Getting a hair transplant at 21-22?
So, I'm 21 and I noticed at about 18 that I started balding.
I'm guessing it started much earlier though as I had long hair and couldn't really notice
other than I had a receded hairline already.
It's getting pretty bad and I was curious if it would even be something I should consider.
I pretty much have the same hairline/thinning already as my father and he's 51.
Bald spots/receded hairline but not the horseshoe bald.
Here are a few pictures
Thank you for your question!
You submitted several very good photos and in your history, you say you’re 21 years
old and that it was probable that you started thinning before the age of 18 and you’re
asking if you’re a candidate for hair transplant.
Pretty much the standard for many years, although lately it’s seems to have changed in the
industry, it’s never been advisable for someone in their early 20s to get a hair transplant.
And the simple reasons is when you are losing hair as quickly as you are, then how much
coverage can you get because the reality with the hair transplant is this is regardless
with the type of transplant you get.
I’m a board certified cosmetic surgeon.
I trained in the time when hair transplants were done with plugs, with big, round plugs
that were taken out and placed in the scalp and I’ve lived through the different evolutions
including micrografts, minigrafts etc., follicular units and of course, now follicular unit extraction.
These are all great advancements and certainly the procedure has improved in some ways.
I think with FUEs, which is a separate topic, I think it’s gone backwards a little bit
but regardless of the technology and the names, there’s only one simple physiologic reality
- your donor area, the area at the back of your scalp, as you described as the handle
bar, is limited while the top of the scalp needs much more than what is available at
the back.
In our practice, we developed a treatment called Hair Regeneration.
In fact, we developed a company at this point because of the success of Hair Regeneration
which we call Trichostem® Hair Regeneration.
Essentially, we’re trying to bring the technology and methods that we’ve developed to treat
hair thinning, not doing hair transplant but using an injection treatment which is a combination
of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) derived from your own blood combined with Acellular matrix
which is a wound-healing agent.
We’ve been very successful and close to a 100% of our male patients see improvement.
I’m always anxious to help people understand that the earlier we catch someone, the better
the results.
If we can catch somebody as young as 18, we treat them.
We haven’t treated anyone under 18 for pattern hair loss but 18 is the cutoff and we do treatment
in this age especially when there’s clearly a family history and then we can confirm either
from microscopic or biopsy proven diagnosis of the area resulting in pattern hair loss.
So I would say that you would be a better candidate for treatment like Hair Regeneration
although we can never guarantee success.
Sometimes, people are losing hair very aggressively and we may not catch them soon enough to get
back as much hair as we would like.
Certainly I would say that this is a better option to consider than a surgical hair transplant.
So at this point, it’s advisable that you learn more about these options.
Also, in full disclosure, you should also think about finasteride.
I’m not sure if it’ll be of any value to you.
You’ve probably learned about it.
In our practice, patients who come to us from all over the world, many are very much against
the use of finasteride because of fear of long term sexual side-effects.
Clearly, we have been able to improve that our treatment works independent of pharmacologic
assistance.
So with that being said, I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you
for your question!