Should I get a hair transplant?
I am 29 years old right now & I started to lose my hair when I was 21 years old.
can you guys suggest to me what I should do?
Thank you for your question!
You submitted a single photo and your question described a history where you started a losing
hair at 21 and now your now 29 years old and you're asking for advice.
Well, understanding that male pattern loss which what you appear to have has a family
history or tendency to run in families.
The level of progression you have clearly, you can project that within a few years, you
will have much less hair.
And when you think hair loss options, going over that first and then I'm going to discuss
with you a relative new idea which we have been in a leadership position that may be
appropriate for you.
So let's begin with male pattern hair loss and what are the medical interventions available.
There are two drugs: one is finasteride and the other is minoxidil.
Finasteride is a pill that is taken daily and it inhibits an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase.
5-alpha reductase is responsible for the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone.
It's been shown that there's a specific segment of men who have hair follicles sensitive to
the effects of dihydrotestosterone.
And when finasteride was introduced, a lot of men was benefited and continue to be benefited
from daily finasteride.
At this time, there is a lot of concern about long-term sexual side-effects of finasteride.
And in our practice, it is more typical for men in their 20s and 30s to come in and categorically
refuse to even consider taking finasteride.
The other drug is minoxidil is a topical treatment that helps prolong the presence of hair that's
thinning.
And is something that is applied once at night.
Now, traditionally, the only other alternative to these medical options was a hair transplant.
And, unfortunately many younger men went forth with getting hair transplant.
But the reality is that a lot of younger men who have this rapid progression of hair loss,
after one transplant, they need another transplant and another one.
Well, unfortunately, the donor area, the area at the back of the scalp is very limited and
you cannot cover the space that was once covered with tens of thousands of hairs with only
a few thousand hairs.
And so, you end up having this look of looking like you had a transplant and this is a big
concern.
What we have been doing in our practice first someone like yourself and I would just share
with you how we would handle the situation when someone like you comes to our practice.
We have developed a method of using a material called extracellular matrix combined with
platelet-rich plasma and we have used it to inject under the skin of the scalp.
A single treatment session that has effectively stopped the progression of hairloss as well
as reverse the thinning the process and thicken up the thinning hair.
We have approximately 3-5 years of data and we have very successful close to a 100% response
rate with male pattern hair loss and we're even developing more protocols for more advance
hair loss in terms of later stages of procedures in terms of injection.
However, this procedure has turned out to be remarkably successful and people are coming
to us from all over the world for this treatment.
This material that was originally used for wound healing derived from pig bladder to
help cells heal by duplication of cells.
It's not by duplicating hair follicles.
That's not what we're doing it.
It appears that we are restoring the cells and signals necessary for the hair growth
process to occur.
Unfortunately, hair loss research has been limited in providing answers to how the hair
follicle functions and so this happens to be a serendipitous discovery that has to be
God-send for patients who come to us from all over the world.
So I think this is something for you to learn about and strongly consider.
A lot of younger men also don't respond to oral drugs like finasteride.
It seems that their hair loss pattern is of different variety.
Finasteride does not work for everyone which leaves you with this just this progressive
hair loss.
So consider this treatment and we call this Hair Regeneration and this Hair Regeneration
treatment has been very successful and as a single treatment and we follow our patients
very closely.
We see them at one month, 3 months, 6 months, all the way to 18 months to the present time
to ensure that we are able to follow them carefully and see improvement.
So with all this information, I think you need to do some research and learn some more
options but I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your
question!