24 years old, hairline has been receding for 5 years. Am I a good candidate for Hair Transplant? (photo)

At 24 years old, a hair transplant is possible if the progression of your hair loss can be determined up front. This is possible with a diagnostic test developed by my office at the Dr.U Clinic in Los Angeles. If you are to reach severe baldness, it would be important to be able to harvest body hair to expand your donor graft count. Also, you will need to be prepared for the likelihood of multiple future procedures since you’ll continue to lose hair. This happened with the gentleman featured in the patient example below (see article). He underwent hairline restoration at our clinic, but continued to lose hair beyond the region we transplanted.

If your hair keep "rising" you have to understand how high it will go before considering surgery.  Hair transplant surgery may be an option but you need a good exam and understanding of your hair loss pattern.

Because of your young age, it is best to start measures to slow down the progression of hair loss.  You should consult with a hair transplant surgeon for a complete examination of your hair and the degree of loss.  You would benefit from medical therapy at this point with Propecia (finasteride) to try and slow down the progression of loss as you are at great risk for losing more hair.   

A personalized answer to your question is also on YouTube with the title, "Why a Hair Transplant isn't Advised in the 20s, and a Non-Surgical Hair Restoration Treatment".Most transplant surgeons choose not to operate on patients in
their 20s because of significant limitations of hair transplant surgery. The
problem is that the patient is losing hair far greater than the amount of hair
available to restore what's lost. Transplant hairs are taken from the donor
area which has a limited amount of hairs. Today, it’s popular to perform
procedures called follicular unit extractions (FUEs) and there are claims about
"mega sessions" of thousands of hairs being transferred. Unfortunately,
the donor area is very limited. If someone does get a transplant, they would
still continue to recede and get another transplant, then another until they
run out of donor hair.



In our practice, we developed a method called Hair Regeneration
which is not surgery but an injection. This method was developed using a
material called extracellular matrix (ECM)derived from pig bladder and
combining it with platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Extracellular matrix is a
material that was originally designed for wound healing. It allows the
duplication of cells native to a particular area, for example if it is applied
to a muscle, it regenerates muscle, or if applied to skin, it regenerates skin.
While ECM does not duplicate or clone hair, it was noted that when used it to
assist in the healing of a donor area for a strip method for hair transplant,
the thinning hairs became thicker.



In the past several years, we have been developing a
formulation and delivery technique called Hair Regeneration. It restores the
cells and signals necessary to reverse the thinning process - instead of hairs
becoming thinner, they become thicker. We always advise prospective patients to
get this done sooner because we can save the hairs that are thinning, but we
can’t save the hairs that are gone.



You also have the option for the two FDA approved
medications: minoxidil and finasteride. Minoxidil does not help reverse hair
thinning but appears to prolong the presence of hair that’s thinning on the
scalp which makes the hair look a bit thicker. On the other hand, finasteride
blocks an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase which reduces dihydrotestosterone
(DHT). DHT can cause hair follicles that are susceptible to the effects to DHT
to thin. Finasteride can reduce DHT in certain people with male pattern hair
loss, so they can get improvement. Unfortunately, people who are younger and
have progression of frontal recession tend to not respond well to finasteride. There is also a lot of concern with the long-term
sexual side effects of finasteride.



I would advise you to learn more about Hair Regeneration.
Unfortunately, we don’t have specifics as to
the exact reason why this works. It appears that the basic science of
hair growth has yet to discover all of the critical stem cells and signals
necessary for hair growth, which is why hair cloning remain elusive, and all of
the biotechnology companies who tried to corner the market of hair loss have
not done very well. Fortunately, we have been successful in trying to use this
material which is already FDA approved and using it in an off label way to
treat hair loss. I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck, and thank
you for your question.

The question is your current age. People as young as you are must be careful because it is hard to predict future hair loss. A hair transplant at this time could trap you into doing many more procedures over the next several years. When I see someone your age, family history is critical.