I'm 23 years old & balding. How many sessions of FUE shall I undergo, when should I start with it & with how many grafts?

Question

Well I come from a family of doctors, most of my siblings are not going bald & even my father has more hair on the front then me. It's depressing naturally. I have decided to do a FUE Transplant, don't want a linear scar incase I shave my head in years to come with no other choice left. I used rogaine 2 & 5 percent, had tachycardia and dropped it. Have a fair complexion, hair loss looks well defined on it. Going for the horseshoe pattern. Cannot risk Finasteride. Upset & need counseling on FUE.

Jae Pak, MD · Answer

If you continue to bald to a Norwood 5 or 6 pattern you will need multiple surgeries to achieve coverage.  You need to see a doctor for an exam and understand what is possible with multiple hair transplant surgeries.  If you keep your hair short a hair transplant surgery will not likely give you the look of fullness.  Keep in mind FUE is just a harvesting technique.  It has nothing to do with coverage or results.

Renita (Lourdhurajan) Rajan, MD, DNB · Answer

Hi, Regardless of the technique, a hair transplant will only help fill in a finite portion of the frontal scalp. You may need to consider Finasteride to help stabilize the progression as you are just 23 now. The best bet would be a combination of the two, transplant to fill in for the areas where there is already hair lost, and Finasteride to protect and prevent further loss. FUE has the distinct advantage of not leaving a scar.Good luck!

Cory Torgerson, MD, PhD, FRCSC - Account Suspended · Answer

Good questions. Men who are just beginning to lose hair are not the best candidates, as 
the hair loss usually continues for several years.  If grafts are placed
 too early, there is a possibility of incorrect distribution on the 
head.  Men should seek transplants after they have experienced hair loss
 for more than 5 years and the balding has stopped.

William Rassman, MD (retired) · Answer

Your biggest enemy is the
progressive nature of balding that comes about from genetic male patterned hair
loss. What will happen in the next 5 or so years is probably that you will
continue losing hair in the pattern that you inherited from your parents and
grandparents. Your looks show early balding now, but this is the time to meet
with a good doctor who can make the correct diagnosis and start you on the drug
finasteride, which is highly effective at stopping progressive balding and
possibly reversing it in men of your age. Get Bulk Measurements of your hair to
determine where your present balding is now, and then after you go on the
medications, such measurements will tell if the treatment is working within a
year or so. If you are developing a more advanced balding pattern which the
Bulk Measurements will show over a one year time frame, then you and your
doctor need to develop a MASTER PLAN and that Master Plan might have
transplants as an option. With early balding, I would not rush to hair
transplants if the drug alone will solve the problem and you will know this
within a year.

Michael Meshkin, MD - Account Suspended · Answer

There are two procedural aspects to hair transplantation. One is the harvesting of the grafts from the donor area and the other is the design, distribution and placement of the units into the recipient area. These are two different aspects. FUT and FUE only refer to the harvesting technique from the donor area and have nothing to do with the recipient area aspect of transplantation. The recipient areas technique is based mostly on the surgical, experience and artistic skills of the physician.Basically, in Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT), the hair for relocation is obtained by surgically excising a strip of hair bearing skin from the donor region of the scalp. The skin edges of this wound are then sutured closed. Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) is a revival of the old punch technique obtaining donor hair with a small circular cutting instrument. These punches are used to harvest follicular units one at a time from the donor area. Each harvest or extraction creates a small circular scar. The difference is with the strip you get a continuous linear scar, whereas with punches you get discontinuous, round circular scars. You get a better Yield with FUT technique because one can see the follicles when excising the strip also with the newest method of harvesting in FUT it is almost impossible to detect the line if that is your main concern. whereas in FUE it's a blind extraction from the skin. Due to the blind extraction, there may be damage to the hair follicle and also collateral damage to the surrounding hairs. Therefore, it is likely that when hair is transplanted to the recipient area in case of FUE technique some of the hairs be damaged and therefore either not growin or grow thinner. Also if the hair is not harvested from any where but the safe donor zone, the chances are those hair will be lost in the near future and are not permanent. Issues to consider is if you alphabet curly hair, if you are planing to shave your head, if your hair loss is progressive, if you need more than one procedure, if you are young, if you have limited donor area, if you need a larger hair transplant session, and if you seek the best result in the recipient area. These  pros and cons should be discussed in detail before making a decision as to which harvesting technique is best for the patient before the procedure.

I'm 23 years old & balding. How many sessions of FUE shall I undergo, when should I start with it & with how many grafts?

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