Is Hair Transplant Surgery Effective for Very Young Men with Advanced Hair Loss?

I’m 22 and currently a III or IV on the Norwood Scale for hair loss with deep temporal recession. My dad is a NW 6.5 . For a while I thought I might not go that deep down, but recently, I am seeing the beginning of thinning hair in the deep crown. I am fairly certain I am heading down the path to a NW VII.

I recently went to a respected hair transplant surgeon (recommended on this site), who told me that I have some strong factors in my favor. I have thick, coarse hair. He said he could probably pull 6000 grafts via follicular unit strip surgery (FUSS).

My question is whether 6000 grafts will be enough to fill in my head if I was NW VII. I have a fairly large forehead. I’m not bent up on having a low hairline. I just want to be able to have my face framed and also have full coverage.

One major thing for me is that I never want to take Propecia (finasteride). Even if that means I need multiple hair transplants.

The short answer is yes, sometimes 6000 grafts can be enough to fill your scalp if you were to become a level 7 on the Norwood Scale. However, the long answer to your question isn’t cut and dry.

While your entire head can be covered, the hair may not be very dense and thus, you will most likely have a very thin appearance and may not be happy with the kind of density you can achieve on a level 7 with only 6000 grafts.

Density is affected by several factors. For starters, this includes the number of hairs per graft. For instance, if the average number of hairs per graft is 2.2 for one patient who received 6000 grafts while another patient averages 1.7 hairs per graft, the patient with 2.2 hairs per graft will have greater density.

Another factor is hair characteristics and color. Depending on the thickness of the hair shaft and the scalp to hair color ratio, the same number of hairs may appear more dense on one scalp than the other. Scalp size (or more accurately, balding area) plays another role.

Placement of the hairline (conservative versus liberal) and overall placement of the grafts also play another role.

Plucking and planting may sound easy enough, but experienced hair restoration physicians will strategically place grafts to maximize the illusion of density and coverage.

I recommend viewing the following hair transplant photos on Norwood level 7 patients for examples of what can be accomplished. These photos will show a number of patients with various numbers of grafts, hair color and characteristics, different hair counts, etc.

Bill
Managing Publisher

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David
Editorial Assistant and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q & A Blog.

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Technorati Tags: Norwood Scale, hair loss, thinning hair, follicular unit strip surgery, FUSS, Propecia, finasteride, hair transplants, balding, hair restoration