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Ht at 23 years old?


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My brother is 23 and has some serious hair loss and hairline receding going on.  It actually started a few years ago and has gotten considerably worse.  I am 29 and our other brother who is 26 had the same problem, and he just shaves his entire head now.  Sadly hair loss runs in our family.

Anyway, my brother wants to get FUE with me.  He was told he can get at least 3,000 grafts and they recommend minoxidil and finasteride after.  Is 23 ok to have this done?  He may not have much hair left if he waits any longer.  Some of his pics below.

 

 

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Edited by happyandsad
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I had my done just after reaching 25, with seeing the specialist just a couple of months before that.

In regards to the age, 25 is considered to be the minimum, since usually by then the doctor can see what is the final picture likely to be like. It's very important to see the males in your family, as for example my father had the same NW3 to me since like 15, and the same for my grandfather - while there's no further loss, others may progress to further NWs. Since you mention hair loss running in your family, I'd wait until 24 at least. You might be better off seeing the specialist now but be wary if some push you to do it ASAP.

In RE to the pics, it's not so bad but likely to be masked by some length present. There's definitely some thinning but another pro would be better off stating what NW is here. I'd guess around NW3.

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The age has nothing to do with anything.  It is all about expectations.  If your brother's goal is to have a full set of hair, I would NOT do anything.  If his expectations are to have a class 6 hair loss pattern that will serve him well - then move forward.

With regards to medication, I would be more inclined to try the meds first to confirm they work.  A year later, if he is experiencing retention, then move forward with the transplant, concentrating most towards the front and blending grafts to the mid-scalp area.  I would NOT consider grafts int he crown area.

 

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1 hour ago, LaserCap said:

The age has nothing to do with anything.  It is all about expectations.  If your brother's goal is to have a full set of hair, I would NOT do anything.  If his expectations are to have a class 6 hair loss pattern that will serve him well - then move forward.

With regards to medication, I would be more inclined to try the meds first to confirm they work.  A year later, if he is experiencing retention, then move forward with the transplant, concentrating most towards the front and blending grafts to the mid-scalp area.  I would NOT consider grafts int he crown area.

 


The thing is, he does have some balding in the crown area, it’s harder to tell in these photos because his hair is buzzed short. You can see the spots missing and thinning a lot more when he doesn’t get a haircut.

I don’t know that he’s expecting a full head of hair, but he definitely wants a normal hairline and some thickness added.

Edited by happyandsad
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Hard to say for sure as his hair is buzzed so short...

..however, he looks like a NW6 is not far off and the donor area is not great.  A HT now could be a waste of time and not deliver anything better than the hair he has currently.  If anything it could turn out worse if the doctor does a stupid low hairline.

4,312 FUT grafts (7,676 hairs) with Ray Konior, MD - August 2013

1,145 FUE grafts (3,152 hairs) with Ray Konior, MD - August 2018

763 FUE grafts (2,094 hairs) with Ray Konior, MD - January 2020

Proscar 1.25mg every 3rd day

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19 hours ago, 1978matt said:

Hard to say for sure as his hair is buzzed so short...

..however, he looks like a NW6 is not far off and the donor area is not great.  A HT now could be a waste of time and not deliver anything better than the hair he has currently.  If anything it could turn out worse if the doctor does a stupid low hairline.

He very rarely grows his hair out because it has gotten so thin and now has a nappy texture to it when it gets long.  It wasn't like that in the past.  Here is one pic from a year ago that I found with it grown out a bit longer.

 

 

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5 hours ago, happyandsad said:

So, after discussing this with him in more detail, his main goal is to mainly to restore his hairline and add some thickness to his mid scalp.  Do you think he should move forward or would this just be a waste of time?

No other possible goals, he wants everything - front and back. If a reputable doctor has suggested this, by identifying that the donor is sufficient for the first and upcoming procedures, you want a second professional opinion. I suppose no dense packing

Given the young age and family history, more loss will come. Attempt first to stabilize the loss with medications

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I think it’s great that you’re looking out for your younger brother. Actually, I’m about your age and have brothers around your brothers age as well (hair loss runs in our family too😊). I bet that we’re also similar in that the last thing that we would is for one to be harmed by imitating decisions that we make ourselves. Whether we like it or not, we have a lot of influence on their behavior.

What about you? Do you feel good about going through a hair transplant, or are you reconsidering? 

I don't want you to be a lab rat for your brother, but at the very least, can’t he wait to see how your results turn out before making that decision? Like others have stated, in that time span he can try medication to see how his body responds. Why is the clinic recommending medication after the transplant and not before? To make their potentially mediocre results look better? By the way, we haven’t even gone into who would be performing you and your brother’s surgery..

Regardless of expectations, I think that his age does play a role in this. Twenty-three is an awfully young age to make a life-long decision like that. What style of hair does he plan on having? If he likes it short, a less drastic move would be to do what your 26-year-old brother does and rock the shaved head look. He does have a great shaped head for it, and he won’t be able to go with his current length with surgery.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Ian. said:

I think it’s great that you’re looking out for your younger brother. Actually, I’m about your age and have brothers around your brothers age as well (hair loss runs in our family too😊). I bet that we’re also similar in that the last thing that we would is for one to be harmed by imitating decisions that we make ourselves. Whether we like it or not, we have a lot of influence on their behavior.

What about you? Do you feel good about going through a hair transplant, or are you reconsidering? 

I don't want you to be a lab rat for your brother, but at the very least, can’t he wait to see how your results turn out before making that decision? Like others have stated, in that time span he can try medication to see how his body responds. Why is the clinic recommending medication after the transplant and not before? To make their potentially mediocre results look better? By the way, we haven’t even gone into who would be performing you and your brother’s surgery..

 

Regardless of expectations, I think that his age does play a role in this. Twenty-three is an awfully young age to make a life-long decision like that. What style of hair does he plan on having? If he likes it short, a less drastic move would be to do what your 26-year-old brother does and rock the shaved head look. He does have a great shaped head for it, and he won’t be able to go with his current length with surgery.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the response.  I do feel good about going through with a hair transplant for myself.  My main concern is for him, since he's younger and his hair loss is a bit different from mine.  I wanted someone to come on my trip to Istanbul with me so I wouldn't have to go alone.  I told him he could have his done too with me, since he's been losing his hair and I know it bothers him.  He seemed a little hesitant, but I told him to just come on the trip to Istanbul with me even if he didn't want to have it done.  But he said if he's coming to Istanbul, he's getting it done too lol.  I just want to do some more research for his sake before he actually goes through with it, because I'd feel partially responsible if he were to have it done and ended up with bad results.

We are going with Smile Hair Clinic.  I know a lot of people on here advise against those types of low-cost clinics, but I've done a lot of research on them and I haven't read anything negative yet.  Someone on these forums also mentioned in my thread that they've seen good results with this clinic, even though they typically advise against these types of places.

 

(if you're curious to see my hair, here's the thread I made: 

https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/55299-hi-everyone-new-here-and-considering-fue-do-you-think-im-a-candidate/?tab=comments#comment-522495

 

Edited by happyandsad
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You’re the older brother, you have special license to pull rank on him. Especially if your paying for his trip/surgery. I don’t think you can let him go through a sketchy elective surgery with a clean conscience. You’ll hate yourself if it disfigures him for life. Besides, he owes it to himself to put in the time and do his own research.

I did a cursory search on Smile. I couldn’t find much. As far as I could tell they’ve been open for about a year.  I couldn’t find any actual before after photos. Not even on their website or facebook. I didn't spend a lot of time looking, maybe I missed them. Just people fresh after surgery or model photos of non-patients.

I’m not necessarily saying this about you because I have no idea, but it is really easy to trick yourself into thinking that you’ve done a lot of research on this subject. “I’ve done a lot of research” and “I’ve really done my homework” have been said many times by people on forums before surgery and then you scroll down and see terrible results 12 months later. Those phrases are almost like the kiss of death lol.

Where are you located?

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59 minutes ago, Ian. said:

You’re the older brother, you have special license to pull rank on him. Especially if your paying for his trip/surgery. I don’t think you can let him go through a sketchy elective surgery with a clean conscience. You’ll hate yourself if it disfigures him for life. Besides, he owes it to himself to put in the time and do his own research.

 

I did a cursory search on Smile. I couldn’t find much. As far as I could tell they’ve been open for about a year.  I couldn’t find any actual before after photos. Not even on their website or facebook. I didn't spend a lot of time looking, maybe I missed them. Just people fresh after surgery or model photos of non-patients.

 

I’m not necessarily saying this about you because I have no idea, but it is really easy to trick yourself into thinking that you’ve done a lot of research on this subject. “I’ve done a lot of research” and “I’ve really done my homework” have been said many times by people on forums before surgery and then you scroll down and see terrible results 12 months later. Those phrases are almost like the kiss of death lol.

 

Where are you located?

 


We live in New York (Long Island).
 

I also found some before and after photos from Smile Hair Clinic patients here: https://www.qunomedical.com/en/smile-hair-clinic-at-moodist-hospital#beforeAfterPictures

Edited by happyandsad
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Hell man, I thought you were from like Uzbekistan or somewhere you needed a travel visa or something lol. 

You're in NY, why not go get a consultation with Dr. Bernstein. From what I've heard the guy doesn't have an ounce of bullshit in him. 

Perhaps more importantly, I checked out the link. The 13th photo looked really familiar to me, and I remembered seeing it on Realself's website. Check it out. https://www.realself.com/photos/fue-hair-transplant?tags=9953#media-photo-1622205-1494008-1  Apparently it was done by someone by the name of Dr. Karadeniz...

Tell me that's not the same photo just more zoomed in...

 

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2 hours ago, Ian. said:

Hell man, I thought you were from like Uzbekistan or somewhere you needed a travel visa or something lol. 

You're in NY, why not go get a consultation with Dr. Bernstein. From what I've heard the guy doesn't have an ounce of bullshit in him. 

Perhaps more importantly, I checked out the link. The 13th photo looked really familiar to me, and I remembered seeing it on Realself's website. Check it out. https://www.realself.com/photos/fue-hair-transplant?tags=9953#media-photo-1622205-1494008-1  Apparently it was done by someone by the name of Dr. Karadeniz...

Tell me that's not the same photo just more zoomed in...

 

Hmmm it’s possible lol.  


The main reason for going abroad though is the cost.  Obviously, I won’t do it if it means I’m going to be disfigured for life or something, but if the worst that can happen is that I don’t get the best results possible, I’m willing to risk the $2,000 and learn my lesson as opposed to spending $10k plus here in the US.

Though I am delving a little deeper and am now starting to see that the nurses are the ones performing the actual procedure at this clinic, but the doctors do the consultations, which is a little worrisome.  But even so, the people who said this were still happy with their service and the results it seems.  And I’m assuming this is normal for these types of low-cost clinics.

Here’s a review from a guy who went there: 


 

Their Instagram pages also has a lot of before/after photos: https://instagram.com/smilehairclinic?igshid=gwgdy68dxufr

 

And by searching #smilehairclinic on Instagram, I found some people who went there, like this guy.  His looks like it came out nicely: https://instagram.com/cuthell22?igshid=ru72q6dfq5aq

Edited by happyandsad
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On 11/17/2019 at 6:34 PM, Ian. said:

Perhaps more importantly, I checked out the link. The 13th photo looked really familiar to me, and I remembered seeing it on Realself's website. Check it out. https://www.realself.com/photos/fue-hair-transplant?tags=9953#media-photo-1622205-1494008-1  Apparently it was done by someone by the name of Dr. Karadeniz...

Tell me that's not the same photo just more zoomed in...

All of the photos looked zoomed in as they all look a bit blurry and slightly blocky as if they were zoomed and resaved. They may all be pictures from other clinics. Once you know a clinic is using someone elses photos that's a major sign to stay away because they don't have any good ones of there own to show.

 

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Al

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(formerly BeHappy)

I am a forum moderator for hairrestorationnetwork.com. I am not a Dr. and I do not work for any particular Dr. My opinions are my own and may not reflect the opinions of other moderators or the owner of this site. I am also a hair transplant patient and repair patient. You can view some of my repair journey here.

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On 11/17/2019 at 7:54 PM, happyandsad said:

The main reason for going abroad though is the cost.  Obviously, I won’t do it if it means I’m going to be disfigured for life or something, but if the worst that can happen is that I don’t get the best results possible, I’m willing to risk the $2,000 and learn my lesson as opposed to spending $10k plus here in the US.

 

Well I can tell you that you absolutely can be disfigured for life by going to the wrong clinic. If the worst that could happen is you don't get the best possible results then forums like this wouldn't be necessary. Why spend $2000 to learn that lesson? Would you let someone slice you up and disfigure you for life for free? If not, then why pay someone to do it? Do not go somewhere only based on price. I am telling you these things as someone who has personally been disfigured from hair transplants and has now spent over 30 years trying to fix it and still haven't been very successful yet because it's nearly impossible to correct some really bad cases.

 

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Al

Forum Moderator

(formerly BeHappy)

I am a forum moderator for hairrestorationnetwork.com. I am not a Dr. and I do not work for any particular Dr. My opinions are my own and may not reflect the opinions of other moderators or the owner of this site. I am also a hair transplant patient and repair patient. You can view some of my repair journey here.

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