Here is my advice: really consider the shaved head look, I have lots of friends with it and they do very well socially, much better than when they were shy about their receeded hair.

the father with the NW 6 by age 40 is the biggest reason. It is hard to have enough donor to cover up a 6 with much density at all.

Meanwhile take the finasteride and between shaves get a feel for whether you have stabilized. Four months of summer would be a great time to shave your head and see if you can pull it off. Once you go ht, you have probably lost your option of shaving due to scarring.

Ricky,

I sense you are open to input about a HT but at the same time also pretty set that this is what you NEED to do. You really need to consider my statement (and others) earlier about chasing loss with multiple HT's due to having one at 20 yrs of age. This is something that WILL happen in your case and you need to plan on it.

As Falc and other's mentioned.............don't kid yourself that you will care less about your loss as you grow older. Consider this............my loss started at age 23 and by age 38 at my first HT I was NW 5.........so, I lived with loss for 15 years and hated every minute, never got used to it. I care as much or more now as I did then. So, if you get a HT so young, you'd better plan conservatively.

Both Hairbank and Alsocooleyfied have suggested either cutting your hair much shorter or shaving it off for now. This is probably in reality the best advice you can get right now, for a couple of reasons: It is the summer, so you could do it and feasibly grow it back for school next year if you hate it; It allows you to face what your hair and head really look like; It might turn out that you look ok with a buzzed head; Especially if you're concerned about playing sports, nothing is more appropriate for sports than a buzzed head. A better look in my opinion when guys who are receeding buzz their hair off is to grow little sideburns also, which creates a sharp look as the hair sides burns fades out.
Once you graduate from college, and you are no longer in an environment in which mostly everyone around you is your age, and you see hundreds of people in in this age group, who are more judgmental about looks, everyday, the preasure will not be as intense to fix your hair immediately. Obviously, if your hair is receeding and you buzz it, people probably can still tell that you were receeding, but are more likely to just think you are comfortable with it and would rather have a cleaner look. I would still say request an online consultation with some doctors in the Coaltion, and provide all of your information and family history along with pictures (most allow pictures to be attached), but staying of finasteride and buzzing your hair if the receeded look is debilitating to you right now IS the safest thing you can do. If you like the way you look with a buzzed head, then you have got it made.

Very good advice from the team

I 2nd falc comments.. Sure could you get a HT at 20 and get great results.. Yes, BUT Hair transplantation is a long term strategy and not a quick fix when done correctly.. Most people do need more than one procedure.. It does not hurt to wait but it can hurt to not..

Again, give the propecia 1 year to stabilize hairloss and if you choose you can start minoxidil.. I would say it would be ok to start doing reaerch and getting opinions..

Give the drugs sometime to work, it may stop everything and give you time to see where you hairloss goes ( or does not)

[QUOTE]Originally posted by hairbank:


Looking at Rickys pics, I'd advise him to get a little shorter hairstyle which would take notice away from temple and/or hairline rescission. Even though he's lost some, there are many, many here who would be happy to have that head of hair............it's all relative.

Hair loss at age 20 is devistating, but it doesn't get any better if you lose hair at age 25, 30, 35, 40. QUOTE]

Thanks 4 ur response hairbank.

I dont cut my hair shorter because when i do take off my hat to go out at night it is flatened down and pushed forward which looks way way better than a buzz cut. These pics are with wet hair just out of the shower, and i have curly hair so it curls back unless i dry it and push it forward which is why it looks stupid as hell here I had a grade 2 buzz as recently as last July and just felt so stupid with my huge receeding hairline at 18/19. so at least now i can half cover it when dark.

Secondly i'm sure many guys here would love to have my amount of hair, but theres no way anyone would say they would be happy wiv my hair at 20 years old.

And i just cant agree with the fact its just as tough as ur older. A 20 year old going bald is unusual and everyone sees it like that, however a 30 year old or older is accepted for hairloss more because so much of the population see some of those signs themselves by this age. I was very ready to accept i may be well on my way by 30 to being bald due to my fathers history but thought i would at least hold on till 25 earliest, get thru uni, settle down with a job and a girl and start loosing badly at 30, this would have been ok for me, but starting at 17, that is much more difficult! I have been lucky in all other areas of my life, im good at sport, clever, very sociable, hav great m8s (the 'cool' group if u like) and the ladies found me good looking, but this is all changing very badly!

quote:

Originally posted by falceros:
Ricky,

quote:

Would actually be quite useful to hear some other opinions of more young patients as well as all the others as well cus I am here to learn, learn and learn more!

Be careful with this...don't just look for advice you WANT to hear...that will lead you into trouble. It's important you listen to the wisdom of the wise as well as the young people of this community.

Falc, thanks 4 ur comments. Im definately not just trying to find info i want to hear. Sure i would love to hear encouraging info, im sure everybody does about their own situation. However wat i meant by hearing from other young people, was just as much aimed at those with bad experiences as those with good ones. I want to hear ALL sides of the disussion. As said in my very 1st post I value the experienced view very much including urself (urs was the 1st name on the list ) but young people that hav grown up in my era of new technology and drugs would ALSO be useful. I'm very much taking in all the words that u and everyone here are saying to me and using them all to help me make a reasoned and correct decision. So please continue!

Youngsuccess, no objection from me about the lifting comments as i am also very much in to the gym and weights so its all good here!

And i would really like to see a coalition Doc face to face however being in the UK makes this difficult. If anyone ever hears of a Doc coming 2 the UK for consultations, please please let me know so I can arrange something just to get yet another opinion!

Ricky-

If you decide you want to consult, you may want to send Spex a PM.........he's located in the UK and is a consultant for Dr. Feller. Or send him an email at spexhair@aol.com. He's a great guy and, with his experience, I believe his evaluation of your situation would be "spot-on".

Glad to see you respond positively. We're just trying to advise you based on our own experiences or good/bad experiences we've seen from other's posting here.

Ricky,

Glad to know you are seeking answers to your questions. Try to remember, however...and this is no disrespect to younger people, but younger people have not been able to regret quick decisions yet...it's only the slightly older crowd who MADE decisions when they were younger that I've heard regret their quick decisions.

I do agree, however, that if you stick to the coalition doctors, that they won't do you wrong...I am betting the majority of them won't even consider you an HT candidate at this point and you'd be best to follow their recommendation. But research and educate yourself. Thanks for keeping an open mind my friend.

Glad we can help you in this process.

Falc

Rick

Hi brother.. Trust me my friend, I know it seems harded when you are 20 but it does not get easier regarding hairloss

Still the same jokes
Still the same internal feelings
Still the same results regarding female views

I feel the same way about it now as I did when I was 23. Now, 20 and 50 then it may be different but everything is relative and if it makes you feel poor than it doesnt matter what age you are..

Lots of good advice so far. Here's my two cents on the age/HT debate:

For a 20-year-old, I think it's mainly important to determine whether or not a class 6-7 is likely. If you're gonna bald that severely, then it's a different debate and your options at 20 years old are a lot smaller & riskier. But if you're probably only gonna do a NW#3-5 pattern, then I think an early transplant just into the center forelock & vertex may be pretty safe if you can say yes to these things:


-- Gotta be willing to live with HTs in general. Not shaving down short ever again, gotta be okay with the "illusion of density," etc.

-- Gotta be willing to get a strip-scar eventually, even if not at first. It's probably not gonna be feasible to do a major-league reconstruction without it. FUE is WAAYYY expensive, demands smaller graft numbers per session, and often still seems to be a bit lower-yield than strip.

-- Gotta be willing, both surgically and financially, to have multiple future HTs. Probably all the way to exhuasting your donor supply.

-- Gotta be willing to leave the temples recessed to some extent. NW1 is a pipe dream and NW2 isn't even a good idea. NW2.5-NW3 is a much better risk in front. I say this partly for graft conservation at a young age, and partly just for more natural looks if you can't cover the crown later in life.

-- Even after all this, gotta be willing to live without ever really covering the crown much. A bald spot may always be visible even after moving thousands of grafts and exhausting the donor area with multiple HT surgeries.



If you can say yes to all these things and you're not headed straight for NW#7 territory, then maybe an early HT at 20 years old isn't a bad idea. MAYBE. Just don't underestimate how much you'll care about your looks later in life. If you care enough now to get surgery, then you'll probably still care A LOT even decades from now.

And I still vote to wait a while. My case of hair loss TOTALLY contradicted to rest of my family and it didn't start to show until my mid-20s.


------------------------------------------------

Getting a HT is not a immediate gratification choice.

The reason most feel younger men should hold off from chosing a HT is that they do not possess a crystal ball to see into the future.

You do not know to what level you will continue to lose hair.

You do not know if you will continue to be able to afford HT sessions in the future, which is something to REALLY consider.

At your age, I would not do a HT, BUT if you will not be deterred, you simply must do FUE, NO STRIP!!!!!!

Please heed my advice and the advice of others as you are not the first nor will you be the last to have this problem

I waited until I was 28 before my first HT and I had been bald NW5 for 3 years prior.


Take a deep breath, relax..... list all your goals now and in the future and weigh out what spot a hair transplant will occupy when measured against your list.

Take Care,
J