can I get a hair transplant in my 20s young men in their 20s suffering from
genetic pattern hair loss are often desperate to keep up with the majority
of their peers who have a lot of hair we often see men in their 20s looking to
get a hair transplant to make up for this progressive loss of hair coverage
this is generally not a good idea from my perspective hair transplant is not
recommended certain segments of the surgical hair transplant industry is
driven more by profit than ethics which means that there are doctors and
technicians willing to perform a hair transplant on someone who's young and
rapidly losing hair despite the negative long-term issues which I'll explain in
more detail I'm dr. Amiya Prasad I'm a
board-certified cosmetic surgeon and fellowship trained oculofacial plastic
and reconstructive surgeon I've been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island
for over 20 years I've been performing hair transplants since the early years
of my practice I'm also the founder of TrichoStem Hair Regeneration centers
this is a non-surgical treatment for genetic hair loss which I developed
using a wound healing material called extracellular matrix combined with
platelet-rich plasma I've been performing this procedure since 2011 for
men and women who come to us from around the world when it comes to male pattern
hair loss there is a general rule of thumb called the rule of decades this is
where 20% of men in their 20s have pattern hair loss 30% in their 30s and
so on this means that when you're in your 20s and 80% of your contemporaries
have a lot of hair some men with early hair loss who want the same level of
hair coverage as their peers we'll turn to
hair transplant as a solution hair transplant requires harvesting hair
grafts from a small area at the back of the head which consists of hairs that
are genetically resistant to hair thinning this area is much smaller than
the area of the top of the scalp where hair is needed in addition the rate of
progression and resulting loss of scalp coverage makes hair transplant a less
than optimal choice for a man in his 20s who tries to keep up with hair loss
through hair transplantation by the time he's in his late 20s to mid 30s there
won't be any donor area hair left for transplant and thinning an eventual loss
of native hair will still continue so at that point he still won't look like he
has a lot of hair it's very important to know that hair transplants do not treat
progressive hair thinning which leads to eventual hair loss in my
experience men in their 20s who are facing more aggressive hair loss are
particularly sensitive to dihydrotestosterone or DHT this high
sensitivity can be an important contributing factor to a particularly
rapid and aggressive progression of male pattern hair loss in my practice I
advocate that hair loss management in the 20s should be focused on
stabilization or saving hairs that are still present for as long as possible
and improving scalp coverage by maximizing the number of existing hairs
covering the scalp and thickening hair that is thinning to treat high DHT
sensitivity our DHT blocker like finasteride is recommended DHT is
created by the conversion of the hormone test
drawn by an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase which converts it to
dihydrotestosterone or DHT. DHT blockers like finasteride work by inhibiting 5
alpha reductase to prevent DHT formation a DHT blocker can slow progressive hair
thinning and allow for some hair growth however pattern hair loss will still
continue to progress hair loss is managed not cured in order to maximize
the number of hairs on the scalp and thicken thinning hair in our practice we
perform a procedure called hair regeneration this is a non-surgical
injection treatment for men and women with genetic pattern hair loss the
treatment has been applied to men as young as 17 years old and to women as
young as 16 this treatment uses a wound healing mechanism which thickens
thinning hair and stimulates the growth of hair follicles which are currently
not growing resulting in an increase in hair density and scalp coverage native
thinning hairs naturally grow more closer together than the density that
can be created with hair transplant surgery the volume of native scalp hairs
and moderate hair loss are considerably more numerous than what's available for
transplant from a donor area the treatment can therefore achieve more
hair density and coverage than a hair transplant in the right candidate that
improvement in scalp coverage can exceed the results of even to hair transplant
surgeries the hair regeneration treatment is made up of platelet-rich
plasma or PRP which is a concentration of wound healing and growth factors
present in the blood patients have their blood drawn and spun in a centrifuge to
concentrate the PRP which is a clear yellow serum the key to
this treatment is extracellular matrix an advanced wound healing material
derived from pig bladder extracellular matrix or a cellular matrix is commonly
referred to as a cell the company which produces the product although pig
bladder is used the materialist process so no Pig specific elements remain in
the final product I customized a hair regeneration formulation for each
patient using an algorithm developed since 2011 which factors gender age of
onset of hair loss degree of hair loss and other treatments used as well as
other medical factors for young men I typically advise the hair regeneration
treatment to be used in conjunction with the drug finasteride the hair
regeneration treatment itself does not affect DHT sensitivity I explained that
hair regeneration treatment alone may be of benefit but the benefits may not last
as long without finasteride due to the presence of high DHT sensitivity based
on following a recommended treatment plan the benefits of hair regeneration
can be typically seen for three to five years hair loss is still progressive
however the strategy we employ has helped many people improve their
appearance well beyond their genetic programming hair transplants can help
improve coverage in areas where hair is absent since early onset of hair loss in
the 20s is often associated with rapid progression and loss of significant
scalp coverage hair transplant is not usually an optimal choice for men in
their 20s recognizing that hair transplants don't treat progressive hair
loss I approach this problem for men in their 20s by slowing down hair thinning
due to DHT sensitivity with drugs like finasteride
and thickening thinning hair is stimulating the growth of dormant hairs
with hair regeneration I hope you found this information helpful thank you for
your question