Long but really appreciate some advice, fellas.

[Pipj83]

Hi everyone, hope you’re well? Would just like to say I think this site is great. It’s so heartening to see people so willing to lend advice and support so readily to people going through a similar thing. Been reading lots and lots lately, and in the spirit of sharing thought I might finally post and ask for some direct advice. Be great if you guys could give me your opinion.

 

I’ve been losing my hair for most of my twenties. When I was about 25, I became really quite depressed about it, and allowed it to have a negative impact on other areas of my life. Uneducated and desperately unhappy, I went for a consultation at the Hospital Group in the UK, as it was close to where I live. I met with a man I considered to be a very transparent salesman indeed. I won’t go into detail, but the blatant identikit sales pitch made my skin crawl. Unfortunately, this experience at the time put me off the hair restoration industry completely.

 

The positive outcome of this was that I came to realise that hair restoration is not a magic bullet to regaining self-esteem. While people have had fantastic results and have doubtlessly had their quality of life dramatically improved by some of the fantastic work I have seen on this site, it is obvious to me that hair and hair alone will not bring back your confidence. You can’t make a life changing decision like this when you’re young, desperate and vulnerable. So at 26, I shaved my head and resolved to focus on restoring order to my life in the areas that I could control. My profile pic might just look like some little bald bloke doing a funny pose at a party, but to me it’s significant because one year prior to this being taken, I looked completely different and was a total mess.

 

Cheers for reading through the somewhat self- indulgent biography above. Sorry I couldn’t have made it a bit briefer, I’m not the most succinct, but for some reason I felt the need to share this; I figure if anyone would understand, it’d be you gentlemen here.

 

The reason I am posting now is this: after living with the shaved head look for about four years, I feel I’m ready (both emotionally and financially), to enter into a rational dialogue and decision making process about something that is a source of insecurity for most men. Whilst my life is good, being bald is still very much something I’m putting up with, not choosing, and it does still get me down. If there were an option to improve this aspect of my appearance in any way, I’d happily take it. Who wouldn’t? So my question to you guys is this; am I too late to do anything about it?

 

Although I think I look alright (you’re welcome to disagree, but please try not to be too savage lol) with shaved head, it’s actually quite a lot of work to do this all the time. In addition, I don’t like the contrast between the side of my head and the top, which becomes clear after just a day or two. Grr. I think it ages me (I’m only thirty) and it looks untidy.

 

I realise I have advanced baldness for my age, and this could have possibly been addressed if I hadn’t sworn off everything to do with hair restoration after my Hospital Group consultation. I do regret not trying finasteride and minoxidil. However, my hopes are not ridiculously high – I’d really just like to improve my profile, and not be as bald as Larry David or Patrick Stewart (both brilliant baldies, by the way) in five years. My photos are not clear, unfortunately, because I have only left my hair to grow for a few days, and I know shaved head pics are really hard to judge. Also the lighting is bad and the quality of my webcam is quite poor. But you might be able to make out the advanced pattern (norwood 6-7?) and make some kind of judgement. Any input would be really gratefully received. Thanks guys. I’m so sorry that this is such a long, long post.

[BadBeat]

The thing that struck me the most in your post is that if you like the look of your shaved head then why go down the HT road. I'm sure it can be a pain shaving every day or two but it's also a pain for guys with balding or thinning hair to style it each time they go out. I think it's great that you like your look. That's really what it boils down to.

 

Now, if you still think you might want to explore getting an HT, I'm not an expert but it looks like you have advanced to a NW 5-6 but it does appear that you do have some donor hair to work with. The problem is if you don't like the result you would now have a smiley face scar across the back of your head which would obviously create a problem if you went back to shaving down. I would recommend consulting with the great mega session clinics like Dr. Rahal or H & W to see how confident they are in giving you coverage that you could work with and cover the scar.

 

If you don't want a scar you could see about doing a FUE that could just focus on giving you the appearance of a hairline and framing your face but not necessarily giving you the density to growing your hair longer. You could shave down to a 1 or 2 guard. That might be the way to go for you since you've already been shaving down and like the look. Add the shadow of a hairline and a little behind and you could be in business!

 

Whatever you choose, I with you the best of luck!

[PupDaddy]

Hi Pipj83,

 

I think BadBeat got it right. You look good with a shaved down head, much like a good friend of mine who has your same amount of hair loss (probably approaching a NW 6) and truly looks better than when he had hair in his college and graduate school days. I think if I were you, I would either leave things be or consider FUE but, as BadBeat said, with a view towards keeping your hair closely cropped with a 1 or 2 guard. It would suit you well and you would appear to have plenty of hair but be style-forward with the shaved down look.