Can I just have a Normal head of hair?

[ryan555]

I was slick at 23 years old, how do you think I reacted?

I think my reaction is normal and healthy: being NW5 by the age of 23 is light-years away from what seems to be a minor recession (since he can still hide it) at 40.

You shouldn't have a HT with a receding hairline and no meds at all. Because you will continue to recede, possibly very badly.

Again, my friend who was bald in his early 20's and never cared could tell you that you shouldn't be bothered by it.

A hair transplant can work when one is not on meds, especially in an older patient. Since he is 40, he will very likely already be showing his final pattern. So, for example, if it is clear that he is headed for a NW 5, and he has very dense and coarse donor, then a good surgeon could certainly design a plan that would work for him. He would almost certainly require additional procedures as he continued to lose hair, but it would be possible if he was willing to commit to it. On the other hand, if he is headed for a nw 7 and has sparse donor, he probably should not go down that path.

[fred970]

It's not about caring or not. When you start losing hair rapidly at 17 years old like me, you still have a life to build, a career, a family. When you're forty, you're usually married and you've established a solid situation. I know it sounds cliché but you get my drift, try to build a decent life while pretty much bald at an age when none of your peers are. It's not about caring or not, life will be much harder for someone who is bald. At least at 40, it is considered normal as 2/3 of men have noticeable hair loss at that age.

[ryan555]

It's not about caring or not. When you start losing hair rapidly at 17 years old like me, you still have a life to build, a career, a family. When you're forty, you're usually married and you've established a solid situation. I know it sounds cliché but you get my drift, try to build a decent life while pretty much bald at an age when none of your peers are. It's not about caring or not, life will be much harder for someone who is bald. At least at 40, it is considered normal as 2/3 of men have noticeable hair loss at that age.

Yeah dude, it sucks for sure, especially for younger guys. My only point is that is can suck for older guys as well and we shouldn't discourage anyone from addressing their problem. Hopefully something will come along that can help all of us regardless of age.

[skeptic1]

The issue is not where you are in life. It doesn't matter whether your married, have kids, career, are forty or twenty, it matters what is right for you and what your options are.

I am here learn about real world experiences including long and short term recovery, worst case scenarios, and the different processes. So much of what you read online feels like an advertisement or unrealistic story of instant gratification.

I believe we all have strong feelings about it or we'd be off reading a book, watching tv, or letting some other form of media wash over us. No were here talking about hair because that's the hand we were dealt.

[Tracy C]

skeptic1,

Before deciding to have surgery, talk in person with doctors who specialize in treating hair loss and performing the surgery.

I am a woman and it might surprise you to know that I have been through the process - twice. Short of wearing a wig once you have healed up enough to do so, it is not possible to hide it from everyone.

Most men I know chose to let nature take it's course and bald gracefully. They cut their hair short, brush it back and leave it at that. That option is not acceptable for everyone and I understand that. In your situation, since you cannot take or use the medications that can slow down, stop or reverse some of your hair loss, you may be wasting your time and money with surgery. Surgery cannot give you a full head of hair and the native hair will continue to wither away if you can't treat it. So take your time, talk to doctors in person and think really long and hard about it before you commit to surgery.

[ukcali]

It's not about caring or not. When you start losing hair rapidly at 17 years old like me, you still have a life to build, a career, a family. When you're forty, you're usually married and you've established a solid situation. I know it sounds cliché but you get my drift, try to build a decent life while pretty much bald at an age when none of your peers are. It's not about caring or not, life will be much harder for someone who is bald. At least at 40, it is considered normal as 2/3 of men have noticeable hair loss at that age.

I can sympathise greatly with how you're feeling. I'm 22 and am losing my hair. It's horrific. That being said to suggest that the OP should essentially be grateful because he wasn't in your position is pretty unfair.

I have a friend how lost both parents, within a year of each other, before he was 20. Another friend of mine Lost his father when he was in his early 20s, now going by your logic he shouldn't grieve because his situation "isn't quite as abad as the first persons".

Hair loss can be devastating at any age. You seem to be quite immature to suggest that things don't bother you're older.

[ukcali]

This is the first post I've ever done, anywhere.

This subject is hard because who likes to talk about going bald.

Every time the subject comes up I just get annoyed! I am forty years old and my hair is receding quickly.

I tried finesteride and although it kept the hair from falling out it had a side effect that no man ever wants to have. I know it says it only happens to a small percentage of males, but if you fall in that category you figure out which one is more important.

Rogaine created itchiness and a rash and I stopped using it.

Now I am back to watching my hair thin in the mirror and I can't stand it!

I've been reading this forum for a couple of months and now I'm really considering a transplant. I really want to do it, but I don't want anyone to know, is that possible? Right now I am pulling my hair forward and covering my scalp and some people don't notice I'm going bald (although I don't know how.) So my optimistic hope is that I can have surgery, spend two weeks in hiding and recover, and then continue with the combover until it thickens up... if that's possible.

The questions I have pertain to hiding the process from the public. I own a business with employees, I spend time at my kids school, and I have a large group of friends and family that I spend time with. I'd rather not go through this process in public, is it possible?

Do you have to shave your head for the procedure? Can the regrowth process be hidden?

Would appreciate any and all feedback as this is a subject that has created lots of internal strife and my window for potentially addressing it privately is quickly closing.

Firstly welcome

The first step is always the hardest. Now to echo what others have said you're best bet is to take as much time as you can and research the procedure. It is after all a surgical procedure that caries risk and it's very important that you not only underside them but have a realistic outcome for what is achievable. You will as you progress through your research see great cases and terrible cases including cases that are similar to yours. This should help you realise what is achievable.

Now I had a consultation recently with a surgeon and he made a very valid point, he was discussing my hair loss pattern and was very keen to make a future plan for what will be achievable if I ever come off finasteride. This is something I haven't seen many people mention online. He pointed out that I may not want to be on the drug foreve (I may one day want to have children etc) so that's why we started looking at what would be achievable. This is a good idea for you seeing as you aren't on anything to help stabilise your hair loss.

Now there's different types of surgery, FUE & FUT. It is possible to do both without shaving the head. FUE is much harder to do this and I've only ever heard a couple surgeons doing it because it is much more time consuming and therefore expensive. As a compromise what may be doable in your case is to simply shave the back and the sides leaving the top longer. This would obviously allow you to hide your transplant much better. Especially if you're simply rebuilding your hairline. Regarding regrowth, I'm not quite sure what your mean by can it be hidden. In theory if you had a slightly longer hair style it may be easier to "style around it" in order to hide it.

Timescale, I would say to be safe it would be more like 3 weeks. Take a holiday (or vacation if you're American ) or simply tell friends that you've had a really bad sickness bug or something similar. That could get you out of seeing them for a while.

Hope this has helped and please don't hesitate to ask anything else

Best of luck!

[25 going on 65]

It's not about caring or not. When you start losing hair rapidly at 17 years old like me, you still have a life to build, a career, a family. When you're forty, you're usually married and you've established a solid situation. I know it sounds cliché but you get my drift, try to build a decent life while pretty much bald at an age when none of your peers are. It's not about caring or not, life will be much harder for someone who is bald. At least at 40, it is considered normal as 2/3 of men have noticeable hair loss at that age.

At age 40 having a full head of hair is FAR better than receding. In your professional life, love life, getting respect from strangers, etc
Sure it is normal to have hair loss @ 40 but....the last thing you ever want is looking like a "normal 40 year old" in this country

However I agree w/ your earlier advice, getting a transplant is a bad idea if he can not use meds to stop the loss

[win200]

I can sympathise greatly with how you're feeling. I'm 22 and am losing my hair. It's horrific. That being said to suggest that the OP should essentially be grateful because he wasn't in your position is pretty unfair.

I have a friend how lost both parents, within a year of each other, before he was 20. Another friend of mine Lost his father when he was in his early 20s, now going by your logic he shouldn't grieve because his situation "isn't quite as abad as the first persons".

Hair loss can be devastating at any age. You seem to be quite immature to suggest that things don't bother you're older.

I'll jump in on this. As a 31-year-old, I'm square in the middle here. I agree that hair loss is going to be alarming/troubling for most guys at ANY age. (I was talking to a partner at my firm about her 55-year-old husband's hair loss--he's a NW6--and how much it constantly bothers him despite his age.) However, there's a lot of truth to the fact that while you don't stop caring with age, the emotional trauma lessens a bit as other guys start to lose hair. At 30, the average head of hair looks different than at 20. At 20, most guys have something that looks like a juvenile head of hair--just a huge pile of thick locks. There are plenty of guys that still have that at 30, but by that age there are a hell of a lot more guys that have temple recession, the start of crown thinning, some diffuse thinning, etc. etc. I was a NW2 before surgery and a NW~1.5 after, and I'm pretty much at the norm for my age, with temples slightly higher than the average, maybe. But my loss would be far more noticeable if I was still in undergrad. Context is everything. Advanced loss will always be horrifying, but for guys in the NW2-3 range, I can almost guarantee that the aging process will take at least SOME of the edge off the pain of hair loss.

Also, if you hop on meds and treatments when you start seeing loss in your 20s, you can hopefully halt most of the loss. Most guys actually don't know what Propecia is and never use minoxidil, so many of your friends that start balding later than you will actually overtake you because they won't do anything to stop the process.

[35YrsAfter]

I'll jump in on this. As a 31-year-old, I'm square in the middle here. I agree that hair loss is going to be alarming/troubling for most guys at ANY age. (I was talking to a partner at my firm about her 55-year-old husband's hair loss--he's a NW6--and how much it constantly bothers him despite his age.) However, there's a lot of truth to the fact that while you don't stop caring with age, the emotional trauma lessens a bit as other guys start to lose hair. At 30, the average head of hair looks different than at 20. At 20, most guys have something that looks like a juvenile head of hair--just a huge pile of thick locks. There are plenty of guys that still have that at 30, but by that age there are a hell of a lot more guys that have temple recession, the start of crown thinning, some diffuse thinning, etc. etc. I was a NW2 before surgery and a NW~1.5 after, and I'm pretty much at the norm for my age, with temples slightly higher than the average, maybe. But my loss would be far more noticeable if I was still in undergrad. Context is everything. Advanced loss will always be horrifying, but for guys in the NW2-3 range, I can almost guarantee that the aging process will take at least SOME of the edge off the pain of hair loss.

Also, if you hop on meds and treatments when you start seeing loss in your 20s, you can hopefully halt most of the loss. Most guys actually don't know what Propecia is and never use minoxidil, so many of your friends that start balding later than you will actually overtake you because they won't do anything to stop the process.

I began losing my hair at 17. I had transplants when I was in my late twenties. The result did not look natural at the hairline in particular, but not horrible like some results I have seen. I had exceptional donor hair, but the 4mm punch scars probably contributed to donor area thinning. Ten years ago my donor area hair thinned while I was taking anti-allergy medication. Very depressing. Some men with hair loss baby their hair, probably because they think not being "nice" enough to their hair triggered their MPB. Blood circulation plays an important role in hair growth. That may seem counterintuitive because one might reason, more blood equals more DHT. In my case that wasn't true. I take a shower, dry my hair and massage Rogaine foam into my entire scalp. I brush my hair (not gently), massage my scalp and do scalp exercises. All of this takes about two minutes. I have been doing this for about five months and there is a huge improvement in the density of my hair on the back and sides of my head.

Related to self esteem, several years ago, we had a good looking lady in her forties help take care of my wife's mother. She told me that "bald men are hot". A lot of guys are fixated on how they feel about their hair loss. many women either don't care about hair loss in men of find bald men particularly attractive. In my opinion, it's an attraction related to opposites. For instance without being too graphic... men large penis, women small clitoris. men small breasts, women large breasts. Women pretty, men rugged, even perhaps ugly. Women beautiful hair, men not so great hair.

Google, women find bald men attractive. It's true that some women are not attracted to men with hair loss, but it might surprise you how many women are.