19 with receded hairline

[dilly]

I am 19 years old. This is my hair.

It's annoying. It all started within a few weeks of starting my freshman year of high school--I pulled my 14 year old mop back and the girl sitting next to me said: wow you are probably going to be bald. I thought to myself that I would never be bald since no one in my family is bald, and the solution from that point on was never to hold my hair back again. I started to like the look of having my hair down. However by the time I was 16 the two temples had receded back to where they are in the picture, and my hair just naturally all collects in the middle of my head, which is very unattractive. I've tried tons of haircuts, gels, etc to make it look good, but none of them have really worked--a gust of wind and I'm done for, and it doesn't matter how you layer your hair with haircuts, because no matter what you do there is no substitute for have hair coming FROM an area rather than COVERING it... I can make it so people will look at me and not say: wow he is balding. But what annoys me is that people do probably look at me and go: why would such a young man go for a hair style commonly seen on 50 year olds? I want a variety of options with my hair. My head is narrow and looks bad with a comb-over. Also the skin under my scalp is inflamed and flakes badly so shaving it bald doesn't really work out.

So I started doing some research on hair transplants. There's a lot of great information out there. However on most discussions it doesn't seem that the people who are concerned are around my age. When there is someone around my age, they are usually dismissed and told to wait a few years to see if it doesn't go back further. However my father, who will be fifty next year, has a hairline exactly the same as mine is now, and my great grandfather recently died in his 90s with only slightly less than my father. So I feel like with me this is about as bad as it's going to get, and while I don't want to rush into anything rashly, I also certainly don't want to waste valuable years that could have been spent feeling confident and dating girls just because I need to wait until an arbitrary cut off date for seriously looking into this. Life is short. I don't care if she's the most soulful, unshallow girl on the planet--no 19 year old is going to take a guy with hair as "mature" as mine very seriously while I'm standing next to that long line of other more full haired men.

I've thought about merely going on Procepia instead, but I remember reading somewhere that it isn't very good with the immediate frontal/temples sort of thing I'm going through. I have an appointment with the local Hair Club for today, but I've heard a ton of horror stories about that place, and they don't have IAHRS people, from what I understand. Also, for the amount of hair loss I'm looking at, how many grafts do you think I would need/how much would a reasonable price be? So I guess I'm asking for your advice.

[Zao]

I was in the same position as you are when I was around your age and my first piece of advice would be to listen to Spencer Kobren’s show The Bald truth. This is what changed my life and stopped me from making rash decisions that could have hurt me in the end. If I were you I would call the show and ask him about your situation. Tell him that you posted your picture on the website and he’ll give you some good advice. I don’t think he believe in the “arbitrary” cut off age for a hair transplant but he always says that you should know exactly what you are getting into and to choose your doctor carefully.

I posted my story when I joined the site last year. I hope this helps you.
http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=435

Chris

[iwannakeephair1674]

My advice to you is do not be rash. I would ALSO suggest that you talk to your doctor about getting on Propecia immediately. You don't want to go straight into hair transplantation, that should be your last and final step. However, if you do want a consultation, DO NOT go to hair club, as they would just try to rush you into surgery. If you would go to any kind of surgeon make sure they are in the IAHRS. My suggestion, although I'm not a doctor, would be to get on Propecia immediately, see where that puts you in about a 8 months to a year... then look at PRP and see what that does for you. Those things alone might be all you need instead of surgery. If those things still don't work for you THEN go to an IAHRS doctor and talk about what your next step is to your "master plan". It's good to have a master plan because rash decisions would help you in the present but could be detrimental to the future.

Hope this helps
-Destin

[dilly]

For my appointment with Hair Club today I just walked in, took a look, and walked out. Seemed far more marketing than medical.

I'll see about looking into Procepia (are there any hairline restoration success stories with this drug?) and start listening to the show (can you listen online? is there a podcast?). For me a hair transplant would probably not be something I could imagine getting until at least I'm out of college due to money, but I hope that by taking an active interest this early I'll wind up doing the right thing.

The two ISHRS guys in Birmingham are Daniel E. Rousso and Carl B. Shory, so maybe I'll talk to those guys someday.

[Zao]

You want to find a IAHRS doctor www.iahrs.org much different then ISHRS! I listen online now because I like to watch the webcast. You can see the webcast on this site or at this link http://www.thebaldtruth.com/watch-live/
You can also watch on www.stickam.com

So when you walked out of hair Club did they try to stop you?
Chris

[dilly]

Ah I think the closest IAHRS doctor to me is in Nashville. The time will have to come I guess.

No Hair Club didn't bother trying to stop me, at least not that I saw. I got out of there fast.

My thing is I can't get too excited about wanting to shell out the money for Procepia when their own website says the medicine concentrates on the vortex, middle and frontal areas which I don't have problems with--my problem is with the temples, and the website in fact says "there is not sufficient evidence that PROPECIA works for receding hairlines at the temples", which is all that I have and all anyone in my family has had. So you can understand my frustration. It's not as if I want to look 14 again, I just don't want to be a 20 year old with less hair than a 70 year old Martin Sheen.

Anyhow, I thank you for trying to help me out here, and will be listening to/watching the show.

[g k]

Hey man,

I totally sympathize. I would totally avoid hair club and hair transplants for now...It really seems like a butcher job. You are too young to go through that crap. Try a half dose of propecia, and some rogaine 2%.

Some people say you only get 70-80% effectiveness from a half dose, but I believe it is 100%. Check out my thread for more info on this and what I've been through.

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1306

I wish you the best.

[Mr. 4000]

Hey man,

I totally sympathize. I would totally avoid hair club and hair transplants for now...It really seems like a butcher job. You are too young to go through that crap. Try a half dose of propecia, and some rogaine 2%.

Some people say you only get 70-80% effectiveness from a half dose, but I believe it is 100%. Check out my thread for more info on this and what I've been through.

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1306

I wish you the best.

I agree 100%, way too young for a HT.

[g k]

Also I would say because its only been 4 years, you should have a high chance of regrowth. Looks like you have enough there that you could save a lot of hair and strengthen what is there. That is really what your goal should be for now.

Think of this:

Why butcher temples when there is potentially growable hair there. Be hopeful, get on a half pill of propecia, and rogaine 2%(even once a day to start, if that works you'll be glad you didnt start with twice a day).

Even though propecia isnt supposed to be good for frontal hairlines, it will work for right behind the hair line well. But I've found that propecia, and rogaine applied on the hairline work WELL for the hairline.

[g k]

One more thing,

I believe it take 3 years for a hair follicle to miniaturize, then fully die. You probably have a lot of potential for regrowth. Go see a doctor ASAP and hopefully get some propecia. Once you are on that and rogaine take a deep breath, and forget about it.