Category: Age

i am a 19 yr old male, almost 20, and since i was 16 my hair has receded near the temple points. my hair line now resembles a narrow V. i style my hair in a way that gives me a youthful look and it covers it well, however i am wanting to get a transplant so that i may have a beautiful hairline. doctors have told me that i am too young but i dont care, if i get the hairline reconstructed and the rest of the hair continues receding, so long as i have a real hairline i dont mind wearing a hairpeice if it comes to that…what do u think?

If you are losing this much hair at such a young age, it is not a good sign. There is a risk that you may go on to lose all of your hair before you are 30 years old. Despite what you may think, you will still care how you look like when you are 30 years old (or 40, 50, even 80 years old for that matter). You have to accept the fact that hair transplant surgery in itself is not a complete solution to your problem. What I mean by that is you will never look like or have the “beautiful” hair you had when you were 16 years old. Just as your face will change, your body weight will change, and you will constantly adapt to different styles and looks over your lifetime. The same goes for your hair. As you lose more hair you will adapt and change your hair style to make it look full.

While hair transplant surgery can certainly address the balding and receding hairline, you have to think about how you may look like with more hair loss and think about the worst case scenario. This is what we mean when we often talk about the Master Plan involved when a patient decides to have a hair transplant surgery.

If you are sure you will go bald and you are totally fine with wearing a hair piece, then surgery to the front hairline and front area of the scalp can be a good compromise to give a full and natural look that blends in with a hair piece. But until you are 100% sure of this, I would wait. Surgery at such a young age can precipitate accelerated “shock hair loss” from the trauma of the surgery itself and your existing hairs will fall out faster than they otherwise would’ve and you will end up looking worse.

i am 20 years old and live in Mi. I started losing my hair since when i was 17 years old and after 3 years that now i am 20 years old i have lost enough hairs that i look 10 times older than my age. I have lost a lot of hairs from and middle and day by day it is increasing due to this reason i am losing confidence and every time try to cover my head with something so people don’t see my baldness and right now i have short hairs which make it more obvious and make me look a 30 year old like man.

Please advice me should i get done hair transplant from your surgical institution or is there any other way to get my hairs back. Because i told you i have almost lost a lot of confidence in myself. Please doctor your advice is required. Thank you

At 20 years old, you’re more than likely not a candidate for hair transplantation. I understand that you’re losing confidence and covering your head — this is common among many men that are seeing hair loss. I don’t know how bad your loss is, but my suggestion is:

1. Get your hair mapped out for miniaturization to make a diagnosis on the presence and degree of pending hair loss
2. Talk to your doctor about a prescription of Propecia. I’ve seen this medication work well in younger men with early hair loss like you describe.

There are many doctors that would be more than willing to take your money, but realize that you’re just going to cause problems for yourself in the future if you rush to surgically treat your hair loss today.

Dr. Rassman,

I am 25 yrs old and I have a receding hairline. I understand that you can’t tell me whether I’m a candidate without seeing me, but can you tell me what percentage of men my age are candidates for a hair transplant? Also, what characteristics make these men candidates?

Assuming that you do not have a maturing hairline, then your candidacy for a hair transplant relates to how much the hair loss bothers you. Hair transplants are a cosmetic surgical procedure and are completely elective. I always tell my patients that if their hair loss does not bother them, do not consider hair transplant. If you are genetically balding, then drugs like Propecia (finasteride) will stop or slow the hair loss.

As to percentages of balding men at age 25, I would have to guess that some balding may be present in 10-25% of men at your age. Men over 45 years old have a 50% chance of showing some balding.

If I get a hair transplant but develop senile alopecia many decades from now, when I’m in my 70s or so, will it be a problem?

If you develop senile alopecia when you are much older, if your doctor produced a Master Plan for you, this should not be a problem. The doctor would have accounted for such a process in the plan, provided that he performed follicular unit transplants in a pattern that would give consideration to such a change.

Transplanted grafts will mimic the changes in the donor area, so if the donor area lost 30% of the hair, then the hair transplants will lose 30% of the hair in the grafts. Unfortunately, there are not statistics on this available, but this conclusion is based upon years of observations that I have made.

I read your posts everyday and I would like to thank you for educating me and keeping me up to date. I’ve noticed several different times that you say there is no official age limit for a hair transplant. I would agree. I’m 21 years old and I had a hair transplant 10 months ago. For the first six months things did move pretty slowly but I would like to say things are going great now. My hair is looking better than it has in years and should continue to get even better. At the time of the transplant my hair loss was an advanced Norwood 3. I had been on propecia for 12 months. My density is slightly above average and I have a lighter medium course hair. With all that being said I still don’t know if my doctor would have performed surgery on me had I not been as educated as I was.

My biggest piece of advice for all of the younger readers out there who are serious about getting a hair transplant is you have to be informed and know what you’re getting into. You have to understand the process; see if your hair loss is more than just a maturing hairline, find out how good of a candidate you are for the surgery and be able somehow finance it. Also, find a good caring doctor.

Obviously, if a teenager doesn’t like his maturing hairline, that doesn’t make him a candidate for surgery… but the “rules” about minimum age for hair transplantation are flexible to a point. As a physician, I won’t perform a procedure that wouldn’t be in the best interest of the patient down the line. Not all doctors follow these same guidelines, but educating yourself is key to not becoming a victim. Nobody should ever rush into a hair transplant, because this is a permanent procedure! I’m glad you found the site helpful and I hope your grafts grow in nicely.

Hi Doc,
Firstly I would like to say great site!I have two questions:

This is speculative but could be me in a few years: I know that you are not reluctant in performing transplants to you people, but if a 23 year old male came into your office having taking propecia for 4 years with a norwood class 4A balding pattern would you carry out the transplant if this person insisted and that a master plan had been established?

What is the age of the youngest person that you have performed a hair transplant to?

If there is a balding pattern like a Norwood Class 4A, no matter what the age, he would probably be a candidate for a hair transplant provided that:

1. He had enough maturity and knowledge at hand with realistic expectations.
2. He understands the financial short and long-term nature of paying for the process.
3. His examination shows that he has the required donor hair to meet his needs.

As for the youngest… well, I have done hair transplants in a few children as a result of accidents, brain surgery, and birth defects. These are unique cases and not like re-establishing a hairline or crown swirl.