Should I Have a Transplant Now or Wait Until My Balding Is Worse?
Hi Doctor,
I am considering a hair transplant and I just wanted to ask you a question. I’m 30 and a Norwood 3. I am thinning in and around that part of the hairline but maybe alittle on top. It’s thinner than my crown and sides let just say that. My back and crown is thick and untouched by the mpb gene. I’ve got very thick hair where it is not thinning and more than able donor supply. 2.0 cm hair count.
I’m just thinking in general should I do one now to get my hairline and thicken the front. Then 1-2 for the top over the next 10 years then done. Or wait 2-3 years and get a larger one done then another 2 years after? Just thinking in regards to scar and the lifetime master plan? Thanks
Only YOU can answer this question. A hair transplant is an elective cosmetic surgery to enhance your appearance. It is not a necessity. If you want to look better now with a fuller, hairier look, then it is your choice. If you want to wait until you have more hair loss before going ahead, that is also your choice.
Planning out how you may bald in the future and coming out with a life long strategy is also known as a Master Plan (something that I strongly advocate in my practice). The Master Plan is something you and your doctor need to discuss one-on-one.
why not just take propecia? im surpirsed doctor rassman didn’t mention it
Because I suspect although 5-10% of guys have great regrowth with propecia most simply ‘stem the tide’ with the drug regime. If you want a specific look for 10-20 years you would always go for surgery. Propecia is worth trying but surgery, at the end of the day, is an artistic rebuild or even total alteration done to your specifications. It’s impossible to match that with medication.
Even though I was lucky enough that propecia reversed my Norwood 3 back to
A Norwood 2 within a year, I still sometimes feel I’d be happier with a thicker, more juvenile style hairline like I had in my late teens/early twenties. This isn’t possible with medication but a good surgeon who knew how to frame it sensibly could give me that aesthetic – in exchange for a few thousand dollars of course (but hey if I wanted a nose job it’d be the same I suppose and as far as I know there’s no medical options for crooked noses etc)…
yeah but the original poster looks like he is early in his thinning. if he has a transplant now, he might have shock loss and lose all the other native hairs.
but then again propecia does only work a for a very small percentage of people. so might as well opt for surgery.
Just so you know I pulled out and didn’t go through with it. I got completely shocked and freaked out before it. Was in tears knowing what I was getting myself into. I felt a new lease on life walking away from it!
Maybe one day but I realised I really am ok for now and that my expectations were to high. I would have been dissatisfied at this point in time.
Long story short be 100% ready for what your about to do as a scar is for life and being so nervous and sad made me realise I’m not ready for that just yet.
So thanks for your posts and input. Like the good doctor said! It’s a choice you have to life with forever and master plan is for 40 more years. Not 10!!
Thanks guys