I Can’t Take Propecia, I Don’t Want to Bald

Dr. Rassman, what approach do you take with young men who are not able to take Propecia. Do you never do transplants in them? Do you sometimes do transplants? I am a norwood 2 going on a norwood 3. I am considering getting small transplants to keep up with my hairloss starting in about a year when I will be 23 years old. Is is a bad idea? Going bald is not an option for me, so its either transplants or a system.

I hope you read the blog entry from last week where a patient whom I did not recommend getting a hair transplant was not happy with my recommendation and got a hair transplant from another doctor. Now he is worse off and more bald because he lost more hair due to shock loss.

I would not normally recommend a hair transplant to a Norwood class 2/3, but every patient is different and it would be impossible for me to give you personal medical advice without a person to person consult. You may be a Norwood 2/3 now but without a good exam and a good medical history, there is no way of knowing what Norwood class you would be at the age of 50 (this is where the Master Plan comes in). If you have miniaturization in the areas behind the frontal corners (like the top and crown of your head), then it would be suggestive that you are in for a lot of balding in your future and fixing a Class 2 pattern may not be good timing just now. Alternatively, if there is no miniaturization in the rest of your head and your family history does not show advanced balding, then maybe with the right doctor / patient relationship, a hair transplant could be considered. I am not excited about the idea of doing a hair transplant on someone with such a pattern and at your age, because the pattern of your future hair loss is not going to show up for another few years.

I would also question why you are not able to take Propecia.