is 33 a good age to go for an ht?

[ironheadxl]

Hi folks, I appreciate this question will depend on a lot of factors so here's the brief rundown of my situation :
33 year old guy with a Norwood 2 hairline and a mild case of crown thinning. My hair loss started in my mid 20s and hasn't really changed since then. I have used Minox 5% for around 6 years now and tried fin but quickly quit after bad sides. my mothers side all have /had full Norwood 1 hair with no loss at all. my dads side all seem to eventually get to nw 3 with a slight bit of crown thinning but don't lose more than this. My dad is 61 and has good hair for his age. he looks to be about a nw 2.5 and like me has mild crown thinning but he just brushes his hair back to hide it and it's not noticeable

I have got to the point where I would really like to just get the little bit done in my crown so I can start having more options to style my hair and not worry about it. my loss seems to have slowed and I shed about 10 hairs a day at most. I have good donor and pretty thick hair everywhere else.

I know a lot of ht surgeons seem to be very difficult when it comes to discussing the idea of small sessions of 500fue and feel it is either a waste of time or wont be worth the bother but to be honest, I'm not bothered about my hairline and having future sessions.

[jamesst11]

500 fue wont do much... From this procedure, you are almost guaranteed to lose even more hair due to what they delicately phrase as "shock loss"... I would say, if you are not on finasteride and are only a NW2, you should just be happy with what you have, before you ruin it and dedicate yourself to a life of scars and hair transplants. You say you have no balding in your family? That doesn't mean much. If you are a NW2, then you are experiencing MPB... If you get a hair transplant, there is a good chance you will suffer, not from the bullsh*t "shock loss", but from telogen effluvium due to the trauma. This causes your hair to start to fall out rapidly, and there is a good chance it will not fully grow back, ESPECIALLY if you are not on an androgen blocker like finasteride. Am I biased? yes, because it happened to me. I was NOT EVEN a NW2 when I had my HT... One year later, half my hair was gone. It's now 2 years later and it has NOT grown back.. Please, just be happy with what you have... 5 years down the line, when your hair loss is more stable and your hair loss pattern is established, reconsider a HT. For now, no matter what anyone else tells you on here, I guarantee you, 100%, it is risky as all hell.

[Very Plastic]

500 fue wont do much... From this procedure, you are almost guaranteed to lose even more hair due to what they delicately phrase as "shock loss"... I would say, if you are not on finasteride and are only a NW2, you should just be happy with what you have, before you ruin it and dedicate yourself to a life of scars and hair transplants. You say you have no balding in your family? That doesn't mean much. If you are a NW2, then you are experiencing MPB... If you get a hair transplant, there is a good chance you will suffer, not from the bullsh*t "shock loss", but from telogen effluvium due to the trauma. This causes your hair to start to fall out rapidly, and there is a good chance it will not fully grow back, ESPECIALLY if you are not on an androgen blocker like finasteride. Am I biased? yes, because it happened to me. I was NOT EVEN a NW2 when I had my HT... One year later, half my hair was gone. It's now 2 years later and it has NOT grown back.. Please, just be happy with what you have... 5 years down the line, when your hair loss is more stable and your hair loss pattern is established, reconsider a HT. For now, no matter what anyone else tells you on here, I guarantee you, 100%, it is risky as all hell.

LOL. "If you're NW2, you're experiencing MPB." Really?

I always love reading sweeping statements such as these. They always come from the bitter baldies. You're probably some 22 year old child who thinks he's got the whole world figured out. Your experience is purely anecdotal, and doesn't translate well into OP's (or mine, for that matter) case.

Want another anecdote? I know plenty of people in my family (from ages 25 to 95) with a head full of thick hair, yet they were born with NW2s/incomplete hairlines.

I have no family history of balding from either side.

PS: When someone mentions finasteride in their post, that's your cue to tune out. LOL.

[ironheadxl]

thanks for the response. however if you had read my post properly you would see I mentioned that mpb does run in my family slightly on my dads side. he has a nw2-2.5 hairline and a small (about the size of a 50p) thinning area on his crown. his brothers and dad were the same. this is quite clearly the pattern I'm following so I don't see why people are so quick to say 500 won't do anything? I've seen pics of guys who have gone for 1000fue in areas that are twice the size of mine and had a great result.

with regard to shock loss, is this not a risk for any procedure? I've seen multiple cases where surgeons have performed minor work on women who have slight thinning in their centre parting and on guys who have 2000 put into their hairline and a couple hundred in the crown for good measure

[Very Plastic]

LOL. "If you're NW2, you're experiencing MPB." Really?

I always love reading sweeping statements such as these. They always come from the bitter baldies. You're probably some 22 year old child who thinks he's got the whole world figured out. Your experience is purely anecdotal, and doesn't translate well into OP's (or mine, for that matter) case.

Want another anecdote? I know plenty of people in my family (from ages 25 to 95) with a head full of thick hair, yet they were born with NW2s/incomplete hairlines.

I have no family history of balding from either side.

PS: When someone mentions finasteride in their post, that's your cue to tune out. LOL.

I typed this while under the influence.

Please disregard what I said, jamesst11.
We're all in this together. Us hair transplant victims are all in this together.

(Why can't I edit my posts? Stupid forum feature).

[Driver]

IMHO, 500 is a very small HT and may be more hassle than benefit. You may want to wait until things get further along and have a bigger procedure or just stick with minox for now.

[ironheadxl]

hey Driver, that's a fair comment. the thing is, I took that approach when I was 28 and decided to wait til I was into my 30s to do something about it. this is probably the most important decade of my life in terms of work and socialising, relationships etc so I kind of thought that seeing as it's a small procedure and I'm not going to lose a whole lot more in that area it could be worth doing just to be happy. if I ever get a dramatic increase in balding that for some strange reason takes me to a nw3v id just shave my head.

[Hairmore]

If you are not bothered about my hairline and having future sessions then you could just do it. Keep in mind that you may have to do it again when the situation on your head will suddenly get worse and that not all hair transplants go perfect. It is a surgery and there is always a possibility for error.

[ironheadxl]

hi Hairmore, that's the sensible answer I was looking for. everyone else seems to be paranoid about waiting until you are a nw6 before doing anything about the problem. not sure if this is simply because there's more money in it for the docs.
despite the fact that I'm considering an ht to clear a problematic area I'm not that vain so of things did get worse i would happily shave it off and just get on with it. might as well get a slight touch up while I'm young enough to enjoy it

[DAVE52]

despite the fact that I'm considering an ht to clear a problematic area I'm not that vain so of things did get worse i would happily shave it off and just get on with it. might as well get a slight touch up while I'm young enough to enjoy it

Be careful
Ive read where people get HT's to "touch up " an area and it creates more of a problem later on in life

[jamesst11]

I typed this while under the influence.

Please disregard what I said, jamesst11.
We're all in this together. Us hair transplant victims are all in this together.

(Why can't I edit my posts? Stupid forum feature).

It's o.k. veryplastic, I often type while under the influence as well, as that is when we are most emotional about all this bullshit. No, I am not 22 and I am not near bald. I am a 33 year old and I had an HT when I had almost nearly a full head of hair. It caused telogen effluvium, which is a condition in which, when there is a severe enough trauma, you start to lose hair rapidly. Three dermatologists confirmed I had this due to biopsies. I lost 50% of my hair in one year because I had a hair transplant. That, my friend, is cold hard fact. What I meant, when I said, "if you're a NW2" was a statement obviously assuming at one point he was a NW1 and then PROGRESSED to a NW2 ...why else would he be on here, unless his baldness was progressing. And, yes, if you are planning on getting a HT, have SOME history of MPB and ARE NOT on a scientifically reputable anti-androgen, such as finasteride, then that is EXTREMELY foolish... I know... MANY others that I have conversed with know, that this "shock loss" term is some watered down bullshit sold to us by HT docs. If you get a HT, you should take in consideration telogen effluvium... WHY? google it. it has happened to COUNTLESS amounts of people that have undergone this procedure... WHAT determines if you grow it back? Well, if you have MPB, a lack of androgens in the scalp is going to definitely help..

[jame]

I didnt recover from TE... 10 months after crash diet

[Hairmore]

hi Hairmore, that's the sensible answer I was looking for. everyone else seems to be paranoid about waiting until you are a nw6 before doing anything about the problem. not sure if this is simply because there's more money in it for the docs.
despite the fact that I'm considering an ht to clear a problematic area I'm not that vain so of things did get worse i would happily shave it off and just get on with it. might as well get a slight touch up while I'm young enough to enjoy it

Like I told, keep in mind that you will have to do it again some time later on. Everybody has to decide for themselves when is the right point for HT. My brother did his with just NW3 when he was in his mid 30s. I would say I'm NW3 as well now but for me it is still a bit too scary to do it because of possible error and complications. Just decide for yourself.