HT advice?

[patch]

In short: 23 year old male. Norwood 3 V. Looking for advice on whether I should go down the FUT or FUE route. Any suggestions on clinics in the UK or outside would be greatly appreciated.


Long:


Im a 23 year old male from the uk and ive been going bald for the past 6 years or so. Very slowly at first but it's starting to catch up, Im a norwood 3 vertex from what Ive seen around. My father is bald and his father was bald as well so I know where this is going.

I know Im young and that most people would suggest me to use products etc before considering this but I dont wanna go down that route. It's just slowing down the inevitable, and it would make it even more obvious when I do it if I keep loosing hair at this rate.

Id like to get some advice of what you recommend, Ive seen some clinics' pictures around and cant see massive differences to be honest. Also saw some comments around of clinics in other countries, are these cheaper, are the results comparable? Ive seen that it's usually around £5 a graft for decent clinics, would this be an average price or am I completely lost?

From what I've seen there's quite a bit of discussion between FUE and FUT, what are the main differences besides price? Has someone here done both? Also, would it help if I have a lot of hair pretty much everywhere else in my body? (In terms of extracting from other parts instead of from back/sides of head)

Sorry for all the questions, as Im sure you all know it's quite a delicate issue and Id like to get as much advice as I can before I make a decision. Any help and comments are greatly appreciated!


Sorry for posting this again, but no one replied on the other section so I was just hoping maybe someone would see it here.

 

[MPBsucks1234]

Since you are young make sure you have given minoxidil and finasteride a year before going forward with an HT so that your hairloss has stopped or seriously slowed down. If you dont want to go down meds route at your age then an HT could potentially be a big mistake since donor supply is not endless.

The top doctors at FUE within Europe IMO are Feriduni and Bisanga but they arel likely to be either extremely hesitant or unwilling to operate on you if your not on meds.

 

[Bigmac]

As Ben says, clinics are very wary of treating young patients as your hairloss could progress further and leave you looking un natural.
Therefor if i were you i would look into the meds before anything else, if you can stop your hairloss, then maybe a clinic will do a transplant on you.
Also with you being young, you may even regrow hair with the meds to a level that you dont need a HT.

Hope that helps.

 

[patch]

Hey thanks a lot for the answers. I've been reading about the meds but in all fairness I am just not willing to put up with the potential side-effects. From what I've read there are some pretty serious ones, both physically and mentally.

Also, I take part in sport competitions quite often and some of the substances are banned and would get me disqualified if I got tested.

I guess my best bet would be to call and ask directly, but there's just way too many options. For those of you who have had a transplant, how did you go about choosing a doctor? Did you go to consultations in different clinics/asked friends/looked on the websites? I'm genuinely a bit lost as to how to go about the whole thing, specially as I don't want to tell people about it.

Thanks

 

[Bigmac]

As far as i know Propecia is ok to take now as i`m sure Rooney is using it.
The side effects only effect a tiny percentage of men who take it (in my own non medicalopinion)Just look around the forums for how many actually repost sides to the number of users.

When deciding on a doctor/clinic, you should look at their posted results, read what their patients say about them, meet some patients if possible.Once you`ve done this and decided you like a few, send them your pictures, have a consultation, either in person or over the phone.

Then try and make your own mind up which one suits your needs.

 

[topccat29]

Patch there is an inverse relationship between time spent researching and risk. The more time you spend researching the lower your risk for the most part. The forums are a great source of information but you need to read them daily in order to receive the full benefit. It €™s much too easy to miss a post that could be of the greatest value.

Go for multiple consultations and get a feel for where you are at and what is possible.

Try to meet and speak with as many patients as possible.

Visit the forums daily but don €™t just read get involved and ask questions especially if you see something that logically just does not make sense. By asking questions and making comments you will learn much faster because this requires more thought then just reading a post.

Most of all take you time.

 

[josh]

Hi Patch,

This is probably not what you want to hear, but I really don't think you're a candidate for a hair transplant. The fact that you started losing your hair at 17, and are already a 3v at 23, suggests that you are heading for norwood 6 or quite possibly norwood 7 territory in later life.

My advice would be to get on the meds for a couple off years, and if they are successful in slowing your hairloss down, then, maybe, you could start looking at at a very conservative procedure. But as you don't want to take finasterade, I really think the option of a transplant is off the table, and I doubt any reputable clinic will agree to perform surgery on you.

Look, how does your hair look shaved down? I know it must be tough to be losing hair from such a young age, but if you can pull off the shaved look and keep yourself in good physical shape (you have indicated that you're an athlete, yes?), then you'll be saving yourself a whole world of possible hurt, and not to mention expense, playing catch up with your hair loss.

 

[Bigmac]

Have a look at this post.

http://www.hairlossexperiences.com/view_topic.php?id=2584&forum_id=2

 

[patch]

Thanks to all of you (BM, topcat and josh). All opinions are very appreciated, don't worry about maybe 'offending' me or anything Josh, I much prefer people to tell me the truth, specially in something like this. I understand there's huge potential for regret later on.

Most of my family (the male part) have always gone bald at later stages in life, my father, my uncle and my grandfather are/were all 6 and 5A in the Norwood scale. It's just depressing that it's happening to me at such an early stage in life where to them it only started happening at later 30s/early 40s.

I'll definitely keep reading the forum and researching around, it's got a lot of valuable information and feedback like this is the reason why I came here. Thanks again, and your help is very appreciated.

 

[Bigmac]

I can understand how you feel, this is why i think you should give the meds a try, hopefully they will help you out with no sides.

 

[zionaxel]

Have a look into hair pieces or shave down to 0000 , like Josh said nw 3 at 23 its a loosing battle.It was mentioned that some clinics will most likely not take you on, there are dozens that will so be very careful of those.

 

[jcristy]

Patch, its not only your problem but most of people are facing these hair loss problems, which are making many young people bald. People are now taking hair
plantation services for this issue. Many teams of doctors across the world are providing transplantation services.

 

[flow]

"Patch there is an inverse relationship between time spent researching and risk. The more time you spend researching the lower your risk for the most part."

I love what topcat says here.

Give yourself time to research and do so without anguish. The solution will present itself in time with some patience.

 

[Westcoaster]

Spend as much time you need researching, it's labor intensive but worth while as there's no going back once you've had an op.

 

[Tobyl55]

When you're young you want to be enjoying life to the full, not worrying about hairloss.

 

[flow]

It's best to enjoy life at all ages

 

[Sparky]

Please don't get a transplant at 23.

 

[SADbutTRUE]

hello everyone ,sorry to change topics ,but im new here and i dont know how to post a new topic ,can any one help me?

 

[Tobyl55]

SADbutTRUE wrote:

hello everyone ,sorry to change topics ,but im new here and i dont know how to post a new topic ,can any one help me?

Click new topic when you click on a post, top right of tool bar.

 

[SADbutTRUE]

thanks toby,