28 - crown transplant?

[Tykouu]

would an FUE crown transplant be something that could work to restore thickness to my crown... Been struggling for at least 3 years with thinness in that area and nothing has helped... 1.5 yrs minoxidil .... 10 months propecia/nizoril

[DAVE52]

Better off waiting until the front thins out then deciding what you want to do .
Start with the crown now , and you better be prepared for more

[CaliD]

I'm sure it bothers you but honestly its not bad at all. Give the Propecia more time. Some people see improvements after 1.5 yrs or more. Not worth potentially damaging your native hair with a transplant at this point. You can always have an HT later and they're only getting better at doing them.

[Dr. Lindsey]

You are a young guy..you have thin hairs, and even if you lose zero more hairs due to male pattern baldness...unlikely given your age (and we don't know anything about your family's hair loss patterns), you can only improve what you currently are missing moderately. Meaning that lets imagine you have a cup of 2500 grafts of that fine hair you have...and you place it all in that roughly baseball sized area of thinning...I would guess you'd only see 30 or 40% improvment...just because the fine hair you have doesn't cover well, and because you simply can't layer crown hair for styling like you can in the front. AND you won't have those 2500 grafts to address any loss up front that may come later. I would not offer you surgery at this point. Listen to the guys who commented previously!

Dr. Lindsey

[WHTC Clinic]

If you can't wait any longer, you might be fine with 50 grafts to add coverage.

[Dr. Lindsey]

50 grafts!?!

Proceed with caution. 50 grafts may help an area smaller than a postage stamp. I can't believe a physician would knowingly offer 50 grafts in a crown of a young guy who will likely lose more hair.

Really, if you want more hair after doing enough research...go for it. Just make sure you know what you are getting and the future implications. But 50 grafts. Please....

Perhaps Spencer can add 2 cents to this one.

Good luck to you know matter what you choose. But do your research!

Dr. Lindsey

[PaulC]

Dr Lindsey & WHTC,

Can I please use this thread to run this by you?

Male 50 +, no significantly concerning hairline hair loss however relatively mild crown hair loss. (much less loss than the OP)

Whilst the crown hair loss is not numerically significantly it is cosmetically very important to me. Availability of donor is not an issue for me. Consequently:

I’m very interested in having a small number of grafts (50/100) in the crown.
The crown before/after photos that I have seen tend to be of people who have received 600+ grafts.

The HT sector does not seem to currently offer 50+ males relatively small crown (50/100 grafts) fill in’s.

I think that there is a demand such procedures.

[Dr. Lindsey]

With all due respect, 100 grafts for a crown is a waste of your time and hair supply.

Review any of the hundreds of cases that I've posted or the 70 or so videos on my youtube channel to see what sized cases grafts cover. There are a few 200 graft cases that I show...to fix an area the size of a 50 cent piece.

I worry that you are getting ready to make a mistake. DO YOUR RESEARCH!

Dr. Lindsey

[Dr. Lindsey]

Dr. Karadeniz is ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. First off, you are likely to lose alot more hair...so save that donor hair for the future. Secondly, its going to take 30grafts/cm to get you 50% better than you currently are...and you'll never get a crown like you had before MPB started..its simply not possible with your hair characteristics.

Based on 20 years experience and your significant worry about your crown, statistically in my pool of patients who have visited in your situation....30% get on meds or not, but don't have surgery...and wait until the front needs to be addressed. 20% go someplace and get a "decent" crown case...meaning 2500 grafts and a nice result (with the limitations of their native hair characteristics...but they then don't have that hair to use up front later on), and 50% go to a clinic and get 300-700 grafts sprinkled around their crown. Then the have nothing to show for their efforts, a scar on their heads, decreased density of hair to use next time, AND complete distrust in the hair transplant industry.

I had a guy come in 2 weeks ago. EXACTLY your situation. He was all upset he'd had 500 grafts to his crown when I told him he needed 1500 (for a tennis ball size area). He actually brought me a picture of me with the phrase "you need 1500 grafts" and a note that I was correct as he scheduled his repair case.

Whatever you do, don't do a half baked procedure to your young crown.

Dr. Lindsey

[dutchguyhanging]

mate i dont know your history but all i can tell is that my hairloss was also started just like this. then thinning startedto spread all over the scalp and now I am nw5. i also refuse to use meds because i dont think it s the right thing to do.

as you can see there is absolutely no solution for your crown but hoping those med of yours would actually work. apparently it is not and unfortunately no one can do anything about it even if you were millionaire. this is where we stuck at... discontent customers....

hair loss industry is now in the dormant phase we all wait for the real cure. what these doctors offer us to stay on meds and have conservative hairline design.

[Rahul dhruv]

you can get hair transplant in that particular area and it would not cost much.

[Dr. Lindsey]

I completely get what you are saying dutchguyhanging. You are correct, people with significant hairloss, poor donor hair quality and or quantity...do have limited options. AND I'm not a big medicine prescriber. A lifetime of meds with certainly some potential short term and possibly permanent side effects is not a great option. But surgery to address hairloss, sometimes with limitations of coverage, and meds are all we have. I know everyone is waiting for the cure. But it won't happen in my lifetime. Perhaps...in 50 years we'll see cloning or genetic manipulation, but only after other diseases are addressed first.

I'm not always right, but I'm pretty sure on this one. Then, some of the readers will comment that as a hair doctor I don't want a cure. Wrong-o fellows. Figuring cloning will come before genetic therapy...someone will need to design the hairline or repair and someone will need to plant all of those cloned grafts. I'd be really psyched if any old class 6 or 7 could walk in this morning, I could biopsy one cm of scalp and mail it off to acme hair cloning, and then get 12000 grafts back in 2 weeks for me to fix their entire bald area! That would be the best thing for the public and for hair doctors alike. Its just not happening anytime soon.

This little video shows why we can't cover everything at one time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdw5fHLcqLo

So for now, its do your research before you commit to current options.

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[DAVE52]

you can get hair transplant in that particular area and it would not cost much.

Sure you can get a HT anywhere , but in this particular case , he will most probably regret it later on in life as he loses more hair