Four Reasons to Give a Hair Transplant to Younger Patients
Q:
What happens when someone younger restores their hairline, but 10 years down the road, the hair loss of the native hairs has progressed so much that they’re left with a very odd hair pattern? For example, they are completely intact in the front, but bald in the middle/crown area?
Is this a valid concern? How weird would that look? Are we shooting ourselves in the foot by getting a hair transplant so soon in life?
A:
This is a common concern before a hair transplant that many young patients have. Hair transplant surgeons used to believe that no one should get a hair transplant before the age of 24.
Of course, the age of a hair transplant candidate is something that should be taken into consideration by a good hair transplant surgeon.
The concept of “Don’t give a hair transplant before the age 24” has changed recently for a variety of reasons. Here are the main reasons we can recommend having a hair transplant earlier these days:
- We have better diagnostics – Microscopically we can determine the level of miniaturization that gives us a good prediction of future hair loss pattern when looked at in combination with family history of hair loss. People who show evidence of advanced stages of hair loss can also receive a hair transplant early on but their hairline should be planned according to their final stage.
- We have effective medications – We start our patients on medications early on so they don’t even show their final pattern of hair loss in early ages.
- We know about psychological effect on hair loss sufferers – We know the worst psycho-social effects of hair loss are seen at an early age. Waiting for the patients to loose hair completely and show a balding pattern does not really help them grow with a solid self-esteem during the years that they need it most.
- Today we can use beard to scalp hair transplant – This has been changing my personal strategy in the last 2 years since people who are committed to using all their resources can now use a few thousand hair grafts from their beard and neck areas.
Equipped with this information, I have been able to recommend more aggressive corrective hair restoration procedures to the potential candidates that were not considered good candidates in the past.
