Diffuse Thinner - Fue Candidate Or Not?

[salop86]

Good evening everyone (or morning/afternoon depending on what timezone you're in)

Looking for some advice really as a long time diffuse thinner. Was long past the point of return before I was able to self diagnose that I had an issue with severely thinning hair. Up until now, for the past 7, 8 years or so I've been able to conceal it pretty well with an assortment of Toppik fibres, root sprays, even eyeliner at one stage but now it is getting increasingly difficult and my self asteem is at 0.

A bit of background info for you. I'm 31. Come from a family with good hair genes; sadly my dad passed away in his late 50's but died with a full head of hair, only my mothers side (which I believe is the important one) her father only began to lose hair well into his 60's. My brother, 12 years my senior has a full head of hair.

So why me?

These are my theories so far
1. I have suffered from anxiety, depression and stress pretty much my entire adult life and initially put it down to this, however I have not read any viable evidence to say that stress affects regrowth, only hair loss (which is not something I have suffered as far as I'm aware, only hair thinning)
2. I bleached the hell out of my hair during my teen years/early 20's. Did all sorts of daft stuff to it and I've destroyed it so much it doesn't wanna grow back.
3. Hormone/iron deficiencies. Plausible but recent tests claim this is all fine. As a side note I suffer from excess sweating which so far has proven undefinable as to whether that is due to mental health or a physical symptom of something underlying. These investigations are ongoing.

I have tried all sorts of remedies. A combination of propecia and minoxidil gave me heart palpatations after only a week or so of use which lead to me having an ECG at the local hospital. This was enough to ward me off this particular line of enquiry.
Rogaine showed no visible improvements over time.when I used that.
No holistic approach has seen any success whatsoever. I'm really at a loss as to where I go from here, other than the obvious - surgery.

Been doing some reading on here and people say diffuse thinners do not make good FUE candidates. Would you stand by that, even in my case? I am also past the elusive '30' bracket and believe I have given adequate enough time and expense to arresting the slide but want to act before I lose ALL my hair. My hair on the back and sides does grow reasonably well so would expect to have decent graft.

I know this is a long shot, if numerous medical professions have been unable to diagnose this for the best part of a decade then I guess I'm all out of ideas. I'm happy to bite the bullet and expense of having a transplant but results are anything but guarenteed.

Any help here would be a godsend.

Thanks,
Simon

 

[buckthorn]

steps

1) accept your male pattern baldness - women have tortured their hair with all sorts of chemicals, yet still never lose it. I bleached mine all through highschool, no hair loss. Disregard genetics. IF you have thick hair on sides and back and thin hair on top, it's male pattern baldness. You obviously have it. Very heavily diffused. I will be like you in a year or so.

2) re-read one, take a deep breath and accept that what you have is 100% male pattern baldness. You can tell by looking at the pictures.

3) Understand that for NW7 people ( which is what you should consider yourself when getting an hair transplant NOT on any medication, because you will soon be this) even a very heavy FUE of like 6-7k grafts will only yield a head of very diffused thin hair. I know it seems like a lot, but it's not. You may be ok with this... if so, consider it and talk to some really highly qualified surgeons. ONCE AGAIN, if you haven't maintained you current hair for at least 18 months on medication, disregard it, because it will disappear. treat yourself as if you're slick bald through the entire NW7.

4) reconsider shitty medication like finasteride. orally. it could be the minoxidil that gave you heart palpitations. that is most likely as it's a blood pressure medication. IF you do respond well to finasteride, give it at least 18 months.

 

[doyle11]

My hair had been like that (a fair bit worse) for years and I shaved it down. Best thing I ever did.

The feel of the hair is the main reason i did it. It's horrible running your fingers through hair that feels like cotton candy and the constant anxiety associated

 

[Obesecat]

I’m sorry you have male pattern baldness. Without meds a transplant is useless. Whether you are a good candidate or not depends on the thickness of your donor hair. However judging from your degree of loss you would need multiple Fue surgeries. Generally fue is only for minor hair loss up to 2k grafts. Fut really Is your only option as you would most likely need 6k+ grafts