For a number of years now, beards have been en vogue. This has meant that beard hair transplant demand has risen over the years. It’s a very specific procedure of which some good and aesthetically pleasing results can be achieved.
The kind of beard hair transplant I like the most is beard-to-beard. In this case, the hair is harvested from the beard itself, guaranteeing that the implanted hair characteristics are the same as those in the recipient area. Of course this is only possible when there is enough supply of donor beard hair, so not all patients can benefit from this. Usually patients who already have some beard but have a few patches with no hair or areas that they would like to improve are the best candidates for beard to beard, as not as much hair is needed.
When the patient requests a full beard or a large area to be improved, then we must recur to the scalp for donor hair. In these cases, it’s important to evaluate and compare the characteristics of both beard and scalp hair, since beard has is usually much thicker than scalp hair. Transplanting hair that’s too thin into the face may cause issues as the difference in thickness would be noticeable and the naturalness of the hair transplant would be compromised.
The best area to extract beard hairs from is right below and up to the edge of the mandible, as this zone usually has a higher hair density and is less visible. I can say though that healing in this area is remarkable and extractions are imperceptible after recovery, which is very good since it’s still a very exposed area and of course we wouldn’t want to make something look significantly worse whilst trying to fix/improve something else. I can actually go as far as to say that even from the cheek, hairs can be extracted as it heals excellently, although I do prefer to avoid that zone.
Extraction isn’t especially difficult and it’s also not very painful for patients (anesthesia is rather simple and painless). I tend to make shallower cuts and usually will resort to the manual punch for beard extractions as it’s more easy to handle when you’re extracting in a more odd angle. You do need to be a bit more gentle when excising the grafts as they are a bit more tightly anchored and will break if you aren’t perfect with your cuts.
Some beards are very rich and have a total donor capacity of more than 1500 grafts, but we do have to take into account that beard follicular units are usually limited to single hairs (the most common ones) and doubles.
Implanting does require good skill and understanding of the anatomical configuration of natural beards. Density and correct angulation are crucial for naturalness. It’s easy to get carried away and just go for the thickest, bushiest and “lumberjack-est” beard ever, but we must remember that patients must still look natural at all beard lengths. Going for a very thick beard is not a problem though, but I do prefer a more incremental approach.
Another type of beard transplant that can be extremely beneficial for a patient, is transplanting into the moustache to cover a cleft lip or orofacial cleft. In these cases, hair does not grow in the scar tissue and patients are unable to grow a pleasing moustache that completely covers their scar. By transplanting beard hair into the scar, we allow patients to completely hide their scar and have a full moustache.
There is a bit of post-op care that patients must be aware of after the procedure, but in a few days patients will be well on their way to a new look. ;) They can be immensely rewarding, for both patient and doctor.