21 Year Old Wanting Hairline Transplant - Need Help

[killersoup1]

Hi,

So I've always had a full head of thick, curly hair. When I turned 20 I was going through a very rough depression and foolishly turned to taking testosterone to enhance my physique after years of training.

Over the course of that year my hairline receded, as shown in the picture. I never experienced hair loss before taking the testosterone, and once I stopped taking testosterone and started Finasteride and Minoxidil the hairloss has stopped. It has put me under great psychological stress and I would really like a small hairline transplant. By no means do I expect to return to my old hairline, I simply want to add a bit to the temples.

Given the fact that I did not experience hair loss prior to taking high dose testosterone, and that the hair loss stopped once I ceased the testosterone and began Finasteride, would it be safe to go through with a small transplant? Obviously my main concern is chasing a receding hairline, but given my circumstances is this still likely?

Ps - I have attached a photo to show the recession, the my back and sides are usually full but I had them shaved prior to this photo .

 

[topcat]

You are absolutely not a candidate for hair transplantation. First reason being your age at 21 you don’t have the cognitive maturity to be making the decision. For males the prefrontal cortex does not fully develop until they are 25+ and this is in fact why they make impulsive decisions for example your decision to use an exogenous hormone. Your body makes plenty of testosterone on its own when given the right environment but even without it at your age you are making plenty. The point is not to lecture here but to provide you with an example of youth, impulsesiveness and why this happens. If someone explained this to you beforehand chances are you would have made a different decision with the testoserone. Very often it's the group you are around that creates the social proof when making decisions so maybe you were with just the wrong group. Same can happen on forums if you listen to the wrong group like marketers or rumbustious young men you can easily be misguided and talked into something that doesn't make sense.


Unethical doctors absolutely know that a 21 year old boy is at a distinct disadvantage not only in impulse control but in life experience. Therefore anyone that offers a hair transplant procedure to most 21 year olds knows what he is doing is wrong but sometimes business is slow and he needs to make the monthly nut. We all know it when we see it.


Some of the young guys out there can easily be talked into a procedure by coming on to a forum. All it takes is reading the wrong post at the wrong time and you might easily take an action you will regret based on not having enough information. For example the poster Jean seems to be very pro hair transplantation for young boys maybe because he is 22 and since he already had a procedure sometimes you need others to agree or join in for it to make sense in your own mind. I'm not really sure what his motive is to keep encouraging others especially those that are young. Sometimes what happens is you start to have an uncomfortable feeling in the brain which of course is cognitive dissonance maybe he is experiencing this I don't know.


When a young man uses 3000+ grafts for a small section at the front of his head he has already used up more than 50% of his donor. Regardless of what someone tells you the number of 9000 available grafts for example from the donor zone is complete rubbish. The average person has approximately 40,000 fu on their head of which most experiencing hair loss will lose half giving them 20,000 to draw from and a small percentage of that donor will also be lost to dht so the number is actually lower than 20,000 long term.


You cannot possibly take 50% of your donor. If you did the donor area itself would become bald and/or balding long term. You would be left with a small percentage of flyaway hair sometime in the future after everyone is gone and might have to wear a full cap wig so be very careful.


If you were to take you donor hairs as they appear at full density from the back of your head which on average might be 80 fu/cm then it would fit into a 3” square. Now a 3” square is not a lot of area but it can fill a larger area of 4-5” square at about 50%. When you start doing the math then you start to understand.


Just by looking at your picture it would be absolutely impossible to match the current density at the hairline. It’s surgically impossible and that alone would make it look odd.

You are simply too young and you don't have enough hairloss for a surgical procedure to make sense long term. Get back into the gym like you were doing and just eat the right foods to produce testosterone naturally. You can get some sunlight and double your levels for free.

Meanwhile hair transplantation is becoming less appealing as technology moves forward.

I have approximately 16 dislikes acquired in a couple of weeks all from the poster Jean who is 22 and keeps trying to convince other young guys to do what he has done. I'm not sure why he is doing this but it seems abnormal to me.

Killersoup your hair looks fine you are worrying about nothing at this point.

 

[paleocapa89]

plus, your hair is fine.

 

[topcat]

You want to gather as much information as possible in order to understand the limitations along with how online marketing is being used to manipulate you.

The number one weapon of a used car salesman as listed below is the exact same one that empowers a hair transplant marketer. Keep your cards close to your vest, ask a lot of questions and keep track of the answers as you start to cross reference over time.

They read you like a book

 

[SeanFUE]

You definitely should avoid any transplant at that age and with the hair you have. You can have a serious repair issue if you proceed. Trust me, I know what can happen. Live your life surgery free, eat healthy, stag healthy. Once you sit in that chair, you can make things worse. This is based on viewing the photo you posted. Good luck and wish you the best.

 

[Pequod]

How is your father's hairline? A son often has the same hairloss as the father does.

 

[ManinBlack]

Luckily you haven't lost too much hair and if you avoid the androgens from now on and maybe go on finasteride and minoxidil you should be fine and may even regain. 21 is a little young for a hair transplant though. I think most surgeons wait until 25 until considering one. Maybe we will even have better treatments then hopefully.