22 Year Old Seeking Hair Transplant Advice

[Anthony115]

Hello,

I am 22 and have been losing my hair (hairline and crown) since I was about 16 or 17. Once it became an obvious problem at 19 (around Norwood III) I decided to start Finasteride. This stabilized my loss and even gave me some density on the top and crown back. The crown area is still a bit thin but in general I'm happy with the density I got back. The biggest issue is my hairline. I prefer to style my hair up every morning in order to maximize the appearance of density up top, but the hairline is still so receded that I can never get the look I am after. I feel like my friends, and acquaintances see me as a person who is on his way towards being bald.

I have met with Dr. Robert Haber and felt very comfortable that he is a skilled and reputable surgeon, and he recommended 1200 grafts via FUT into my hairline to bring the temples down to meet my widows peak. This would result in a straight hairline about 7 millimeters up on my forehead, which from what I understand is on the higher side but still “natural” in appearance. The following week, I scheduled my procedure and put down my deposit, but now I am getting major cold feet.

Since the day I realized the finasteride was not going to bring my hairline back, I have been saving for this procedure (about 3 years). But now that the possibility of this procedure is real I am worried that I might be committing myself to a life of endless procedures, research, and paranoia that people will notice the transplant, or the scar. And I worry that if the Finasteride stops working for me and I am forced to shave my head, I will have scaring in both the donor site and the recipient sites. Dr. Haber’s told me that if I end up unsatisfied with my scaring I can always opt for an SMP procedure to camouflage the donor areas, and give the appearance of more density in my crown. Does anyone have experience with SMP camouflage? And if so were you satisfied with the result? Also, would it look strange if I filled in my FUT scar with SMP and then for whatever reason needed to shave my head bic razor bald? I feel like I’d probably have to keep a certain amount of stubble on my head for the SMP to look natural unless I had the procedure done on my whole scalp.

Success for me would be that the Finasteride continues to maintain my current hair, my FUT scar is concealed under hair cut to a #3 or #4 guard, and that Dr. Haber is able to create a non-receded hairline with natural density. I will continue to use Finasteride and minoxidil indefinitely but besides that I’d like to never worry about my hair again. Is this goal realistic? Or do I need to change my expectations before moving forward?

So I guess my question is… Have any of you had a similar experience to me or had work done by Dr. Haber? Did you decide to go under the knife? Why or why not and did you regret the decision you made?

I keep going back and forth on whether or not to cancel the reservation which is set for early January. Any advice you guys could offer would be really appreciated. Thank you