Hair Transplants for 21 Year Old Male

I am 21years old and I am starting to look like my dad. According to your balding classification, my pattern is now like a a Class 4a pattern but my dad is a Class 6 or 7 pattern. I went to a hair transplant doctor and he said I was too young. I already have no hair halfway down my head, Would you transplant me?

First, you must recognize that this process is an important lesson in planning for both you and I. I believe that young men like you can receive surgery, but before that happens, you need to have a Master Plan that takes into account all of those elements that make a 20 year old different than a 26 year old or a 50 year old. These would be my criteria:

1. Propecia: I would want you to be on Propecia. Would you be willing to stay on it? I would want to know if you had any side effects from the drug.
2. Hair: I need to assess your donor hair supply and be sure that it meets your present and future need for donor hair over time. I would also need to know your overall hair and scalp characteristics as a hair transplant candidate.
3. Health: I would need to have a complete medical and psychiatric profile on you.
4. Maturity: I do not do surgery on anyone who does not do their research and understand what they are getting themselves into. I must be assured that you understand what is happening to you and what may happen to you as you continue to bald in the future. By the way, did you elicit the advice of others (parents, close friends, some older, wiser person)?
5. Finances: Have you lined up the financial resources to follow the surgery to a reasonable stopping point? What if the balding progresses to a Class 7 pattern?
6. Reasons: I need to know much about you — I’d need to know if your expectations are realistic and reasonable? What is the goal in terms of what you expect to obtain? I would want you to meet patients and understand just what you will look like if you had a hair transplant.

I must be sold on taking you on as a patient. I must have faith that you know enough about the process (over time) to appreciate the things I said above. Although I rarely do a hair transplant on someone under the age of 25 (I do some), the concept of your becoming a Class 7 balding man is the worst case for both of us. You do not have to become bald to get hair as that would be unreasonable on my part. Are you prepared to manage the worst case in a cooperative manner with me?

To state emphatically that you are not a candidate for a hair transplant is an unduly hard position. Each and every patient needs to be assessed individually, weighing all of the elements above (and everything else that is relevant) before any decisions are made. I try not make decisions about any of my patients on any one issue, including age. I want to get to know the person inside the head, well beyond what is evolving on top of the head.