for beard hair transplant?
All patients coming in the clinic may not be an ideal candidate for the surgery. There are certain criteria which should be fulfilled to be an ideal candidate.
• The person who don’t have beard or have very minimal beard are candidates for this surgery.
• One who have patchy hair loss on face and need to get the coverage of the area.
• Beard loss due to scar from injury or surgery. The surgery can be done in these patients and scar can be concealed.
• Patient should be having adequate donor on back and sides of the scalp.
• Most importantly, the patient should be in good medical health and is having realistic expectation.

Surgical considerations for beard hair transplant
The candidates for beard hair transplant should stop using Finasteride around 1 to 2 days before surgery and if it has to be restarted then it should be done approx. after 6 months of the surgery. Theoretically androgens promote the growth of beard hair follicles so if we give anti-androgen treatment like Finasteride; it may hamper the growth of hair in beard area.

One of the point which is to be taken care of is that the local anesthesia infiltration is more painful as compared to scalp. One may use a longer acting local anesthesia so that repeated top up doses can be avoided.

The hairs which are used for transplanting on the face are taken from beard area if there is only a small patch of hair loss area or the back of the scalp either by FUE or by FUT method in case of larger hair loss area.

These are highly refined procedures and one needs to understand the orientation of hairs in different parts of the face and hence decide the direction and angulations of micro-incisions at the recipient sites. The recipient sites are created in such a way that the upper outline is made like hair line of scalp, in an irregular pattern. The looseness of facial skin may pose some problem in creating the recipient slits so one may apply counter traction to ease it out but this may distort the angle. The tumescent solution of local anesthesia may be infiltrated to increase the turgor pressure of the skin but this may lead to increased bruising of the skin.

While doing beard hair transplant, the superior margin should be treated in the same manner as hairline of the scalp is done. In this also one should maintain the natural subtle irregularities in the superior margin of the beard. It should be kept in mind that the transplanted grafts in the beard area does not always follow the desired angulation and direction as the follicles may sometime shift slightly during the healing process leading to the deviation from desired angulation.

The transplanted beard hair grow back from four months onwards after initial shedding.

Consult to the experts at Hair & Senses if you have any queries regarding hair transplant. Fix up a free consultation session for more clarity on procedure.