I’m 20 Years Old and Had a Hair Transplant 6 Months Ago

HI! Doctor. I have been reading many blogs and I need to ask you one imporant question. I am a twenty year old male and its been six months since I had my transplant in the crown area. The only reason why I went for this transplant so early is that cause I had started losing my self confidence cause of really thin hair on my scalp. Now my crown area is becoming thick day by day. But on the other hand, I am losing my hair on the top of my head. Is there any way to retain my existing hair now? I am really worried and it would look really bad if I get bald at such an early age. I have been taking Genesis ‘finasteride’ and it has done a lot for me too. Like it helped me a lot before I had my transplant. But since transplant, I think it has started losing its affect . Please doc I need help. Is their anyway I can stop my existing hair?

I am very concerned that you had a hair restoration procedure at such a young age, especially in the crown area and many doctors including myself might think that this is not an approach that an ethical doctor would do. Of course I do not have the luxury to examine you in person, but surgery is rarely recommend at such young age, particularly in the crown. More importantly, having surgery too early may actually accelerate hair loss and you may end up with negative (worse off) results. It sounds that way to me.

While finasteride (Propecia) is a great drug at slowing and sometimes reversing hair loss, it is not a cure either. Men of your age should start off with a one year course of finasteride first. This drug (in a 20 year old) may reverse hair loss in the crown. If it does not reverse, it will slow down the progression of hair loss, but if you have a transplant too early, the acceleration of the hair loss is an almost predictable conclusion. In one scenario, the hair loss you are experiencing may have been accelerated by your transplant and now you are faced with “chasing” the progression of hair loss. You could eventually run out of hair before completing the hair restoration process if you have one of the more advanced hair loss patterns. With the amount of hair loss you are telling us about, it sounds like you are well on the way to a more advanced balding pattern and may find yourself running out of hair. If anything, I would continue the finasteride treatment and have your scalp hair mapped for miniaturization to track the progression and the rate of your hair loss. You must create a long term Master Plan with a good, reputable, honest doctor before doing any more surgery. Don’t feel like you need to contribute to your doctor’s BMW car payment. Even after one mistake, you still might be able to build a plan that will work for you, but more surgery without a plan is like an airplane running out of fuel at 30,000 feet, for there is no soft landing.