What Is The Best Age To Get A Hair Transplant?

[Melvin- Admin]

What do you guys think, do you think there's a perfect age? What age would you guys say is too young to get a hair transplant and why? Let's put our heads together and give some real facts.

 

What Is The Best Age To Get A Hair Transplant?

[Future Hair Doc]

I recommend getting on meds like finasteride and minoxidil ASAP and waiting until 30 at the earliest to get a good sense of what will be required in the future.

[aaron1234]

I was on fin for two years, got my first transplant at 28.

[Gatsby]

Definitely start on meds as soon as you become aware of MPB. In terms of surgery, I view a 'successful' hair transplant as one that is 'natural' and has a patient feeling like they have achieved their goals. This just doesn't happen when you are young (18-25 TRUST ME) because your goals are unrealistic and often your hair loss pattern has not become predictable. Even failing medication (side effects, etc) I highly recommend waiting as long as possible. Your goals will hopefully become more realistic in terms of expectations of what a hair transplant can do (and not do) and understanding that a hair transplant has to look natural over the course of one's life. In terms of an age I would put it at around 30 (give or take).

[jimcraig152]

Start medical treatment as soon as there is signs of hair loss. Get restoration once meds have stabilized hair loss for a period of a year. Restoration should be done after stabilization regardless of age. The only personal qualifier would be the financial responsibility one would have to absorb with restoration.

If you are an otherwise good looking person, but hair loss is a strike to your aesthetic qualities, you'll want restoration as soon as possible. Nothing like youth and good looks. It is well known good looking people go further in life and have jobs that are higher paying. If you are not quite as good looking, you make up for it with hustle. Nothing like the confidence boost from having nice hair that will drive that hustle. You can get hair back these days. But you can't ever get time back. Think of what is irrevocably lost professionally because you want to be sheltered rather than exposed and seeking new and better things when dealing with hair loss professionally.

Socially, plenty of times I've said no to things like pool parties, sky diving, and camping trips, or even mundane things like eating lunch on the outdoor patio with a cutie from work because such events would reveal or destroy my hair loss concealment efforts. Plenty of times after sleeping with women I've skipped out on an overnight stay and good ol' morning sex because I'd dread having to take showers with them in the morning which would also expose my MPD. Why let the misery of hair loss pervade life at any stage during adult life? And when is it the best time to have nice hair? When you are young of course. When good hair can be leveraged along with youthful energy to get the best out of life.

Be liberated from the suffering once you have either of these two A) medically stabilized your hair loss, or 2) have the ability to accept the financial responsibility. But start medical treatment ASAP as it has much less financial constraints; don't wait for both conditions met. Either or is fine.

[Curious25]

3 hours ago, jimcraig152 said:

Start medical treatment as soon as there is signs of hair loss. Get restoration once meds have stabilized hair loss for a period of a year. Restoration should be done after stabilization regardless of age. The only personal qualifier would be the financial responsibility one would have to absorb with restoration.

If you are an otherwise good looking person, but hair loss is a strike to your aesthetic qualities, you'll want restoration as soon as possible. Nothing like youth and good looks. It is well known good looking people go further in life and have jobs that are higher paying. If you are not quite as good looking, you make up for it with hustle. Nothing like the confidence boost from having nice hair that will drive that hustle. You can get hair back these days. But you can't ever get time back. Think of what is irrevocably lost professionally because you want to be sheltered rather than exposed and seeking new and better things when dealing with hair loss professionally.

Socially, plenty of times I've said no to things like pool parties, sky diving, and camping trips, or even mundane things like eating lunch on the outdoor patio with a cutie from work because such events would reveal or destroy my hair loss concealment efforts. Plenty of times after sleeping with women I've skipped out on an overnight stay and good ol' morning sex because I'd dread having to take showers with them in the morning which would also expose my MPD. Why let the misery of hair loss pervade life at any stage during adult life? And when is it the best time to have nice hair? When you are young of course. When good hair can be leveraged along with youthful energy to get the best out of life.

Be liberated from the suffering once you have either of these two A) medically stabilized your hair loss, or 2) have the ability to accept the financial responsibility. But start medical treatment ASAP as it has much less financial constraints; don't wait for both conditions met. Either or is fine.

I quite like the way you have put this. 

If a patient is well versed on all things hair loss, well researched, has the financial capacity, a long term plan, and a good, ethical surgeon - It is hard to argue the point as to why you are essentially advocating someone on losing out on more years of their life until they reach 25/30, especially if they are slowing down progression with medical therapy and/or other treatments. 

[Struggle]

According to you it's wise to wait at least for 25th birthday or it's still too early? I'm on medications and I'd like to wait for some years, but hair loss depresses me and I don't know how long I can stand. 

[Melvin- Admin]

3 hours ago, Struggle said:

According to you it's wise to wait at least for 25th birthday or it's still too early? I'm on medications and I'd like to wait for some years, but hair loss depresses me and I don't know how long I can stand. 

25 is a general rule of thumb, but honestly, if you can hold off until late 20's even better. I have seen far too many cases of guys who had minor hair loss in their early 20s turn fully bald by 30, myself included. It's easier to build a master plan when you know what you're working with, think of it this way- imagine you had to build a house, but everyday you're losing material. You would want to wait until you know how much material you're gonna have approximately, so you can accurately have four walls and a roof. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you started building a big house, but now you ran out of material and the house has no roof!

[ciaus]

Science tells us the brain takes about 25 years to fully develop -observation suggests probably a good bit longer than that.

I'd say 28+, with mental maturity being as important a factor as your emerging MPB pattern. Yea our 20s are great in terms of physical energy/looks, but its also the time when we are the most stupid and prone to get into problems, having just taken the mommy/daddy training wheels off and being out on our own.

Don't waste your 30s,40s,50s,60s...living with and trying to fix the mistakes in your 20s.

[gillenator]

I think many of us would agree that under the age of age 25 would be too young...many individuals might be making their decision based on the emotional factor rather than prudent judgement such as starting the meds as the first order of priority.

But I also think that the more important issue is that each person has a more accurate idea of where their hair loss is headed as they get nearer to age 30 or so.

[Melvin- Admin]

7 minutes ago, gillenator said:

I think many of us would agree that under the age of age 25 would be too young...many individuals might be making their decision based on the emotional factor rather than prudent judgement such as starting the meds as the first order of priority.

But I also think that the more important issue is that each person has a more accurate idea of where their hair loss is headed as they get nearer to age 30 or so.

I agree 💯 

[jimcraig152]

You guys are right. Candidacy is a factor and is the only plausible reason for waiting. Other factors have mitigations. But can you really set a definitive age for when you can seek hair restoration even with candidacy factored in? For instance, at age 19, my hair loss was already a NW3. But I remained an NW3 into my 40's all the way up until I got my HT two months ago. Never had medical treatment until 3 months before my surgery. I look at Melvin's journey and in his early 20's, he had wayyyyyyyy more hair than I did at the same age. But became an NW6 by his late twenties. Now look at a well known celebrity case like Tom Brady:

Here he is at age 23 in the 2001 Super Bowl parade. Already a NW3 combing his hair forward and parting it in the middle to hide recession in the corners. He is approaching an NW4 with thinning in the crown and forelock. I also watched games during the regular season that year where Brady had his helmet off. Nary was a time when the camera panned on him when he wasn't wearing a hat. But from time to time that did happen and you could see he was already losing hair under his helmet, despite winning the Super Bowl.

Here is another photo of him the day after the 2001 Super Bowl accepting the Super Bowl MVP trophy. Same comb forward and part in the middle to hide recession in the corners. However, recession and thinning is still noticeable.

Here is his 2000 league photo. See the hair loss concealment comb job?

And here is his 2001 league photo during the recovery process. See how the hair in his corners are shorter than the forelock? You think he had his hair cut that way? Or is it the hair grafts placed in the corners are growing back more slowly than the rest of his hair just like the hair of an HT patient recovering surgery would?

Here he is just after winning his 2nd Super Bowl and after full recovery from hair restoration. Yeap, that is Adriana Lima in her prime making O-face right next to him. Does a similar pic exist where Adriana Lima is posing alongside a peer of Tom Brady in Matt Hasselbeck from that era?

Here he is standing with his father. A legit NW7. The road to NW7 is/was definitely in Tom Brady's genes.

And here is Tom Brady at close to present, now considered handsome the world over. Aesthetically pleasing enough to have been able to attract and wed the world's foremost model whom he met at age 30. Think Tom Brady should have waited until he was 28 or 30? Or was Tom Brady correct to have sought hair restoration between the ages of 23-24 despite the risks?

Now you aren't ever going to be Tom Brady. But where do you want to plant that fork in the road of your life that branches between suffering from hair loss vs. reveling in life free from the bondage of hair loss? What are you wiling to suffer through at the expense of missing out on having hair to go along with your fleeting youth?

[Struggle]

Thanks Melvin, I understand your point, but also @jimcraig152 has made an interesting argument: it's really a wise choice to wait if MPB is affecting the quality of your life and of your youth? 

[jimcraig152]

55 minutes ago, Struggle said:

Thanks Melvin, I understand your point, but also @jimcraig152 has made an interesting argument: it's really a wise choice to wait if MPB is affecting the quality of your life and of your youth? 

Well, I think we can all agree that seeking medical treatment at the first hint of hair loss should be done. You've already done that which is good. We might also agree that seeking counsel from a highly ethical surgeon is also a requirement at any age. As for equating the maturity needed with decision making with age, maturity can be supplanted with greater economy through obsessional diligence. I don't know if you were old enough to remember the poker craze during the mid-late 2000's, but there were numerous 15 year-olds making millions and beating the stuffing out highly regarded scions in the world of poker when the game was widely played in the US online before it was made illegal. Young kids treated online poker as obsessionally as a video game and moved the game to new heights of difficulty. There are signs of obsessional genius being gained in many fields and walks of life. Bruce Lee is considered to be the greatest martial artist of all time, yet he lived only 32 years. Greta Thurnberg is an authority on climate change. Warren Buffet tracked and saved every dollar he has made and spent all throughout life and is the worlds foremost authority on investment. Stephen Curry is an NBA player of slight build, yet can hoist and fire a basketball from beyond the arc better than anyone has ever done it. Melvin is still a relatively young man, has no medical training and loaded with knowledge of the subject of hair loss. Find that one thing you have to do, that mission, and put everything you got into it. With the financial responsibility, you may not have reached your prime earning years in your early 20's, but you may also have less financial obligation than a 30 year-old. Maybe you have no kids. No mortgage and may still be living at home. No girlfriend/wife to support. No car payment. So the financial sacrifices you might have to make may be easier in your early 20's. There are mitigations for these factors. While there may not be for candidacy. But then again, there is the case of Tom Brady who was on the genetic path to being a NW7 very early in life. So how does the value for age become definitive in seeking hair restoration when MPD afflicts everyone differently and is relative? I just don't think you can.

More Tom Brady pics from his college days and first year or two as a pro in case you need more convincing:

 

 

 

[Melvin- Admin]

3 hours ago, Struggle said:

Thanks Melvin, I understand your point, but also @jimcraig152 has made an interesting argument: it's really a wise choice to wait if MPB is affecting the quality of your life and of your youth? 

There is more to life than your 20s. I’ve always said this and will continue saying it because it’s true. Going bald is natural, having a bad hair transplant is not!

I have personally talked to over a dozen guys who had hair transplants in their 20s because they freaked out, and are now desperately searching a solution and wish they could go back and be a regular bald guy. 
 

[ciaus]

10 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

There is more to life than your 20s. I’ve always said this and will continue saying it because it’s true. Going bald is natural, having a bad hair transplant is not!

 

So true. @jimcraig152 does a good job showing how the bold and determined can take the risk and reap the rewards, but there are alot of people out there with levels of genetic vulnerability to hair loss that would be devastated if they tried the same. 

[jimcraig152]

Melvin shows a case why you should wait; I've shown a case why you shouldn't. Validity on both sides of the argument.

It is a relative thing. No one's suffering is the same. No one's candidacy is the same. Don't think you can define an age for it is all I am saying.

[Hairgain22]

No one wants to wait to go fully bald, sucks to think that hair loss will progress. Why can't there be a dang cure already.

[jimcraig152]

1 hour ago, Hairgain22 said:

No one wants to wait to go fully bald, sucks to think that hair loss will progress. Why can't there be a dang cure already.

 

[Ceycey95]

It’s only my opinion but you should just do what makes you happy and if it’s getting a HT early and enjoy your best years then go for it. I have no problems getting bald because it suits me and I can get a nice looking smp in my 30s real 40s but I want a normal hair line so I will be going for it and have no problems getting a touch up every 2-3 years.

if hair loss drags you down so much that you want your confidence back, go for it, there isn’t any age restrictions

[Melvin- Admin]

42 minutes ago, Ceycey95 said:

It’s only my opinion but you should just do what makes you happy and if it’s getting a HT early and enjoy your best years then go for it. I have no problems getting bald because it suits me and I can get a nice looking smp in my 30s real 40s but I want a normal hair line so I will be going for it and have no problems getting a touch up every 2-3 years.

if hair loss drags you down so much that you want your confidence back, go for it, there isn’t any age restrictions

The problem with this thinking is that it’s based on the assumption that the hair transplant will be a success, or that you’ll be happy with the results. I’ve seen patients get excellent results and be unhappy, and I’ve seen patients get bad results and be happy with it. No one can say with certainty how a patient will react, positive or negative.

When you’re young, you want a quick fix, it’s only natural, however, rarely do young patients really think it through thoroughly. Instead, they base their decision off emotion. To anyone who says “I’ll shave my head and get smp” I say do it now, why wait, if that’s your solution, there’s no need to get a hair transplant.

In my experience, if you’re not happy with a shaved head now, you never will be, so that “solution” becomes a moot point. Overall, it’s not my objective to discourage anyone from getting a hair transplant, but rather educate them on the realities so they’re equipped to have a procedure.

An educated patient is a happy patient, the ones that are unhappy nine times out of ten are the ones who did little to no real research, and went into surgery expecting it would solve all their problems. A hair transplant is not a cure, it’s not fail proof, it’s not a one and done deal. It is a lifelong commitment, no one should take lightly.  

[gillenator]

There are many posts in this thread with good examples and words of wisdom...and because of the vast differences between individuals, each case must be thoroughly evaluated based on the merits and limitations of each person.

Take the example of Tom Brady...he makes a great case for hair restoration because his progressive diffused loss is not acute as compared to the example Melvin posted who is a matured man who got some work done many years ago...today he is a class 7 but undoubtedly he had a fair amount of hair at the time he had his procedures and now his lateral humps have receded to a point where his HTs are now an island of hair....is he happy he has these procedures?...I doubt it but we just don't know....would he have done this knowing he was going to recede to a class7?...my guess is that there are other class 7s in his family history and that could have been his most accurate clue that he was headed for the same destiny...but like Melvin stated, many guys in their young 20s want a quick fix and move ahead because of the intense adverse emotions that hair loss can have on young men.

This is why I stated earlier that it's very important to get a gauge on where their hair loss is headed before making any decisions to move ahead with surgery....and the critical difference that effective hair loss meds can potentially make over the long haul.

I have posted this before on many threads that its critical that any man considering hair restoration needs to have their entire scalps microscopically examined over a period of time to see how much of their scalp has miniaturization....and even though that diffused native hair is present, it can be lost in the years ahead.

[Melvin- Admin]

43 minutes ago, gillenator said:

There are many posts in this thread with good examples and words of wisdom...and because of the vast differences between individuals, each case must be thoroughly evaluated based on the merits and limitations of each person.

Take the example of Tom Brady...he makes a great case for hair restoration because his progressive diffused loss is not acute as compared to the example Melvin posted who is a matured man who got some work done many years ago...today he is a class 7 but undoubtedly he had a fair amount of hair at the time he had his procedures and now his lateral humps have receded to a point where his HTs are now an island of hair....is he happy he has these procedures?...I doubt it but we just don't know....would he have done this knowing he was going to recede to a class7?...my guess is that there are other class 7s in his family history and that could have been his most accurate clue that he was headed for the same destiny...but like Melvin stated, many guys in their young 20s want a quick fix and move ahead because of the intense adverse emotions that hair loss can have on young men.

This is why I stated earlier that it's very important to get a gauge on where their hair loss is headed before making any decisions to move ahead with surgery....and the critical difference that effective hair loss meds can potentially make over the long haul.

I have posted this before on many threads that its critical that any man considering hair restoration needs to have their entire scalps microscopically examined over a period of time to see how much of their scalp has miniaturization....and even though that diffused native hair is present, it can be lost in the years ahead.

I agree 💯 I had my scalp microscopically reviewed by several world class surgeons. I even drove 14 hours to visit a surgeon to look at my scalp. It’s important to do this before getting surgery. 

[gillenator]

IMHO, the young men with MPB should have their entire scalp microscopically examined at least annually to note changes not only in pattern of loss but noting differentials in hair shaft diameter (caliber).