Seeking thoughts on moving from fin to a full HT...

[86m]

Hello everyone,

I'm a 28 year old male, guessing I'm about NW3. I've been taking finasteride for about three years now and though I've experienced only a little additional thinning in that time, it has reached the point where it's starting to make it more difficult to wear my hair in my normal style.

This is how my hair generally looks, and has looked for the past few years:


This is the level of recession of the hairline I have:



The problem now is the hair at the front can't always fully cover up the recession of the hair that's happening on either side of it. I'm therefore looking into a hair transplant in a bit more detail to see if it might be worthwhile.

A few questions - sorry if you get asked them a lot but I've done some research and I'm still unclear on these points:

1) If I get hair grafted into the receeded areas and the hair at the front starts to go (as in a Norwood 4A) and I going to end up with a weird hairline with two areas of hair stranded at the front while everything else receeds away behind it?

2) My other concern is scarring. The idea of having individual follicles moved in FUE appeals to me a lot more than the strips of FUT because it seems less invasive, and I'm under the impression the scarring would be much more minor. Am I correct? Really, how serious scarring can I reasonably expect - is it going to be obvious that I've had a transplant done if I shave my head later in life? I'm worried that I might regret it ten years down the line if so.

3) Finally, it sounds like I'll need a shaven head in order to undergo a transplant, right?

Thanks for your time!

[Illusion]

Hello everyone,

I'm a 28 year old male, guessing I'm about NW3. I've been taking finasteride for about three years now and though I've experienced only a little additional thinning in that time, it has reached the point where it's starting to make it more difficult to wear my hair in my normal style.

This is how my hair generally looks, and has looked for the past few years:
Attachment 36067

This is the level of recession of the hairline I have:
Attachment 36068
Attachment 36069

The problem now is the hair at the front can't always fully cover up the recession of the hair that's happening on either side of it. I'm therefore looking into a hair transplant in a bit more detail to see if it might be worthwhile.

A few questions - sorry if you get asked them a lot but I've done some research and I'm still unclear on these points:

1) If I get hair grafted into the receeded areas and the hair at the front starts to go (as in a Norwood 4A) and I going to end up with a weird hairline with two areas of hair stranded at the front while everything else receeds away behind it?

2) My other concern is scarring. The idea of having individual follicles moved in FUE appeals to me a lot more than the strips of FUT because it seems less invasive, and I'm under the impression the scarring would be much more minor. Am I correct? Really, how serious scarring can I reasonably expect - is it going to be obvious that I've had a transplant done if I shave my head later in life? I'm worried that I might regret it ten years down the line if so.

3) Finally, it sounds like I'll need a shaven head in order to undergo a transplant, right?

Thanks for your time!

Hey, welcome to the forum man.

1) Unfortunately yes. This is why a HT isn't always a good idea when you're still young (like you): you're likely to bald more than you did now and you can't always predict the 'end station'. You could look at your family history but this doesn't always provide a reliable example. You can do a HT, but this will mean that you at least should continue medication but even then there is a good chance that you're still going to need another HT because you receded even more. Because of the unpredictabillity of your balding pattern and of how well you're going to respond to fin in the next couple of years (apparently fin is not stopping your hair loss completely, other wise it wouldn't have gotten to this point), I wouldn't recommend a HT (I'm not a hair loss expert though but I think a lot more posters will agree with me on this one). Instead, I'd switch from finasteride to dutasteride, which will give you better results.

There's a poster on this forum called 'fredthebelgian' who's 25 (maybe 26 by now?) and was a NW5 already. He did undergo a HT but I believe one of the reasons he did get a HT at such a young age is because he had a family full of NW5's and he was pretty confident he wouldn't bald any further. Anyway, search for his name and you'll find his thread about his HT. Might be useful for you to read some things in it as you're also considering a HT at a pretty young age.

2) Can't really comment on this question but I thought that FUE indeed would be much less scarring than FUT (which makes kind of sense I guess as FUT is an older technique). Search FUE scars and search FUT scars on google and check the difference for yourself. I don't know how it is going to be with shaving your head later in life though. I'm pretty sure that FUT-scars are easily visible but I don't know about FUE-scars.


3) A HT can be done with your normal hair length (at least, some doctors don't have a problem with it, maybe some others do though), but doctors will always prefer if you shave your head. It's just way easier for him to work. But again, that's only what I've read as I have never had a HT.


But honestly mate, I'd start with dutasteride, stay on it for a while and see if you're happy with the results.

[86m]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, it does sound like something like dutasteride would be worth looking into before I consider any kind of surgery. I'll do some research on that and see where it takes me.

[Hicks]

1) This is why you might be to young. You'll most likely have to get another HT down the road. I waited to long to get on Fin (never heard of it) so I'm stuck with a mature hairline. With limited amount of donor and an unknown future I need to save my donor for another day. I had my HT at 34, I was at a cross roads to either full shave or HT. Most likely will need another pass but so far I'm good.

2) "Is it going to be obvious that I've had a transplant done if I shave my head later in life? I'm worried that I might regret it ten years down the line if so." All answers I've come acros is yes but some are doing FUE to buzz their hair to frame their face. I believe this is fredthebelgian goals but you'll have to ask him.

3) Most likely yes but I've seen some that don't. It's more money if you don't shave. Cole does FUE unshaven but it's like $12 a graft. Some Dr.s like Jerry Cooley do FUT and you don't have to shave.

I would look at a different hair style if possible. Check out Chris Evans, captain america 2. you can tell he's going at the temple. A HT is just an illusion of hair. Check out the PRP section, Greco did a study and it seems very impressive for folks not even on medication.