davidn

Very fair advice.

dont do it now mate. I have done it and regret it massively.

I dont think its that easy. FUT+FUE gives you way more grafts. With FUE, you get on average 6-7k. Combined with FUT, this becomes approximately 9k. Fue leaves scars as well, so the "I can just shave" argument does not really hold as well, you will see scars and the transplanted hair does not have enough density for a natural looking buzzcut. BUT I have spoken to various SMP artists who all attest that FUE scars are way easier to hide than FUT (in an emergency scenario). I do think you can hide a FUE procedure relatively well in most cases, FUT is harder (according to the SMP artists).

People are saying "Any ethical surgeon wouldnt do a hair transplant on someone under 25", but this does not hold entirely true in my opinion. I have seen Hasson and Wong, Eugenix, Bloxham, Hlc, Lorenzo, Mohebi, Rahal all do it before 25, which is a rather random cutoff to begin with. I guess most people agree that these are all decent surgeons. That being said, I would not really recommend it. The risk of doing it now is just much higher than doing it in 5-7 years, since it is very unclear how your donor behaves over time. Especially for FUE, it is really hard to make out what your "safe donor zone" truly is and if you might develop something like DUPA over time. I think you can camouflage the hair loss pretty good I am sure with Toppik/Dermmatch. With a family history of your dad being a Norwood 7, you will have to be on life-long medication probably anyway, not even only for your native hair, but also for the donor. Sure, you can get hair transplants repeatedly over the years and decades, and supplement this with body grafts as well, but with aggressive hair loss in your 20s, it is very much possible that your donor will also start thinning over time. So why not test medication for three years first before committing to this journey, make sure your hair loss is stable and you dont experience side effects. I think most people who get sides on Finasteride experience them rather fast. In your case, I just dont see much benefit from doing it now compared to in in 3-5 years, as I do not think your hair loss should impact your quality of life enormously at its current state. In my personal opinion, medication is even more important than age (and again - please nevertheless wait until mid/end 20s, believe me, it is in your own best interest). Sure, things can still progress on Finasteride, but studies show more than 90% are at least at baseline after 5 years, combine this with oral minoxidil and I think we are moving over 95%, while almost everyone who experiences mpb and does not take it is below baseline after 5 years. So no matter if you are a 22 year old Norwood 4 or a 32 year old Norwood 4, you will most likely lose your crown without Finasteride within the next 5/6 decades, so I think almost everyone should strongly consider medication. No matter if you do a hair transplant and then end up a NW6 by 30 or be a NW6 by 30 and then do a transplant, your loss will never magically stop and probably affect your donor in the future as well. In my view, fundamentally, hair transplants and medication basically just buy you time with hair. So one might argue, if I am destined to be a Norwood 6 at 30, why should you wait until 30 when you are a NW6 and then do the transplant in your hair line and midscalp instead getting on medication and doing a transplant on hairline and midscalp and become the destined Norwood 6 at 45? In my opinion, the real risk here is the donor. You just do not know which hair will really stay over the decades. Another advantage of waiting until your mid/end 20s is that your decision making is just more developed. Believe it or not, maybe by that time your priorities change and you actually think the shaved head is a decent option for you.

Not that it matters what I think as its about how he feels, but I genuinely think Zidane looks amazing bald. I think he looks much much better compared to before when he had a full head of hair so I agree with the doc. Also he has a giant crown and his hairline is intact. He has a very favorable balding pattern. I have read some high Norwoods literally want to create his pattern with a hair transplant and smp to frame the face. Besides that he is absolutely iconic and classy and I could not emotionally handle him getting botched.

Nooooooooooop please Zizou don't get botched

I would say a hair transplant isnt really worth the risk at this status. It looks really nice. I would use fibers.

Congrats for choosing an excellent surgeon. You should have thousands of FUs in Reserve.

Well even if we limit ourselves to 20 candidate surgeons and have to choose 5, there are over 15000 possibilities to choose these 5

Dude every one of your texts are so well thought out and balanced. Love it.

Amazing story, really touched me. Shows what a positive change hair transplants can bring to peoples lifes. Yes it is annoying. Many men lose a lot of confidence in their looks and feel anxious. Shaving it off can be relieving for many guys for sure. That is amazing. However it does not work for all and society to tell these men what and what not to do and tell them its something deeper and not the hair loss I find a bit encroaching. Why is it so hard to accept it is exactly that. A man who doesnt like a change to his looks which he has limited control over and making him feel older than he is making him depressed.

Donor hair are also affected by dht over time, Finasteride might or might not prevent that, but if you live long enough it might happen. I am all for future planning, but I think not doing a hair transplant because it won't look good in your 70s is neglecting all time from today until you are 70 as well. Moreover, given you're in your 30s, it is really hard to predict what happens with a) you (you might be dead) and b) hair loss treatmens within 30-40 years. We might see a paradigm change until then.

Why?

Is there an actual reason why it is lower in the first place? Is it because the grafts are harder to extract and thus more frequently damaged under a bad surgeon?

I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Statistically, yes it is far more common to be bald in your 40s/50s/60s than early 20s, this is just the reality and implicitly implied each time someone says "hair loss is progressive". I think it is a valid thing to say that many young men feel like being bald is a significant disadvantage for them in the romantic market or even in the job market if you consider things like the halo effect etc. Chances are being bald makes you less attractive. This doesnt mean that every bald man is unattractive obviously. But there are studies in which >20% of men admit feeling depressed by losing their hair. This is in self-reports which are usually skewed as men are embarassed by admitting depression over vanity. I am all for bald positivity and think for many men it is the most sustainable option, but I think we are not entirely honest with ourselves telling people that there is an easy solution which is shaving their head and embracing it, as we wouldn't need coping mechanisms and support communities if it wasn't a big deal for many men. The hair transplant market wouldn't be projected to grow so much in the next years if it was true. However, it is a valid thing to say for people in their 40s/50s/60s as well that they absolutely care how they look and want to look good and feel good about themselves even when older. This is what young men often neglect when they don't do smart planning with hair transplants. Of course you don't wanna look ridiculous at 50 when you have children and a wife and be constantly made fun of by colleagues and such having big ass scars all over your head.

These results are ridiculously good. It is a really game-changing hair transplant and high Norwoods will point at this when their doctors say a hair transplant is not feasible as they are too far gone.

Top Five HT Doctor Obviously I am biased towards the work I see more frequently and the content the clinics create. I didnt see many independent reviews from Zarev or Couto. Moreover, for example, bhr made a recent video about their donor Evaluation process. Other clinics may do that as well, I am just not so familiar with that. 1) Dr Bisanga. What convinces me is his data-driven evaluation of donor. Experience is nice, but I think it is really beneficial to supplement experience with data. 2) Hattingen. Not only are they amazing in the surgery, but Dr Muresanu is very ethical and does not follow industry trends. He is excellent with Fut and Fue so that is a bonus. 3) Dr Pinto. Everything I have seen from him so far looked like amazing work. 4) Dr Ferreira. Same as Dr Pinto. 5) Eugenix. What I like is that they are good at supplementing with body hair to save donor and give coverage to high Norwoods. Bottom Three HT Doctors To be honest I don't have much interest in the bottom, as their work will never play a role in my life. But 3 which 1) Hair of Istanbul 2) Asli Tarsan 3) Elithair?

Hair of Istanbul

Dr Ferreira (just very clean work imo), Dr Muresanu (very ethical and FUT/FUE specialist), Dr Shapiro (pioneer doing valuable research, his lifetime graft study is cited all the time in fut/fue debates)

I think the best option (I am not a doctor, just a layperson) is to go with a multi-facet approach in your case. Place beard into the donor to break the pattern, extract some grafts which can be reused and place it into the donor as well, search for some amazing laser studio, laser off the rest, search for excellent smp, do smp all over and then go buy your mum a house. But that is just my opinion. You found excellent repair docs already. I think Bisanga is one of the most ethical in the business. He will guide you right I hope.

thanks. yeah, I also have a lot of beard growth under my chin. Perhaps that helps too?

thanks man. But you think it would alright if it progresses, aka no too obvious weird pattern?

thanks for your estimate. I am not in a good situation then without finasteride..

honestly I would say 5V is a good estimate.

yes, but it is a typical comb-over tbh. he doesnt have much hair outside of the classical horseshoe.