Researching my HT Procedure, all feedback welcome

[Gandolf]

Hi,

I have been reading this board for a few months and just registered today to be able to post. Here is my brief history:

Right now I am 27 years old. I first noticed some thinning of my hair around the age of 20, but was somewhat in deniel about it. I have always had very fine hair and noticed that in certain bright lighting, I could see right through my hair to my scalp. I would try to convince myself that's how my hair had always been, and that it wasn't getting worse, even though I kind of knew deep down it probably was.

Fast forward to a year ago, when I was 26 years old. I received the first unsolicited comment about my hair loss (from my older brother). This made me very insecure about it and I could no longer be in denial. The area most affected is the corners of my hairline. I have some minor recession in the middle front, but nothing serious. However, the sides of the hairline have receded quite significantly and due to my fine hair, I have very limited styling options which have all been pretty much wiped out by the recession. I also have some diffuse thinning on top, but have full coverage everywhere except for the receded hairline.

I got a prescription for Propecia at this time (one year ago), and it helped somewhat on top but not at all for the frontal hairloss. The thinning on the vertex filled in somewhat (but not 100%). The good news is that the hairloss seems to have completely stopped. I can run my hands through my hair and never come away with more than a hair or two. I never had the intense shedding that some people here describe (ie 50-100 hairs in the drain), but before the meds I could run my hand through and come away with a good 5-10 hairs, so there have definitely been some changes.

So, here I am, several months away from my 28th birthday, I've been on Propecia for going on a year, and I think I've seen all the improvement from it that I'm going to see and still want to take my results further and thus, I've decided to take the plunge and get a hair transplant.

I am attaching pics and would like everyone's opinion on how many grafts I'll need to achieve my goals, along with any other feedback advice. I haven't decided which surgeon to go to. I live in Maryland but am willing to travel anywhere in the USA to get this done. Please take a look at the pics and let me know your thoughts.

My main goal is to fill in the receded temples and SLIGHTLY lower the hairline in the front, I want to significantly lower the corners of the hairline though and to hair it pretty densely packed. I would also like, if possible, to add some density all over the top. I am willing to pay for a 4000-5000 graft surgery (if need be) to achieve all of this.

I should also add that I have no family history of aggressive MPB. Most of the men in my family have hairline recession and thinning on top, but no one has anything even close to a horseshoe pattern with a shiny head on top.