Rejected by two doctors! What should I do?

[Fredtb]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently 29 years old. When I was 18, I started losing my hair and when I was 23 it started getting really bad. That’s when I started taking finasteride but I started seeing side effects when I was 25 years old and so I stopped. After that the hair loss expedited and in the attached photos, you can see how advanced the stage is. I contacted two doctors, Hasson and Wong and Sean Behnam, and both think that I'm not a good candidate for hair restoration saying that my final pattern of loss is aggressive and my donor reserves are limited. Has anyone else faced the same issue? What would be suggested in this case? Is it possible to use beard or body hair? If so, which doctor does that? I would appreciate any comment or help.

[digi23]

Good photos, but do you have any photos of your beard? This will indeed be a difficult case because of the high norwood and limited donor it looks like on these photos. Eugenix is doing excellent work with beard hair, so you could send them these photos + photos of your beard.

Edited September 21, 2021 by digi23

[Domino]

Can you give finasteride another go? Maybe try smaller doses. 

[Melvin- Admin]

I would say do not get surgery. You do not have a suitable donor supply, it looks very thin. Have you considered smp?

[Fredtb]

6 minutes ago, Domino said:

Can you give finasteride another go? Maybe try smaller doses. 

Thanks Domino for the response. I actually have not recovered from the side effects yet, even though that I stopped taking it four years so I'm not comfortable taking it anymore.

[Fredtb]

3 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

I would say do not get surgery. You do not have a suitable donor supply, it looks very thin. Have you considered smp?

Interesting! I had never heard of smp. Do you know any doctor to recommend?

[Fredtb]

12 minutes ago, digi23 said:

Good photos, but do you have any photos of your beard? This will indeed be a difficult case because of the high norwood and limited donor it looks like on these photos. Eugenix is doing excellent work with beard hair, so you could send them these photos + photos of your beard.

Thanks a lot for the response and recommending Eugenix. Do you know any place in North America? Also, I do not have any photos of my beard now. I will upload them as soon as I get some.

[EvoXOhio]

9 minutes ago, Fredtb said:

Interesting! I had never heard of smp. Do you know any doctor to recommend?

SMP is basically a serious of small dots tattooed on your head to give the illusion of a shaved head. 
 

I have to agree with everyone here, your donor is extremely thin and you’d be a poor candidate for an HT. If any doctor is willing to accept you, that’s a red flag. 

[digi23]

9 minutes ago, Fredtb said:

Thanks a lot for the response and recommending Eugenix. Do you know any place in North America? Also, I do not have any photos of my beard now. I will upload them as soon as I get some.

I would say there is not much other choices than Eugenix. I guess it could be possible if you got a good beard, but you will probably need to do the hairline fairly high up on the scalp to get alright density when the donor area is so limited. You can contact them and check. 

But as they are saying above, probably a shaved head with SMP + beard would be easiest and it would look pretty good. If I go bald I dont know what do lol, I have no beard  So be grateful for that

Edited September 21, 2021 by digi23

[Domino]

@Fredtb I understand. Dr Umar is a doctor who uses beard and chest based in LA I think.

[Fredtb]

1 minute ago, EvoXOhio said:

SMP is basically a serious of small dots tattooed on your head to give the illusion of a shaved head. 
 

I have to agree with everyone here, your donor is extremely thin and you’d be a poor candidate for an HT. If any doctor is willing to accept you, that’s a red flag. 

Thanks! Do you know any good place that specializes in doing that?

[EvoXOhio]

2 minutes ago, Fredtb said:

Thanks! Do you know any good place that specializes in doing that?

I’ve had SMP but it was for adding density to hair, not doing the shaved head look, so it’s a bit different. There’s an SMP section in these forums so I would say check out that first. 

[Z--]

I do think you’re a Norwood 6/7. I don’t think Finn will do much at this point. But I disagree about donor — it’s possible it will look a bit thicker if grown out because it looks fairly low shaved as is. I do think it’s on the thinner side but I disagree that it’s not useable. 

I’d probably check out Eugenix or a doctor that specializes in bht. With BHT and some hair from the back, you could get a conservative result I think. I wouldn’t expect a totally full head of hair but doing that and smp can make it look okay. 

[Doron Harati]

You're very young and your donor is very limited, there's a chance after few years the transplanted hair will fall or get diffused with NW7 signs, also if you'd try more doctors to review your case I suggest you'll grow your hair more to understand your potential, it's very on the border if it's ethical to accept you or not, also you'll be be limited with a result of  low to average minus density probably with a conservative hairline.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Doron Harati

[Fredtb]

32 minutes ago, EvoXOhio said:

I’ve had SMP but it was for adding density to hair, not doing the shaved head look, so it’s a bit different. There’s an SMP section in these forums so I would say check out that first. 

Thanks, I’ll check that.

[Fredtb]

45 minutes ago, digi23 said:

I would say there is not much other choices than Eugenix. I guess it could be possible if you got a good beard, but you will probably need to do the hairline fairly high up on the scalp to get alright density when the donor area is so limited. You can contact them and check. 

But as they are saying above, probably a shaved head with SMP + beard would be easiest and it would look pretty good. If I go bald I dont know what do lol, I have no beard  So be grateful for that

Haha… Thanks I’ll contact Eugenix and will send photos of my beard as well to see what they think. Based on everyone’s comment, I don’t have much expectation though. I should probably look for smp 🤦🏻‍♂️

[Fredtb]

47 minutes ago, Domino said:

@Fredtb I understand. Dr Umar is a doctor who uses beard and chest based in LA I think.

Thank! I’ll look him up.

[Fredtb]

19 minutes ago, Z-- said:

I do think you’re a Norwood 6/7. I don’t think Finn will do much at this point. But I disagree about donor — it’s possible it will look a bit thicker if grown out because it looks fairly low shaved as is. I do think it’s on the thinner side but I disagree that it’s not useable. 

I’d probably check out Eugenix or a doctor that specializes in bht. With BHT and some hair from the back, you could get a conservative result I think. I wouldn’t expect a totally full head of hair but doing that and smp can make it look okay. 

Thanks a lot! That sounds like a good plan. HT+SMP. I’ll contact Eugenix to see what they think.

[Fredtb]

19 minutes ago, Doron Harati said:

You're very young and your donor is very limited, there's a chance after few years the transplanted hair will fall or get diffused with NW7 signs, also if you'd try more doctors to review your case I suggest you'll grow your hair more to understand your potential, it's very on the border if it's ethical to accept you or not, also you'll be be limited with a result of  low to average minus density probably with a conservative hairline.

That’s unfortunate 🤦🏻‍♂️
 

Someone suggested HT+SMP which probably should give the illusion of fullness if the density turns out to be low. But if the transplanted hair falls anyway probably I should only consider smp? It’s a very hard decision.

[Fredtb]

44 minutes ago, EvoXOhio said:

I’ve had SMP but it was for adding density to hair, not doing the shaved head look, so it’s a bit different. There’s an SMP section in these forums so I would say check out that first. 

Also, I looked up online and apparently smp also goes away after 8-10 years and it needs to be renewed. Is that true? Would it look bad after a while?

[HappyMan2021]

5 minutes ago, Fredtb said:

Also, I looked up online and apparently smp also goes away after 8-10 years and it needs to be renewed. Is that true? Would it look bad after a while?

I was interested in SMP for myself at one point on my crown (NEVER get it anywhere but the crown!!!) and actually went to an SMP clinic to talk so the artist himself about it. 

SMP is basically a tattoo, and all tattoos fade. You will need an SMP touchup every 5 years or so. SMP is not as bad as surgery, but you will still need days to recover and you will look weird for awhile. Not only that, but tattoos are extra sensitive to the sun, so you will always need to put sunscreen on the SMP area or wear a hat. 

The fakeness of SMP can be easy to spot, especially under bright lights. 

You do have aggressive hairloss so I understand why both doctors unfortunately rejected you. 

My advice: Accept baldness, be 6 ft. tall, be jacked, have a symmetrical face. Being a millionaire is optional but always helps. Or wear a hair system. They are pretty high maintenance but get the job done. 

Sorry hair transplants are not for you. I know you are frustrated but do not get SMP. 

[EvoXOhio]

40 minutes ago, SadMan2021 said:

I was interested in SMP for myself at one point on my crown (NEVER get it anywhere but the crown!!!) and actually went to an SMP clinic to talk so the artist himself about it. 

SMP is basically a tattoo, and all tattoos fade. You will need an SMP touchup every 5 years or so. SMP is not as bad as surgery, but you will still need days to recover and you will look weird for awhile. Not only that, but tattoos are extra sensitive to the sun, so you will always need to put sunscreen on the SMP area or wear a hat. 

The fakeness of SMP can be easy to spot, especially under bright lights. 

You do have aggressive hairloss so I understand why both doctors unfortunately rejected you. 

My advice: Accept baldness, be 6 ft. tall, be jacked, have a symmetrical face. Being a millionaire is optional but always helps. Or wear a hair system. They are pretty high maintenance but get the job done. 

Sorry hair transplants are not for you. I know you are frustrated but do not get SMP. 

I disagree with almost everything you said here about SMP. Yes there is bad SMP but there are tons of high quality ones and the industry is thriving. 
 

I got it on my entire scalp to increase density and it looks amazing. It doesn’t look fake, and it’s impossible to spot it. I also didn’t need days to recover nor did I look weird after. Check my thread in the SMP section. 
 

yes it fades after 5-8 years and requires a touch up. But thats known up front. A touch up is about $700 which isn’t bad every 5-8 years. 

[Melvin- Admin]

2 hours ago, SadMan2021 said:

I was interested in SMP for myself at one point on my crown (NEVER get it anywhere but the crown!!!) and actually went to an SMP clinic to talk so the artist himself about it. 

SMP is basically a tattoo, and all tattoos fade. You will need an SMP touchup every 5 years or so. SMP is not as bad as surgery, but you will still need days to recover and you will look weird for awhile. Not only that, but tattoos are extra sensitive to the sun, so you will always need to put sunscreen on the SMP area or wear a hat. 

The fakeness of SMP can be easy to spot, especially under bright lights. 

You do have aggressive hairloss so I understand why both doctors unfortunately rejected you. 

My advice: Accept baldness, be 6 ft. tall, be jacked, have a symmetrical face. Being a millionaire is optional but always helps. Or wear a hair system. They are pretty high maintenance but get the job done. 

Sorry hair transplants are not for you. I know you are frustrated but do not get SMP. 

Dude, this is not an incel site, stop posting this kind of crap here.

[Gokuhairline]

damn bro , like everyone is saying , donor looks iffy...but i hope you recover from finas sides....4 years and still issues? that is truly scary why is nobody commenting about that ? so scary.

[HappyMan2021]

1 hour ago, EvoXOhio said:

I disagree with almost everything you said here about SMP. Yes there is bad SMP but there are tons of high quality ones and the industry is thriving. 
 

I got it on my entire scalp to increase density and it looks amazing. It doesn’t look fake, and it’s impossible to spot it. I also didn’t need days to recover nor did I look weird after. Check my thread in the SMP section. 
 

yes it fades after 5-8 years and requires a touch up. But thats known up front. A touch up is about $700 which isn’t bad every 5-8 years. 

oh interesting. do you put sunscreen on it or otherwise protect it from the sun? does the sun dramatically increase fading or not really?