23 years thinking of hair transplant pics included

[james8891]

I have just turned 23. Have been receding since the age of 15/16. Been on the 'Big Three' for two years now. It has not done anything for my hairline but i think it has thickened up my crown.

 

To alot of you out there you will say that i am stupid considering a transplant but to me it has had such a mental effect on me as also alot you you will know.

 

I know i still have alot of hair bit under really harsh light i know that my hair line is dissapering and it is getting to the stage where i cannot hide it by pulling my hair foward.

 

Do you think i am a candidate? How many grafts do you think I would need to get to a NW2? Should I wait until atleast 30 years of age and live depressed till then??

 

Please input off everyone please!!

[james8891]

I know my pictures are pretty deceving but as you can see from picture two that clearly shows the state of my receding hairline.

 

Lots of views so far but no replies..advise and opinions would be really appreciated guys!!

[ffar]

Don't. Wait 3 years at least.

[Thehairupthere]

It seems too early to be doing any treatment in your case. Stick with the medication for now and keep an eye for further loss. Right now I don't think you need it.

[Dutch]

You're not that bad. I was worse at your age. Wait 2-3 years. I know it's tough. Hair loss is very unpredictable & in a few years time, you'll have a better idea of the pattern you're heading towards

[mmhce]

 

Do you think i am a candidate? How many grafts do you think I would need to get to a NW2? Should I wait until atleast 30 years of age and live depressed till then??

 

 

 

 

NO! YOU'RE NOT A CANDIDATE!

 

For NW2 you would need approximately 1500 to 2000 grafts.....if you were NW2, but you're not.

 

The natural maturation of a hairline is not MPB.

 

ALMOST ANY SURGEON WILL REJECT YOU AS A CANDIDATE!

 

Keep using the "big three" and wait until you are 30.

 

Keep developing your personality in the meantime, and the members of the opposite sex would appreciate you for you.

[mahhong]

It's not nice losing your hair, but an HT at this stage would harm more than help. If you get a small procedure done now you may, worst case, continue losing lots of hair and end up with patchy results and the need for more surgery. Lets hope it doesn't come to that!

 

The truth is right now you have great hair. I'd bet you $100 that 99.9% of people would never in a million years notice you were receding. I know it's a worrying thing to see your hair going but you may just have a maturing hairline - your recession really is pretty mild at the moment. I'd take a deep breath and try and relax about it; you have lots of hair and the recession is something very, very few people would spot or care about. You still look great and have a youthful head of hair.

 

As hard as it is, hairloss is a long term thing. What you do now will have an impact on your hair at 30, 40, 50 and beyond. Don't be tempted to patch up the problems now because you'll be in a whole heap of mess in the future, if your hairloss continues.

[ffar]

What is your fammily history of Hair loss?

[mattj]

I think you already are a NW2. Your hairline is a good, even shape and looks solid. Don't judge yourself under the harshest light - few people with straight hair like yours will not show any scalp under very bright lighting.

[james8891]

Thanks for the responce guys!

 

mmhce i do not understand by when you say 'For NW2 you would need approximately 1500 to 2000 grafts.....if you were NW2, but you're not.'??

 

My dad still has thick hair but a bald spot on the crown and receding quite bad..one of my grandads has the same as my dad and my other grandad was bald pretty much on top..one of my cousions same age as me has lost alot of his hair and his dad is pretty much bald!!

 

A question for alot of you out there who are older than me is when you were my age and you were on the big three were you able to maintain your hair or did you loose the battle or are you still maintaining?

 

Also anyone out there who had a hair transplant at my stage and age; was it the best thing you ever done, or the worst?

[james8891]

mattj.

I hear what you say about dont judge yourself under harsh light but is that not the only way to determining how bad your hair loss is? I will get a pic up soon to show how bad it is because as I say my pics are abit deceving.

 

In picture two do you really think that is a nw2 and not a 2.5?

 

To people out there who think I shouldnt even be on his forum and stop worrying over nothing then im just going to say hairloss effects us all in different ways no matter how bad or not so bad it is, and to me it has really messed my head up!

[Gin0rm0usF0rehead]

I had my first transplant at 31, pretty much at the same stage hairloss as you. I don't regret it as I was feeling miserable, very much like you are feeling now. I do worry about future hairloss, but I am happy now and thats more important since I personally feel the 20s and 30s are the best years of a person's life, not the 40's and 50s. So it was more important for me to do the procedure than wait. It's a personal call and you are doing the right thing by asking about it on the forums, but you really should make a consulation and hear it from a doctor. The appoints are free, so why not?

[mattj]

I would say you were a NW2. Put it this way, you have less loss when viewed from above than is depicted in the Norwood diagram for stage 2.

 

Bright light is obviously good for really inspecting your hair and seeing all that there is to see, but it's also unforgiving and generally not the way we see other people, or how other people see us.

 

Is your frontal region thinner than it appears in the photos?

[james8891]

ginormousforehead i agree 100% with what your sayin! everywhere i look people my age have good hairlines and style their hair how they want!

 

I was thinking of getting the eurostar to Dr. Bisanga! As im from the UK I think this is my best option!

 

Yes my frontal region is worse than appears! It is just fluffy and i cannot style it atal. It is thin but not to the extent where it is patchy if you know what I mean?

 

When my hair is wet is when it is really obvious.

 

I will get photos of when it is wet to show you.

[Rowdey]

I completely understand where you're coming from.

I'm 20, also from the UK and my hairline is worse than yours. I'm currently on propecia and have been for three months, so we'll see how that goes.

 

I can just about hide mine as I have longish and quite thick hair, but it's getting increasingly difficult and I'm getting more and more fixated upon it.

 

At this moment in time I can say that if the propecia seems to work and halt my receeding in a year, I would be seriously considering a transplant with Dr Rahal. I know people will say at 21 that is far too young, but the way I see it, if it gives me 10 years of not having to constantly worry about my hair, it'll be worth it.

 

Best of luck

[mahhong]

Just be careful, you younger men.

 

Imagine the scenario; you get on meds aged 20 and have a HT aged 21/22 and some doctor restores your hair to the way it was 5/6 years ago. Then, by the time you're 28 you start noticing the hair behind your hairline going. You decide to have another HT but there's a problem; the doctor already spent 2500 of your precious donor grafts filling in all of 40cm2 in your hairline/frontal third. Now you only have 3-6000 grafts left to fill another 60cm2 of balding head. The doctor has transplanted at super dense levels in your first HT and can't afford to do that again, so now you have another 2000 grafts, but this time over 60cm2 of balding head, giving you a density of 33g/cm2. Then, aged 32, you notice the crown going. Now you have another 100-120cm2 of balding head and only 1000-4000 grafts left. If you're lucky enough to have 4000, you get the rest of your head transplanted at somewhere around 40g/cm2.

 

The net result you'd be early thirties with no donor left and super patchy, multiple HTs with no overall master plan linking them together. The alternative is to have a much more moderate first HT: maybe only say 500-1500 grafts. But the density you get from that won't be close to your native density and won't give you that "teenage" hair back.

 

You may be lucky and not bald significantly, and I hope that's true. But don't do rash things in your 20s assuming you won't care by the time you're in your 30s or 40s. You will. And if you've used too much donor hair fixing bits and pieces here and there and don't have enough for the bigger picture, you won't have much choice but to stay that way indefinitely.

 

I'm not trying to put the fear into you, just hoping you see a HT is not designed to replace on a hair-for-hair basis. You guys could unfortunately be heading for severe balding and the drugs are not guaranteed to work for the rest of your life and probably won't, in the very long term. Good doctors design a HT to look good and standalone even if you lost the rest of your hair, as part of an overall plan. That plan can't include patching up lost hairlines at super high densities unless you're lucky enough to not recede past a NW2/3 - which nobody can guarantee for you.

 

Best thing is to see one of the doctors for a free consultation. A good doctor will put things in perspective and help come up with a realistic plan. It's unlikely a doctor will justify doing a HT on you until you are older and/or your hairloss has seemed stable for some time. Don't end up with some island of grafted hair on your head and bald or thing patches for centimetres around it, which is the risk you run if you get a HT too young for too ambitious reasons. You're not just going to magically stop caring about your hair come 40-50. Yes, overall appearance may be a little less important, but you're not going to want to look bad - a risk you run if you're over-ambitious and want to temporarily put your hair back to how it was a few years ago.

[kathie47]

Mahhong gives a lot of good incite in his post. Listen to him! Always think about your future. You wouldnt not save for retirement just because you want more money now

[SkinUpPinUp]

James, I can see where you're coming from here even if some people disagree.

 

My hairline is kind of similar to this and I'm having HT later this year - the difference is that I'm past the age of thirty. I'm also trying to address the combo of mild recession and a naturally large forehead.

 

What makes this difficult to judge is that your pictures hide the eyebrows, it's sometime hard to judge how high or recessed (frontally or temporally) without seeing the hairline in the context of your eyebrows or the rest of your face. It's also difficult to judge something like graft count when you've not specified where exactly you want your hairline to be restored to.

 

If you're thinking of Bisanga, have a chat with Stephen and perhaps he can give you a better idea of what can be achieved and whether it is wise to do so. However, bear in mind that most HT surgeons in the EU charge around ?5 per graft and surgeons there will rarely perform anything under 1,000 grafts as it is not cost effective when they're only seeing one patient a day. This is a lot of money, especially for someone at your age, so it should give you plenty to think about.

[james8891]

mahhong thankyou for the write up it means alot! i just wish i was around the age of 30 so i could go ahead with having a transplant!

 

i dont really know what else to say now..i mean obv it is just stupid for me to consider having one at my age! to be honest i already knew the awnser i would be getting off of everyone but thought i would post a topic anyways!

 

guess what is best for me is to stay on the big 3 for another 5 years or so...hope i can keep my hair and see what happens then!

 

i still do think that if i was to have 1500 grafts to my hairline it would change me as a person so much!

 

i would be happy to have me hair real short as i can pull off short hair well so if my hair was to thin even after a transplant it would be okay...but i dunno, guess we shall see how things go

[james8891]

skinuppinup...i am not looking for much, liturally just to bring my hairline foward by roughly an inch! how many grafts would you say i would need for that?

 

if you look in picture one..my eyebrows are pretty much in line with the top of the white box if that is any help

[osidekid]

Yeah, I'd def wait. Most people recede a little by your age, so it's just natural. I wouldn't be surprised if it stops and you keep a nice hairline, as it looks very solid. See what happens over the next few years and don't jump into anything. My 2 cents.

[RockZ]

Mine was similar to that when I was your age and I just got an HT at 28. I didn't start on meds until I was about 24 so it progressed a little after that. I stayed on them for about four years before undergoing the procedure. I'd probably give it a few more years at least if I was in your position

.

[james8891]

any other opinions?

[fightingbaldness]

hi James. im 23 as well and iv been receding since i was 16. it was ok at first i didnt mind i was receding but my hair was still thick, but now its thinning and i dnt really have a hairline at the front. its totally destroyed my confidence. I hate it. Im on propecia i dont really know if its doing anything but just the fact im taking it makes me feel a bit better. Just one bit of advice on your haircut which i do to mine now and love it, i have my hair really short at the sides i get it cut at a grade 1, then on top and to the back i have it cut fairly short with scissors so i have a kind of short mowhawk. With me having a grade 1 at the sides because i go that short it makes my hair on top seem thicker then it actually is. And your hair is alot thicker then mine it would look really smart on you.

[cardel25]

any other opinions?

 

Ive seen plenty of examples lately of people with a MPB like you posting pictures after haven received a HT. Im not saying that this is the right thing to do your the expert on your own life. I would love to have the hair you have but im not you. If you have legit proof pictures etc. That meds have stabilized and prevented your hair loss then why not go for a HT if you feel so strongly about it ? Yeah the donor supply is finit. But you have described family hair pattern that dont indicate that you will become a NW6 or NW7 plus you take meds. I am certain that many doctors will offer you a HT aswell as many wont. I have seen Rahal HT lately thats perfomed on people with low NW in their 20?s.