Hair Loss Treatments for 22 Year Old Male with Thinning Hair and Receding Hairline?

This question, from a member of our hair loss social community anddiscussion forums, was answered by Coalition hair transplant surgeon Dr. Michael Beehner:

I’m so upset with my hair loss problem.I’m 22 years old and started noticing a receding hairline and thinning hair. I tried various herbal treatments. What should I do about this problem? It is increasing day by day.

If you are now witnessing progressive hair loss at the very young age of 22, this most certainly means that you are headed for an extensive balding pattern, a VI on the Norwood Scale for certain and, possibly a Norwood VII. I agree that, if you have some native hair on top and hopefully aren’t shiny bald already, it would be a good idea to use Rogaine (minoxidil 5%) every night and get on Propecia (finasteride) oral medication. You will still eventually realize your hereditary destiny. But, for many young men, these medications help you hold on to a lot of your present hair and even additionally thicken it during these socially important years (dating, school. career, self-image, etc.).

The other important point is that you shouldn’t rush out and get a hair transplant. If you ended up in the wrong hands and someone simply “sprayed” grafts all over the huge area that will someday become bald, it will look like nothing was done and you will not look natural later on. Assuming your donor hair is decent, most reputable hair restoration surgeons today in 1-4 years would consider doing a “forelock” type of pattern which can frame your face and give the natural illusion of a man with hair on his head. The rear crown almost certainly will have to be let go to baldness, but with various styling patterns and a judicious use of the donor hair you have a few years from now, you still have the hope of framing your face with hair. A forelock pattern uses “gradients” of density, with the front-center portion being the densest, and the density then trailing off to the back and to the sides to mimic a natural stage many men go through in losing their hair. Thus, it will never draw attention by others as looking unnatural, no matter how bald you become. The other very good choice, especially if you have the right shape of head, is to just shave your hair and keep that look for the rest of your life.

My bias is always more toward follicular unit strip surgery (FUSS) rather than follicular unit extraction (FUE), but I do have to point out that I think the strip would work best for you, since the strip would give you the very best grafts in the center height of the hair you will have for life. If you spread FUE over a large area, it is very possible that a lot of those hairs will have been harvested from the lower and higher areas that will eventually thin or turn bald and your grafted hairs will “turn into a pumpkin” and will be lost.

In summary, get on medical hair loss treatments now. Consider in a couple of years a consultation with an experienced hair surgeon concerning a forelock type procedure and also consider the alternatives of going bald (shaved) or even obtaining a non-surgical hair replacement system.

Best wishes.
Mike Beehner, M.D.

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