Daily Breeze, Torrance, Calif., Muhammed El-Hasan column: Now here's a hairy topic

Apr. 9--Will the ladies in the room please step outside?

Because every woman I mention this story to, including my wife, vomits in her mouth.

By contrast, every man who listens to me talk about it perks up with interest -- no doubt an evolutionary remnant of having once been a 13-year-old boy.

This is my first-ever column on body hair. Unfortunately, it may be my last, depending on how my female boss reacts to it and whether my wife ever talks to me again.

Sanusi Umar, a Redondo Beach dermatologist, developed a way to transplant hair follicles from, ahem, various parts of one's body to the scalp without creating scars.

There's only one hair-producing area where Umar does not seek follicles to transplant. (Use your imagination.)

Everywhere else is fair game, including the beard, chest, abdomen, back, legs, arms, armpits and pubic area.

(At this point in my column writing, the part of my brain that wants me to stay married and keep my job is begging me to stop. But my adolescent self is egging me on.)

During an interview at his clinic, Umar emphasized to me that his work is very serious because people's self-esteem and even career prospects can be wrapped up in their hair.

Umar, who also teaches once a month at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, said many patients come to him to avoid unsightly scarring on the back of the head that can result from some traditional procedures that relocate hair from the rear scalp

to the front.

A few patients suffer terrible scarring from treatments-gone-wild.

He drove the point home by showing me sobering before-and- after pictures and videos of his patients from his Web site www. dermhairclinic.com.

Another reason clients seek his services is because they lack enough hair in the back of their head to fill out the balding front.

But what about the different hair textures from the various parts of

one's body? They may not always match the texture of one's scalp hair. (Again, use your imagination.)

Umar explained that clients' scalp hair differs widely. And hair from some parts of the body can be used as secondary filler rather than the more visible strands moved to the scalp.

Umar developed his technique five years ago in part because he was dissatisfied with a conventional hair transplant he underwent.

But Umar is still bald today. Why?

Because he has no one else to perform his new procedure on him, he does not have much body hair of his own and he has grown comfortable with his appearance, Umar said.

"I reached a place emotionally where I don't worry about it," he told me.

How ironic.

muhammed.el-hasan@dailybreeze.com

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