We are seeing more and more of these types of complications from hair transplant being done all over the world.  There is no substitute for skill and experience.  What should be a safe procedure is turning out very risky for some people as shown here. This will require skilled wound care, possibly for months and the patient will be left with a terrible scar.  He could die from such a wound if the infection gets out of control.  A high price to pay for a cheap hair transplant.

I’m 24 and I can’t live with this anymore. What can I do short of a hair transplant?

You have what is called a Class 4A pattern of balding with a suggestion that it may progress back to the crown area in time. There is still considerable frontal hair present in the balding front, so maybe this will respond to either Minoxidil or Peppermint Oil, or the drug finasteride avoiding a surgery for the moment or even adding miconeedling which has been shown to work well in young men. If this doesn’t work, a hair transplant would work but you should find a good doctor and develop a Master Plan (https://baldingblog.com/need-master-plan-think-hair-transplants-photos/) to assure yourself that you will always have hair as you get older.

Thank you for all of the advice you continue to give to the hair loss community! I frequently read the “Balding Blog” published on your website and appreciate the wealth of information it provides. On your blog, you have described some of the diagnostic procedures that you use to formulate a diagnosis. I notice that you have mentioned using instruments such as microscopes and the “HAIRCHECK” device. Are these types of instruments common in a dermatologists office? The reason I ask is because I have seen two dermatologists in the past two years for my own hair loss and they did not mention these types of things at all. The doctors I have seen seemed fairly dismissive about my condition and came to a diagnosis without even examining my hair. With all due respect to them, I do not feel that they truly considered all the factors of my hair loss situation to come to the most accurate diagnosis possible. I am considering scheduling another dermatology appointment with a doctor in my area but is it common practice for your neighborhood dermatologist to use more advanced diagnostic techniques (microscope, HAIRCHECK instrument, etc) or would I be better suited off going to a doctor who primarily focuses on hair loss/hair transplants? I would love to come to your office for a consultation with you but unfortunately I live in Pennsylvania so going to Los Angeles would be quite a trek! Is there anyone you would recommend for a hair loss consultation that uses some advanced diagnostic procedures on the NYC – Washington DC corridor or even as far west as Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or Chicago? Thank you for your help!

Unfortunately, many dermatologists are just not interested in genetic balding in men because there is little they can do about it other than prescribe finasteride and/or minoxidil. Finding a doctor who is committed to managing men like you is critical. Dr. Robert Bernstein in New York is one of them (along with his partner) who can give you a good assessment of your hair loss situation. For some reason I don’t understand, many doctors don’t offer the HAIRCHECK instrument test (https://baldingblog.com/haircheck-test-how-it-is-done-video/) which I personally believe is critical to early diagnosis. A discount flight to Los Angeles is not so bad considering that I offer a free initial consultation for people like you. Another good doctor is Dr. Robert Haber from Cleveland, Dr. Harris from Denver, Dr. Shapiro from Minniapolis, Dr. Konoir from Chicago and Dr. Brad Wolf from Cincinnati. I don’t know if they offer the HAIRCHECK test. I asked the company that makes the instrument to give me a list of doctors who have it so I can then give it to people like you. As of now, they are slow to respond.

If you are committed to stop the finasteride, just stop it. Sexual side effects may take up to a couple of months to go away.

You can either (1) try a laser hair removal which may take a few sessions and runs the risk of depigmenting your skin if it is tan or dark (2) removing them with FUE directly which works well. I would love to see photos of what you don’t like, what was done wrong and if it could be fixed

If those hairs which are short hairs do not grow, then these hairs may eventually fall out. You might be developing a mature hairline.  In advanced miniaturization, the hairs stop growing before the fall out. The use of finasteride with or without minoxidil might reverse it. Many young men will add microneedling to it as well

Article:  https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/71/71ec24.full

The article from science magazine above discusses the stem cells that are found in the bulge of the hair follicle (in the upper third of the follicle) and that these cells can generate new hairs to populate the bald head. It reminded me of a classic article by Jung-Chul Kim et.al. when he performed partial graft implantation to determine if two hairs could be produced by transplanting two different anatomic parts of a single hair follicle. As stem cells are in the bulge of the upper hair follicle and also in the bulb at the bottom of the hair follicle, he had hoped that two full terminal hairs would rise from the fragments of the original hair as the stem cells in each fragment was capable of generating a hair. In a limited study, Kim removed the upper 2/3rds of the hair follicles from his donor area and transplanted it into his leg. He also removed the lower 1/3rd of the follicle to include the bulb and transplanted that into his leg as well. He showed that the upper 2/3rds of the hair follicle can generate a full hair follicle and the lower 1/3rd can also generate a hair follicle; however, the growth rate of the upper 2/3rd was only 40% and the hair was finer in character (which has much less cosmetic value) and the lower 1/3rd of the follicle growth rate was 27%. By adding these two growth rates together (27% + 40%) the total growth rate was 67%. This study was performed on 67 human hair follicles, i.e. a feasibility study and the conclusion is that the process didn’t work as hoped. So when he cut the hair follicles into two, he ended up with less than the full cosmetic value of the original hair. I wish it worked! Many people have replicated his experiment with similar results.