New to hair restoration...

[William Oakley]

Hi... So in 2014, I was in a car accident. Long story short, the drugs pumped into me, I lost hair near the back of my head. It's been a while now, and it's clear the hair isn't growing back by itself. The rest of my hair is quite thick and can get curly, and my dad is 61 and he has a full head of hari that's quite thick, which I think is what I inherited.

So, I'm wondering now what I should do in order to try to restore the hair. I tried some of the over the counter rogaine stuff but it didnt' really work. I live in the Raleigh-Durham area (North Carolina) and i made an appointment through the Duke system to see a dermatologist... that's set up June 2022...

Just looking for advice. Are there other treatments that would work for this case that should be tried first? Can I see a general physician for something perscription based?

Thanks in advance.

[Melvin- Admin]

Can you share pictures? Are you saying you have a scar now where you used to have hair?

[Britanium]

Definitely show some pics please ? Good you have a dermatologist appt. Maybe a small transplant would help. 

[William Oakley]

Oh, sorry, I should have done that... 

Here's a photo of the area... I'm really embarrassed by it and only recently have been of financial stability to possibly be able to do something about it. If you need more let me know, but this is it with a recent haircut.

[gillenator]

How old are you?…although your father has his hair, what about your mother’s side?

At first, it sounded like the hair loss was due to the accident with damage to the scalp tissue, scarring alopecia, etc…and I thought the injury would be in the donor (occipital) zone.

But clearly based on the pics, your hair loss is in your crown (post-terior), and the outer edges show a diffused pattern, thus, IMHO, it’s MPB.

Please share a photo of your frontal third so we can see your hairline…just curious to see how that area looks.

The good thing is that the accident did not hurt you severely.

 

[gillenator]

I apologize, I read your first post and you did not say your scalp was injured rather you are wondering if the drugs that were administered is the cause of this area of hair loss?…is that correct?

[JDEE0]

I don't mean to discount what happened with your accident or anything, but I see a lot of this sort of thing where people seem to just want to avoid accepting that they have MPB/genetic hair loss and attribute it to external factors. I think it's overwhelmingly likely that this is the result of exactly that - MPB - and not anything to do with your accident or the drugs they gave you. I could be wrong of course (I'd be extremely surprised if I was looking at your pics as it's a classic presentation) but if you could tell us what drugs they were it would help to rule it out.

Also, genetics are incredibly complex, hair loss comes from both your mother and father, the genes of which came from their parents and so on, and it's very common for genes to skip generations. So it really doesn't matter if your dad is a NW0 or not is my point.

[Britanium]

Your hair looks like it’s MPB. You could have a transplant and yes it would be good to see other pics ! 

[gillenator]

Pics of the frontal third.

[William Oakley]

Oh I'm terribly sorry, I haven't responded to this thread when I even started. That is my fault and I deeply apologize. Let me give a bit more background:

1) 31, accident happened at 24. My family can confirm that after the surgery (broke my leg that it needed a metal rod in it to reinforce it) that a lot of hair came out during the time at the hospital, though it could have been due to the trauma of the accident itself. 

2) I was curious about possibly drugs, but my family said I was initially one one of the opiods before being taken off of it due to hallucinations and onto some other painkiller... starts with a T...

Long story short: I'm wondering if it's not too late to try a hair transplant (or maybe just stronger stuff than over the counter medicine?). My appointment isn't until next year in June so I have quite a lot of time to consider options.

 

Photos are front third, then moving back then spot than the rear of head. If more photos are needed please let me know.

[aaron1234]

A traumatic event can trigger a genetic predisposition for MPB.  I would make an appointment with Dr. Cooley if you are in NC.  

[gillenator]

Thanks for sharing the additional pics...yes, it's possible that the trauma from the accident induced some significant shedding and as Aaron stated, could have also triggered MPB that started in your crown....the thing is, some guys start losing their hair in the crown first and over time will progress to other areas of the scalp.

You are still young at 31 and have lots of hair and your frontal zone looks good, so anything that you can do to save that hair mass is important.

The pain medication that they switched you to was probably Tramadol which is a non-opiate based pain killer.

[William Oakley]

Ok, thanks. I sent an online thing to Dr. Cooley, haven't heard back from him (not quite a week yet), but I'll keep that in mine. 

[gillenator]

The good thing is that you have lots of potential…it appears that you have a good donor supply so just know there is light 💡 at the end of the tunnel.