Is a good Transplant even a possibility for me ?

[marvhairloss]

Hey guys,

Completely new here, read some threads here and there especially on surgeries, and how people effectively halted their hairloss through medication. I am a bit on the end of my wits if I am honest with my case.

I am a 27 year old male and have been balding heavily (or noticed then) since I was 25, probably earlier too. I am on 1mg oral finasteride (a day), and minoxidil applied twice a day, for two years now (since November of 2019, roughly). I also started to include a Ketaconazole (spelling ?) shampoo for a month or so now, but I guess thats just dressing and doesnt seem to change much so far. Ill be honest, nothing helped me, my thinning and hairloss has only gotten worse over the last two years. I shaved my head like 3 times very short in that timeframe, and the hair always came back more sparse, and thin, so I know nothing helped. I am probably looking at a Norwood VI, probably VII, looking at my father who was completely bald by 26 already.

Since last year I contemplated a hairtransplant, but seeing as my balding doesnt stop and seems to encompass all my scalp, I have little hope left for that either and feel I am destined to be completely bald for the rest of my life, which honestly depresses me greatly. Id like to hear your guys advise what I could do more, I thought about getting RU58841 to combat topical androgens, but its hard to get in Germany, especially stuff that I can seem to trust. Else I am out of options to combat my hairloss, I think.

So any advise, on my chances of a sucessful hairtransplant, what I could realistically hope for, or fear, stopping hairloss, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance :).

Below some pics to show how its progressed, even in a short time frame, and how its looking now and in general at different lengths. The horseshoe already is there.

March 2021, Normal

March 2021, Wet

June 2021, Shaved

June 2021, a bit more grown in

November 2021, Normal

November 2021, Wet

Edited November 27, 2021 by marvhairloss

[Gatsby]

At 27 and after two years of finasteride have you considered and are you able to get access to topical dutasteride? This may make a difference in stabilizing your hair loss. That aside at 27 it appears that you have aggressive MPB in the past two or so years. I'm not a doctor but it would be worth looking at clinics like Eugenix and others like those in Belgium like Dr Bisanga and a host of other surgeons to get their appraisal on your hair loss. Have a look at the recommended surgeons listed by the forum and I wish you all the best.

[marvhairloss]

22 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

At 27 and after two years of finasteride have you considered and are you able to get access to topical dutasteride? This may make a difference in stabilizing your hair loss. That aside at 27 it appears that you have aggressive MPB in the past two or so years. I'm not a doctor but it would be worth looking at clinics like Eugenix and others like those in Belgium like Dr Bisanga and a host of other surgeons to get their appraisal on your hair loss. Have a look at the recommended surgeons listed by the forum and I wish you all the best.

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

I havent looked how I could get my hands on topical dut, or even considered it with other options available but I see it gets recommended a lot here. I would have to look it up but it would probably be a grey market purchase, and a very pricey one, same as RU58841 etc. I am held off on contacting anyone because I wanted to stabilize my hairloss first, but seeing as nothings working so far I must question if its even worth getting a hairtransplant, but youre right, maybe a professional can give me a good assessment. I thought about the two often recommended docs in Belgium, Bisanga and another gentleman with B, due to closeness and quality of work.

And yeah my hairloss is super aggressive, my fathers a NW 6 or 7 I think, so I am a bit in dire straits.

Thanks again.

[digi23]

3 hours ago, marvhairloss said:

Hey guys,

Completely new here, read some threads here and there especially on surgeries, and how people effectively halted their hairloss through medication. I am a bit on the end of my wits if I am honest with my case.

I am a 27 year old male and have been balding heavily (or noticed then) since I was 25, probably earlier too. I am on 1mg oral finasteride (a day), and minoxidil applied twice a day, for two years now (since November of 2019, roughly). I also started to include a Ketaconazole (spelling ?) shampoo for a month or so now, but I guess thats just dressing and doesnt seem to change much so far. Ill be honest, nothing helped me, my thinning and hairloss has only gotten worse over the last two years. I shaved my head like 3 times very short in that timeframe, and the hair always came back more sparse, and thin, so I know nothing helped. I am probably looking at a Norwood VI, probably VII, looking at my father who was completely bald by 26 already.

Since last year I contemplated a hairtransplant, but seeing as my balding doesnt stop and seems to encompass all my scalp, I have little hope left for that either and feel I am destined to be completely bald for the rest of my life, which honestly depresses me greatly. Id like to hear your guys advise what I could do more, I thought about getting RU58841 to combat topical androgens, but its hard to get in Germany, especially stuff that I can seem to trust. Else I am out of options to combat my hairloss, I think.

So any advise, on my chances of a sucessful hairtransplant, what I could realistically hope for, or fear, stopping hairloss, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance :).

Below some pics to show how its progressed, even in a short time frame, and how its looking now and in general at different lengths. The horseshoe already is there.

March 2021, Normal

March 2021, Wet

June 2021, Shaved

June 2021, a bit more grown in

November 2021, Normal

November 2021, Wet

Its good to stabilise first before you go through with a transplant. I cannot see your crown really but it looks like you might be NW5, which potentially can be reversed even without medication which is positive in your case, but as always its good to be on medication to slow down the loss. You could also as @Gatsby is saying, try change to Dutasteride to see if it stabilise the loss.

[marvhairloss]

37 minutes ago, digi23 said:

Its good to stabilise first before you go through with a transplant. I cannot see your crown really but it looks like you might be NW5, which potentially can be reversed even without medication which is positive in your case, but as always its good to be on medication to slow down the loss. You could also as @Gatsby is saying, try change to Dutasteride to see if it stabilise the loss.

Isnt my crown quite visible in the third pic, or am I misunderstanding the term ? Do you mean the donor area ?

Reversed without medication, you mean through a hairtransplant ? I think I am very dependend on medication because of the severe diffuse thinning I suffer, if I stopped Id probably be slick bald in a year or less. Even on fin and min I am experiencing sheds, atm I feel like every week I look worse, without anything having changed in my regimen apart from the Nizoral shampoo, and that I am using for a month now.

Yeah I have to see about the dutasteride, due to it being topical and not in the bloodstream, it should work well for me because I am lacking an topical anti-androgen ? I heard stories of dudes taking oral dut which catapulted their scalp DHT and test and they experienced an even faster hairloss.

Thanks I hope I can find a solution for this problem here, my hairloss has been a really harrowing experience for me.

[digi23]

8 minutes ago, marvhairloss said:

Isnt my crown quite visible in the third pic, or am I misunderstanding the term ? Do you mean the donor area ?

Reversed without medication, you mean through a hairtransplant ? I think I am very dependend on medication because of the severe diffuse thinning I suffer, if I stopped Id probably be slick bald in a year or less. Even on fin and min I am experiencing sheds, atm I feel like every week I look worse, without anything having changed in my regimen apart from the Nizoral shampoo, and that I am using for a month now.

Yeah I have to see about the dutasteride, due to it being topical and not in the bloodstream, it should work well for me because I am lacking an topical anti-androgen ? I heard stories of dudes taking oral dut which catapulted their scalp DHT and test and they experienced an even faster hairloss.

Thanks I hope I can find a solution for this problem here, my hairloss has been a really harrowing experience for me.

Yes I can see the crown from the front but not from the donor area, with Norwood 6 or 7 the crown dips low into the donor. Norwood 5 can be solved without medication if you have a decent donor, needs about 6500 grafts. The problem will be if you go further to Norwood 6 or even 7.

Do you experience hairs on your pillow when you wake up or how do you know that it is still aggressive hair loss?

From just looking at your photos I think March 2021 and November 2021 looks about equal. What can be seen is different lightning in the photo and possibly longer hair in March which makes it look like more loss in November.

Edited November 27, 2021 by digi23

[marvhairloss]

11 minutes ago, digi23 said:

Yes I can see the crown from the front but not from the donor area, with Norwood 6 or 7 the crown dips low into the donor. Norwood 5 can be solved without medication if you have a decent donor, needs about 6500 grafts. The problem will be if you go further to Norwood 6 or even 7.

Do you experience hairs on your pillow when you wake up or how do you know that it is still aggressive hair loss?

From just looking at your photos I think March 2021 and November 2021 looks about equal. What can be seen is different lightning in the photo and possibly longer hair in March which makes it look like more loss in November.

Ah right, Ill try to see if I have pics of my donor area, later in the evening. Also I hope my thread is in the right category haha. I think atm I have a 5 but I think my dads is lower and I might experience thinning there too then.

More on the side of my pillow ,on the mattress, but I have anywhere from 2 to 10 hairs after applying min on my scalp on my fingers, or while showering for example. Also they fall out easily when I just shake my head, especially after applied I minoxidil. Sometimes I think I dont react so well to the alcohol vehicle in the mixture. Also I can see it visually atm, that it seems to get worse by the week. Maybe longer hair makes it more apparent. But I definetely noticed more thinning in the midscalp and crown area for example.

Yeah they look about the same but the midscalp and front hair is definetly still miniaturizing because they dont get as long anymore, especially if compared to the rest of my hair.

Edited November 27, 2021 by marvhairloss

[digi23]

4 minutes ago, marvhairloss said:

Ah right, Ill try to see if I have pics of my donor area, later in the evening. Also I hope my thread is in the right category haha. I think atm I have a 5 then, but I think my dads is lower and I might experience thinning there too then.

More on the side of my pillow on the mattress, but I have anywhere from 2 to 10 hairs after applying min on my scalp on my fingers, or while showering. Also they fall out easily when I just shake my head, especially after applied minoxidil. Sometimes I think I dont react so well to the alcohol vehicle in the mixture. Also I can see it visually atm, that it seems to get worse by the week. Maybe longer hair makes it more apparent. But I definetely noticed more thinning in the midscalp and crown area for example.

Yeah they look about the same but the midscalp and front hair is definetly still miniaturizing because they dont get as long anymore, especially if compared to the rest of my hair.

It is normal to shed about 100 hairs per day. Here you can see Norwood 5A is what I see in your photos. 

[marvhairloss]

57 minutes ago, digi23 said:

It is normal to shed about 100 hairs per day. Here you can see Norwood 5A is what I see in your photos. 

Yeah, but I think I shed more than that, its extremely sensitive to the touch on top, and prone to fall out quickly. As opposed to the sides for example.

Thanks for the pic, often these norwood scale pics are not representative for people with diffuse thinning, as in its already all gone on the pics, and sometimes hard to picture. I think I am a nw 5a as you said, atleast for the moment haha. Shit sucks.

Have some of you made experiences with RU588441 opposed to topical dutasteride ? I think I can get the latter only through the fue clinic, which is no problem because I want to contact them anyways, but its always good to have multiple options.

Edited November 27, 2021 by marvhairloss

[digi23]

1 hour ago, marvhairloss said:

Yeah, but I think I shed more than that, its extremely sensitive to the touch on top, and prone to fall out quickly. As opposed to the sides for example.

Thanks for the pic, often these norwood scale pics are not representative for people with diffuse thinning, as in its already all gone on the pics, and sometimes hard to picture. I think I am a nw 5a as you said, atleast for the moment haha. Shit sucks.

Have some of you made experiences with  RU 588441 opposed to topical dutasteride ? I think I can get the latter only through the fue clinic, which is no problem because I want to contact them anyways, but its always good to have multiple options.

Well you are going for NW5A rather than being it for the moment, since you got alot of hair still, even though you are losing it in a diffuse way it is where it looks like you will end up in 5+ years. It is good that you have been on Finasteride, I think without it it could have gone quick.

I dont have any experience of RU588441, but you can search here on the forum and see.

Edited November 27, 2021 by digi23

[Berba11]

Your hair loss and calibre reminds me a little of @Rolandaswho has had two excellent surgeries with Dr Bruno of Portugal. 

[marvhairloss]

On 11/27/2021 at 2:48 PM, digi23 said:

Well you are going for NW5A rather than being it for the moment, since you got alot of hair still, even though you are losing it in a diffuse way it is where it looks like you will end up in 5+ years. It is good that you have been on Finasteride, I think without it it could have gone quick.

I dont have any experience of RU588441, but you can search here on the forum and see.

Sorry for the late replies. I actually think I am going on a norwood 6, as my donor area is being attacked too. Its hard to tell but maybe the pic its better to see. And yes, I probably would have been bald by now without it.

On 11/28/2021 at 1:42 PM, Berba11 said:

Your hair loss and calibre reminds me a little of @Rolandaswho has had two excellent surgeries with Dr Bruno of Portugal. 

Thank you, yeah kind of similar at a quick glance but his donor area isnt affected.

If you look at the pic, you can see how the sparseness continues down below the whirl of the crown.

Edit: I have made another pic with hair which is wetted because of minoxidil. You can see how far the balding goes there, sorry its hard to make good pics of your donor on your own haha.

 

Edited December 1, 2021 by marvhairloss

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

Stabilizing your hair loss is typically a good idea prior to undergoing hair transplant surgery however, some people just aren’t able to no matter what nonsurgical treatments they try.  Assuming that nonsurgical treatment don’t work, you may be headed towards a Norwood 5 to Norwood 6 classification of hair loss.

Whether or not you’re a good candidate for hair transplant surgery will depend largely on your donor area and your goals. If your goal is to re-create a full head of hair, you are likely not a candidate. If your goal is to restore as much hair as possible to the balding/bald areas that will eventually develop & recreate a thin but natural look, then you may be a candidate.  I suggest consulting with a few expert physicians to discuss your situation and options.

Rahal Hair Transplant