Author: Dr. William Rassman

I started balding at 18 with a nw1.5 now i am 26 with a nw3 and it seems somewhat stable. Is it possible that my balding has stabilized and won’t get much worse?

Yes, that’s possible, but be prepared in case your balding pattern gets worse in time

I met with Dr. X in a paid consultation which costed me $150. I am 33 years old and my father also had a Class 3 pattern of balding, so I clearly took after him. I tried the drug Propecia, but I had sexual side effects. I knew that only a hair transplant would work for me. So, I shopped around and finally ended up with Dr. X. During the consultation, he said I was a good candidate, but he would not do my surgery. I asked him why, and he said I took too much time asking too many questions about what he would do. He said, “My patients trust me and don’t ask questions.” I was floored so I guess we both decided that we were not meant to be doctor and patient.

Arrogant to say the least, but he was honest. Best that you and he never worked out, because doctors like will never support you if anything goes wrong.

This is my math: 6000 donor follicles available. Average head has 100000 hairs. Can lose 50% of hair density before it’s visible. Say a norwood 6 loses 60% of their hair (40% left on sides) that’s 60000 hairs. Need 30000 hairs replaced to reach 50% density and look like a full head. Average graft 2 hairs. 15000 grafts = 30000 hairs would look like a full head. Could sides be over harvested from 6000 to 10000 to replace 20000 hairs? 2/3 of full apperance. Sides clipped to no1 with SMP to cover overharvest?

Answer: ?Your math is partly right. The donor area is always determined on the Class 7 scale not the Class 6 scale, which essentially reduces the donor area to about 20,000 hairs or 10,000 grafts, which can be harvested at say 60% assuming that you have an average donor density. Graft numbers are adjusted according to hair weight (coarse vs fine), color and contract between hair and scalp and hair character. The artistic judgment of the surgeon manages the multi-variant analysis as everything is not by the numbers alone.

For 18 years of age, you already have an advanced Class 4 pattern of balding and based upon your family history, you may lose all of your hair. I would want to know who you take after in your family. You appear blonde (that is good) but you are a person who needs to see a doctor and develop a Master Plan because it looks like you are likely to lose all of your hair other than the permanent rim of hair around the back and sides of your head. There is no substitute for a one-on-one with a good doctor who specializes in genetic hair loss in men.

This patient had 2,900 grafts a few years ago and stopped in to show me what he looked like. The before and after are remarkable. His hair is brown, straight and of medium thickness. He has seen a remarkable change in his self-confidence and the man in the mirror looks good.

I’ve done a lot of research on here. I love how I’m not the only one dealing with this. Father went bald at 22 and my grandfather is bald as well.

I noticed hairloss around my sophomore year of highschool. Pretty mild crown bald spot. Had a person come tell me my crown had no hair and that I should move it. Little did I know there was nothing to cover the spot with.

I have very curly hair from my mothers side. I took a lot of her genes from some reason but it seems like the big gene I took from my father is hairloss. Around a year ago I started to use Shea moisturizer curling cream since again I have curly hair. I didn’t realize that the curling moisturizer itself was doing something to my hair until I stopped using it during quarantine. My hair started falling out quite rapidly. ALOT of dandruff which it itched a lot not sure because it was amount of showers I was taking or what. Then again still unsure. I never went outside during this period so my body was all over lol. I returned back to Cantu curling and my hair looks a lil better after a week I don’t know if there’s something in the cream that helps my hair. Anyways besides the point.

I knew I was going bald. My hairline has be receding. There’s nothing but single strands of hair across my hairline that was once there. The top of my head is also. I can pretty much see a lot more of my scalp. But the back of my head has perfect hair. I want to try fin. I’m not to worried about the whole beard and facial hair issue. I have a thick full beard at 18 and seems like I’ve hit the peak of my puberty I guess you can say. I see there’s a lot of side effects going on with ED and stuff then again I’ll just stop taking it if it’s severe. I wanna get this discussed with a doctor first but I would like to hear from the other teens here since I know there’s much more commenting then posting.

-how was fin treated you ? -how bad are the side effects if so how long did they last? -should I really take this at this age?

If your father went bald at 22 and you get his genes, the only possibility to hold on to your hair is the drug finasteride. Men who get a Norwood Class 7 by their mid-20s have never been studied with finasteride at an early age like 17-18. With the HAIRCHECK instrument, the diagnosis may be much easier when the hair loss first starts along this path, possibly as early as 18 years old. This type of balding is aggressive so the treatment with finasteride has to be timely and consistent.

This is a patient I treated with a single surgery last year with 3,300 grafts. The after photo is on the left. He was thrilled with the results, and now he doesn’t think about his hair much of the time, which is the takeaway here.

[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]

I would like to believe that this Class 5A patient achieved a complete reversal of his hair loss on finasteride and minoxidil use over a 5 month course; but I can’t believe it because the hair growth to long hair alone can account for the change in this picture. This man, if he wants to be fair, needs to show comparable hair cuts and comparable views.

Have you looked at Scalp Micropigmentation? This is a great and relatively inexpensive solution to get the look of hairs on a closely shaved head. It is such a great illusion that I have had patients examined by 400 doctors who could not tell that the patient did not have real hair.

See pictures here: https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/bold-shaved-look/

I just can’t accept baldness. from tressless