About to turn 25, looking to get a procedure done with Hasson and Wong for my hairline, looking for advice.

[recedingblonde]

Quick backstory: I first noticed my hairline receding when I was around 21-22 at the end of college. I pulled my hair back and noticed my temples were much deeper than I remember them being. Here's aphoto from when I first noticed. From this angle it looks pretty bad.

I was shocked because I have absolutely no history of hairloss in my family whatsoever on either side. My 90 Year old grandpa is a Norwood 1 to this day. So I panicked and immediately started looking for solutions. At the age of 22 I got on finasteride and have been ever since. No side effects.

Here's a photo from when I started taking the medication. I didn't recover much with it, mostly just stabilization as far as I can tell, although some days I wonder if my hairline has gotten thinner than it used to be, but it's really hard to tell. When I was 22, I had a consult with Hasson and Wong, and was actually approved for a surgery of 1500 grafts to the hairline, but I ended up backing out of it, one because covid made crossing the border a nightmare, and two because I wanted to wait until the recommended age of 25 to see how my pattern progressed. Well 25 is about to come around now, and I'm considering again whether or not I should go forward with it, because as it stands, I'm near constantly fiddling with my hair, checking mirrors, etc. to make sure everything looks okay. When I style my hair just right I can pass it off as somewhat decent, but it doesn't seem to stay styled that way for long. I'm going to post some comparison shots of when I first had my consultation and now, to get a second opinion.

Original consult photos:

So this was about 3 years ago now. Here's what we're working with now. 

 

It's mainly the thinness that's digging in on the right side that I'd like to address. That side seemed to get hit worse than the left. I know my situation could be way worse, but I still feel like having the thinned out corners is driving me crazy, and if I could just get them patched up I would be happy. I even discussed with Dr. Wong about keeping some recession to have a more mature look that will age well, as well as not doing any lowering from the central forelock whatsoever, because I know that later down the line I might need to do more procedures to fill in any gaps if finasteride doesn't stop my hairloss completely. I also realize my donor area isn't as stellar as some others I've seen, so I'm willing to opt for FUT for more graft yield just to be safe.

[Mike10]

There is absolutely no need for you to have a HT. In addition, the quoted 1500 grafts sounds like too much, it would be a waste of grafts whcih you might need later on  

[NARMAK]

You're going to get a lot of people saying to you that you don't need a hair transplant. Nobody does need one, it's an aesthetic procedure after all BUT you should be fully informed about the risks and limitations if you decide to go for it. 

Firstly you have been on medication which is good, not sure about the dosage as you didn't mention but it generally looks like a favourable family history albeit this isn't always a guarantee you won't lose hair. 

If you want to try and bring the corners more down and add density to the front, i would say anywhere between 1500-2000 grafts dense packed would probably be what Hasson & Wong would do. However, only you can truly know if it would make you feel enough of a difference was achieved and you're going to need to know you risk shock loss in the existing hair, possibly permanent and the density doesn't always match the native hair, so in some lighting conditions it will be not as great. 

Most may say your age is the biggest factor, but being on medication puts you imo on a more positive note. That said, i would and i say this in the nicest of ways also think about a fitness journey for yourself. You'll probably benefit a lot aesthetically from that too and feeling more confident there could take away focus from the hair a bit. 

[Mike10]

at 25 you will be committed to further surgeries for sure. your hairline will retreat in time despite being on Fin. if you throw 1500 grafts in, your hair line will not look age appropriate in 15- 20 years. do not do surgery!

[Gatsby]

I’ve got to be honest. The medication you are on is doing what it is supposed to be doing. Your hair looks a lot stronger (going by the pics) than you are describing. Remember MPB is progressive and hair grafts are finite. Save what you currently have for the future ‘IF’ the meds start to lose their punch. No hair transplant will look as good as natural hair. All the best! 

[recedingblonde]

5 hours ago, NARMAK said:

That said, i would and i say this in the nicest of ways also think about a fitness journey for yourself. You'll probably benefit a lot aesthetically from that too and feeling more confident there could take away focus from the hair a bit. 

No offense taken to this. Already working on it. I gained a lot of weight during covid and developed some extremely poor uber eats habits, but I'm fixing my diet and I've lost 15 pounds so far. I was actually planning to see how I feel after dropping to my goal weight (about 30 more pounds to go) and then committing to the transplant if I still feel I need it. I'm at the point where I can still make my hair look presentable if I style it just the right way (keeping I higher part to cover the temples and using a product that makes it look thicker) but any bit of sweat, grease or bedhead will give it away. 

[NARMAK]

1 hour ago, recedingblonde said:

No offense taken to this. Already working on it. I gained a lot of weight during covid and developed some extremely poor uber eats habits, but I'm fixing my diet and I've lost 15 pounds so far. I was actually planning to see how I feel after dropping to my goal weight (about 30 more pounds to go) and then committing to the transplant if I still feel I need it. I'm at the point where I can still make my hair look presentable if I style it just the right way (keeping I higher part to cover the temples and using a product that makes it look thicker) but any bit of sweat, grease or bedhead will give it away. 

Good going man. On a health journey myself, albeit i felt like i needed a hair transplant because they're not magically going to regrow temple points with Finasteride. 

I just wish i had been as proactive as you at that age myself and not let the fear mongering put me off till 31. Would have saved more hair even though my loss seemed slow. 

[nicoandgello]

1000 - 1500 sounds about right, depending on how aggressive you want to go, but if you are so bothered by your looks to the point of obsessing every day about your hairline, then I just have to say that losing 10kg would improve your appearance much more than 10k hair surgery.

Your hair looks decent, and full at the moment, so your case is more of a want than a need in my opinion.

[HappyMan2021]

Not sure how weight entered this discussion, feels uncalled for. 

Loads of bodybuilders and athletes get hair transplants. Even if OP had an olympic level physique i guarantee his hair would still bother him. 

[mr_peanutbutter]

your current hairline doesnt give you any aesthetic disadvantages right now, even with a succesful ht your appearance wouldnt improve that much. hair becomes only a problem if you noticable receeding and balding. if you are norwood 0 or norwood 1..that doesnt make a difference how people perceive you aesthetical speaking 

 

also: imagine your hairtransplant fails and you have a low density band of hair in front of your current hairline; that would look really sh*t. you would need to go for second ht or you wouldnt be able to wear hairline exposing hairstyles

 

risk/reward isnt speaking for ht in your case

 

 

 

[Gatsby]

6 minutes ago, mr_peanutbutter said:

your current hairline doesnt give you any aesthetic disadvantages right now, even with a succesful ht your appearance wouldnt improve that much. hair becomes only a problem if you noticable receeding and balding. if you are norwood 0 or norwood 1..that doesnt make a difference how people perceive you aesthetical speaking 

 

also: imagine your hairtransplant fails and you have a low density band of hair in front of your current hairline; that would look really sh*t. you would need to go for second ht or you wouldnt be able to wear hairline exposing hairstyles

 

risk/reward isnt speaking for ht in your case

 

 

 

This ^

[Gatsby]

People would kill for a hair transplant that could give them the hair that you have. If a transplant doesn't look natural then in a way it fails. You don't want to risk that and if you have surgery that's exactly what you are risking.