Transplanting the Crown

Greetings,
After seeing Steve Hartman of CBS/AM570 in person I am amazed at the process of his hair restoration. My situation is the typical male pattern baldness on the top and back of my head, not the front. How do you handle that?

Steve Hartman’s hair transplant procedure is what I like to refer to as the fast-track approach. With his situation, one surgery did the job he needed and if he stays on Propecia, hopefully he has seen the end of any more than this one surgery. For transplanting the crown, I have general reservations in the very young men (under 30) unless there is very good donor hair density and good laxity (looseness) of the scalp in the back of the head. Other elements of the supply/demand formulae must also be accounted for and those men with good quality hair and skin color tend to do better than those without either when the hair must be distribued to cover a wide balding crown. I am always worried that the crown will take all of the donor hair and when the front balds, then the patient may run out of donor hair. There are many times, however, that crown transplants are appropriate. In those men over 35 (for example) with a 3 Vertex balding pattern (frontal corners and crown only balding) or those with pure crown (vertex) balding in people like me. I had 1600 grafts into the crown and my frontal hairline is normal without any balding. I use Propecia to maintain any further hair loss and I have been stable for years since my transplants were done in the late 1990s.

Propecia is the mainstay for hair restoration in the top and crown (particularly for the younger men whose final pattern is not predictable), so you should first get assessed for miniaturization and then go on that drug if appropriate. Transplants rarely will be needed if you catch the top and crown loss early enough.