The right timing to start a hair transplant
- Thread starter Future
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Guest
Guest
Future,
You ask some great questions my friend. It's always a good idea to get as much bang in coverage as one can with the natural existing hair that one has. Bang meaning time and waiting as long as you possibly can before getting surgery.
One of the main reasons it's good to wait it out is because some guys eventually decide to accept their hairloss, buzz their heads, and end up saving money. And if they maintain a virgin scalp, there's no scars to hide. See what I mean? That's the sensible or logical approach.
And I also think it's fair to say that the younger we are when male pattern baldness hits us, the more profound of a psychological impact it can have on us. I have to honestly say that if I was single right now and had never done any hair transplants, I would definitely feel more self-conscience about my hairloss. And then if I was say twenty something, I might be even more concerned of what the ladies might think of my hairloss.
The bottom line is that every patient owes it to themselves to be honest with themselves regarding their candidacy for surgical hair restoration. So if one has advanced Norwood classes in their family history, have male pattern baldness hit them at a young age, and continue to lose hair should never get a hair transplant to begin with.
Sorry if I am getting a little off base from your question. Let me offer you another example. Just today a man who is 29 years old contacted me and asked my opinion of him getting a hair transplant now. He has a diffused thinning pattern and the potential to hit Norwood 6A class. Thank goodness he is on Propecia and his diffusion seems to have greatly slowed down over the past three years from what he tells me. Now he thinks he's ready to do a hair transplant. I disagreed with him. Why?
hair transplant surgery could shock out his diffused hair and could potentially advance his hairloss class "if" the shockloss is permanent. That's a guessing game. So why gamble it now? His pics certainly don't look bald, but yes you can see scalp and can tell he is diffusing. But at 29, why not get as much bang as he can before he goes to the OR. I suggested he add Toppik to is regimen but he does not like cosmetics because he is in the gym alot and showers alot and does not want to deal with the hassle.
So I asked him, would losing the existing hair he now has within the diffused pattern present a hassle or inconvenience to him? Would you rather deal with Toppik and a little hair spray or start chasing your hairloss with mega-session surgery?
But let's say you have medium class hairloss in your family history, have reasonably good hair characteristics, good response to hairloss meds like finasteride, and want to restore the frontal third of one's scalp to start with, that's fine IMO. In other words it's okay to start as long as one is honest and realistic and then establishes goals that are realistic within one's own limitations. This is a generalization of course.
Some guys may have class 6 in their family histories yet they have great coarse hair, reasonable donor density characteristics, and no histories of donor thinning. These patients can attain great illusions of coverage because they don't need as many grafts due to better hair caliper or what we call optimal hair shaft diameter. They can attain a higher visual level of coverage with 2500 grafts than the average person can with 4,000 grafts and thinner or average hair caliper.
I'm starting to ramble again. Hope this helps out.
You ask some great questions my friend. It's always a good idea to get as much bang in coverage as one can with the natural existing hair that one has. Bang meaning time and waiting as long as you possibly can before getting surgery.
One of the main reasons it's good to wait it out is because some guys eventually decide to accept their hairloss, buzz their heads, and end up saving money. And if they maintain a virgin scalp, there's no scars to hide. See what I mean? That's the sensible or logical approach.
And I also think it's fair to say that the younger we are when male pattern baldness hits us, the more profound of a psychological impact it can have on us. I have to honestly say that if I was single right now and had never done any hair transplants, I would definitely feel more self-conscience about my hairloss. And then if I was say twenty something, I might be even more concerned of what the ladies might think of my hairloss.
The bottom line is that every patient owes it to themselves to be honest with themselves regarding their candidacy for surgical hair restoration. So if one has advanced Norwood classes in their family history, have male pattern baldness hit them at a young age, and continue to lose hair should never get a hair transplant to begin with.
Sorry if I am getting a little off base from your question. Let me offer you another example. Just today a man who is 29 years old contacted me and asked my opinion of him getting a hair transplant now. He has a diffused thinning pattern and the potential to hit Norwood 6A class. Thank goodness he is on Propecia and his diffusion seems to have greatly slowed down over the past three years from what he tells me. Now he thinks he's ready to do a hair transplant. I disagreed with him. Why?
hair transplant surgery could shock out his diffused hair and could potentially advance his hairloss class "if" the shockloss is permanent. That's a guessing game. So why gamble it now? His pics certainly don't look bald, but yes you can see scalp and can tell he is diffusing. But at 29, why not get as much bang as he can before he goes to the OR. I suggested he add Toppik to is regimen but he does not like cosmetics because he is in the gym alot and showers alot and does not want to deal with the hassle.
So I asked him, would losing the existing hair he now has within the diffused pattern present a hassle or inconvenience to him? Would you rather deal with Toppik and a little hair spray or start chasing your hairloss with mega-session surgery?
But let's say you have medium class hairloss in your family history, have reasonably good hair characteristics, good response to hairloss meds like finasteride, and want to restore the frontal third of one's scalp to start with, that's fine IMO. In other words it's okay to start as long as one is honest and realistic and then establishes goals that are realistic within one's own limitations. This is a generalization of course.
Some guys may have class 6 in their family histories yet they have great coarse hair, reasonable donor density characteristics, and no histories of donor thinning. These patients can attain great illusions of coverage because they don't need as many grafts due to better hair caliper or what we call optimal hair shaft diameter. They can attain a higher visual level of coverage with 2500 grafts than the average person can with 4,000 grafts and thinner or average hair caliper.
I'm starting to ramble again. Hope this helps out.