Seriously considering a transplant, please check my pics

[Dr. Ricardo Mejia]

I would have to agree with many of the posts that overall you have good hair. Cases like yours have been presented at our international meetings of hair restoration. The question is would you transplant or not? There is no ideal consensus on what doctors would do. In general you have to have very good and long discussions with your doctor regarding your expectations risk of future loss and reasons for a hair transplant. You should get other opinions from other respectable doctors and not be persuaded into a transplant at first glance. Doctors also need to be aware of psycosocial issues with the patients and interventional counseling may be needed if things are not consistent. Nobody in this forum needs a hair transplant, irrespective of hair loss stage, yet they all have individual stories and reasons, goals, desires and objectives for having it done. It is purely a personal and cosmetic issue. Like others who have had procedures done, you have your personal rasons, image and reasons which are important to you and valid and should not be ignored or discounted. Our main objective is to do no harm, do our very best and provide the best results consistent with current medical standards keeping the hairline natural and aethetic today, tomorrow and in the future. Patients similar to you have gone through hair transplantation and have been very pleased. Others later on in life are pleased, but priorities changed and the maintenance of additional procedures to keep up with ongoing hair loss is too much for them and they wish they never got started. You need to examine your reasons carefully and anticipate all the risks of future loss and maintenance before proceeding with any surgery. Patients should also be committed to medical therapy as well.

Ricardo Mejia MD

Jupiter Dermatology and Hair Restoration

Ricardo Mejia MD

Jupiter Dermatology and Hair Restoration

[guyfromsydney]

your hair looks fine dude.

 

 

One thing im confused about, is that someone said that 1200 grafts would probably not make much of a difference to this dude?

 

I know almost none of you advocate him getting a ht, but if he did get one how many grafts do you think would be sufficient?

[gazzasgoin2]

Wise words Dr. Mejia. It is a comfort to know that there are many ethical surgeons around if you do your research.

[Trimox]

Topher, take a look at my weblog. I'm one year older then you but I had NO hairline and difuse in the mid/crown area. I take proscar and just underwent an HT. I'd agree with the others on this board and get on proscar immediatelty to stablize your loss.

 

I was at your stage when I was 20, and waited 7 years before undergoing an HT.

 

When you get to my stage its necessary

[Topher91]

Thanks to everyone thus far for your responses.

 

I have received one of my consultation results. Dr. Rahal recommended 2000 grafts to re-establish my hairline.

 

He did not recommend against a transplant. Any thoughts here?

[HTinthefuture]

dude,

honestly I would wait. from your pics, the majority of guys I know and seen your age (I work at a university) have more receeding that you. I dont consider what you have as hairloss, but more the gradual change and natural patterns hair takes as one grows older. You have more hair than I had or ever will have, and I didn't really think I was loosing hair until my late 20s.

if you are that concerned about it, get a professional opinion. at the very least, use nizoral once and awhile, eat your veggies and be patient and see where it goes (hairline).problem is, if you get one now and you loose more hair, you will need another one, and another, and another. Like another said, you have time, some people loose faster than others so keep an eye on it. remember you are your worst critic. I was obsessed with loosing my hair too when I saw the signs (which were more apparent than yours) and I had people including hairdressers say that I had tons of hair and nice hair at that.

anyway, good luck to you. and dont fret it too much, stressing about it unnecessarily could cause the very thing you are fearing.

[FacelessMan]

"Topher,"

 

I'd second the prevailing emotion...wait a while. For me, there was a fair amount of additional receding and thinning that happened between 26 and 37, when I finally had it done, and while everyone's head and heredity is obviously different, from your photos I'd say that whatever receding you've had isn't enough to justify surgery, and depleting your donor area.

 

In my case, waiting worked because the top had thinned enough...so it seemed...to allow the grafts to be spread out consistently, rather than, say, focused at the hairline or temples. Now, if I lose more, what was transplanted will still look natural...and I have more donor left to fill in, if I get the urge.

 

Just a thought! Or ten.

 

Benjamin

[thanatopsis_awry]

What you are describing is a somewhat similar scenario to myself ~2years ago. I don't actually beleive there is a clear-cut answer for you; personally, if I was in your "exact" situation I would wait, as I wouldn't be *that* bothered by the hair loss and would find ways around it, and would wait at least a year+ on The Big Three and re-evaluate....but, I'm not you -- we all experience things differently and have a varying tolerance....and a tolerance for risk.

 

Like most decisions, there will be +s and -s, both in the immediate future and the long-term future....you've begun educating yourself well, and have a solid idea now about why you might wanna hold off....for how long is really up to your m.o. on risk and how your hair loss progresses, which is out of your control.

 

Think long n' hard on how badly your hair loss is affecting you; theoretically weigh what you will gain from a HT now against the road it will most likely lead you on and what that means to you. It's not a simple decision, and, imo, it really boils down to a personal decision -- but, whatever you choose, make sure you have educated yourself well and have thought rationally before you decide which road you want to travel!

[hairbank]

Originally posted by Topher91:

Thanks to everyone thus far for your responses.

 

I have received one of my consultation results. Dr. Rahal recommended 2000 grafts to re-establish my hairline.

 

He did not recommend against a transplant. Any thoughts here?

 

At 22 years old I would not even think of a hair transplant with the limited loss you've had so far. I totally understand why it frustrates you, at the same time I can't recommend you get a HT.

 

Say you get 2000 grafts from Dr. Rahal, packed in the hairline/temple area, not even much in the frontal 1/3. What happens if you EVER hit NW 6'ville or more? You'll end up with a dense hairline then be scrambling to even it out the rest of the way.

 

The main point here is that hairloss is an unknown as to how fast and how far it will go for each person..............there is no way to predict it. Why not give meds a try and see if your loss stabilizes over time?

 

There are many who are in their early twenties who have gotten HT's and packed mega-grafts into their hairline whom I believe will regret the decision in 5-10 years time, or whenever the loss speeds up and they don;t have the donor hair to catch up to it.

 

For those of you younger guys that may think it won't matter when you're 30, 40 or more years old..............wrong, you won't like being bald any more then than you do now.

 

Topher.............I'm not trying to come down on you at all, and, if you choose to get a HT I hope it's fantastic. ! I just think there are many younger guys getting HT's with no thought of what the future will bring them in terms of hairloss.

 

Best of luck to you,

[HTinthefuture]

that is exactly the problem, if Rahal (and I am not dissing him here because he would be my first choice for HT) uses 2000 grafts to fill that in....if your hairloss becomes worse, you could be in a position where you have an unusual amount of hair only at the temples because you ran out of donor hair for the rest of the head.

personally, I would wait....work on improving your self esteem through other means until you know the extent of the hairloss you will endure.

To be honest, I am not one to judge, but if dissappoints me that a doc would jump at this. There are good docs out there, and your money is well spent, but whehter or not this is necessary is borderline IMO.