30 years old - need advice / suitable for ht?

[mksnvn]

Hello, everyone,

I wanted to ask your advice here about my hair situation. I am considering doing a hair transplant and am currently reading up on everything and getting an opinion on this.

 

Some information about me:

I am currently 30 (in a few months 31) years old and have been suffering from hair loss since I was around 22-23 years old. it has been a gradual process over the years. Actually I am living in germany. The hair loss has not stopped. Hair loss continues to progress (slowly as I would guess)

My grandparents never lost their hair when they were younger. My parents are in their late 60s. My mother has a little thinner hair at the front but not much and my father generally has thinner hair at the top, which is normal for his age because he is 70.

 

Medication:

I have been taking monoxidil for about 6 years (since I am ~24y), but only once every day and it often happens that i don't take it at all (1 or 2 days a week that I dont take it).

 

Hair loss process:

Initially, the hair loss began in the front area when the hair was thinned out. Over the years the hair has thinned out more and more towards the back. But my hairline is still there. In the rear area everything seems to be tight and I do not notice any problems. The crown of hair is a bit thinned as you can see. The crown of hair currently bothers me the least or not at all. If it gets more over the years, then it will definitely bother me more but currently it's more about the upper / front area.

• So far, I have been able to conceal the hair well with stray hair, but it is slowly becoming more difficult at the front.

 

Doctors contacted:

I have not yet contacted a doctor but I'll contact a few doctors soon. Dr. Demirsoy sounds good because I found his results good and I've read a lot of positive things about him. Of course I will contact several doctors.

• My budget is a bit limited, around 5000€.

 

My questions:

• How do you rate my hair situation?
• Am I well suited for HT or rather bad?
• How many grafts do you think I would need to get a nice result?
• Can you particularly recommend certain doctors for my budget?
• I am happy for any further information / advice from you

 

In some photos I let in extra light, but in real life the rear area looks pretty dense. The first photo is my actually hair with some stray hair which i use.

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by mksnvn

[digi23]

Well you should get on Finasteride instead of Minoxidil or a combination. Finasteride everyday not skipping days. 

The difference between Finasteride and Minoxidil is that Minoxidil is NO blocker to DHT which really is the most important thing, so if you would have taken Finasteride instead of Minoxidil for all these years you probably have had lots more hair, but I dont know who recommended Minoxidil for you and its no point in looking back at what you should have done now. You are still in a good position since you still have lots of hair left.

You could start with the front region which is maybe 3500-4000 grafts depending how low you want the hairline to be. 

The crown looks pretty good to me, you dont need to do anything as of now, Finasteride could also help to thicken it up.

Dr Demirsoy is a good choice if you are on a budget. Dr Bicer is also another. Demirsoy charge 1,25 euro per graft so that would be somewhere around 4375-5000 euros. Bicer would be a little bit more as she is 1,50 euro per graft.

[Portugal25]

@mksnvn you are evolving to Norwood 6 and the very few hairs you have in the front and midscalp won’t last long without Finasteride. Your donor area is diffuse meaning it’s not great. 

You should start taking Finasteride 3x/week to stop your hairloss and strengthen your donor area for at least 6 months before going ahead with your surgery. 
Minoxidil has very little impact on stopping your hairloss because it simply promotes blood flow contributing to accelerating hair growth (it’s a “nice to have”).

In order to rebuild your frontal hairline and get a nice density on your miscalp and crown you should be looking at +5000 grafts. Your crown could be rebuilt with beard grafts mixed with scalp grafts. 

You can do this surgery either in a mega session all at once with the Kings of FUE+BHT mega sessions Dr. Arika and Dr. Sethi at Eugenix. Other option is to do two separate FUE surgeries 4-6 months apart, the first surgery +3000 grafts to rebuild the frontal hairline and the second surgery to rebuild the midscalp and crown. For this second option the most affordable Doctors I would advise you are Dr. Ximena Vila, Dr. Bruno Pinto and Dr. Bruno Ferreira.
I don’t recommend Demirsoy considering you are NW6 with a week donor and possibly miniaturized hairs.

You can check prices on my table below: 

Go to the Spanish forum to see dozens real patients posting their results with Dr. Bruno Pinto and Dr. Ximena Vila.

Wish you all the best! 

Edited October 10, 2021 by Portugal25

[Melvin- Admin]

It’s never a good idea to choose surgeons based on cost, if you can’t afford surgery, don’t get one. The biggest mistake is choosing a surgeon because you can afford them, not because of their results. 

[Britanium]

Consider introducing Fin after discussing with your own Dr. But as mentioned don’t base a transplant on cost. It’s well with saving up to afford the clinic that’s going to suit your needs. Again as has been said already, Eugenix is very capable with the higher Norwood levels such as yourself. They will ask your on Fin though, at least 6 months to a year before a transplant can be considered.

Edited October 11, 2021 by JohnAC71

[Portugal25]

@Tako81so you joined HRN a few minutes ago and the first post you write is to recommend a low cost Doctor…

Please clarify why you had to join HRN to say Demirsoy is a perfectly good choice for diffuse NW6 with weak donor area as I’m sure @Melvin- Moderatoris very interested in your opinion. 

[mksnvn]

Thank you first for your answers.

I don't want to take finasteride because the side effects put me off. I considered it at the beginning, but ultimately decided against it.

Yes, I understand, I shouldn't choose a doctor because of the budget.

• If the budget wasn't a factor, would it make sense to do an HT now or should I definitely wait? because the hair loss is still slowly going on.
• That means I should definitely need 4000+ grafts? Or are the pictures perhaps too badly photographed?

The pictures are all made with flashlight. in the coming days i will maybe upload new photos that were taken during the day.

I wouldn't have rated my donor area so badly, as it looks pretty dense - to me.

• Does my donation area look that bad?

Thank you very much for the contributions. the forum here is really helpful.

Edited October 11, 2021 by mksnvn

[Portugal25]

@mksnvn you are very young so you can expect your hairloss to progress rapidly until your 40s. 
If you refuse to take Finasteride some Doctors that are more cautious and care a lot about the long term benefits for their patients will most likely refuse you as patient. 

Surely hairmills and low cost Doctors will have no problem in taking your money but Doctors that have a reputation to keep will have a more cautious approach. 

Don’t take pictures without flashing because it makes it impossible to check your donor and hairloss. 

I advise you to reach out to Dr. Arika at Eugenix and Dr. Bruno Ferreira because he is known at HRN to give very detailed analysis of your pictures and propose the best long term strategy (might not be what you want to hear).

Wish you all the best.

[JDEE0]

I think your donor area looks pretty good, but there does seem to be a fairly large patch of thinner or more see through hair right at the back covering the occipital region. This seems like somewhat of an issue if it's not the flash/camera playing tricks. Apart from that, you have a lower density above the ears, but that's fairly common and isn't a huge issue.

However, without meds you shouldn't really be getting a HT right now. Bad idea. 

[Z--]

2 hours ago, Portugal25 said:

@mksnvn you are very young so you can expect your hairloss to progress rapidly until your 40s. 
If you refuse to take Finasteride some Doctors that are more cautious and care a lot about the long term benefits for their patients will most likely refuse you as patient. 

Surely hairmills and low cost Doctors will have no problem in taking your money but Doctors that have a reputation to keep will have a more cautious approach. 

Don’t take pictures without flashing because it makes it impossible to check your donor and hairloss. 

I advise you to reach out to Dr. Arika at Eugenix and Dr. Bruno Ferreira because he is known at HRN to give very detailed analysis of your pictures and propose the best long term strategy (might not be what you want to hear).

Wish you all the best.

This is exactly correct. All of the ethical doctors I'd spoken to would either (i) propose doing less than 3k grafts (not one agreed to more, and I'm in a worse situation than you) or (ii) would outright reject me until later. 

I would be super cautious if you're going to proceed without Fin. Unfortunately, for many of us, that is the reality we have to live with (as I cannot take it either).

[Berba11]

14 hours ago, mksnvn said:

Thank you first for your answers.

I don't want to take finasteride because the side effects put me off. I considered it at the beginning, but ultimately decided against it.

Yes, I understand, I shouldn't choose a doctor because of the budget.

• If the budget wasn't a factor, would it make sense to do an HT now or should one definitely wait? because the hair loss is still slowly going on.
• That means I should definitely need 4000+ grafts? Or are the pictures perhaps too badly photographed?

The pictures are all made with flashlight. in the coming days i will maybe upload new photos that were taken during the day.

I wouldn't have rated my donor area so badly, as it looks pretty dense - to me.

• Does my donation area look that bad?

Thank you very much for the contributions. the forum here is really helpful.

If you've never taken finasteride, why would the possible side effects put you off at least trying it? Most guys are fine on it, and if you don't get bad sides, just stop taking it.

Unless you give it a go you'll never know.