Shadow of the EMpire State

Doctor, I'm more than willing to yield to your comments about the progress of hairloss. After all, you're the doctor, not me. But I couldn't help but shudder when I read this: With all respect, unless you have some revolutionary technique that remains unknown to the rest of the world, I would tend to regard that statement as absurd. I'm not a doctor, but I have seen hundreds (thousands?) of transplants over the last seven years, and that time has taught me a thing or two about the limitations of hair-transplant surgery. Simply put, in my experience, Nowrood 7s with thin donors do not have "pleasing outcomes" unless the expectations are nil. In fact, I have never seen a NW 5 (let alone a NW 7!) have a cosmetically acceptable transplant with "a thin donor." Even with a thick donor, the incidence of quality NW6 restorations is few and far between. Who's out there? Bobman and Futz. After that, there really isn't anyone.

I don't know the specifics of this case, but in my experience, the try-not-to-panic advice is often just a meaningless pat on the shoulder. No one--especially the doctor who performed the surgery--wants to tell you that the procedure was a bust. Now I understand the desire to be nice, but in the six years that I've been on hair boards, the overwhelming majority of "top" results have been fast-growers. In short, nearly all the best results have looked impressive at six months. In general, I think it's fair to say that you know you're onto something when you post six-month pictures and get a comment like, "Wow! And it's only six months!" Unfortunately, some of the doctors try to shine you on with dubious claims that the transplant will continue to grow as long as 18 months after the procedure. Nonsense. I don't disagree that a transplant may theicken somewhat in the 10-18 month range, but I'm convinced that whatever thickening takes place will not be very significant.

Well, there's a big difference between 23 and 30. The stretch from 23 to 30 is a minefield, and once you've reached the other side, you're in a much better position. Now that's not to say that reaching 30 means you're safe; it doesn't. But getting through that period in decent shape "probably" means that you're not headed for excessive loss.

You answered your own question: no doctor is Nostradamus. The answer, then, is that there are no answers. And is this really any surprise? All we do in life is play percentages. And the percentages tell us that the younger you start balding, the worse it'll be. Are there some cases where a guy gets to 35 or 40 with Brad Pitt's hair and then winds up with a pattern more advanced than a guy who was NW 3 at 18? Sure. Is it common? Not at all. Is it worth worrying about? Not in my opinion. Look at RTC. He had a full head of hair at 35, but he went bald. You can never tell. But the truth is that guys like RTC are a rarity here. In the vast majority of cases, the guys who go very bald are very bald in their 20s.

I have to weigh in again because I don't feel that this kid has been sufficiently warned. I started going bald at 24. Me! I was Mr. "Boy you have a lot of hair!" from the time I was a kid until 2001. So I couldn't believe it when it started going. For a long time, I was in denial about it. In all seriousness, I couldn't even understand why my hair never looked as good as other people's. In fact, I had no conscious idea that I was actually balding even though the evidence was as plain as the nose on my face. When I saw my temples receding, I thought that I had accidentally cut my hair too short! So that's the background. Bottom line was that I couldn't face it. I signed up at HLH right away and thought that I'd fix the whole thing in one fell swoop. I'd get a hair transplant, and I'd be back to my old self. Some days, I spent 6 hours a day surfing for HT info. When I was 24, the 20s were all that mattered. The 20s were for going out, for getting girls, and for being "the man." Even now, I recall an HLH poster named NYCman who was 34 at the time I joined. I thought, "Boy, why does he want a hair transplant? He's 34!" What I didn't realize until I turned 30 (and now 31) is that it takes a LONG time before you feel older. I feel the same way at 31 as I did when I was 20. I still want to go out; I still want girls; and I still want to be the man. And thus, I've learned that the body ages much, much faster than the mind. So the notion that you will not care about your hair when you're in your 30s is total horseshit. The truth is that you will care about your hair as much in the future as you do now. Even if you marry Megan Fox next week, you will STILL care about your hair. Even if you're worth $100 million AND still married to Megan Fox at age 30 or 35 or 40, you will STILL care about how your hair looks. Look at Donald Trump. Look at Travolta. Both of them are over 50. What do they have to prove? Nothing. Or so you'd think. They both have more money than they could ever spend; they both can get girls that you and I can't even sniff; and they both live in the lap of luxury. What else do they have in common? They both do everything they can not to appear bald. Point? You're not going to be magically over this at 30 or 35 or 40. If it bothers you now, chances are that it'll bother you for a long, long time. That's why it's critical to make the right choices about tomorrow. Throwing tomorrow away is foolish because, before long, tomorrow will be today. And then you might have to deal with a shitstorm of horrible consequences from going the HT route now. Remember: bald might be ugly, but it's not weird. Bad HTs are WEIRD, and the overwhelming majority of them are bad. Even among the top docs, many of them are noticeable----ESPECIALLY to women, who, if you don't know, tend to notice EVERYTHING. My advice is to do what I have done and bite the bullet. Wear a hat if you have to, but wait. Wait until your pattern reveals itself. I mean, at age 20, you haven't even begun to enter the worst stage of balding, which is typically between 24 and 30. Please, please wait. Wait to see whether you can maintain the hair you have, and wait to avail yourself of the treatments of tomorrow. For God's sake, you could wait 10 years and be a bigger girl magnet at 30 than you could EVER be in your 20s. The truth is that men become MORE attractive to women as times goes by, not less. They don't view us the way we view them. They don't place a premium on youth; in fact, the better ones are scared of it. At 31, I now get girls that I never could have gotten at 22. I've dated girls who made fun of me in high school, and when it ends, I'm the one ending it. Will I get a hair transplant? Maybe. Maybe not. But at least I have a firm idea of what I'm getting into because I've waited.

For the time being, I think you need to (a) make peace with the hair you have or (b) shave it. Simply put, given your age, family history, and degree of loss, you're probably headed toward an advanced NW class. In my opinion, transplants on those patients do not typically yield cosmetically acceptable results. This is especially true if you're white and have dark hair, as you do. Of course, there is a silver lining to being young: you have time. As a result, you will become the beneficiary of the superior treatments of tomorrow. And now that we will have federally sponsored research of embryonic stem cells, your situation is actually fairly optimistic. If science can succeed in its quest to multiply or clone existing hair, you will be set. So in sum, the bad news is that you're quickly going bald, that no drug is going to stop it cold, and that you're going to be bald for a while. The good news is that you may very well have a full head of hair by the time you're 35, which is a lot closer than you think.