Is it Ethical to HT under 25

[webpro]

Hi Everyone,

 

I want to know if it is ethical to do a HT under 25 yrs old.

 

I am 23yrs old, and i am at class 5/5A, more bald on the crown area, but receding hair line in the frontal.

 

Do i need a HT ! what do you think?

[webpro]

Hi Everyone,

 

I want to know if it is ethical to do a HT under 25 yrs old.

 

I am 23yrs old, and i am at class 5/5A, more bald on the crown area, but receding hair line in the frontal.

 

Do i need a HT ! what do you think?

[vocor1]

Yeah it's ethical.

If you want it, go for it.

Doctors will be cautious, and they should be, to not go too low with your hairline because possibly more hairloss is to follow. No one knows for sure. Get on Propecia for the bald spot.

I was 22 when my hairline very rapidly receded. Man that sucked/sucks. Get informed, and good luck with your decision.

[Guest]

My opinion is, a doctor should not perform hair transplant surgery on anyone under 30 or until hairloss has stabilized. If you start transplanting at a young age and you keep losing hair, you will require more surgeries to keep up with your hairloss. The more surgeries the more you risk severe donor scaring unless you get an FUE surgery. The average gue doesn't know what an FUE is and will probably get strip surgery. It's a no win situation.

[TopJimmy]

At being 42 years young, my hairloss has never stablized and progressivly, slowly thinned since I was 25.

 

I think predisposition of hairloss is a different rate for each person and also is affected by a persons state of health. I have delayed my hairloss by being in a high state of health I believe.

 

My father has a full head of hair, my mother's father was completely bald. All of my mother's brothers have lost there hair, and all of my mother's sisters that have had 2 sons, 1 is bald,the other with a great head of locks of hair. My brother has a complete head of hair and I look exactly like my father, but have thinned all the way to the crown. I have my original hairline with no hairloss on the temples what so ever.

 

So I have been chasing hairloss with HT's since 1988. Have been using cleasing shampoo's systems since 1990 consitently. Recently started on Finasteride which I should of started years ago.

 

Bottom Line again is this, Where will the Hairline start to blend in with the temporal area ?? To far foward and it will look wrong and you can end up with doing procedures until Donor hair is exhausted ?

 

For me, with no hairloss on the temple area, and original hairline, I have a teenager look (as my dad still does), and having HT's AS FAR FORWARD AS MINE MAKES THE HAIRLINE LOOK CORRECT WITH THE TEMPLE AREA, BUT DO I HAVE ENOUGH DONOR HAIR SINCE I HAVE SLOWLY LOST HAIR OVER 20 YEARS ? Having black hair, my FU's per centimeter is high in donor area, but having 6 procedures and some with old technology has wasted precious donor hair.

 

Is age a determining factor in when to get HT's, or is it the degree of hairloss on a norwood scale ?

 

I believe age is a factor in stablization of hairloss, but predisposition of genetics, great health, can delay hairloss over time, is a factor also.

 

Bottom Line, The longer you wait, the better you will know your Hairloss Pattern, and the better the lifetime out come of your HT's, with todays technology will be for you.

 

 

Thanks

[Male Top Model 2 NW]

Personally, I think answering your question that HT IS ETHICAL OVER 18 !!

 

I mean that if you are 18 years old and you have a 2 NW and above all:

 

YOU ARE VERY WELL INFORMED AND YOU KNOW MANY ABOUT HT ( like people in this and other forum )

 

it's ethical and NECESSARY.

 

why ?

 

it's easy. If you do not like the image you see at your mirror, you will be insecure, you can lose many time thinking, you can have depression, many psicologic disasters that can be solved with a HT.

 

Only you know how baldness affects and dislike you. It's likely that you must go again for another HT if you lose more hair, but it's likely that using propecia ( finasteride, so get PROSCAR, it's cheaper and take 1/4 of the pill ) and lotions like Spooky you can KEEP YOUR HAIR.

 

http://www.angelfire.com/dc2/spooky/

 

and what happens if you don't ? Well, HAIR and LOOK is very much important at 20' that when you are 45 y.o.

Well, having 45 is important,yep ! but let's think about the same person whith 20 y.o.

 

What happened when you were 10 years old ? You liked cartoons and toys. And what about now ? They are not so important, problems change with the age... if your problem is baldness NOW, get a HT... perhaps you not mind it in the future or you can keep your hair and have a HT in 10 years, so... why not to have it now ?

 

peace

model

[Dr. William Parsley]

Unethical may be too strong, but I think it would be very ill-advised to do a transplant on an 18 year old. The more I practice the older the age becomes before I would transplant them. I have worked on a few before age 25 if the hairloss is extremely mild and it has worked out so far. My hair loss was moderate (NW3V at age 25. I started transplants at 35. Now I am 59 and have been very happy. However, I have seen some patients who at 25 had less hair loss than me at that age but then went on to have a more extensive baldness.

My inclination now is to not do transplants on patients under 30 years of age unless they have limited baldness (mainly frontal) and wide rich donor areas - even then I would be very hesitant. As you can tell from these sites, there are many people who have been scarred both physically and emotionally by panicking while a young man and suffering great consequences later. Doctors should have enough sense not to operate on a person who is too young or too bald-but you can always find someone.

I can't emphasize enough to wait as long as possible to start and always get more than one opinion.

[Dr. Paul Rose]

I believe that it is ethical to perform a HT in a patient who is 25 years old as long as one takes into account several things and follows a conservative course.

 

It is important to get a sense of the "worst case scenario"; how extensive will the balding be?

 

Is there enough donor for the future?

 

Is the patient on Propecia/Rogaine and can you expect him to continue?

 

What are the patient's expectations?

 

Be very conservative. Keep the hairline high and don't overcommit too many grafts.

 

Educate , educate, educated the patient so that he know the risks. Explain the logic of transplanting the frontal area and not the crown.

[Monty]

A doctor should not perform hair transplant surgery on young men 30 and under. Some hair transplant doctors advertise that "you don't want to look bald like your fathers and grandfathers so keep up with your hair loss now"

 

You are never finshed with one or two procedures so if you "keep up" with your hair loss and keep having surgery you are in a negative position when your donor runs out. Also, If you keep having strip surgery, the risk of severe donor scaring increases. Not a very incouraging scenario.

[Male Top Model 2 NW]

every person is a different world. We're always speaking about " because in the future, it will happen... " and I wonder if a man who is bald in his twenties will mind and be worried to be bald 30 years later.

 

Who are us to say a WELL INFORMED and DOCUMENTED pacient that him not to have the surgery ??

 

Can we decide by others, other desesperated men, worried, with a depression and tell'em " hey guy, keep with your depression and problems and get a HT when you to be absoulutly bald at 50 y.o. " ??

 

" and what happens now ?? " he can ask...

 

Are we sure this pacient is going to be 50 some day ??

 

Well, I hate the baldness, but I prefer to be BALD at 50 y.o. in spite of be BALD at the twenties, don't you ? so... HT is ethical and NECESSARY ( I repeat: wether the pacient is very well informed and documented about the present and future ).

 

If a pacient KNOWS all the risks and what will happen in the future, the DECISION is ONLY taken by him. He is going to get bald. He is going to have a HT. He is going to live his future.

 

If you are 18, and you are very worried, you are bad at classroom or work due to your bald, you do not feel happy, you do not like to go with girls cause you are afraid not to look cute... why not to do it ? well, if you don't, you will feel bad NOW in the future.

 

If you get a HT you will feel GREAT NOW and if you are getting bald, BAD in the future, but having more HT, to be GREAT again.

 

This is the same if you are losing your teeths, and you begin when you are 18.

What would you do ? waiting for losing all your teeths and get another 32 new ones, or to replace every teeth you lose ?

 

I prefer to have my best look at 18, 22, 26 years old, when I have all my future ahead and I must take the most important decisions in my life, finding my future wive, buying my own flat, choosing my final work... and I want to be safe of myself in this stage of my life with the look I feel confortable.

 

Getting bald at 48 is terrible too, but life does not mean the same, it's important too, but

unfortunaly, we do not live forever, and what it's worse: we do not live forever young.

 

So, choose your best look when you are going to need it, and choose it wisely, ONLY YOU, ONLY YOU AND DON'T OTHERS , KNOW WHEN.

 

" Life only can be understood looking back, although only can be lived looking ahead. "

 

[This message was edited by Male Top Model 2 NW on December 20, 2002 at 11:02 AM.]

[vocor1]

I'm 28 and just had an HT. This site has educated me on the importance of planning for the future, and not sacrificing everything for today.

Part of me wishes that I did the HT at an earlier age, and part of me understands that it would have been more dangerous to do so.

My father and I have the exact same hairloss pattern. I feel that this is fortunate for me. Yes, I cannot predict 100% if we will have the same end result but I do think that I have a sort of crystal ball here. That helped me proceed with more confidence.

I look at his 70 year old hair line and mine pre-HT at 28. Same temporal recession and balding crown (but not bald). The only difference is that he has less hair density on the top of his head from the front to the crown (mid-anterior region).

The doctor fulfilled my wishes by filling in the temples to a nice, mildly-recessed pattern and then put hairs throughout my mid anterior region behind the frontal hair line stopping before the crown.

My father and I both lost our hair at the same age and have the same pattern. Forgive me for looking at his head now and saying, "When I'm 70, I'll have a bit more density on the top of my head with much milder temporal recession." I don't envision that as looking weird or out of place.

To me, this wasn't an ethical question. My hair looked terrible on my face. The doctor and I talked about what could be achieved and what could happen and I made an informed decision.

We have yet to see what the future will hold including the overall final success of this procedure (the waiting begins), but almost 1 week post op before any hairs have fallen out I look so much better and am so pleased. Like I have something else really great to look forward to this year -- something I'm getting a quick glimpse into right now. It is hard not to be excited.

That right there is worth a lot to me. I don't think I've done myself any future injustice. Only time will tell for sure. When my father lost his hair, there were no HTs or Finasteride or Minoxidil. Who knows what medical advances the future holds? What I do know is that NOW is now better than yesterday and tomorrow just doesn't look impeded or destroyed in the slightest.

Yes, I'm in my 20s and just had a long-researched HT. My opinion is slighted towards my case. Many great, compelling cases have been made pro and con for doing an HT in your 20s and I've read them.

So now I'm adding mine.

 

vocor1

[Guest]

Vocor- Very well put. Many younger guys, such as myself, are now having a much better understanding of the pros/cons and future implications of HT. Through research and making intelligent decisions, particularly of which doctor to choose, will allow an individual to have success in their hair loss dilemna.

The one most valuable thing I think I've taken most from my reading and research is PATIENCE. For someone losing hair at a young age this is a very difficult aspect of HT......however, it is one of the most important. Thanks for sharing. Patience is a virtue!!!

 

Horace

[Jay T]

After reading both sides of this argument, it is very easy to reach a conclusion for either case. My hair loss started when I was 19, I'm now 21 and have been on propecia since the hairloss started. It appears to have stabilized my hair loss. However, in taking into consideration that I hope to be alive for a great number of years ahead, I'm still in the wait-and-see category. If the propecia continues to maintain my hair, then I see no reason in not getting a HT at an earlier age. I may be one of the few exceptions since I have been on propecia since the beginning. I can also relate to the fact that being a college student who is already thinning is probably one of the worst things to happen to a guy when they're young. Hair loss is by far more acceptable in older men than in guys my age. After doing all of the research, I can see that a proper and artistically inclined surgeon will place the grafts properly so that if there is any future loss, it will look appropriate. Hair loss doesn't have to be a thing for the young anymore due to the fact that drugs like propecia and hopefully future dht inhibitors will contintue to do their job. Like Pat (publisher of this site) says that propecia/rogaine prior to and after a HT can be an offensive/defensive plan of attack for hairloss. If young guys take the responsibility early on to begin propecia to maintain what they've got then a HT will do wonders. At this age, self-confidence is necessary to establish oneself in the world and hair loss is in direct correlation in doing that. If young men lose more hair later on but had a HT to make them look and FEEL their young age, fine, they at least were able to experience their youth properly. And one must also take this into account:10 years ago very few people, if any, ever heard or used propecia for hair loss. Look at the research now. According to my dermetologist and every internet hair loss site, there is an extreme amount of work and research being conducted with DHT inhibitors. Who knows what could be out in another 5 or 10 years. If its dutasteride or something else, we will be able to contintue to inhibit DHT more effectively. Every individual case is always different, but by planning properly and CONSERVATIVELY, younger men who have been on propecia with or without rogaine from the onset of hair loss and who are in the hands of a fantastic surgeon, should be able to enjoy their hair for the younger years of their lives. peace

[NW]

Jay T

 

That is a very positive way to look at the future, definately wise to at least consider DHT fighting drugs BEFORE the loss progresses, I wish I could have when I was younger. I sense a strong level of patience and planning in your words. You have found a good web-site for research as well.

 

Good Luck !!

NW

[vocor1]

Jay T:

When I was 22, Propecia was just coming out and not much was known about it. I wasn't proactive enough, I guess, in getting educated and taking action because information was just harder to come by and my hairloss happened so very quickly. But it is never too late to make a step in a new direction.

You have a good attitude and you are getting educated, and that is conducive to success in my book.

Best of luck and I know what you are talking about and going through.

 

vocor1

[Guest]

DON'T DO IT. I had my first HT at 20, another at 22, a scalp reduction at 25, and another HT at 30. At which point I said enough. The problem is in accurately assessing how bald you will likely be in the long-term.

 

As for confidence, which is worse - losing one's hair or being plainly and permanently disfigured as a result of vanity, a lack of confidence, and aggressive salespeople?

Take a look at my pics - http://www.hair-restoration-info.com/groupee/forums?a=tpc&s=5696015661&f=3466060861&m=2096016502

 

When I started, I never dreamed I would lose so much hair - my Dad didn't (but my Mom's father did). Anyway, I'm 38 and looking to either patch it up best I can, or remove it entirely.

 

I also agree with many of the other people in the forum who say buzz it close, and you'll be fine. I actually prefer a crewcut, or keeping it pretty short, but am unable at present to do so b/c of the donor scars.

 

So again, please CAREFULLY consider what you do, you'll have to live with the results a LONG time.

[Guest]

Do it as long as your family history warrants it. If both your father and mother's father stopped around NW3, and didn't progress further you should be good to go.

 

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic''. Arthur C. Clarke

[arfy]

Your family history has nothing to do with anything when it comes to hair transplants. Baldness can skip generations. If you base your surgical decisions on what your relatives look like, you are gambling with your appearance and your entire future.

 

Don't gamble with your looks, it's not worth the risks.

[Jay T]

Thanks for everyone's imput here. As I stated earlier, I have no intention of getting a HT anytime soon. Propecia seems to be keeping all of my existing hair very nicely. It is thin on top, but my hair is very dark brown and very thick and wavy, so that is a major benefactor in hiding it. I also just started using toppik which is a great product. As for getting scalp reductions or seeing a quack surgeon, both of which are absolutely insane. I would never even consider it. With today's technology and surgical skills and future products, I find myself very lucky to be the age that I am. In my original post I said that even 10 years ago propecia was still unknown. Whether or not propecia is the "magic pill" it still means that there are futher advances in dht inhibitors.

Basically, I'm taking advantage of my age here. Have propecia hold the line and using a bit of toppik is the way to go for now. If in a few years a qualified surgeon listed on this site believes I am at an appropriate stage or I've maintained enough on propecia, then I'll get an appropriate and conservative HT. Thanks again for everyone's advice. Peace.