Buy a hand microscope from Amazon, then take careful photos and look for miniaturization. If it is there, it is the beginning of the balding pattern you may develop. Get the diagnosis from a good doctor and a treatment plan that fits your age and needs.
Unfortunately, this man had a hair transplant surgeon who needed help understanding how the recipient area grafts would be placed in the frontal hairline and behind it. The surgeon has 100% control of the direction and distribution of the recipient area grafts. This man has straight hair, which brings out the improperly placed hair even more dramatically. His hair was circularly placed like the spokes of a bicycle. Even using a thick styling agent, as in this photo, he could not get his hair to look normal. Hair in the frontal hairline points around a center point in the mid-head in an outward direction, following the direction of bicycle spokes.
In the mature male hairline, all frontal hairs grow parallel to each other and point forward, running parallel to the ground when you look straight ahead. A change in direction occurs at the ‘part’ where the hair transitions to pointing in the downward direction on the sides of your scalp. Picking the right surgeon is so important. This look is not easy to live with. Fixing it requires removing the frontal hairline, repositioning the hair in the correct direction, and then filling out the top area that is still bald.
For those of you interested in the difference between the mature male hairline and the female hairline, see here: https://baldingblog.com/female-hairline-transplanted-as-is-should-be-photos/
I had cancer a few years ago and went bald as a result. Women and general people we’re just slightly rude to me when they saw my dome. People at my high school during the time never talked to me especially women. One girl just flat out refused to work with me. I didn’t tell them I had cancer cuz I felt it would just ruin the mood so I just dealt with it. Fast forwarding to current day I have a borderline Norwood 3. Comb over and people treat me better compared to when I was bald. I just I feel kind of sad deep down cuz I know if I let my hair go I will be treated like trash. And I’m only 21 and literally no one has hair loss at my University but I’m lucky I have really good hair density to cover the receding parts but when it’s windy it doesn’t work out. I just want to get a hair transplant and continue living my life without thinking about my hair. Sorry, I just wanted to vent cuz no one will understand what it’s like. It is just insane, cancer did a lot of emotional damage to me but hair loss is doing more it seems. Like I’m really happy I’m alive but I just want that quality of life where hair loss is not draining on me and where I don’t feel out of place or old, or knowing the fact that if I go bald people will treat me badly.
Your experience, for the most part, builds strength and character. You might not recognize it when it was happening to you, but now, you seem to understand more about what you experienced. What you were seeing were not your issues; it was other people’s issues. Shame on them.
This diagnosis of Trichotelamania is made with a hand microscope, which shows how the hairs are actually broken as they come out of the scalp. Trichotillomania is an obsessive-compulsive disorder in which a person picks out their hair. As you can see from the patient’s photo, the hair loss is not in a particular known pattern, which alerts the doctor that the diagnosis is not genetic balding. These cases can be transplanted; however, unless the underlying obsessive disorder is fixed, the patient will pull out the hair-transplanted grafts to the same fate. I rarely perform surgery on these patients, even when they swear that the picking problem has been solved.
my question is, if I do a hair transplant and start treating the transplanted hair with minoxidil, will they become addicted to it? and if I cancel minoxidil, won’t they fall out? because, as the doctor told me, transplanted hair is for life, but I am tormented by doubts due to the cancellation of minoxidil
You are right to question this. Minoxidil dependent hairs, if they grew, should survive the hair transplant so I generally tell my surgical patients to stop the minoxidil the day before the surgery and pick it up again in 1 week after the surgery. I make that judgement based on the existence of Minoxidil dependent hair.
I started losing my hair at the age of 18 in 2020, as soon as it was noticeable I decided to shave it off with a machine. But last year, in December, I decided to let it grow because I wanted to have it evaluated by a doctor, I let it grow for 4 months. And here is the thing, I realized that my hair was falling out a lot, I was probably losing between 100-200 hairs a day, every time I woke up I could easily see 30 hairs on the pillow, my hair was falling out just by pulling it or passing my hand through my head. I had the appointment and shaved it again, however, I noticed that my hair is no longer falling out and that there is no more hairs on my pillow, so my question is, is it possible for the hair to only fall out when it reaches a certain length? Or is this BS?
Hair has two basic phases for you to recognize. The first phase is called Anagen, which is the growth phase and starts when a new hair emerges from the scalp. Usually, for each hair loss, a new one emerges from the scalp. The anagen cycle lasts for different periods of time depending upon age and sex. Women have longer anagen cycles when they are young. One of my old girlfriends, had hair grow to a length below her waist. Woman’s anagen cycle can last between 3-7 years on average
The photos speak for the value achieved. I have seen such reversals in men of all ages. The percentage of such reversals is tied to the onset of the balding and the degree to which hair loss was present. In the photo below, the balding is not complete, and there are clearly many miniaturized hairs present, which predicts good success for various medical treatment modalities like finasteride and oral minoxidil.
I got scheduled for a hair transplant in 8 weeks and prescribed oral minoxidil at the same time (was already on fin). Should I wait to see how the oral min goes before the transplant?
I always like to see the my patients try all of the available medications before I would do a hair transplant on them. Sometimes I am very surprised with the results. The frontal hairlines are usually unresponsive to these medications if your hairline loss is over 5 years old and you are over 25.
Over and over again, we see these amazing turnarounds with microneedling, finasteride and minoxidil. The microneedling here is the key. What is particularly important to note, is that the frontal hairline has regrown hair, a real challenge to any treatment modality alone, and that includes adding finasteride and minoxidil.
The SMP, unfortunately, can be seen from the photo shown but it is a well done job. You should wear your hair slightly longer as you suggested, as it would look better and make the SMP not detectable. It is almost impossible to tell the hair growth you are reverencing because the SMP makes comparisons difficult.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DF_Fm0pO4C6/?igsh=b240dzR6MTd5bWlw
A good video is worth a 1000 words
I feel that my life is ruined. I know that my dad is completely bald. Does this mean that this will be my fate as well?
You can do this the classy way and see a good dermatologist to make the diagnosis. The key here is to find out if you are really on the way with genetic balding. If the answer is no, you don’t have to commit to a lifetime of medications, and certainly not if you are going to treat yourself with drugs to handle the worry that you are going to follow your father’s pattern. If you are in the balding process, you need to do it smartly. Follow a good doctor’s advice. Usually, men who are going to develop the most advanced hair loss pattern, like your dad, show it earlier than 23 years old, and many of them reach their advanced pattern by the time they are 26.
https://www.thecut.com/article/med-spa-hair-loss-treatments-balding-men-botox.html
The article calls out Ozympic as producing hair loss; however, I suspect that when people lose weight rapidly, hair loss is often a known side effect of a “negative nitrogen balance”, essentially losing your body proteins and fat. The body is intrinsically smart, so it knows that when you are losing weight, it has to sacrifice functions that are not critical to living, and hair growth is one of those dispensable functions. This is especially true in men with genetic hair loss, as weight loss can trigger genetic hair loss or accelerate what is already going on.
The report I got said:
“A Turkish doctor called from Germany and said that approximately 16 clinics in Germany and the Netherlands where Turkish technicians perform hair transplants have been inspected by health authorities, and many of them have been temporarily closed; the equipment used was said to be not CE Compliant or nut sufficiently sterilized. Some technicians were also deported as they were on Visas that didn’t allow them to work.”
Another source echoed this story for France and Belgium. I have also been informed that many of the 5000 clinics in Turkey are shutting down for similar reasons and due to a doctor’s absence.
Both corners of my hairline were the same before I started my routine of 5% minoxidil, finasteride and microneedling with a 0.75mm needle.
Congrats! This is an awesome response. Nothing like persistence and follow-through. The value of microneedling is, I believe, the key to your success, but it is clearly only part of the solution.
