HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

Hi everybody,
I do not suffer from hair loss but do have a bald spot that I would like to get filled in, and my hair is just generally thin around the crown and on the the back of my head.

But, because my hair is thin overall, I am a bit worried about getting a regular FIT transplant, and think a BHT would be better. However, because I am a girl (and am 18, by the way) I don't have hair on my chest, and the hair on my legs and arms is patchy (they hair is blonde, so in order to see it I colored the haired areas blue).

I was wondering if filling the bald spot, and just generally making the hair a little thicker would be feasible?

thanks!

how old are you? is there anyone in your family with the same problem?

I'm 18. I have this problem because of a disease I was born with (Ectodermal Dysplasia), but nobody else in my family has the same problem.

Dear Blitzkid,

Thank you for your pictures. You are so smart to color your skin so that your hairs will show up better by the contrast! Wish I had thought of that… I don't think that hair transplant surgery is your best option. Like you said, there is not much donor hair available from your scalp, and the body hair is very fine and light. The coverage that the body hair could provide would be minimal, and body hair transplants are not guaranteed to grow as well as scalp hair. I'm not sure that the coverage you could get through transplant would be worth the time, money, and effort.

However, there are some options for you to try instead of surgery to help the appearance of your hair. Because the oil glands in the scalp can be absent or weak in cases of ectodermal dysplasia, I would suggest regular scalp conditioning treatments. The cheapest way to do this is to heat up some olive oil in the microwave and apply it to your scalp with a cotton ball. Allow the oil to soak into your scalp for up to 30 minutes and then wash your hair as normal. It's a cost effective alternative and gentle to the scalp and hair.

What kind of shampoo do you use? Of course, I would recommend the mildest shampoo you can find, like baby shampoo. I also like HairCycle shampoo and conditioner because the ingredients are all natural, gentle, and soothing. The ingredients help to nourish the hair so that it can grow as healthy and thick as possible. The cell proliferants encourage the hair to grow faster and longer, and aloe vera helps to moisturize and improve the health of the scalp. If you would like to try it, let me know. I think we might have a sample. Otherwise, there is a website www.haircycle.com.

Other than making your hair and scalp as healthy as it can be, you could try some cosmetic products like toppik, dermatch, and couvre. Here is a description by Dr. Cole about these products: http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant/t ... .html#3235 . You can order them off the internet at:
http://www.toppik.com/
http://www.dermmatch.com/
http://www.couvre.com/
These help to make your hair look thicker overall, and in your case, I think it would be a better alternative to surgery. For the bald area, if you have some hair there, the fibers of toppik can help by adhering to the existing hairs. How long have you had the bald area? Does your doctor offer any advice to you? I will ask the docs here and see if they have any additional advice for you.

I hope this helps. Keep me updated.

Jessica

Hello young lady,

It is a difficult problem and I hope Dr. Cole sees this and can weigh in w/ his opinion.
Ectodermal dysplasia is tough because it can manifest in so many ways and to such varying degrees. There is no guarantee that transplanted hair would survive and if it did, for how long. Another issue is that your thinning is quite diffuse, and that means that many, many hairs would be required to make any meaningful difference. And with transplanting among all the existing hairs, the risk of shock loss is always there. Filling in the bald spots MIGHT be more feasible than a generalized "fill-in", if it's doable.
Have you asked your dermatologist about this? I assume you have one that follows your condition with you. If not, that might be a good first step.
Another thing I notice is that you are very fair and that your body hair is quite fine, at least as far as the pix show us. I assume you shave your legs, is this correct? Pictures are difficult to interpret sometimes. You may or may not have more body hair than you appear to.
Let us know and good luck to you.

Hey Jessica, (that's my name too!)

I actually have hypohydrotic ectodermal dysplasia, if that helps at all.

I am using a medicated shampoo right now called Loprox. My hair used to be quite flaky, so I went to my dermatologist and she prescribed it.

I will also look at that shampoo, it sounds amazing.

I have had the bald area for as long as I can remember. I also remember when I was younger, around 5 or 6, I needed to put some sort of ointment on my hair every couple of weeks and then let it soak in, because quite often my scalp would flake off and hair would be attached to it. I'm not sure if this is how the bald spot started, but I would not be surprised if it was.

and thank you very much for your help and asking the docs there for any help. The doctors here know nothing about ED, and in most cases I actually know more than them, so they are of little help.


FIT2Btied,

Yes, I figured that filling in the thinning hair in general would be close to impossible to do. If anything, then I would just be happy having the bald spot filled.

I actually have not asked my dermatologist about this. I will actually be moving far from home to go to college soon, so if I want to have someone follow my progress it would probably be better to contact someone closer to school.

I do shave my legs, but in that picture I had not shaved them in about 3 months. So, if they were going to be visible at all, they should be in that picture. Although I definitely hope that I have more hair than it seems!


I also know someone who would be willing to give me some of her scalp or body hair, but I know that research into this is very limited. I am not counting on this as a viable option for now, but if anybody knows anything about this type of transplants, it would be greatly appreciated.

thank you everybody for all of your responses!
Jes

As you noted, your hair on the scalp is quite thin in general. Still it might be feasible to take a few hairs from the most dense areas in a random, scattered fashion so that your scalp is not thinned out. This would be your best option as it is unlikely that your body hair will grow more than 2 inches when moved to the scalp and most of your scalp hair is much longer. If a certain amount of scalp hair is moved to this area, you might be able to augment the density in the bald spot with body hair in a second pass or second procedure.

I think one off the key things for us to discern is why you have the bald spot. A biopsy from this area would be helpful. The rationale for this is to insure that we are grafting into an area that will accept hair transplants. there are certain conditions that do not grow hair when grafts are moved into them such as alopecia areata. Of course, if the bald spot has been stable without change for many years, it is unlikely that any disease process is still active in this area so we could try a few grafts to insure we get growth as an alternative to a biopsy.

you might also want to have your generalized thinning worked up, as well to make sure you do not have some sort of treatable condition such as a thyroid malfunction or an excessive androgen production.

if you like, i can forward your photos to some of my colleagues to get their opinions on your skin and the state of your hair.

i would not think that body hair transplants would be an ideal solution for you as a stand alone procedure. of course, i fully recognize that you want to minimize the affect of taking scalp hair. FIT is perfectly suited for your particular situation. We would move a little at a time to make sure that we do not create an unacceptable thinning in a different area, which would create new concerns for you.