How young is too young?

[Guest]

I'm going to be turning 25 in a few months and have extreme thinning all over my head combined with receding in the front. I was wondering if I could get some opinions from doctors as to what age they think is appropriate. I've heard 30 is about the right time to start but I don't understand why age would be a more important factor than the stage of your hair loss. I've been using proscar for awhile to help slow the process but I'm worried by the time I'm thirty I'll have no hair left. My donor hair is slightly less than average in density and I'm beginning to feel a bit hopeless. Thanks for any help in advance.

[Guest]

I'm going to be turning 25 in a few months and have extreme thinning all over my head combined with receding in the front. I was wondering if I could get some opinions from doctors as to what age they think is appropriate. I've heard 30 is about the right time to start but I don't understand why age would be a more important factor than the stage of your hair loss. I've been using proscar for awhile to help slow the process but I'm worried by the time I'm thirty I'll have no hair left. My donor hair is slightly less than average in density and I'm beginning to feel a bit hopeless. Thanks for any help in advance.

[arfy]

If I were you I'd be trying to hang on to all of my natural hair, by using Finasteride, Minoxidil, Lysine, and Nizoral shampoo. Even if you go the surgical route, you need to maintain as much of your natural hair as possible. There is not enough donor hair for most guys to get a great result if they are completely bald (you'd probably have to settle for a bald crown). Even if you had the donor hair, it would cost a fortune to transplant that many grafts, so save all of your hair, first and foremost.

 

Also, in my opinion you should halt the progression of your hairloss before going the surgical route. Hair transplant as an insurance against "future baldness" is a bad idea, because of shock fallout and other reasons.

 

Because you're relatively young, you should be able to halt (or even reverse) your thinning. In a few months Dutasteride should be available, if Finasteride hasn't been working for you. That might do the trick for you.

 

By the time you're 30, there may be a whole bunch of new drugs and technologies available. If I were you, I'd try to work with what you've got, and hold off for a while.

 

Just my 3 cents...

[Guest]

j25,

I would follow Arfy's advice. Try and hold to

as much of hair as possible. Your transplant

will look much better.

I would wait on the HT. There are plenty

of meds. to try first.

I have been able to stabalize my hairloss.

 

However, I did have a transplant in 1996

when I was 25.I didn't have access to all

this info. I should've been turned away,

but some drs. have no ethics. I experienced

shockloss, and the hair has not grown

back. So, I need one more session in the front,

and then I can get on with my life.(hopefully)

 

If I could do it over, I personally would

not go the ht route again.

There a few Drs.producing excellent

work today.I quess I have bad timing,

or bad luck.

 

Be Safe,

John

[Guest]

I don't believe that there is a hard and fast rule for the age at which to begin hair transplants. A young man who is losing a lot of hair in the front may have serious and permanment ego related changes as he appears much older than he really is. A careful and complete assessment may indicate that early intervention is warranted, as long as he is on Propecia, Rogaine perhaps, understands that they would likely need additional work in the future, and are reasonable in their expectations. I would be very unlikely to do anything other than frontal work to frame his face. I would not do any crown work. I would want him to see a number of our patients and the results that they have received and make sure he understands the limitations of the procedure, and would also like to talk with his parents if he still lived at home or if they were involved in the decision making process. Almost always one would have enough grafts available to do a good frontal hair replacement.

[Pat - Community Publisher]

Thanks for very good answers to a very good question.

 

Given that you are 25, I agree with Arfy that your first priority should be to halt or at least slow your hair loss, whether or not you do hair transplants.

 

The medical options Arfy specified are probally your best bet at this time. I certainly wish they had been available when I was going bald at age 25. They will also strengthen your thinning hair so that if you do surgery it will lessen any potential "shock fallout".

 

However, as effective as these drugs can be, especially in those just beginning to thin, they typically do not regrow hair in the hairline.

 

So unless your hairline is clearly gone you may want to wait and see what the drugs will do for you. If you find that in time your hairline is receded beyond what you can live with then a hair transplant by a surgeon of the caliber of Dr. McClellan would be a good, if not you only realistic option, for re-establishing a natural hairline.

 

Pat - Publisher

 

Thanks for reading this post. But it's your posts that make this discussion group real and vital. Please jump into the discussion. Just pick a topic and click the reply button.

[Questioner]

j25,

 

I think the consensus is that the transplant route should be a last resort when and if the time is right. Remember, you may have to live with hair loss for now while you try these medications, but you might not be forced to appear to have hair loss. Some of the concealer products (Toppik if you still have a bit of hair,

Prothik if you don't) can really mask the appearance of various stages of MPB. Sure, it requires some daily work, but a prematurely planned or bad HT involves daily pain and regret. And remember, women put on makeup everyday. Just because it's not real, should they be criticized? Of course not. Whatever makes you feel better about yourself when you step out the door, you should do it.

 

Good luck.

 

-?er

[Guest]

My adivce for what is is worth is don't under any circumstances have a transplant. At the very least wait until you are older. If you are balding so young you'll be stuck in an impossible cycle of having regular transplants to replace the hair that falls out. You'll likely end up broke and with you head in a mess. And by then the transplants will look alot worse than being bald. I suggest you shave your head, look cool and accept your genes. All I can say is that being bald gets much easier to handle as you get older. Look at Andre Aggassi or Bruce Willis, there are worse ways to look - a silly transplant is one. Good luck.

Alan

[Rafael Manelli]

On 11/20/2001 at 6:26 AM, arfy said:

By the time you're 30, there may be a whole bunch of new drugs and technologies available. 

Spoiler from the future: there were not...

[TheGreatPretender]

8 minutes ago, Rafael Manelli said:

Spoiler from the future: there were not...

Hell of a dig man, didnt know this forum was that old.

[GoliGoliGoli]

35 minutes ago, Rafael Manelli said:

Spoiler from the future: there were not...

Eh, FUE is pretty game changing. 

[GoliGoliGoli]

But in fairness it would've needed to be a real thing by 2006 in order to meet that claim, which it really wasn't. I don't think it became a major option until mid 2010's

[Rafael Manelli]

True, Fue and therefore bht have allowed thousands of additional, previously inaccessible grafts to be used in addition to fut. or as an alternative 

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

guest,

while there are exceptions to every rule, I’d say a good frame of reference is probably 25 years of age. Like I said, there are exceptions and there are men who have been candidates for hair transplant surgery under the age of 25. But generally speaking, young men aren’t good candidates for many reasons. For starters, they’ve only just started their hair loss journey and It’s impossible to predict with any degree of certainty just how far it will go. Family history and current patterns can be an indicator but not a guarantee. Also, young people tend to have unrealistic expectations of what can be accomplished.

As an example, when a young man just starts losing his hair he initially panics and automatically thinks that he should be a candidate for a hair transplant because they automatically think that the procedure is a cure for hair loss. They think that they can take from an unlimited donor hair supply and make it just as thick as it was and they can continue to get procedures just about every time they lose a hair. Unfortunately we all know that’s not how it works.

Donor hair is a precious commodity which is why we always say to take the time to research both procedure and the best surgeons that perform it because even though you can go back for a repair, you don’t have as much donor hair available the next time around and it will likely cost you a lot more to get it done wrong the first time.

So thats the general answer.  As to whether or not somebody under the age of 25 would be a good candidate  for hair transplant surgery, it really depends on how long they’ve been losing hair, whether or not they have been successfully using non-surgical treatments, what’s their expectations are, etc.

I hope this helps 

Rahal Hair Transplant 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Rahal Hair Transplant

[Vann]

On 11/20/2001 at 1:26 AM, arfy said:

By the time you're 30, there may be a whole bunch of new drugs and technologies available. If I were you, I'd try to work with what you've got, and hold off for a while.

oof

If this forum was on reddit you would get all kinds of answers based on the title.

[BaldReaper]

I laughed so hard