What is really meant by "stable"

[HelpfulFriend]

I feel like in almost every HT I see, there is clear, and sometimes extensive thinning.

I.e. Someone will be NW 3/4, and their frontal lock will have 1-2cm of clearly miniaturised hairs - but there doesn't seem to be any hesitation from actual surgeons.

The general advice is to have your loss stabilised, before you embark on the HT journey - but wouldn't most candidates technically be excluded based on such criteria?

Does anyone have any instances where they've been turned away due to instability of progressing hair loss?

Just trying to figure some stuff out.

Cheers all

Edited October 26, 2022 by HelpfulFriend

[StillAlive]

By 'stable' most of us agree on a condition where :

A- You are not aggressively losing >100 hairs per day. If your sink is filling up and you see hair everywhere, you have aggressive hair loss and should be working on stabilizing that prior to getting any work done.

B- You've gone several years with the same hairline/hair thickness

C- Ideally, you are in your late 30's or early 40's, a time when the worst of your hair loss will have already manifested itself. Generally, aggressive cases destined to be NW6's or NW7's tend to hit that mark before they are even 25.

Given how unique everybody's hairloss pattern is, there are no guarantees and we all make our compromises. Hairloss is progressive and will always get worse on its own if left untreated. 

[mr_peanutbutter]

it could be that those miniaturized hairs are already there for years, for example if finasteride stops further miniaturization but doesnt lead to increase of thickness in the hairs

 

can finasteride even make those little hairs thick again?

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

Helpfulfriend,

There are all kinds of conditions and variables that may or not prevent someone from Being a candidate for hair transplant surgery.

When we talk about stabilizing one’s hair loss, we are referring to stopping the progression of genetic hair loss through medication.  While hair loss may not stop completely, finasteride in particular is quite good at slowing down, stopping and even reversing the affects of male pattern hair loss. In a case where hair is miniaturizing, in many cases finasteride will reverse the process and they will thicken up.

Obviously, not everybody can or wants to use finasteride for one reason or another. That said, there are certainly cases where men who don’t use finasteride are still candidates for surgery.  In other cases, they are not   

At the end of the day, hair loss is unpredictable and there is no way to determine just how far someone’s hair loss will progress. As a result, doctors and clinics have to use what they have such as your hair loss pattern, age and family history of hair loss as guides. Simply put, the younger the patient and the more aggressive the hair loss, the less of a chance that individual is a candidate.

Best wishes,

Rahal Hair Transplant 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Rahal Hair Transplant