Those who want to have a hair transplant due to insufficient donor area are inevitably looking for an answer to the question of whether hair transplantation can be done from someone else. With the advancement of the FUE method, it has become possible to transplant hair from beard area and body hair other than hair as the donor area. However, the need for grafts is quite high in those with large open areas such as Norwood 6-7. Therefore, body hair other than hair will not be enough to cover the bald area. In this case, the idea of getting a hair transplant from someone else comes to the fore. So is this possible? Now let’s answer this question in detail.
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Can a Hair Transplant Be Performed from Someone Else?
Today, organ transplantation has come a long way. Surgeries such as liver transplantation and kidney transplantation have almost become routine surgeries. If you recall, organ transplant surgeries such as face transplantation and arm and leg transplantation from someone else have started to be performed in recent years. Why not hair transplantation from someone else when such difficult surgeries can be performed? Unfortunately, these things are not that easy.
First of all, organ donation is done as the legal procedure. In other words, no one donates their hair for someone they don’t know, they sell it for money. You may ask what’s the big deal, after all, the buyer is willing and the seller is willing. Let’s say this is not very important. Let’s assume that the person donates their hair follicles to someone else. This is the real important issue.
Comparison of Organ Transplantation and Hair Transplantation from Someone Else
In surgeries such as kidney and liver transplantation, first of all, there is a vital situation in the person. For example, a person with kidney failure continues his life on dialysis. He is in line for a kidney transplant. He is registered in the database of the Ministry of Health. When the appropriate criteria are met and a suitable donor is found, the person is reached quickly. Action is taken for kidney or liver transplantation, etc. Here
- Blood group compatibility
- Tissue group compatibility
- HLA antigen compatibility
Many criteria such as must be met. First of all, the probability of full compliance of these criteria is very low in tens of thousands of people waiting for a transplant. HLA gene compatibility is especially important. In people with low HLA compatibility, compatibility problems generally occur after organ transplantation. The transplanted organ may be rejected by the tissue. In order to prevent organ rejection, the person must use chemotherapy and similar drugs, which we call immunosuppressive drugs, for life. As we have stated before, there is a vital situation here. These drugs have many side effects. In a person who has an organ transplant, the immune system is suppressed due to these drugs and can become almost defenseless against infections.
If you recall, a while ago, an arm and leg transplant was performed in our country. Unfortunately, the person who underwent the transplant died a few months later. This person did not die a few months later because of the organ transplant. His immune system was suppressed and he died due to a simple infection. Because there were almost no defense cells left in his body to fight against microbes.
Is It Possible to Transplant Hair from Another Person?
In hair transplantation, there is no vital situation. People generally want to have hair transplantation to feel happier. Therefore, hair transplantation from someone else is not classically possible. It is meaningless to put a person who does not have a vital risk at risk and it has not been implemented. Immunosuppressive drugs, which suppress the immune system, also show side effects such as hair loss.
Hair Transplant from Identical Twin Sibling
The most accurate way to transplant hair from another person is to transplant hair from an identical twin sibling. Because their genetic codes will be exactly the same, there will be no rejection. Of course, such a situation will be very rare. In practice, it will not have much application area.
In a study conducted in 2013, Dr. Hakan Doğanay transplanted half of the donor roots of the first of two identical twin siblings to the other sibling. You can see the details of this subject in the link.
Studies on Hair Transplantation from Someone Else
It is not right to be completely hopeless about hair transplantation from someone else. In previous years, studies on this subject have not yielded any results. However, today there are promising academic studies on this subject.
- In the early 2000s, 500 grafts were transplanted from person A to person B and 500 grafts from person B to person A using the FUE method. After 6 months, the amount of retained grafts in person A was 20 grafts, and the amount of retained grafts in person B was zero. After 1 year, all 20 retained grafts in person A were shed. Therefore, this study conducted in the early years of FUE resulted in failure.
- Studies on hair transplantation from mother to son are ongoing. No definitive successful results have yet been achieved.
- A successful study was conducted by Dr. Kwon Oh-sang at Seoul National University Hospital. According to this study, it is possible to transplant hair from someone else without suppressing the body’s immune system. It was thought that the cells that cause organ rejection in donor hair could be isolated and hair transplanted to someone else. The study was conducted on mice and hair growth was achieved in mice for more than 6 months.