I'm 28 and have been experiencing hair loss for about a decade but it's only been in the form of a receding hairline. I would say I'm around Norwood 3. I'll try to post some pictures soon. From my consultations with HT clinics the number of grafts would only be anywhere from 900 - 1200. I'm fairly certain I'm going to schedule a FUE transplant in the middle of 2011 at Shapiro Medical after consulting with them and a number of other clinics.
I'm trying to figure out a way to blend back into the workplace (corporate office setting) with the least amount of issues as discreetly as possible after the transplant. If I took off ten business days, which would give me about two weeks to recover, would this be sufficient to have any noticeable redness, swelling, cobblestoning (can that happen?) disappear for the most part? Also, from what I understand, the new implanted hair will grow for about six weeks and then fall out before resuming the growth cycle over the next year. So with that I would assume that after a FUE procedure even after the redness goes away the addition of new hair would certainly be noticeable immediately, perhaps a little bit less in my case given the number of grafts I need. All in all, I understand there's going to be some attention drawn to my hairline and I'm okay letting people know I went through with a HT but I'd rather not advertise it so to speak.
Also, I do wear my hair fairly short (1/2 inch on the buzzer on the sides and back and about an inch and a half on top) so I think getting a shorter haircut before the procedure would not be an issue.