HT - What surgeon, what price & how long should I wait???

[Dylan94]

Hey all,

This is my first time posting to HRN, and I am a bit of a noob in the hair transplant world, so please bear with me. 

I am a 29-year-old (soon to be 30) male from Australia and basically, I started to notice my hair thinning since I was about 22 years old. It wasn't actually too bad until I hit 27. The last 2 years I have been trying different shampoos and conditioners, I tried minoxidil and finasteride, I even started putting coconut, peppermint and rosemary oil on my scalp (not all at the same time), along with masking my hair with egg, but nothing seems to be slowing down my thinning hair. 

A bit of a background on my family. On my mum's side, my grandpa was completely bald, on my dad's side, my pop and my dad are completely bald. So basically, I was doomed from the start.

At this point I still have a decent amount of hair on my head, although I feel like I have maybe 2-3 years before I have a bigger more noticeable bald patch (Please see attached photos). I can't really show you how bad it is by camera because I have been growing my hair as long as possible to hide my baldness, although I took some photos when I was masking my hair so you can see it a bit clearer. If I go by the NW levels, I think eventually I will be at a NW6? I'm honestly not 100% sure where exactly I sit. 

So, my first question is, how long do I wait before looking at getting a hair transplant? Am I better off getting one earlier while my hair is still somewhat in the early stages of balding, or do I wait until its far more noticeable? The next question is, what surgeon should I look at going through? I looked at Dr Loarwong because he seems to have a good reputation on this forum, although I'm not sure he will be able to cover my whole scalp as I haven't seen him do a huge number of grafts from the posts I have seen. He seems to be pretty affordable, as I am looking between the margin of 20-30k AUD. He's located in Thailand which also makes it easier and cheaper to travel to. I also looked at Dr Pittella which seems to be the most reliable and have the most experience when it comes to the bigger end of grafts, but he seems to be a lot more expensive than Dr Loarwong according to most of the posts I have read in this forum. He's also located in Brazil, which would be quite expensive for travel. Is there anyone else I should consider?

Once again, sorry for my lack of knowledge, and thanks for reading. I hope I can get someone can point me in the right direction.

[wembley]

At the moment you are not a candidate for a hair transplant. You could try dutasteride which is a strong drug and could help stabilise your hair loss and give you regrowth. 

[Dylan94]

@wembley is it worth it vs the risk of side effects?

[hairman4321]

34 minutes ago, Dylan94 said:

@wembley is it worth it vs the risk of side effects?

hey Dylan, how long did you try finasteride for? and what dose? it didn't slow your hair loss at all?

if you were to describe your hairloss, would you say you have typical male pattern baldness or is it thinning all over? maybe showing us a picture of your hairline would help. i've heard sometimes people with diffuse thinning may have a micro nutrient deficiency or trouble absorbing nutrients.

you have to think long term with this - if you get a hair transplant now but your hair continues to fall out, it will eventually look much worse (very unnatural) than if you just shaved it. so priority #1 now is to stabilise the loss, then you can think about transplant if its required. i have seen cases of diffuse thinning return back thick. more so than normal pattern baldness where the hairline starts receeding.

Edited December 14, 2023 by hairman4321

[wembley]

40 minutes ago, Dylan94 said:

@wembley is it worth it vs the risk of side effects?

You can try and see how it goes. Many people get dutasteride without side effects. If finasteride did not help you then dutasteride would be your solution. But keep in mind that you would see the max benefits of finasteride at 2 years of use. So how long did you use it ?

[jjalay]

At this stage you are not a candidate for a hairtransplant and you might end up doing more harm than good by causing some permanent schockloss of your native hair. The best you can do now is get on medication like finasteride to perserve your hair.

[Melvin- Admin]

15 hours ago, wembley said:

At the moment you are not a candidate for a hair transplant. You could try dutasteride which is a strong drug and could help stabilise your hair loss and give you regrowth. 

^this. There’s Topical Dutasteride. I’ve been on it, no sides.

[Gatsby]

Hey @Dylan94 welcome to the forum. Though you have the early stage of diffuse thinning as others have said medication should be your first port of call. As Melvin and others have stated topical dutasteride would be an ideal drug to use (I'm not a doctor). In terms of using finasteride how long were you on the medication and what dose were you on? I would give it a hood 12 months to see how you respond.There is also the option of trying oral minoxidil prescribed through your dermatologist. Have a look at @Viney's results from medical therapy. The problem with a transplant now is really where would you transplant into? Also as jjalay stated you could also have shock loss from surgery. The other option is to consider shaving your head. Either way you have a hell of a lot of hair so I wish you all the best with whichever way you decide. The most important thing really is patience.

[Viney]

Thanks for the tag @Gatsby

Looking at your pics I think under the guidance of a knowledgeable dermatologist you could see some good results from medication alone. Once stabilised you could then think about pulling the trigger on a hair transplant if needed.

Personally I started oral dutasteride and oral/sublingual minoxidil at your age and haven't yet experienced side effects (it's been almost 2 years). I thought I was going to have to shave my head, and now I'm not thinking about shaving my head and I don't even want to get a hair transplant. Hair transplants are the very last resort if you aren't willing to shave it off.

Happy to help with anything if you're curious about the medication, I'm also located in Aus.

 

 

[eze]

On 12/14/2023 at 3:20 AM, Dylan94 said:

@wembley is it worth it vs the risk of side effects?

I have been on for 3 years, no side effects at all. Best decision I have ever made.