20 years old boy: receding hairline

[TimsHairStory]

Hey folks,

I’m 20 years old and I noticed about 1,5 years ago, that my hairline starts to recedes. I think it is because of my father, whose hairs started to recede really early as well.

1 year ago I started to look how I can get rid off it get my hairline back when I was a young teenager. 
It is very important to me, to have a very youngish boy like face, for me it is too early to look like an (old) man.

Thats why I want this hairline back. Currently I have a side cut with longer, curly hairs (got my hairs permed by a hair dresser)) on top. That helps me a little bit to conceal this ugly empty spaces on the sides, but just a little gust of wind is enough to reveal the receding hairline 🥺

i started taking propecia about 5 months ago, I don’t see any changes yet but I hope it will stop the hair loss for the next years at least. But I need something NOW! Every day my hairline comes in my mind and I just want to get rid off it now. Nevertheless I don’t have any side effects so I will take it till the end of my life or I decide to go bald.

I’m a little bit afraid if it is bad when I start with a transplantation so early, but at the same time I know this won’t be my last hair transplantation and I read about this FUE method which is suitable for younger people. 
what do you think about it? 
 

oh and one thing I noticed when I see people who are positing their result from hair transplantation: in many cases the surgeries transplants the hairs in a design, which doesn’t fill the receded hairline completely, why is that? It goes more like a triangle and very sharp to the forehead. I thought the goal of a hair transplantation is to get rid of the receded hairline? (See the last picture where I showed you what I mean by an example)
 

the first picture is like 5-6 years ago when I was like 14, and the other pictures are from now. How many grafts do you think I need to get my hairline back?🥺

Edited March 6, 2022 by TimsHairStory

[Gatsby]

You need to give finasteride a good 12 months at least before making a conclusion. If it stabilizers your hair then you're fine. Surgery at your age however is a non event for a heap of reasons.

[TimsHairStory]

@Gatsby I read a lot about that it is not a good idea to do that when you are young. But why is that? Is it just because I need to do more hair transplantations when I get older? But that isn’t a big problem, is it? And what alternatives are there when it doesn’t stabilize after 12 months?

[Ajamilo]

Oral minoxidil can regrowth a lot of hairs. Have seen people jump a lot of norwoods with that drug. If you want to achieve the norwood 1 without surgery you should take it and give it 6 -7 month

[Gatsby]

4 minutes ago, TimsHairStory said:

@Gatsby I read a lot about that it is not a good idea to do that when you are young. But why is that? Is it just because I need to do more hair transplantations when I get older? But that isn’t a big problem, is it? And what alternatives are there when it doesn’t stabilize after 12 months?

Tim you need to do a lot more research before you consider life altering surgery and surgery is always a last option when it comes to hair loss. You have a lot of hair to potentially lose and now is the time to prevent this under a doctor's guidance with finasteride. I mention this because you have posted that you have taken finasteride before for five months with no side effects and stopped because you didn't see any change? Why would you stop this then if it can prevent you from having multiple surgeries to 'try' and replicate what you currently have (not to mention the ten's of thousands of dollars and more you will have to spend)?

[Gatsby]

4 minutes ago, Ajamilo said:

Oral minoxidil can regrowth a lot of hairs. Have seen people jump a lot of norwoods with that drug. If you want to achieve the norwood 1 without surgery you should take it and give it 6 -7 month

This ^

[TimsHairStory]

@Gatsby No, i didn’t stop taking Finasterid.

46 minutes ago, TimsHairStory said:

Nevertheless I don’t have any side effects so I will take it till the end of my life or I decide to go bald.

 

23 minutes ago, Ajamilo said:

Oral minoxidil can regrowth a lot of hairs.

I really would love to try Oral minoxidil additionally, but unfortunately in Germany you can only buy minoxidil as a solution or foam (Regaine/Rogaine) you apply in your skin/hair, which I don’t like because my skin is pretty sensitive. 
where do you live so you can buy oral minoxidil? 
I just researched a little bit more and I found out that in Germany we actually have oral minoxidil (“Loniten”), but it is prescribed usually for high blood pressure only. I’ll ask my doctor if he can prescribe it to me nevertheless 

Edited March 6, 2022 by TimsHairStory

[Britanium]

The issue with early hair loss is firstly doing everything you can to retain what you have. Fin/Minox will help most people retain, some will see improvement doing both. Others also introduce Microneedling with varying degrees of success. 
Just about all of the decent/ethical clinics wont consider you until your at least 25. Mostly because they need to see how your hair loss develops. We all have a finite donor supply, if you face early hair loss then it needs to be planned wisely. Say you have around 7k worth of grafts, 2 hair transplants and thats gone. When you see hair transplants and the new hair line its because its done not just for now, but for the future. Nobody has enough hair to recreate what they have lost. And chasing a very youthful hairline involves using a lot of grafts. If your already facing loss at 20 then you have to plan accordingly. Rebuilding a frontal third can take 3k grafts upwards. If you stay on fin and retain then after a few years a clinic would more than likely accept you. Just be careful, a less ethical clinic would just say yes and just be wanting your money. 

[Ajamilo]

46 minutes ago, TimsHairStory said:

@Gatsby No, i didn’t stop taking Finasterid.

 

I really would love to try Oral minoxidil additionally, but unfortunately in Germany you can only buy minoxidil as a solution or foam (Regaine/Rogaine) you apply in your skin/hair, which I don’t like because my skin is pretty sensitive. 
where do you live so you can buy oral minoxidil? 
I just researched a little bit more and I found out that in Germany we actually have oral minoxidil (“Loniten”), but it is prescribed usually for high blood pressure only. I’ll ask my doctor if he can prescribe it to me nevertheless 

The thing is that Finasteride will preserve your hair and nothing else at most. this is really good since that means you will have this hair in 10+ years and not loose it.

You can get the oral minoxidil from other website without prescription. Just send me pm and i will give you some alternative on it

[Gokuhairline]

yes this is signs of recession...at this rate in a few years those frontal vellus hairs will not grow back....its up to you if you want to have hair transplant but you will likely need another one by the time you are 27-30. your decision.

[Mountinvan]

Hey young dude. Do not worry. While it s*ks to have to deal with the issue especially at your age, let me give you some very good positives: (1) you have this Forum and the caring community. Melvin, the moderator, has been there and done it--and all told this is a great source of good, experienced advice; and (2) you have  alot of hair--it will be a very long time before it be cosmetically unmanageable especially with the medications we have; and (3) oral minox is a great option plus you have topicals like fin or dut (these were not around in the days when I started to have to wrestle with this; and (4) there are new things coming along every day like dermarolling and laser...and there will undoubetdly be a whole more by the time you reach your 30's; and (5) hair transplants really do work, but you have to be very careful on picking the surgeon---quality matters---and it is all in the artistry (Melvin and others can steer you--don't skimp on cost when the time comes--and it won't come before you are 27 according to the pros)--but hold off-- try meds and rolling and laser (if you want).....stall the loss....use a good DHT blocking shampoo....and you just might be amazed!  Cheer up...enjoy being young.

[NARMAK]

You need to stay on Finasteride and probably add in Microneedling 1x a week at 1-1.5mm and use Nizoral shampoo with 2% ketoconazole. You could if you were willing to keep the routine up start applying topical Minoxidil just to the frontal hairline area and Microneedling there to try get regrowth. It's not 100% guaranteed to be up front. 

The bottom line is like you probably but even worse i had my temple points completely recede and it aged me. You still look to have yours and the frontal hairline loss doesn't seem to have significantly altered things at present. 

So stick with Finasteride and maybe add the rest and see how you get on till you're 25. If you can prove you haven't lost any further then you could probably get away with asking for a more youthful lower hairline from where you area providing you realise the risk. 

That said, usually asking for a hairline like you had at 14/15 probably won't age as well when you turn 50 and that's important because you will spend more time looking older than younger and you don't want to look like a weird old man with a kids hairline either. 

[Karma Emma]

23 hours ago, TimsHairStory said:

Hey folks,

I’m 20 years old and I noticed about 1,5 years ago, that my hairline starts to recedes. I think it is because of my father, whose hairs started to recede really early as well.

1 year ago I started to look how I can get rid off it get my hairline back when I was a young teenager. 
It is very important to me, to have a very youngish boy like face, for me it is too early to look like an (old) man.

Thats why I want this hairline back. Currently I have a side cut with longer, curly hairs (got my hairs permed by a hair dresser)) on top. That helps me a little bit to conceal this ugly empty spaces on the sides, but just a little gust of wind is enough to reveal the receding hairline 🥺

i started taking propecia about 5 months ago, I don’t see any changes yet but I hope it will stop the hair loss for the next years at least. But I need something NOW! Every day my hairline comes in my mind and I just want to get rid off it now. Nevertheless I don’t have any side effects so I will take it till the end of my life or I decide to go bald.

I’m a little bit afraid if it is bad when I start with a transplantation so early, but at the same time I know this won’t be my last hair transplantation and I read about this FUE method which is suitable for younger people. 
what do you think about it? 
 

oh and one thing I noticed when I see people who are positing their result from hair transplantation: in many cases the surgeries transplants the hairs in a design, which doesn’t fill the receded hairline completely, why is that? It goes more like a triangle and very sharp to the forehead. I thought the goal of a hair transplantation is to get rid of the receded hairline? (See the last picture where I showed you what I mean by an example)
 

the first picture is like 5-6 years ago when I was like 14, and the other pictures are from now. How many grafts do you think I need to get my hairline back?🥺

 

[Karma Emma]

Hey @TimsHairStory  I have read about FUE. It is a hair transplant technique that involves removing individual hair follicles from your skin and transplanting them to an area of your body where hair is weaker or nonexistent. But I think you are very young for this treatment. 

According to experts, young men in their early 20s may not be the best candidates for hair restoration surgery. There are many other ways you can stop a receding hairline.

[Dillpickle123]

Start taking finasteride first it’ll stop any more hair loss from occurring unfortunately it’s gonna be tough to regrow bald areas stay on fin for at least a year the re access 

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

If the supply is greater than the demand, as long as you’re going to an outstanding surgeon with a proven track record of producing excellent results, there are any problems. You’ll get the head of hair you wantTim,

Welcome to the hair restoration discussion forum.  At 20 years of young age, you’ve very likely only just started losing your hair. Those who begin to lose hair at young ages often but not always experience advanced degrees of balding as they get older.   Because of this and because a young person‘s expectations are usually very high as they don’t really understand what surgical hair reservation can abs can’t even accomplish, Surgical hair restoration is not usually performed on men under 25 years of age. Don’t get me wrong, there are certain exceptions to be made, But at the end of the day,  an ethical surgeon will always do what’s best for the patient.

Truthfully, I would take quite some time to learn all about hair transplant surgery, what it can and can’t accomplish, it’s benefits, limitations and risks associated with surgery and about the Best doctors that truly provide state of the art hair transplant surgery they’re not standing success rate. 

Because donor hair (hair on the sides and back of the scalp that’s moved to the top of the head, called the recipient area where baldness and thinning hair exists) Is limited in nature, there’s only so much a doctor can do to provide their patience with truly dense and natural looking results.

Hair surgeries are about supply versus demand.  Ultimately this means that there is a limit as to how much one has.  If the supply is greater than the demand, as long as you’re going to an outstanding surgeon with a proven track record of producing excellent results, there aren’t any problems. You’ll get the head of hair you want.  However, if the demand is greater than the supply, a doctor Hass to be very careful and strategic as to where grafts are being placed so that you can get the best results even though you’ll never be able to achieve receiving a full head of hair again. Also, since hair loss is progressive, the demand may increase over the years so it’s important that a doctor and patient discuss long-term hair restoration goals and not just plan for the short term.

I hope this information helps you in someway

Rahal Hair Transplant 

[Sean]

Hey Tim, this reminds me of me when starting my journey.  Try meds for a full year first to see how they respond.  And if you can tolerate them, continue to take them.  I would not recommend surgery based on experience.  I ended up being scarred and my goals were not addressed and it was utter failure.  My loss wasn’t even that bad in the beginning but getting a lot of grafts in a frontal zone and what not led to issues.

My frontal area may have been similar to yours and i wish I can turn back time but now left hanging trying to get repaired due to false promises.  If you ever want to see it in person and in NY/NJ area, I am willing to show you exactly the issues and breakdowns. 

 Oh and it doesnt matter how much supply you have.  You can be told you have more than 10,000 grafts in your donor, but if done wrong, then it doesn’t make things better and you can have density losses in your donor that look bad even when you get a fade.