Totally new to this, have some questions about HT (Including Pictures)

[DCHR]

So, I am 25. I started getting a receding hairline in High School (probably 10 or 8 years ago). Up until about 6 months ago I just kind of lived with it without giving it a second though... Just accepted it as part of life.. up until about 6 months ago when I saw some TV commercials for Hair Club For Men and realized that I could probably do a HT and deal with this problem.

 

So now that I know there is something that can be done about it, I am really self conscious about my hair, and think about it EVERY DAY for the last 6 months. It really bugs me, every time my friends snap a picture or do video i always worry that my baldness will show up. Needless to say I am pretty much 100% set on doing this.

 

I found these forums a few months back by accident and have been reading and learning about HTs. I learned that I should stay the heck away from HairClub for men and go to a recommended surgeon instead.

 

I really dont want to take any drugs (propecia etc)... i want to do a HT and get it over with... i realize a lot of people are saying that you pretty much never stop at 1 procedure... you need to do more than 1... well I am hoping that 1 will get me to the point where I wont be embarrassed anymore.. and then if I want more just because of greed for more hair then whatever, thats fine I just dont want it to be like a half done job.

 

I really dont know much about HT's and all the terms thrown around on forums dont make much sense to me. FUE etc...

 

I work in an environment where I can wear a baseball cap or a hoodie or anything like that.. so I hope to take a week off when I finally do this and then go back to work after a week.

 

I am attaching my pictures.. I just got a haircut today so its cut pretty short. Some pictures are taken with flash and some are without flash (13 pictures total).

 

Id love to hear any kind of feedback.. I live in LA area... any procedure type suggestions? How many grafts will I need (approx) ? I would like to fill in the receding hairline and do top of my head (I marked on 2 pictures in blue)... am I a good donor? (I have no idea what makes a good donor)... Anything else I should know? Any recommended surgeons?

 

Thanks ahead of time.

Head.zip

Edited May 19, 2010 by DCHR

[Julius]

Many surgeons will not want to touch you if you are unwilling to get on propecia and plan for another procedure, especially as you are so young. I checked out your photos and personally think at this time a ht is not for you. However I think you should consult all the top clinics to get a professional opinion.

[DCHR]

Many surgeons will not want to touch you if you are unwilling to get on propecia and plan for another procedure, especially as you are so young. I checked out your photos and personally think at this time a ht is not for you. However I think you should consult all the top clinics to get a professional opinion.

 

I would do Propecia, but like for a limited time.. lets say.. for a year until the transplanted hair feels like its at home.. i just dont want to take it forever you know.

 

Why do you feel like HT is not for me? As I mentioned previously i still need to learn a lot about HTs... so I am curious why you feel that way?

 

EDIT - on a side note... you said to get a professional opinion.. any specific suggestions for LA area?

Edited May 19, 2010 by DCHR

[mahhong]

Hi DCHR,

 

Unfortunately propecia is a long-term commitment. It works by reducing a certain hormone that attacks your hair follicles so that they continue to grow hair. If you take propecia for a while and then stop the level of that hormone (called DHT) will increase again and start to hurt your hair follicles, killing hairs again. In other words you have to keep taking propecia to keep your existing hair. If you stop taking it after a few months you hair will fall out again.

 

Basically a hair transplant can take some hairs from the back/sides of your head and put them on top of your head in the thinning areas. However, you only have a fixed number of hair follicles; your body can't "make" more. If you cut hair follicles from someone's donor region they do not grow back there again. Therefore, you will only be able to get a certain amount of hairs from the sides/back of your head and it's not going to be enough to make the top of your head completely full of hair again.

 

This is the major limit with HTs. They can give excellent results but they can't give you a full head of hair again. Therefore HT doctors are very keen for patients to keep any remaining hair they can. Propecia and/or minoxidil are the only two approved drugs that can do this, but both have to be taken continually to keep your existing hair.

 

Basically if you can keep your existing hair AND do a transplant (or several) you can probably get really good coverage over your thinning areas (particularly the hairline and top). If, however, you don't take hairloss drugs and get an HT, at your age chances are whilst your transplanted hair would remain your natural hair would carry on thinning and you can imagine how bad that ends up looking; having weird patches of transplanted hair with much thinner or bald areas around it.

 

Amazing things can be done with HT but, unfortunately, it is not a "fix" for hairloss. There are loads of factors to consider and the simple fact is HTs on their own would never give a bald person a full head of hair. That's why drugs are important because they can help you keep your natural hair for a long, long time and an HT may then be worthwhile because that combined with your natural, remaining hair would give you good coverage.

 

The reason you may not be a good HT candidate at 25 is because nobody can accurately predict how much hair you will lose. Because you only have a limited number of donor hair doctors have to make it last. If they pack it all on the top of your head now and you lose more hair you will end up with a moth bitten look to your head. If they only use a small amount of donor hair you may find you are not happy with the results and you end up in a difficult situation.

 

The best thing to do is get a doctor to explain how HTs and hairloss drugs work and help you come up with a plan. Propecia is very safe and in the majority of men has no side effects. I would say it's worth a try (but only a doctor can make that decision). If you use propecia, minoxidil and nizoral shampoo (research it on the forums) you could potentially keep all the hair you currently have and thicken up the thin hairs on your head, and even gain new hair. That would make your hair look much better and far thinner and then, maybe in a few years time, you could consider a HT to beef that up and to start down that road.

 

So see an HT doctor and they will explain everything to you; why you are losing your hair, the treatments out there, the best plan for you and what you can expect from it. They will also answer any further questions in good detail professionally. The main reason you are probably not a good HT candidate (although nobody here can tell you that for certain, only a doctor face-to-face) is because you are young and could lose a lot more hair in the next 10-20 years, because you are reluctant to take hairloss drugs and because you need to understand how HTs work and what you can honestly expect from the treatments out there.

 

The good news is there is a huge amount of help, advice and options out there and most men can get get a good head of hair back these days. The not so good news is that it's unfortunately not as simple as getting a HT and 12 months later having a completely full head of hair like you did when you were 12. There are lots of considerations and things you need to know and do and getting your hair back is a "journey" and not a formality.

 

I don't know of any LA based doctors as I am UK based. You can find a database of recommended surgeons on this website though, and also get help from other people here. I have heard that Hasson and Wong are opening an LA office though. They are one of the best in the business and you might want to look into that. There are lots of good HT doctors though so do some research.

 

Best of luck as you start getting your hair back!

[aw33]

If you had been taking Finasteride since age 18, for 7 years, you would have been a good candidate for an HT. Even without the drug, for a person with hair loss at a young age, you have not lost A LOT of hair, so I really believe the drug would have helped you maintain a lot of your lost hair and it would have made you ready for an HT at this stage.

 

Get on the drug and use it for at least 1 year and evaluate the results. Being young and without use of Finasteride is a bad combination for an HT and most ethical surgeons would tell you this and have you take the drug.

[DCHR]

Thank for the lengthy and thorough explanation, it really helped shed some light on my questions.

 

However I have a couple more questions:

 

1) From what I understand no drug out there (i.e. Propecia) will regrow new hair? So the only thing it will do is keep existing hair. In other words it wont make my hair look any better it will just prevent it from getting worse? Or am I not understanding that right?

 

2) Does propecia make current hair thicker?

 

3) When will Hasson and Wong open an LA office? Any estimates? 2011? 2015?

 

4) Is HT procedure something that keeps on getting better? Like is it likely that in 5 years time surgeons will be able to do more with less? or better results? When i was driving to work today for some reason I was thinking of an analogy with women's breast enhancement procedures. 20 years ago they would leave scars and not look as good... but nowerdays you cant even see/find a scar. (sorry if thats a dumb analogy).

 

Thanks again for all the answers

[DCHR]

Oh and another question.. if I get Propecia right now and try it out for a year...

 

1) Who should I go to? My Physician to get prescription?

 

2) What is the kind I should be looking for? There are different kinds right? Id like the kind that has the biggest chance to produce results.

[mahhong]

Hi DHCR,

 

To go through your questions:

 

1) From what I understand no drug out there (i.e. Propecia) will regrow new hair? So the only thing it will do is keep existing hair. In other words it wont make my hair look any better it will just prevent it from getting worse? Or am I not understanding that right?

 

- That's sort of true. No drug can make your hair follicles create new hair once they're "dead", but hairloss isn't a wax on/wax off problem. Basically as you get older the hair follicles susceptible to be damaged effectively "tighten up" and begin to stop producing hair. However, this isn't a one off thing, what happens is that a hair will fall out of a follicle but it will produce a new one that is finer and with less density than before. That's why hair begins to thin. If you look at your hair you'll probably see a lot of hairs that are thin and don't have much pigment to them - these are thinning hairs. Eventually they'll be gone completely and the follicle won't produce hair anymore (or it'll be so fine and wispy it won't look like healthy, normal hair). If you start taking propecia now, however, the follicles that are "dying" but not yet "dead" stand a good chance of becoming stronger and producing healthy hair again. As you can imagine if thousands of thinning hairs begin growing stronger and thicker again that's going to really improve your hair quality. So, in short, propecia doesn't really make new hair but it can hold on to what you got and improve the quality of hair drastically and that can really, really help your appearance.

 

2) Does propecia make current hair thicker?

 

As above!

 

3) When will Hasson and Wong open an LA office? Any estimates? 2011? 2015?

 

- You can search these boards and find out (jojotronic is the one who mentioned it, I believe). I don't know the details but I'm positive I read about it on here. My understanding was that it was imminent, however, so it could even be in the next few months.

 

4) Is HT procedure something that keeps on getting better? Like is it likely that in 5 years time surgeons will be able to do more with less? or better results? When i was driving to work today for some reason I was thinking of an analogy with women's breast enhancement procedures. 20 years ago they would leave scars and not look as good... but nowerdays you cant even see/find a scar. (sorry if thats a dumb analogy).

 

- The answer is very likely! In the last 15 years the procedure has improved dramatically and it's probably going to keep on improving. With all the new technologies and drugs also being tested the world of hair restoration is really looking rosy, so at your relatively young age that's something to be optimistic about! However there is a caveat here. There are lots of amazing potential treatments on the horizon (some maybe only months or years away, others a lot further) but the operative word is potential. Very often treatments don't work as well as hoped, or they're ridiculously expensive to research, or they just don't pan out as planned. So yes, in five years time I would imagine HTs and the hair restoration world in general will be even more refined and effective, but any good doctor will have to look at your case in the here and now. They won't do something in the belief/hope that in 5 years time new treatments will come on to the market. I guess what I'm trying to say is that whilst there is bound to be progress you can only really plan your HT and hair restoration with what's out there now, so you can't, for example, pack all your donor hair into your thinning areas in the hope that by the time you need a 2nd HT we'll be able to clone hair or get twice as much donor hair or something. In the medical world nothing exists until it is researched, tested and on the market!

 

1) Who should I go to? My Physician to get prescription?

 

Your physician or a hair restoration doctor will be able to prescribe it. If you can afford it my opinion would be to go to a HT doctor for a consultation. They will be able to provide you with a proper assessment and will generally give you a fuller idea of the options available to you. Your physician is just as good an option though. Don't be tempted to buy propecia underhandedly without a prescription! Propecia is very safe but it's worth having a doctor look you over to make an informed opinion about whether it's best for you to take it.

 

2) What is the kind I should be looking for? There are different kinds right? Id like the kind that has the biggest chance to produce results.

 

Propecia contains the ingredient finasteride, which is what makes it work. There aren't any different kinds of finasteride. There are lots of companies who make it and propecia is just a brand name of one type of finasteride. Many people buy what's called "generic finasteride" because its cheaper and does the job just as well. Some people also buy proscar, which contains a lot more finasteride per tablet than propecia (and people cut it up so they get the right dose of finasteride). Usually propecia is taken daily and contains 1mg of finasteride. Proscar contains 5mg per tablet so people cut it up into quarters, so that each quarter contains 1.2mg of finasteride (which is very safe and only 0.2mg different to the propecia dose).

 

That's another reason why its good to visit a doctor and a HT doctor at that. They will give you proper dosage instructions and will likely have advice on the cheapest and safest way for you to obtain your finasteride. This forum also has a lot of information about this subject. The short answer is, however, finasteride is finasteride and there aren't different types (only different brands). As long as you're taking genuine finasteride at the right dose you'll be fine!

[DCHR]

Thank you so much for a very detailed explanation for all of my questions.

 

I just called my Physician and confirmed that he can prescribe Propecia for me. I plan on asking him if he feels that I could get away with getting Proscar to save money. I am going to see him in 2 hours

 

Is there anything specific I should ask him? Or watch out for when it comes to getting on Finasteride? (I read about the side effects.. lets hope im not in the 5% or whatever it is that are effected)

[PanamaJimmy]

DCHR,

 

Lots of info for you. Good job by getting on this forum and asking questions!

 

As long as you are going to commit to a Hair Transplant, and you show the typical balding pattern, I feel it is worth the risk of any side effects to use finasteride.

 

I believe the generic finasteride is just as good as Propecia, and you can order it here for the best prices I could find:

 

http://www.canadadrugs.com

 

If you can wait until you are 30 or so, your chances of having long term success with a Hair Transplant will only increase, as the pattern will be more evident and a good doctor will be able to effectively estimate where the hairline should go.

 

Best of Luck!

 

Panama Jimmy

[DCHR]

DCHR,

 

Lots of info for you. Good job by getting on this forum and asking questions!

 

As long as you are going to commit to a Hair Transplant, and you show the typical balding pattern, I feel it is worth the risk of any side effects to use finasteride.

 

I believe the generic finasteride is just as good as Propecia, and you can order it here for the best prices I could find:

 

www.canadadrugs.com

 

If you can wait until you are 30 or so, your chances of having long term success with a Hair Transplant will only increase, as the pattern will be more evident and a good doctor will be able to effectively estimate where the hairline should go.

 

Best of Luck!

 

Panama Jimmy

 

Just got my prescription was $76 for 30 tablets of Propecia (tiny orange tablets with P on one side and Propecia on the other).

 

It seems like the generic version is about 2/5 of that price... but it says it comes from India/Turkey what are the chances of it being fake? or not as good?

[DCHR]

bump

 

I would like to get some feedback in regard to my question about offbrand generic propecia as I brought it up in the last post.

 

Quote:

It seems like the generic version is about 2/5 of that price... but it says it comes from India/Turkey what are the chances of it being fake? or not as good?

[aw33]

Go to your local pharmacy and if they happen to be from an international source, then so be it.