My Crown Is Starting to Thin and I Want to Thicken It Up With a Hair Transplant

i know from reading your other entries that proscar doesn’t “cure” balding but i’m noticing some serious hairloss lately and i read something in the blog about a guy that “doubled” his dose to a half pill a day…. do meds work that way? will it help? could it help?

also i am thinking about getting a hair transplant. couple things i’d like to know

– i’m not really bald but my crown is thin, is it possible to just thicken it up and kind of blend it into my hairline. in otherwords anticipate the loss most likely to come.
– i keep the top of my hair longer but shave the sides to about 1/4 inch. would the scar be visible provided the job is done well.
– approximately how many graphs would i need to fill in a thin crown? I know it’s hard without seeing a pic, but just an idea..

Thanks a million your site is amazing!

Firstly, Proscar is 5mg of finasteride, Propecia is 1mg of finasteride. The recommended dosage for treating hair loss is 1mg. I would seriously consider not taking more than the 1mg dosage… 1.25mg at most. And I only say 1.25mg because some people will buy the 5mg pill and cut it into 4 parts (easier than cutting it into 5 equal pieces) to take 1.25mg daily. Taking two 5mg Proscar will likely produce substantial side effects and have no more value than the 1mg dose.

You don’t want to have hair transplant surgery without determining where your hair loss is likely to go. You have a limited donor area to harvest hair from and if you use it all up early on and continue to bald in more visible areas (such as the frontal region) then you’ll be out of luck. Miniaturization mapping over time will give a likely path to where your hair loss is at and where it is going to end up. Age plays a role as well.

If you had a FUE (follicular unit extraction) transplant, there would be small dot scars on the back of the head and keeping the hair short would not show any significant scarring. If you had a FUT (follicular unit transplant) strip procedure, you may see a linear scar in the back of the head if your hair was very short, but to what degree really depends on how you heal, skill of the surgeon, etc. Without seeing the area, I couldn’t estimate the amount of grafts; I’d need to know your hair color, hair characteristics (wavy, straight, fine, etc), and whether you’re even a candidate for hair transplantation.

Transplants should never, ever be used to build up what you may lose in the future. Plus, I need to point out that finasteride works quite well in early hair loss, particularly in the crown. It is very possible that you can avoid surgery and just take a daily pill — you will know in about 8 months if it is working. I would look into this by seeing a doctor. Propecia (finasteride 1mg) is available by prescription only.