Hi Doctor Rassman, first let me start off by thanking you for running the balding blog the way you do. Its the only real source for hair loss questions/answers that I trust in terms of reliability and i would be lost without it.
I am a 23 year old male who noticed a bit of a “wider part” and “larger cowlick” around 2 years ago. I’d wager I’ve thinned a bit since then, but i still have full coverage with no pure bald spots, thinning primarily noticable in the crown region. I took propecia for 8 months and then, like an idiot quit the medication out of fear it was doing nothing and i was throwing money away. approx. 4 months later I realized the thinning sped up so now I am taking the medicine again. I don’t really trust my prescribing doctor’s knowledge…he recommended using the laser comb and rogaine before I attempted propecia but I was persistent.
my questions:
1. Who can map my hair for miniaturization in my surrounding area?
2. assuming I will end up a norwood 6(like my father)what type of coverage could a transplant offer me if we assumed I had average scalp laxticity and average hair density?
3. Do you believe there will be breakthroughs in the next decade that will prevent most of my generation from being forced to live their lives as bald men?Thanks again for this site
We have written in the past about the LaserComb — basically, we don’t feel it works for treating hair loss. Rogaine, however, is an option if you are persistent enough to apply it twice a day, everyday. In my opinion, most men are horrible at keeping to a regimen and it is a factor you must consider when starting any daily routine like this.
Thank you for sharing your experience on Propecia. It seems that you experienced “catch up” hair loss after stopping the medication. While you will not gain what you lost, restarting the medication was probably a good idea.
Now to answer your questions —
- On the east coast, I would trust Dr. Bernstein in New York. He was with New Hair Institute until he branched off to start his own clinic and he’ll be able to map your scalp for miniaturization.
- Coverage really depends on your hair character + hair/skin color contrast. If you’ve got black hair, white skin, and a very fine hair character… you won’t have good coverage. If you’ve got thick blonde wavy hair, you’ll have better luck.
- Certainly there is work being done and there is a huge market for it, but what you’re asking about is essentially a cure for hair loss. While I do hope something happens within the next decade, I really have no way of knowing if the current work being done is the answer we’re all looking for. Keep your fingers crossed, but your expectations realistic.
As one might assume, I receive quite a few emails each and every day from prospective patients both through my 
I have said here before that buying a hair transplant is not like buying a car. A BMW or a Chevy is a BMW or a Chevy in any dealership that you would go to, because the cars have consistent quality from one dealer to the next. Manufacturing is done off-site in Detroit or in Japan or Korea, so one model in any one brand is identical to the other. In hair transplantation surgery, this is not the case. A certain number of grafts for a specific balding pattern will not give you the same results between doctors, because of the art and the experience in doing these surgeries. I have seen more hair transplant failures recently coming into my office than I can remember. What problems I saw 15 years ago were often mutilations caused by poor techniques, plugs, and/or inappropriate surgeries like scalp reductions. Today things have gotten better with far fewer mutilations, because almost every doctor seems to be “pitching” the same surgery, the follicular unit transplant technique published by us.
As long as you know what you want and have realistic expectations, there is no problem with having a juvenile hairline. The doctor should do their best to understand that you will not have further balding (remember, your donor hair is limited) and you would be willing to accept the Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan look.
There is some level of pain involved, as let’s not fool ourselves into thinking this isn’t a surgical procedure we’re talking about. That being said, everyone will have a different idea of what is painful and what is just annoying. I’ve previously written about what pain patients can expect from a hair transplant — 
If you have issues with your surgery results, the first thing to do is speak with the doctor who performed the surgery. Be frank and tell him/her what you want. It doesn’t hurt to ask, but full refunds are rarely given.
As long as you and your doctor have realistic goals in mind, and you have the donor hair available to do it, anytime would be a viable time if you are serious about a hair transplant.
Hello Dr. Rassman! I am very grateful for the information that you provide for all of us trying to find legitimate ways to mitigate hair loss and for answering my questions in the past. 
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is used by some surgeons to speed up wound healing, and some hair transplant clinics have been advertising this as a way to speed up the healing along with promoting early growth. One of my patients is a dentist and he said he uses PRP regularly for his oral surgery patients.