Female with DUPA, Allergic to Minoxidil

Dear Dr.
I am 23 year old female who has been suffering from diffuse unpatented alopecia for the past 9 years. I have tried minoxidil, but I was and still is allergic to it. Although I am not a good candidate for surgery, I underwent transplantation and of course there were no results or improvements. It has emotionally brought me down and I keep wearing extentions to hide it.

Of course, I am disturbed that you had a surgery at all. I hope that your doctor told you that there would be no benefit from such a surgery. You are fortunate if you had no negative effects, because at times people who have surgery with Diffuse Unpatterned Alopecia (DUPA) get into real problems both in the donor site and the recipient site. Extensions will produce more alopecia (we call this traction alopecia), which means that for the short term benefit of looking fuller, you will eventually lose whatever good hair you have left. Wigs may work better for you and the use of special products like DermMatch and Toppik may have more value in that they will not cause hair loss. If you are allergic to minoxidil, there is no real benefit to other medications in a woman of your age.