Hi Dr,
I recnetly went to visit a hair transplant surgeon and asked him to assess my hair and in particular to do a miniaturisation study. I told him about your blog and said that I had learnt from your site and wanted to get an analysis of where my final balding pattern would be.
He said that I clearly have some frontal recession at the corners (not a mature hairline because there was miniaturisation apparently) but overall a good hair of ableit fine hair. I am in my late 20’s.
My reason for this appointment was because my father is a NW6-7 and his hair loss turned aggressive at age 30 and my maternal grandfather is probably about a NW3-4 with vertex thinning.
I was hoping that the surgeon could give me an accurate idea of where my final hair loss pattern would be from the miniaturisation study that I insisted on (taking microscopic photos to count hair thickness and density at various points of my head), but he did say that using these methods it was just not possible to really know what my final pattern might be because in his words “Just because you are receding a bit now, and don’t have any apparent thinning elsewhere – doesn’t mean you won’t start going bald in those areas later as you’re still quite young -family history is the best guess”. So I suppose you could say that he was disagreeing with some of your ideas?
Anyway, having had this study done, I am still no wiser as to what my final hair loss pattern will be. I don’t want to take propecia and minoxidil didn’t work for me but I wish I could have a better idea of things so I could consider maybe a transplant to the front in future if no other areas are to go bald. I suppose that if my final hair pattern is similar to my grandfathers then I could have a transplant but this would be much more risky if i take after my father.
Interested in your comments…
There are no absolute ways to determine what your final balding pattern will be with 100% accuracy; however, good measurements are the basis of good science. Miniaturization mapping and bulk measurements of the hair where balding is not appearing to the naked eye will absolutely show signs of reduced bulk if your pattern is moving in the direction of your parents or grandparents.
I do not believe that preventive hair transplantation has a role, but knowing where you are going with all of the evidence you can muster will give you an idea what is going to happen to you and what may not happen to you.
So your doctor is correct in that just because you have thinning, it does not mean that you are going to go completely bald in that area… but his assessment is limited to what the eye can see, while what I am discussing puts good clinical science behind where you may be going with your hair loss. I would want to know.
