Author: Dr. William Rassman

The answer is no, you cannot have a hair transplant. I also always perform bulk measurements with an instrument called HAIR CHECK which is a good way to determine just how much thinning you have that you cannot see. Once this test is done and you have gone a year, I often repeat the test as it gives an excellent measurement on what happened to your hair over the year. If it got better and some of the thinning reversed, maybe you won’t need a transplant and that is the goal that you should look to do. Of course, a good doctor is critical to this course.

From the photos, it looks like the drug may have stabilized the loss. It is possibly slightly better but most important it is not worse. If you were to stop the medication, I’l bet you will lose a lot of hair.

This is a terrible question as it reflects a doctor who is not ethical and a patient who is naive. A 21 year old might have early crown hair loss and frontal hairline loss along the hairline (Called a Norwood Class 3 Vertex pattern) which is not uncommon in a young man under 23 years old. Most of these men can stop their hair loss on the drug finasteride, but of course the doctor can’t make money that way, so this poor fellow had a hair transplant and will be destined to continue having hair transplants until is final balding pattern is evident (about 26 years old). If he does not have the donor density for this, he will look freaky as he runs out of hair chasing possibly the impossible. Ethical doctors are in the business so if you are under 25 and have hair loss, see on of the ethical doctor who does not rush you into surgery to pay for his new car.

Rather than obsess over your situation, meet with a doctor who is in this field of hair restoration and start building a Master Plan for your hair loss. I usually start by performing a HAIRCHECK instrument test on my patients to determine a baseline for the hair loss. Then, I start medications which would be appropriate for someone of your age. I follow the progress over a year or two. If the balding continues and gets worse, I might then consider a hair transplant but I must know you and you should get to know and trust your doctor over that time he treats you with medications. With trust, you can get your hair back and address your depression by taking action.

Balding gave me the final punch into depression, who else? from tressless

What you need is to find a doctor who understands the progressive nature of genetic balding in men. With this much balding at 21, you may be heading for a Class 7 pattern but typically Asians do not have the donor supply to treat such a large area of balding if you should evolve into a Class 7 pattern. What you need is a Master Plan for your hair loss, not a hair transplant at this time. I have just received two emails from different doctors who reported that they had patients your age who reversed their hair loss completely with Minoxidil and Finasteride alone and no hair transplant. One of these two enails reported that his patinet had this reversal last since he was 21 years old, which is 15 years ago. Too many doctor will rush to transplant you because they make a lot of money doing it but they would be leaving you with an incomplete end result, so be careful. Try a combination of medications with the help of a good doctor.

That is a reasonable number of grafts. If you have very fine hair, then more grafts would have been better because fine hair does not have much bulk to it. However, there appears to be areas where the growth is underperforming at this time, so wait out another 2 months. If at that time the area has not filled in, go back and see your doctor.