Help: Thinking Of Getting A Transplant

[Walt White]

Hey everyone. I'm 23 years old. I've been on finasteride for a year and a half now. I've experienced no visible gains. So I'm thinking of getting a hair transplant, which, hopefully, will be a permanent solution and I won't have to take the drug anymore. I've looked up as much information on hair transplants as I can and apparently there are 2 methods used for it: FUT and FUE. FUT involves harvesting hair follicles by slicing up tissues or something like that. It causes scarring but the scar is usually very fine and hence hardly noticeable. It can be used to graft a lot of follicles at once and has a high success rate in terms of follicles. Hence it is the most widely used method. FUE is a relatively new method that involves using a mechanical punch to pull out individual follicles from the donor area and then grafting them. It has a relatively low rate of success, however, since many follicles get lost owing to transection (whatever that means). And scarring with this method is unnoticeable if done properly. However, I've heard that it can cause depletion of the donor area in some cases. It can't be used to move large numbers of follicles at once. I'm thinking of getting an FUT. And I'm pretty nervous about this. It is a big deal after all and quite expensive too tbh. I haven't consulted any doctors yet but from what I've watched on YouTube, I'll need multiple transplants. My hairline has pretty much receded to the final stages (I've attached pictures of it). Any advice or information would be highly appreciated and welcome. Thank you for reading this.

 

[spring15]

I'm hesitant to recommend you as a candidate for a hair transplant, diffused in a NW5 pattern & you're only 23 while finasteride you say isn't stabilizing your loss.

To maximise your donor I would recommend FUT to start though if you were to go through with it.

 

[Walt White]

Thank you for the reply. If I may ask, why do you think getting a transplant would be problematic for me? Also, that picture was taken on August 2016. I haven't taken any recently because my hair looks pretty much the same. Although, I have to admit. It's been almost a year now and I still have those miniaturized hairs on my affected areas. So maybe finasteride has stabilized my loss? I don't see how that makes any difference. My only option is a transplant now, I think. Because I really don't want to wear a wig.

 

[Pequod]

With your loss it is best to stay on finasteride or you will have a massive shed without it. A decent hair transplant for you would take 6000 grafts which is most of what you have available if you want it to cover from the frontal hairline to the crown. You might try a smaller procedure and just get a hairline with tapering for starters.

 

[JeanLucBB]

Thank you for the reply. If I may ask, why do you think getting a transplant would be problematic for me? Also, that picture was taken on August 2016. I haven't taken any recently because my hair looks pretty much the same. Although, I have to admit. It's been almost a year now and I still have those miniaturized hairs on my affected areas. So maybe finasteride has stabilized my loss? I don't see how that makes any difference. My only option is a transplant now, I think. Because I really don't want to wear a wig.

If you proceed FUT would definitely be the way to go for managing your donor effectively but with the higher end surgeons it would be pricey. I'd look into Hasson and Wong and Hattingen clinic. Get the biggest procedure you can in the first run through. 6000 for good coverage sounds about right. Even more than that for strong density across the whole balding area.

Like others have said, definitely keep up the finasteride useage after a transplant, even if simply to keep your donor area strong.

 

[Walt White]

With your loss it is best to stay on finasteride or you will have a massive shed without it. A decent hair transplant for you would take 6000 grafts which is most of what you have available if you want it to cover from the frontal hairline to the crown. You might try a smaller procedure and just get a hairline with tapering for starters.

Thanks for the reply. And while I know that I might need at least 6000 grafts to have decent hair, I think it's better to split them up into 4 sessions of 1500 grafts each. That way, I don't end up stressing my donor area and if it doesn't work, I don't end up wasting a lot of money. As for the finasteride, however, I have to ask. Isn't the donor area immune to the effects of DHT? So even if I stop taking finasteride, it shouldn't affect the donor area. I thought that was the whole point of getting a transplant. I mean, I really don't want to be taking finasteride for the rest of my life. Wouldn't it be better to let the sensitive hairs fall out by not taking finasteride?

 

[Walt White]

If you proceed FUT would definitely be the way to go for managing your donor effectively but with the higher end surgeons it would be pricey. I'd look into Hasson and Wong and Hattingen clinic. Get the biggest procedure you can in the first run through. 6000 for good coverage sounds about right. Even more than that for strong density across the whole balding area.

Like others have said, definitely keep up the finasteride useage after a transplant, even if simply to keep your donor area strong.

Thanks for the reply. Well, one of the reasons I'm thinking of getting a transplant is so that I won't have to take finasteride anymore. Shouldn't the donor area be immune to DHT? I thought that was the entire point of getting a transplant.

 

[pintosamuel]

Thanks for the reply. Well, one of the reasons I'm thinking of getting a transplant is so that I won't have to take finasteride anymore. Shouldn't the donor area be immune to finasteride? Why should I keep taking finasteride?

Hi! Just want to add some input based on what I have read through my research for my own journey with hair loss. I came across sources which said that you may still have to continue taking your oral medications even after a hair transplant. I guess maybe it was to control the progression of hair loss in other areas.

 

[Pequod]

Right now you have about 3000 grafts of weak hair on your balding area that needs coverage. If you go off of finsteride you will lose those 3000 and probably another 1500. That's 4500. If you were to get 6000 grafts done with transplants then you would wind up with only about 1500 more than you have now.

So it would be a huge mistake to allow yourself to lose anymore hair if you want any chance of getting decent coverage again.

You might be able to get a good look with only 3500 grafts and see how it goes. The crown take a lot of grafts though and yours is large. I like your idea of starting small.

 

[Walt White]

Hi! Just want to add some input based on what I have read through my research for my own journey with hair loss. I came across sources which said that you may still have to continue taking your oral medications even after a hair transplant. I guess maybe it was to control the progression of hair loss in other areas.

I am aware of that. However, in theory it should work. I mean, my dad is about 52 now and he has an unbeatable donor area above the neck. The rest of his scalp is completely bare. My point is, since that much hair will always be retained and isn't affected by DHT, if I get those grafted on the rest of my scalp, then it shouldn't be affected by DHT either. Plus, is that fails, I can always graft my beard hair. So yeah. I think I'm gonna stop taking finasteride.

 

[Walt White]

Right now you have about 3000 grafts of weak hair on your balding area that needs coverage. If you go off of finsteride you will lose those 3000 and probably another 1500. That's 4500. If you were to get 6000 grafts done with transplants then you would wind up with only about 1500 more than you have now.

So it would be a huge mistake to allow yourself to lose anymore hair if you want any chance of getting decent coverage again.

You might be able to get a good look with only 3500 grafts and see how it goes. The crown take a lot of grafts though and yours is large. I like your idea of starting small.

I am aware of that. However, those 3000 grafts of weak hair are miniaturized and virtually useless. If my hair transplant works, I'll let my hair grow long and thus those weak follicles won't make any difference. They're going to fall out anyway. Why take finasteride just to stop that? I can always replace them with better ones. I know, it will cost me a lot of cash but I have no problem investing in myself. What's the use of money if it doesn't even make you happy?