Should I Postpone Hair Transplant Surgery If Medical Hair Loss Treatments Are Working?

The answer to this question will vary from one person to another. Some people get on meds and it adds very little density or helps only a small amount in regrowing some of those smaller miniaturized hairs. These people still may benefit from the meds as they most likely are helping to prevent more hair loss. Other people, like yourself, see some excellent improvement on meds and a slight reversal of the finer hairs.
For many of my hair restoration patients, I ask how conservative they want to be. If they want to wait and see what the meds do first and then after a year, go ahead with the surgery, that is perfectly acceptable. For others, they don’t want to wait that long as the hair transplant can take up to a year to come in. It really depends on how quickly they want to see changes.

For you though, you have a tougher decision. It appears that you are actively seeing improvement. You might want to wait the full 9 -12 months prior to undergoing a procedure. That way the hair transplant surgeon can you can see where you would most benefit from adding more hair (It might be different from where you were before meds). Also, it helps the surgeon avoid damaging hair follicles during the transplanting process that may not yet be visible.

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