I’m 22, and I don’t understand why you don’t think I should get a transplant to fix my hairline now.

The reason a man under 25 should not have a hair transplant is because the hair loss patterns just starts appearing by the age of 25-26. So, for example, if you recede 1/2 inch of your frontal hairline at 20, got it transplanted, then by 21 you lost another 1/2 inch behind the transplant and then had to get it transplanted again, and then by 22, you lost another 1/2 of the hair behind the two transplants plus loss in your crown, then you would want to transplant in the frontal hairline and possibly the crown again and so on. By 25, your crown balding may have expanded and if you don’t transplant it, you will have hair in the center of the crown with a bald area surrounding it.  Sooner or later, you would run out of money if you were not rich or run out of donor hair (even if you were rich) and be stuck half transplanted with no recourse and nothing to do. If your doctor is sloppy, he would deplete all of your donor hair.  I have, in my 27 year career in doing hair transplants, many men caught in this trap, because the doctors make the money (often a lot of money) as they deplete the victim’s donor supply with repeated surgeries on the promise that this next surgery will be their last.

I am certain, that at 22, if your hairline is actively receding, that your future hair loss can’t yet be predicted. That is why I like to develop a Master Plan with my patients so that I can keep them with hair on their head as they continue to bald without depleting their donor supply or promising the impossible. If you were my son, I would not do it any differently. I would do a HAIRCHECK test, treat your balding with the non-surgical options, and then when you got to be 25, discuss a plan with you and what we can do together to keep you hairy and feeling better about yourself.

FUT Questions from tressless