Hi, I'm 22 and have been losing my hair for the past 3-4 years and am wondering what reasonable courses of action I can take to achieve the look I want.
I don't really want to "beat" baldness, I just want to delay it. I wouldn't mind losing my hair starting in another 10-20 years, but I don't want to be bald now. Here is my current status:

I am only experiencing thinning and receding along the hairline. On the right side my hairline is similar to a Norwood 2 (perhaps slightly worse) with a fair amount of thinning behind the hairline. This doesn't bother me the least bit and would be perfectly satisfied if both sides were like this, but the left side is receding far less gracefully. It's not really comparable to anything on the Norwood scale. The hair on the "side" of my head has not receded any more than the right side, but on the top on the left side of my head my hairline goes back a bit further than on the right and the thinning behind the line is considerable (and extends much further back than on the right side).
Anyway, I took propecia for about 9 months and it seemed to slow the loss considerably, but have stopped the last 3 months to see what would happen (not much has happened yet, the loss is still much slower than it used to be.)

I am wondering if it would be reasonable to have the bit of hair on my hairline restored and start a good medication regimen of propecia, rogaine and lysine. A lot of people on this site have been saying it's a bad idea to have anything done at a young age because of the lifelong commitment.
Is there any way to remove the transplanted hairs if one decides to just let it go, and be bald in the future?

ANY ADVICE would be appreciated.

Thanks,

bill

You are too young at 22 to have hair transplant surgery. Most hair transplant doctors appeal to the "keep up with your hairloss" concept. Any ETHICAL doctor would tell you to wait until your at least 30 or better to get an idea of when your hair loss establishes.

Don't get sucked into the hair transplant sales pitch!

Until you have a better idea what your pattern will be like later, getting transplants now is risky. You could end up with some hair in front with nothing behind it. Better to let it go for a while, then do the areas where you really lose it. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but that's the way it is.

[This message was edited by Gary on July 08, 2002 at 09:31 PM.]

You have been given some good advice, I must agree. If you choose to have a hair transplant though, you need to make sure that you are only getting grafts planted in the frontal forelock region. At your age, this is the only area you will want to have planted in the event you do have future hairloss. I think Propecia is an excellant idea in your situation.

/jal

Dr. Limmer